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Comp For CD Ripping, Need Upgrade Advice

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Playmaker

Golden Member
I'm headed for college and had planned to build a new comp for gaming, but I've decided my gaming days are done. I want to upgrade my 2 year old comp to make it as fast as possible for ripping my CDs to mp3s so I can listen to them through a home audio system I will connect to my computer. Everything in the computer is 2 years old besides the WD drive which is 6 months old...

Epox 8K7A (AMD 760 chipset)
AMD Athlon 1.2ghz T-Bird
Crucial 512mb PC2100 DDR
40GB IBM DEATHstar (that hasn't gone out on me yet heh)
80GB WD SE 8mb cache version

I have a DVD drive and a CDRW drive but both crapped out on my in the last 6 months probably because of the amount I use them for CD ripping. I plan on buying a new drive, preferably a DVD/CDRW combo and one that SHOULD last and maybe has a warranty of some type. DAE has to be fast of course also. Any recommendations? I also plan to buy rounded cables.

Other then that I have ~$500 to spend, more if necessary, to raise my DAE extraction and mp3 encoding speeds as fast as possible. What would you all recommend? Would the price of upgrading the mobo/CPU/RAM be worth it for what I get in speed? Or is there a newer CPU that will run on my board that will help? From what I've read it seems my drive's DAE speed and my CPU are the most important. Like I said, I have at least ~$500 to spend, but the less I spend the better as that means my home audio system will get that much higher of a budget. Thanks for any suggestions...




EDIT: I forgot to mention that my WD drive has been causing lockups and clicking off and on. Lately it has been okay but in the past it hasn't been looking too good. The last thing I want is to lose 20gigs of mp3s I ripped myself. Any suggestions in this regard?
 
Since you have 512 MB of PC2100, an XP 2400+ is a great (and cheap) choice that will speed up the encoding step by at least 66%. Look at a few of the 10,000 other upgrade threads 😉 for some motherboard recommendations.

Look in Hot Deals for some cheap 60 - 120 GB drives for backup purposes, though you'll also need a $20 controller card if you end up with 2 optical drives + 3 hard drives.

Best drive for DAE? I use an old Asus 40X that was the best for its time, so I haven't had to look. I think there was a thread over at www.hydrogenaudio.org but you'll have to hunt for it. Also try a search of "rip" and/or "mp3" here and in Software for people asking about rip speed and others saying what drive they use.
 
I am no expert here but, would anyone recommend dual processors? I know for ripping tasks it might be a good idea? If not, what are duals mainly used for other than servers?
 
Originally posted by: Bilo86
I am no expert here but, would anyone recommend dual processors? I know for ripping tasks it might be a good idea? If not, what are duals mainly used for other than servers?
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With EAC for ripping it runs separate processes for encoding at the same time it is ripping, so the program is not held back by the speed of the ripping.

In other words what matters is the overall, total processor speed -- so 2 x Athlon 1.4 or a P4 2.8 might rip and encode a full CD at about the same speed.

 
You don't need much processing power to rip CD's... it's more about how fast your CD-ROM drive can read the CD. Mine rips at about 20X... and CPU utilization is under 15% while doing that... and I encode to MP3 192k on the fly.

Dave... I'm not sure I understand what you're saying... if the CD can't be read any faster, you can't encode any faster...
 
So is a CPU and ROM drive upgrade my best bet to up my speed? I was planning on going with the newest LG DVD/CDRW combo. I believe it's 16x/52x24x52x. Anyone have any experience with that drive?

The best CPU I can run in my Epox 8K7A is an AMD T-Bred XP 2400+ correct? Newegg has the retail box on sale for $86 shipped. Will it run cool enough with the retail HSF?

Would those 2 upgrades be my best choice? Under $200 including the rounded cables I need to get also. Or am I better going for a full mobo/RAM upgrade also as the AMD 761 chipset is pretty old? Thanks for all the advice and keep it coming...
 
An XP2400 is overkill for CD ripping... but that's just my opinion, take it for what it's worth. A 52X drive is helpful though.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
You don't need much processing power to rip CD's... it's more about how fast your CD-ROM drive can read the CD. Mine rips at about 20X... and CPU utilization is under 15% while doing that... and I encode to MP3 192k on the fly.

Dave... I'm not sure I understand what you're saying... if the CD can't be read any faster, you can't encode any faster...
Click to expand...

Well, some programs rip track 1, then encode track 1, then rip track 2, then encode track 2 ... so the processor might be working at 10% then 100% then 10% then 100% ...

The last version of MusicMatch I tried did this, except it was read a little of track 1, stop reading to encode that bit, read the next bit of track 1, stop and ecnode that bit ....

With EAC it rips track 1, then starts encoding track 1 at the same time as it is ripping track 2, then encodes track 2 while ripping track 3. If your CPU is fast enough the rip + encode speed is only a tiny bit slower than the speed to just rip.

My music server's Tualatin Celeron 1.3A isn't always fast enough to encode while ripping, so sometimes after ripping a 15-song CD it still has 3-4 tracks left to encode. I'd guess even an XP 2000+ is probably fast enough to remove any delays.

 
Oh... ok, in that case it would make a difference... I encode on the fly though with CDex... averages about 20X.
 
Originally posted by: Playmaker
Does anyone know the fastest CPU the Epox 8K7A officially supports? Will I have problems trying to run the 2400+?
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I have an AMD760 board too (ABIT KG7) and even with the latest BIOS, it claims support only up to 2100+ Palomino and 2000+ Tbred. I've never tried sticking a faster CPU in, though, so it may work. The real problem is that the AMD760 chipset is significantly slower than any modern chipsets (KT333/KT400/nForce2) and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to put a fast new CPU in such an old motherboard. I would say pick up a 1700+ Tbred and overclock, but having an AMD760 board I know it probably won't go very far.
 
what program are you ripping with?

I would definately get the high speed burner 1st!

then ripp a few and keep an eye on your CPU utilization, that will tell you if you need to upgrade CPU,

you probly will need to upgrade the 1.2Ghz to keep up with 52X CD drive.

Dont just buy the cheapest 52X you find take some time to research your options.
 
I have an AMD760 board too (ABIT KG7) and even with the latest BIOS, it claims support only up to 2100+ Palomino and 2000+ Tbred. I've never tried sticking a faster CPU in, though, so it may work. The real problem is that the AMD760 chipset is significantly slower than any modern chipsets (KT333/KT400/nForce2) and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to put a fast new CPU in such an old motherboard. I would say pick up a 1700+ Tbred and overclock, but having an AMD760 board I know it probably won't go very far.
Click to expand...
Not bad advice, but the retail 2000+ is only $65 at newegg with HSF, so overclocking mught not be worth it. A 2000+ should be fast enough to keep up with a 52x CD.
 
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