Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[Allen Hallada]

Hey Phil,
That seems like a great setup you have going. You will not get DMA option with the Promise controllers so don't worry about that.

Make sure you have updated the bios on this motherboard at www.asus.com

Install the VIA Patch that I posted here or you can find it at www.viatech.com It is the one for Promise onboard controllers and VIA chipsets. That has helped peformance as much as 10-20% on the DAVEC test.

For temps. those are under the AMD specs., but I like to keep it cooler than that. Check out that Volcano 7 I listed above and for case fans check out the Panaflo 80mm at www.directron.com It is very quiet and pushes alot of air. I like that you have your case fan right over your CPU, as some case manufacturers are popping holes in the side of the case to get this feature. If you think you need more than two case fans, then check out the Enermax 80mm manually adjustable. I like adjustable fans myself as I can control the noise level while recording in the same room.

Put your CDRW, DVD etc. on the regular IDE channels. I would recommend splitting your hard drives onto two different ribbon cables. System on Promise channel 1 and Audio on Promise channel 2, both at the end of the ribbon cable. YOu may need an extra ATA100 cable for this. If your audio drive is not recognized in this configuration, then switch the jumper on the back of the drive to slave.

Disable USB in bios and if it still shows up , then go into Device Manager and remove the USB drivers. Then it shouldn't show up on your IRQs.

Disable power management in Bios.

See where your system resources are at after bootup. YOu should be running at over 90% or you will need to go into Start/Run/ type msconfig and hit enter, then go into Startup and unselect everything except systray.

I would expect at least 18 Aux. tracks with this setup depending on the hard drives you are using. The new Seagates have been doging performance so far. I like the IBM 60GXP ATA100 7200rpm drives.

Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Allen Hallada]

I've been looking for a great guide to "Build your own PC".
Enjoy, thanks to Zach:
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm

I've included this with the first post also.

Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[knob twister]

Allen, thanks for all the info. I was wondering if I built the computer you suggest with the A7M266 & I wanted to transfer my Hewlett-Packard CD-RW 9100 burner and my primary system hard drive,
a maxtor 30gig, so I would buy 1 IBM hard
drive for audio, do you see a problem here.
Also, do you mean to take out the fan that comes with the power supply and replace it with the CM8 fan?
Thanks for helping.Ed

[Allen Hallada]

Ed,
That is exactly what I did. Moved all my HP components to the new case. It works great and HP does make some good CDRWs. The floppy wouldn't fit as it was custom for the HP case so I bought a new one. Unfortunately HP also has custom motherboard wiring so if you use your current HP case you lose some of the features like LED, Power Button options etc. I'm sure you could mod it if you knew how, I just found it easier to get a new case and I upgraded to the Koolance case from www.koolance.com These are pure luxury and they work with the Enermax PSU too.

You don't replace the fan in the Power Supply unit. That Enermax is about as good as it gets and has an adjustable fan on it already. You take out the case fans that come with the case I listed and replace those with quieter case fans like the Enermax or Panaflo.

Yes you can transfer your current Hard Drive and OS, but I was told by HP that I may run into problems with the new motherboard. Haven't had any yet.

So get the A7M266 with the Promise ATA100 TX2 controller card and you are set.

Hope that helps you.

Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Phil O'Keefe]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Allen Hallada:
Hey Phil,
That seems like a great setup you have going. You will not get DMA option with the Promise controllers so don't worry about that.


Cool... the DMA on the Promise controller had me worried. Thanks. And thanks for the complement on the system - but I have YOU and all the other computer experts here on DUC to thank for that! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]


Make sure you have updated the bios on this motherboard at www.asus.com


I'm pretty sure it had the latest BIOS version preloaded, but I'll check again.

Install the VIA Patch that I posted here or you can find it at www.via.com It is the one for Promise onboard controllers and VIA chipsets. That has helped peformance as much as 10-20% on the DAVEC test.


Is that the Via "4 in 1" drivers? If so, I downloaded those from Asus... if not, can you point me in the right direction? Thx!


For temps. those are under the AMD specs., but I like to keep it cooler than that. Check out that Volcano 7 I listed above and for case fans check out the Panaflo 80mm at www.directron.com It is very quiet and pushes alot of air. I like that you have your case fan right over your CPU, as some case manufacturers are popping holes in the side of the case to get this feature. If you think you need more than two case fans, then check out the Enermax 80mm manually adjustable. I like adjustable fans myself as I can control the noise level while recording in the same room.


I only have the one case fan right now, and I may add a second one at the front... blowing in or out - I have not decided yet. And I'm definitely going to look into the Volcano - the dealer didn't have one, so I went with the coolermaster, which I was told is "AMD approved".


Put your CDRW, DVD etc. on the regular IDE channels. I would recommend splitting your hard drives onto two different ribbon cables. System on Promise channel 1 and Audio on Promise channel 2, both at the end of the ribbon cable. YOu may need an extra ATA100 cable for this. If your audio drive is not recognized in this configuration, then switch the jumper on the back of the drive to slave.


Thanks for the tip. I've now got my CD-RW on the regular IDE primary on its own cable and the DVD on the secondary, also on its own cable. The C drive is on the Promise Primary, and the D drive on the Promise secondary - both on their own seperate ATA100 cables.


Disable USB in bios and if it still shows up , then go into Device Manager and remove the USB drivers. Then it shouldn't show up on your IRQs.


Well, I really can't do this step if I still want to use my Tascam US-428, and I'd really like to continue to use that for other audio apps as well as a PT controller (faders, etc) box. I wonder how big a performance "hit" I'll take over that? t really doesn't matter very much - I'd rather have the performance I have now and the hardware faders than a couple extra aux tracks on the davec test.... but hopefully, some of these other tweaks will get me closer to the 24+18 range.


Disable power management in Bios.


Already done - one of the very first things I do when building a system (althouh its been a few years since I've built one!)


See where your system resources are at after bootup. YOu should be running at over 90% or you will need to go into Start/Run/ type msconfig and hit enter, then go into Startup and unselect everything except systray.

Yes, I kill everything in msconfig. I don't usually mess with the regedit much if I can avoid it, but msconfig is something I'm comfortable with. I'm sitting on 94% free. Oh, and I did add a second 256 MB stick of Kingston DDR RAM to bring it up to 512 MB total. Since I have three DDR slots, can I add a 512 MB stick later (when I go back to XP) or do you have to stay with the same size RAM sticks for best performance?


I would expect at least 18 Aux. tracks with this setup depending on the hard drives you are using. The new Seagates have been doging performance so far. I like the IBM 60GXP ATA100 7200rpm drives.


Yes, the HDD's may be part of the problem. The C drive is a very fast 5400 rpm Maxtor 60 GB, and the D is a 7200 RPM 40 GB Western Digital. Pretty fast, but maybe something like the IBM's would be better. I'm not getting 24+18, but last night after a few minor tweaks I got up to 24+8, which is miles better than the PIII 933 MHz's 20 track performance. I'm going to be doing a few more tweaks tonight and will post my results tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your sage advice!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Allen Hallada]

No, Don't install the 4 in 1 drivers. They have just caused problems in the past. Look below that on the VIA website and you will see another patch for the Promise controllers on the VIA chipset. I will find it and post it here. You may see a 4 track increase with this patch if you are using the Promise controllers as another guy saw this when he installed it.

Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Allen Hallada]

VIA Patch For KT266a chipsets and Promise Controller:
http://www.tecchannel.de/hardware/817/9.html
http://www.viatech.com/en/index/index.jsp

[Phil O'Keefe]

Damn. Too late - I already installed the "4 in 1" patch, I'm D/L the "real" patch right now. Is there some way to undo the 4 in 1 or will the new patch correct things?

I tweaked everything I could think of last night (network server, no read ahead, only systray loaded - 98% free at start up, onboard sound, network and everything else I don't need disabled in BIOS, Virtual Memory OFF (and set to double the physical RAM as MIN / MAX - I tried both), power mgmt off, screensavers and WIN sounds OFF, etc. etc.) and still only get 24+8 on the DAVEC test. I'll try loading that new file and see what happens. Thx for the link!

Sorry to be such a nusiance Allen - I really appreciate all you help.

[Allen Hallada]

Phil,
If you have both drives on the Promise controller I will be surprised if that Patch doesn't give you at least 4 more tracks. Let me know. Don't worry about the 4 in 1 drivers. If they are installed and PTLE is running ok, then it must work better on the new KT266a chipsets.
Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[musikman]

Hey Guys,

What is the davec test and where do i get it? Thanks for the info in advance.