Anyone here going for the monster system?

[louistking]

I have been planning a new computer system to use for multimedia and as a professional audio workstation. Boy am I glad I waited for the new Athlon MP dual processor system. The Tyan Thunder K7 motherboard makes a true computer lover cringe when reading it's capabilities. Below is the component list for my crazy audio system:

Tyan Thunder K7 motherboard 400
Athlon MP 1.2 Ghz Microprocessor 2 @ 200 Ea. 400
256Mb DDR ECC 32 x 72 Reg. RAM 2 @ 100 Ea. 200
Seagate U-160 SCSI 15K rpm 3.9 ms 18.4 Gig 335
Maudio Delta 44 24x96 64 bit 4 I/O sound card 300
Cakewalk SONAR XL Recording Studio 300
Windows 2000 Pro OS 125
460 Watt Power Supply 100
Antec Full Tower Workstation Case 100

Total 2,260


That's not too much to pay for the the best desktop music recording studio in the world. Don't Ya ThinK?

 

[knutp]

<< best desktop music recording studio in the world >>



If you want the best, I would reconsider the sound card. That's kind of low end for studio use. M-Audio... midiman... oh ok.. Well go to Echoaudio. Marian. Creamware.

And for music recording you are in a bigger need of a harddisk with higher write/read speed than seek times. Perhaps the 10k seagate disk?

 

[Dundain]

You might want to look at IBM's new 15k RPM drive. Storagereview.com shows it beating the Seagate in most things and the IBM also comes in double the size

 

[bandXtrb]

only 4 inputs? why not get one of those echo things..

well, I've just got a one input sound card, but hooked up to my Mackie mixer

 

[spanner]

whats with the 200fsb, DDR is not worth it unless you go for 266

 

[spanner]

oops maybe 1.2MP's don't support 266

 

[Chusher3]

put more ram in that puppy

 

[bandXtrb]

yeah, you've got two more slots

 

[AppleTalking]

spanner: I think the 200 he's referring to is the price of the chip, not the FSB speed.

Athlon MP chips will come in both 200 and 266 FSB varieties IIRC.

Nick

 

[PwAg]

&quot;best desktop music recording studio in the world&quot;

Then you better get yourself Pro-Tools TDM rig w/ PT 888/24 I/O - Apogee AD-8000SE 8 channel Delta Sigma AD/DA - MixPlus3 Core - Mix &amp; DSP FARM cards - USD Drive - SMTPC Lock Device - and why not through in a ProControl with some FaderPacks...only for a mere $50,000-75,000 IMO and from my personal experience, this is the best desktop arrangement currently available...or at least I've laid hands on.


First off...you better ask around on cubase.net/forum for compatibility between Delta series and the dual MP boards. I've yet to hear someone build such a system, so carefully approach this. If you don't know already, the digital audio workstation world is always a little behind in the times...lots of the pro sound card companies have yet to adopt drivers for the latest mobo/chipset releases. YOU MUST BUILD YOUR SYSTEM AROUND THE SOUND CARD>>> THIS IS A MUST OR YOU WILL GO THROUGH SOME VERY BAD TIMES!

I've personnally been through the Delta series (had 3 Delta 1010's running the I/O show for Logic Audio Platinum 4.7) and had nothing but rice crispie recording problems on an Asus A7V133 as well as on Asus CUSL2. ASIO setting adjustments were all over the place to obtain stable performance. Driver support is lame from my experience...it took them 5 months to get out multiclient drivers.

I now run the following system around ECHO Layla24's with track counts upwards of 55-60/w 2-3 plugs/efx per track including VST's here and there (Mercury, Waldorf,Pro-52 etc)...very cranking system!

2 x ECHO Layla24 (Rock solid...3ms latency ASIO)
Asus A7V133
AMD T-bird 1.33
512mb RAM
Adaptec 29160
2 x 18.2 GB 10K SCSI (one for audio/one for OS&amp;progs)
Matrox G400Max Dualhead
2 x Sony G500's

I'm a progressive trance producer (serious hobbyist), and this is one of the latest home built rigs I've come to love. Get's the work done. I also am an avid Pro-Tools TDM user, but I leave the equipment at the studio...the PC is for home studio.

Let me give you some words of advice...do LOTS and LOTS of research before you jump into this. I've seen so many people pull there hair out after building the biggest bad ass systems because they were ignorant and failed do the proper research.

I'm going to tell you straight-out, I see a great potential for troubles using that Tyan MP board along with a high throughput 15k scsi drive...dont forget the sound card is going be accessing the PCI bus simulataneously as the SCSI drive...and a high throughput drive OFTEN causes pops while recording at bits greater than 16...you'll want to record at 24bit which is a lot of data to move. Often you will hear that people have to bump there controller speeds down to 20-40mb/s. I'm fortunate with my setup and feel that it is a result of excellent driver support/pci busmastering for the ECHO 24 series as well as the stability of the Asus A7V133.

You should be asking these questions at a pro-audio forum...no offense to the guys here, but almost 99% of them don't know anything about the DAW...it's a whole realm by itself.

Another reputable sound card company is RME. However for your needs, I feel the Gina24 from ECHO is going to be your best bet. They've just released the new WDM driver for win2k along with a newly designed mixer console.

Be smart, and don't rush into this.

GL.

 

[chainbolt]

<< spanner: I think the 200 he's referring to is the price of the chip, not the FSB speed.

Athlon MP chips will come in both 200 and 266 FSB varieties IIRC.

Nick >>




ohhhhhhhh, that is so good, I made the same mistake ...200 bucks not 200 Mhz LOL

 

[louistking]

Thank you all for your responses, especially PWAG. I should have said I trying to build the best for around 2000 dollars. I already have a M audio Delta 44 but it's hard for me to judge it's capabilities because my computer is so bad. I have a Mackie mixer as well and I just got a Roland JV-1080 sound module (awesome). I have researched the various motherboards and systems over the last couple of months but from the overall technology perspective, not the pro audio perspective as you pointed out. I am confident in the new twin Athlon MP mobo and this incredible system and I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks Again,

Louistking

 

[SoundBoy]

<< &quot;best desktop music recording studio in the world&quot;

2 x ECHO Layla24 (Rock solid...3ms latency ASIO)
Asus A7V133
AMD T-bird 1.33
512mb RAM
Adaptec 29160
2 x 18.2 GB 10K SCSI (one for audio/one for OS&amp;progs)
Matrox G400Max Dualhead
2 x Sony G500's

GL. >>



is this running logic audio platinum? what is the best forum for finding info about lap?

 

[PwAg]

Here's a site that has a list:
List

Davebellinghams's site (User Forum) is by far the best.

Here is emagic's (creator of Logic Audio) site:
Emagic

GL.

P.S. LAP rocks Cubase VST