System Upgrade, what would you do?

[gerax]

Say I'm about to upgrade my system to a better one: the 001 is on the sunset boulevard and I'd like to go for a 002R.

My current system is an Athlon 1800XP+ on an Asus A7M266 with 512Mb DDR PC133 ram, Promise Ultra 100TX2 controller, XP Pro Edition, wonderful stability, I definitely love the system, but going to 6.1.1 put a little more strain on it and sessions that ran fine on 5.3.1 (beefy ones) now start to glitch and screen redraws are sluggish, sometimes I get a DAE error (CPU too slow).

Would it be better to bump the Ram up to 1Gb and add an UAD-1, for someting like $500/600, or I'd be better rebuilding the whole system from the ground up and get an Athlon 64 3400+ and 1Gb ram?

Considering that I'd like to squeeze any possible drop of power from the current system before getting a new one, that I don't track with the PT system (I use a Mackie SDR2496 on location) so latency isn't an issue, and that the new system would cost about twice as much (new CPU, new Mobo, new Ram, new cooler, new power supply...) what do you think would be the best solution?

Thanx for your feedback.

L.G.

[jjhuntfox]

I don't think more memory would help. If you get a faster processor that might help get you by for a few months. A faster processor would help but old board, old memory.... I looked at the ASUS web site and I can't tell what the fastest processor would be that you could use in that board. I'd suggest you save your $$$'s and build a new allen system.

John

[gerax]

Thanx for the reply.

In the meantime I'd like to get the 002R as long as the 001 is still worth something, do you think it will run well enough on my current system 'till I get the new one (that could take up to a few months)? I usually don't need loads of plugs or tracks for the projects I work on, unless I need to edit audio for video (which comes in every once in a while), but if such gig comes up I'll be able to get the new system in a second, as those gigs are payed quite well.

Thanx for your feedback

L.G.

[gerax]

Hey it's me again.

Any opinions or direct experience on how my current setup would work with teh 002 (powerwise)? as I kown it's a bit more power demanding than a 001.

Thanx

L.G.

[Bastiaan]

I think it would be OK to just drop in a new CPU. You should be able to put in a new Athlon XP 2400 without any problems for about 100 EU (probably less). Maybe you then also need to replace your CPU-fan....

[gerax]

Bastiaan

I'm afraid not: the maximum CPU that is suitable for that motherboard is the 2100XP+, and I think it's not available anymore (at least from my regular dealer), and provided I could find one, how much performance boost would it give me above the 1800XP+? If I could find one for dirt cheap (as it's an alredy outdated CPU) it could maybe be worth it, but then I would need to bump up Ram also (that was in my plan anyway); bigger CPUs aren't suitable for that mobo as long as I don't use an adapter (the XP TMC Tool) but I fear to have an overclocked and unstable system, maybe better to save and get a whole new setup and use the guts of the current one to build a second PC to host soft samplers and Giga convolution reverbs to hook up via ADAT to the new one?

What's your pick on this?

L.G.

[Bastiaan]

I would check with your local PC-shop, as the information in the booklet or on the website usually is outdated fro older mobo's. My mobo only can go up to 1800Mhz or so according the the manual, but its running happy and fine and not overclocked on a 2400.

for the 2100 you can look here

more RAM is always a good idea.

[Bastiaan]

on the other hand i found here you did your homework

You call it a few Mhz's, but it still is 300 Mhz. It could be worth 50 euro's.

[gerax]

Mmmhh, seems like a good upgrade, for a few bucks I could get a little more juice and live for a while with it, I checked out the italian ebay and there are some 2100Xp for really dirt cheap...like 5 or 10 Euro, might give it a try.

Thanx

L.G.

[Bastiaan]

5 or 10 EU inside Italy sounds even better considering processors are quite light in weight (is less shippingcharges)...