Anyone here interested in building me an opteron

pingu

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2006
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if so what would it cost.

4 gigs of awesome ram

2 73 gig sata drives
fast cpus

graphics not that important. it is for digital audio

Cheers
 

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
13,704
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81
Just a thought, but are you planning on getting two Raptors, or just 73 gig drives?. If Raptors, your thoroughput of a good large hard drive is not going to hinder the ability to use the machine in the music capacity. If you are just talking about getting two hard drives, then good on you.
 

pingu

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2006
15
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0
Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Just a thought, but are you planning on getting two Raptors, or just 73 gig drives?. If Raptors, your thoroughput of a good large hard drive is not going to hinder the ability to use the machine in the music capacity. If you are just talking about getting two hard drives, then good on you.



Not really sure i understand.

I am under the impresson that faster hardrives are optimal for streaming audio.

Say 40 tracks at 24 bit 44.1 khz at simultaneous playback.


I mean they dont have to be Sata just fast drives.

Cheers
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Playback of a 24-bit 192kHz-sampled stream will require a theoretical sustained transfer rate of approximately 562KB/s. All modern hard drives can do over 10 times that amount.
Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
1 opteron 165
1 dfi infinity nf4 sli
4 gb corsair ram (dual channel)
x800gto

there happy
An SLI motherboard isn't required, nor is a relatively high-performing video card. You can even cool an older/slower card passively, reducing the amount of noise.

Opteron 165
DFI LANParty UT nF4-D
2x1024MB DDR400 matched kit
etc.

Will you be doing zero gaming with it? What/how many programs are running at any given time?
 

pingu

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2006
15
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0
Yes zero gaming all audio.

Though i will use the ram for virtual instruments
 

SnoMunke

Senior member
Sep 26, 2002
446
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"Anyone here interested in building me an opteron"

Yeah, these guys here make an excellent Opteron...

:laugh:
 

seanp789

Senior member
Oct 17, 2001
374
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0
If you are so focused on audio the hard drive is one of your last concerns.

Are you using this for recording live instruments or just playback/editting/midi?

Soundcard, Speakers, connecting equipment are going to be your major concerns.

I could have it built and shipped to you but I would of course need more information to tailor it to your needs and a budget.
 

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
0
0
Originally posted by: SnoMunke
"Anyone here interested in building me an opteron"

Yeah, these guys here make an excellent Opteron...

:laugh:

lol yea they do

OP: on a serious note, if you need help picking out parts, how do you know you need 2 raptors and 4 gigs of ram? 2 gigs of ram is enough for most anything in a single user environment. and the 150 gig raptor is farster than the 74 gig raptor
 

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
13,704
7
81
I'm pretty sure you could pull of a dual core easier than a dual opteron. I know you want your sound stuff to process fast and everything, but you are talking about major hardware changes to incremental speed increases. Give me a second, and I'll post my recommendations for a build...

Even more important than the hardware... What software are you going to be using, and is it MP capable?

And what kind of budget are you looking at?
 

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
13,704
7
81
Okay, here's my list I'd build.

Cooler Master Stacker 810
Western Digital 150gb Raptor (for OS, progs, and working/scratch/cache disk)
2xHitachi 250gb T7K250 hds (for storage)
Seasonic S12 600w PSU
Corsair XMS 2GB (2x1gb) DDR ECC REgistered
Tyan S2865AG2NRF server mobo
AMD Opteron 170 dual core CPU
Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B 5-in-3 hot swappable SATA enclosure
TOTAL = $1939.91

Add in a good cooler (SI-120), some fans, and whatever sound card you are going to need for the projects that you plan on doing. I haven't the slightest as to what you would need, so that would be on an individually required basis.

Dual processor for work, if the sound software supports it. Good ECC RAM, and a dependable as hell mobo. A good power PSU, with no worries about upgrades in the future (yes, I know he could use less, but this is for purposes of upgradeability). Supermicro enclosure to add hds, and pull them out and swap out if you need more storage space. I wouldn't RAID anything, that way you could pull the drives, and put new ones in, and increase storage capacity as needed. Install the OS, programs, etc on the Raptor, and also use that as the working, downloading, scratch, and cache drive, and use the 250's just for storage. Right now, 2x250's is cheaper than a single 400. So I'd just keep getting 250's as required. You could fit 3 250's along with the Raptor on the mobo, and you could always get a SATA controller, and add more drives.

EDIT: Optimally, I would get 2 250's, 1 74gb Raptor, and 1 150gb Raptor, and set them up like this:
Raptor-150: OS & progs
Raptor-74: scratch, cache, virtual memory / pagefile
2xHitachi-250: storage
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,727
46
91
op - imo i think you should learn a bit more before building this machine. ask around to see in what areas the computer needs to be fast. is it all cpu? is it all hdd? is it all ram? how big will the files be? also make sure your software is smp/smt aware or the dc you want will have little gain.
 

pingu

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2006
15
0
0
Thanks for your help guys.

I think the main concerns with regard to performance is cpu speed. Then ram and Hard disk speed

I suppose a dual core set up properly for my needs would give me enough power.

I currently have a p4 3.2 ghz with 2 gigs ddr

this machine is probably a third as power ful as i need though i could get by with double the power.
 

Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
4,360
0
0
Are you sure you're maxing out the RAM? If you have been using the PC for a while go into task manager and look in "performance" then the box labled "commit charge" and the the "peak value". If that's less than 2gb then getting more RAM than that's a waste of time.
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,727
46
91
pingu - what you need to do is find out if the software you have is smt/smp aware. also like bobthelost says to verify you are indeed maxing out your ram. there is no problem building a dual dual core rig, but personally i would like to verify that you could use the software and take advantage of 4 cores. and in all reality there is a possiblity that we could get you more than 3x as powerful, but the software has to take advantage of multiple cpus.

in general amd cpus are more efficient than a intel so don't let the GHz fool you. i just came from a 2.8GHz P4 and when i am doing my video encoding i use to get about 1/2 - 1/3 the speed i get now even though my cpu speed in GHz is actually slower.
 

pingu

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2006
15
0
0
the software does take advantage of dual cpus.

And the ram is also neccessary.

I would have no worries in paying somebody to do this but i would also like to give it a go myself.

But this might be a bit difficult.

Cheers guys

It seems a decent dual core amd will be sufficient.
 

EagleEye

Senior member
Nov 5, 2005
982
0
0
Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Okay, here's my list I'd build.

Cooler Master Stacker 810
Western Digital 150gb Raptor (for OS, progs, and working/scratch/cache disk)
2xHitachi 250gb T7K250 hds (for storage)
Seasonic S12 600w PSU
Corsair XMS 2GB (2x1gb) DDR ECC REgistered
Tyan S2865AG2NRF server mobo
AMD Opteron 170 dual core CPU
Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B 5-in-3 hot swappable SATA enclosure
TOTAL = $1939.91

Add in a good cooler (SI-120), some fans, and whatever sound card you are going to need for the projects that you plan on doing. I haven't the slightest as to what you would need, so that would be on an individually required basis.

Dual processor for work, if the sound software supports it. Good ECC RAM, and a dependable as hell mobo. A good power PSU, with no worries about upgrades in the future (yes, I know he could use less, but this is for purposes of upgradeability). Supermicro enclosure to add hds, and pull them out and swap out if you need more storage space. I wouldn't RAID anything, that way you could pull the drives, and put new ones in, and increase storage capacity as needed. Install the OS, programs, etc on the Raptor, and also use that as the working, downloading, scratch, and cache drive, and use the 250's just for storage. Right now, 2x250's is cheaper than a single 400. So I'd just keep getting 250's as required. You could fit 3 250's along with the Raptor on the mobo, and you could always get a SATA controller, and add more drives.

EDIT: Optimally, I would get 2 250's, 1 74gb Raptor, and 1 150gb Raptor, and set them up like this:
Raptor-150: OS & progs
Raptor-74: scratch, cache, virtual memory / pagefile
2xHitachi-250: storage

I think you got the answer you needed. Based on the amount of info you gave us, this is a really good set up. Are you going to run XP? Because it will be a pain to get all 4 gb recognized.

You might want to say the software that you are using.

 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,727
46
91
Originally posted by: pingu
the software does take advantage of dual cpus.

And the ram is also neccessary.

I would have no worries in paying somebody to do this but i would also like to give it a go myself.

But this might be a bit difficult.

Cheers guys

It seems a decent dual core amd will be sufficient.

if you read you shouldn't have any problems doing it yourself. does that software take advantage of 4 cores? also you 100% sure your machine maxes out 2GB?
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,727
46
91
Originally posted by: EagleEye
Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Okay, here's my list I'd build.

Cooler Master Stacker 810
Western Digital 150gb Raptor (for OS, progs, and working/scratch/cache disk)
2xHitachi 250gb T7K250 hds (for storage)
Seasonic S12 600w PSU
Corsair XMS 2GB (2x1gb) DDR ECC REgistered
Tyan S2865AG2NRF server mobo
AMD Opteron 170 dual core CPU
Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B 5-in-3 hot swappable SATA enclosure
TOTAL = $1939.91

Add in a good cooler (SI-120), some fans, and whatever sound card you are going to need for the projects that you plan on doing. I haven't the slightest as to what you would need, so that would be on an individually required basis.

Dual processor for work, if the sound software supports it. Good ECC RAM, and a dependable as hell mobo. A good power PSU, with no worries about upgrades in the future (yes, I know he could use less, but this is for purposes of upgradeability). Supermicro enclosure to add hds, and pull them out and swap out if you need more storage space. I wouldn't RAID anything, that way you could pull the drives, and put new ones in, and increase storage capacity as needed. Install the OS, programs, etc on the Raptor, and also use that as the working, downloading, scratch, and cache drive, and use the 250's just for storage. Right now, 2x250's is cheaper than a single 400. So I'd just keep getting 250's as required. You could fit 3 250's along with the Raptor on the mobo, and you could always get a SATA controller, and add more drives.

EDIT: Optimally, I would get 2 250's, 1 74gb Raptor, and 1 150gb Raptor, and set them up like this:
Raptor-150: OS & progs
Raptor-74: scratch, cache, virtual memory / pagefile
2xHitachi-250: storage

I think you got the answer you needed. Based on the amount of info you gave us, this is a really good set up. Are you going to run XP? Because it will be a pain to get all 4 gb recognized.

You might want to say the software that you are using.

i think with xp you will get ~3.25GB recognized