Upgrading Old Faithful

[rfreeman]

I built a system based on advice from Allen H and other helpful DUCers back in 2001. Here's the scoop:

Athlon 1.33ghz
ASUS A7m266 MOBO
512mb PC2100 RAM
Matrox G450 Dual Head
20G system drive (Matrox 7200rpm)
40G audio drive (IBM 7200rpm)
Promise ATA100 controller
3com NIC

I'm still using PTLE 5.1.1 under Win98 SE with great success. 24 tracks is enough (I lost track count on the DaveC test when I installed XP, and went back to 98). I don't need rewire and all that new fancy stuff. The only problems are, I have never been able to use the system with USB or the LAN card enabled. I get 6042 errors if I do.

I can't justify a new system and a software upgrade right now, but I really want to be able to use some peripheral USB devices such as the Frontier Tranzport and/or the Tascam US-2400.

Question is, what is my least expensive upgrade option for a new MOBO etc. that will enable me to use USB? I don't really need more processing power, but I could probably justify throwing a new chip in while I'm at it.

Any and all thoughts appreciated.

[Allen Hallada]

Breaks my heart to hear that since that was my favorite motherboard.

I'd upgrade to either :
A7V600/XP2500 combo for 150.00
K8V SE Deluxe/AMD 64 3200 250.00

You should be able to use your current ram.

Either way I'd definitely upgrade to XP and PTLE 5.3.1. That is the most stable version of PTLE ever released and is a free upgrade for you. If you need XP Home you can get it for 90.00 at www.newegg.com
Good luck either way.

Allen

[gerax]

Hi

You're not going to belive me but the system you built is piece for piece identical to the one I have (although I have a 1800XP+ CPU and I've changed it a bit here and there now), and it's as solid as a rock, you aptly named it "old faithful"; I'm a bit hesitant to upgrade to a new one since it's given me such great performance over the years...(Allen, I'm never going to thank you enough for the tips )

Anyway, I use the onboard USB ports and they work fine: I had a USB drive attached and I had no problems (although it was too slooow for DAW use, so I relegated it to data transfer and storage).
Maybe there's a way to update the board BIOS to fit USB 2.0 in it and use that (XP kept telling me I had to update USB drivers to 2.0 version for that drive) to see if it works better.
Performance on the 001 was stellar (apart for Wavedriver issues) and 5.3.1 was the best PT release so far, period. Now I've upgraded to 6.4 and 002R and performance is a bit weaker because they are heavier on the system.

Before I give up and get a new Allenstein I'm going to update BIOS, put an 2100XP and another 512Mb of Ram and squeeze all of the possible juice out of it. I think that even after the upgrade I'll keep the board and CPU and use it as a "synth and VST effects rack" connectiong to the PT DAW via lightpipe, I'm just not willing to let it go .

Hope this helps

L.G.

[rfreeman]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think it's cool that you guys are still hanging out here after 4 years.

Alan, do you think if I drop one of the MOBOs in that you mentioned that I can just plug in all my cards etc. in the same slots and fire it up? What else do I need to know? Do you think its probable that this will solve my issues?

The way I first found out about the USB problem was when using a USB MIDI interface. When MIDI data would stream over the USB from PTLE it would choke my system (6042). When I enable the LAN card PT still works except that the audio stutters (cuts in and out in about half second intervals) Weird huh?

How would the data demand of a MIDI stream compare to that of a Tranzport or a control surface. Thanks again.

[Allen Hallada]

Yes that should work, but you want to get the new system up and running first before transfering all the cards over. I do recommend starting from a clean formatted system drive when making any motherboard chipset change, although I did it once with no problems.

Allen

[rfreeman]

Two more quick things:

Do I use the old promise card? If not how do I hook up the HDs?

What kind of quiet cooling fan do you recommend for the XP 2500?

I really do appreciate your willingness to help, Thanks.

[Allen Hallada]

Two more quick things:

Do I use the old promise card? If not how do I hook up the HDs?

What kind of quiet cooling fan do you recommend for the XP 2500?

I really do appreciate your willingness to help, Thanks.

Use the built in Promise ports on these motherboards now. I'd stick with Zalman heatsink/fans. I like the Zalman 7000 Cu. Make sure it works on the motherboard you are going to use though as it is a big one. Ok, it is a whopper!


Allen