Someone tell me if this build will work fine...

[bierce85]

I'm building a computer strictly for Digidesign Pro Tools (audio recording and mixing software). I need lots of processing power and this is what I'm going with at the moment. I plan on using some components from my old Dell PC. These would include the CD burner, DVD drive, an NVidia 5400 FX video card (dinosaur) , and a maxtor 320 GB SATA hard drive. PLEASE someone tell me if this will all work. I am a recording engineer, NOT a computer expert. Also, I'd like to know if I will need to buy a heat sink to go with this since it's dual processors. Will the fans included in the case do the job? Thank you kind computer people!!

ASUS M2N-SLI Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor X 2
G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar SE WD400JD 40GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
LIAN LI PC-61Case
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply

 

[lobbyone]

Short answer: yes

 

[Tarrant64]

If you want more processing power an Intel Core 2 Duo would be the way to go. Also, what's with the 40GB hard drive?

$40 is not the way to go for just 40gb. I'll update this post with some more info later.

 

[bierce85]

I'm going with AMD for two reasons: They have tested better than Core 2 duos with Pro Tools and (correct me if I'm wrong) you can't use two Core 2 Duo processors with a dual processor motherboard which is what I plan on doing with the AMD's. The goal with the 40 GB hard drive was to keep the startup disk small (Ive read this results in faster performance) and to write all the audio to the 320 GB maxtor. I was also considering buying two more 150 GB hard drives to write audio to (pro tools has a "round robin" feature which writes to two drives simultaneously for better performance) and using the 320 GB as a storage HD.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: bierce85
I'm going with AMD for two reasons: They have tested better than Core 2 duos with Pro Tools and (correct me if I'm wrong) you can't use two Core 2 Duo processors with a dual processor motherboard which is what I plan on doing with the AMD's. The goal with the 40 GB hard drive was to keep the startup disk small (Ive read this results in faster performance) and to write all the audio to the 320 GB maxtor. I was also considering buying two more 150 GB hard drives to write audio to (pro tools has a "round robin" feature which writes to two drives simultaneously for better performance) and using the 320 GB as a storage HD.

Well with the first comment, do you have a link for the AMD vs. C2D with Pro Tools? I'm not doubting you, just wanted to see what it was all about...

The motherboard you have selected doesn't look like you can put 2 processors on there. Maybe you've linked to the wrong one?

I've never heard of smaller = faster when it comes to hard disk performance. A new hard drive usually competes better than anything older.

That "round robin" sounds like RAID to me. Interesting 'tool' they have. 40gb will barely hold anything else you may want should you decide to do anything other than audio editing. Just think future proof.

Larger hard drives does not = slower.

 

[Operandi]

Drop the PC-61 in favor of the PC-7. It uses 120mm fans, has cleaner air flow, and is cheaper.

I wouldn't recommend Thermaltkae PSUs (or anything else really for that matter). Seasonic make some of the best PSUs available and since you don't need a ton of power the 330 S12 would be a good choice.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I believe your on the right track. I would say listen to Operandi concerning the Thermaltake PSU.
Since you obviously need something reliable I would not go with the Thermaltake PSU there are others built for around the same price maybe a bit more expensive that are much better in terms of quality and reliability over the long haul!!

Good Luck!!

 

[bierce85]

 

[bierce85]

 

[Tarrant64]

😕

 

[bierce85]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64

Originally posted by: bierce85
I'm going with AMD for two reasons: They have tested better than Core 2 duos with Pro Tools and (correct me if I'm wrong) you can't use two Core 2 Duo processors with a dual processor motherboard which is what I plan on doing with the AMD's. The goal with the 40 GB hard drive was to keep the startup disk small (Ive read this results in faster performance) and to write all the audio to the 320 GB maxtor. I was also considering buying two more 150 GB hard drives to write audio to (pro tools has a "round robin" feature which writes to two drives simultaneously for better performance) and using the 320 GB as a storage HD.

Well with the first comment, do you have a link for the AMD vs. C2D with Pro Tools? I'm not doubting you, just wanted to see what it was all about...

The motherboard you have selected doesn't look like you can put 2 processors on there. Maybe you've linked to the wrong one?

I've never heard of smaller = faster when it comes to hard disk performance. A new hard drive usually competes better than anything older.

That "round robin" sounds like RAID to me. Interesting 'tool' they have. 40gb will barely hold anything else you may want should you decide to do anything other than audio editing. Just think future proof.

Larger hard drives does not = slower.

The AMD vs. C2D is actually wrong info. My bad on that one. C2D is relatively new so there havent really been many comparisons. The AMD working better theory is mainly based on statistics from over a year ago. I'm not sure what the comparisons were but I found them mainly in this thread

Mainly I was going for the AMD setup because its being used by a lot of pro tools users. For those unfamiliar with pro tools it's probably the most finicky largely used software in existence. Basically, if you build a machine that isn't at least somewhat tested, you're taking a big chance as there's a good chance pro tools won't even run on it. As for the "round robin" thing, it's not raid.. I'm sure it's similar but Pro Tools doesnt support raid and wont run on a cumputer set up that way (and example of its pickyness).

 

[pkme2]

Either LL will do fine, I have both.

I've added a 250mm side intake and a top 120mm exhaust on my PC-61 and it works!

The advantage with the PC-61 is that it has a removeable mobo tray. I sometimes wish my PC-7 had one.

Oh well, get what works for you.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: bierce85

Originally posted by: Tarrant64

Originally posted by: bierce85
I'm going with AMD for two reasons: They have tested better than Core 2 duos with Pro Tools and (correct me if I'm wrong) you can't use two Core 2 Duo processors with a dual processor motherboard which is what I plan on doing with the AMD's. The goal with the 40 GB hard drive was to keep the startup disk small (Ive read this results in faster performance) and to write all the audio to the 320 GB maxtor. I was also considering buying two more 150 GB hard drives to write audio to (pro tools has a "round robin" feature which writes to two drives simultaneously for better performance) and using the 320 GB as a storage HD.

Well with the first comment, do you have a link for the AMD vs. C2D with Pro Tools? I'm not doubting you, just wanted to see what it was all about...

The motherboard you have selected doesn't look like you can put 2 processors on there. Maybe you've linked to the wrong one?

I've never heard of smaller = faster when it comes to hard disk performance. A new hard drive usually competes better than anything older.

That "round robin" sounds like RAID to me. Interesting 'tool' they have. 40gb will barely hold anything else you may want should you decide to do anything other than audio editing. Just think future proof.

Larger hard drives does not = slower.

The AMD vs. C2D is actually wrong info. My bad on that one. C2D is relatively new so there havent really been many comparisons. The AMD working better theory is mainly based on statistics from over a year ago. I'm not sure what the comparisons were but I found them mainly in this thread

Mainly I was going for the AMD setup because its being used by a lot of pro tools users. For those unfamiliar with pro tools it's probably the most finicky largely used software in existence. Basically, if you build a machine that isn't at least somewhat tested, you're taking a big chance as there's a good chance pro tools won't even run on it. As for the "round robin" thing, it's not raid.. I'm sure it's similar but Pro Tools doesnt support raid and wont run on a cumputer set up that way (and example of its pickyness).

Yeah, I know it's not raid, I just thought it interesting concept coming from them.

Well Intel has stepped up to the plate within the past year and has produced some processors holding their own no matter the price comparisons to AMD. If it's flaky software though then you're find sticking with AMD. They still perform great for the price.


Have you put anymore thought into your storage solution?

EDIT: By the way, nice case selection.

 

[bierce85]

How do you know if the board supports two processors? I feel like I should know this...

 

[Tarrant64]

Looking at the board directly you can see that it only has one slot for AMD processors. You are looking at hiking up the price a bit if you were to buy a dual motherboard for AMD.
Here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144416


I'm not sure how up to date you are with AMD as of late, but they do have a 4x4 architecture now that allows this.

C2D's can be used on a single motherboard though, as well as just 1 AMD X2 processor as well.






And storage wise: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144416

This is what I'm talking about.

Let's get you up to date.

 

[bierce85]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64

Have you put anymore thought into your storage solution?

EDIT: By the way, nice case selection.

Thank you.. I found those last night on newegg and really liked them. They remind me of a more conventional looking mac pro case and I always liked their cases.

Anyway, if the smaller drive being faster thing isn't true then I suppose I'd might as well go with an 80 G startup drive.

Also, I was comparing the cache from different AMD processors and I was wondering how much of a difference 2x 1MB cache as opposed to a 512 x 2 would make. My guess was that it might be particularly noticeable on an audio computer because a lot of the processing is very repetitive (plugins processing audio the same way for 3 minutes at a time, ect..)

I ask because if the difference is minimal I wouldnt mind going with the smaller cache and saving about $140 combined. But if the difference is notable then I should probably get it.

Yet another thing I was wondering was if I were to add a faster WD raptor drive, would it make the most difference on the startup drive or the drive with the audio being written/read to it or is this something you'd have to experiment with to find the answer to? My guess is the reading/writing drive would see the biggest improvement but I'm not sure.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: bierce85

Originally posted by: Tarrant64

Have you put anymore thought into your storage solution?

EDIT: By the way, nice case selection.

Thank you.. I found those last night on newegg and really liked them. They remind me of a more conventional looking mac pro case and I always liked their cases.

Anyway, if the smaller drive being faster thing isn't true then I suppose I'd might as well go with an 80 G startup drive.

Also, I was comparing the cache from different AMD processors and I was wondering how much of a difference 2x 1MB cache as opposed to a 512 x 2 would make. My guess was that it might be particularly noticeable on an audio computer because a lot of the processing is very repetitive (plugins processing audio the same way for 3 minutes at a time, ect..)

I ask because if the difference is minimal I wouldnt mind going with the smaller cache and saving about $140 combined. But if the difference is notable then I should probably get it.

Yet another thing I was wondering was if I were to add a faster WD raptor drive, would it make the most difference on the startup drive or the drive with the audio being written/read to it or is this something you'd have to experiment with to find the answer to? My guess is the reading/writing drive would see the biggest improvement but I'm not sure.

Off the top of my head I'm going to say adding a raptor drive, although expensive, will benefit you more as a startup drive.

I am not sure how much the cache between the two would affect the performance of audio equipment, especially whether or not the price difference is worth it. I do know that more cache is always better, how much you'll "feel" the difference is another story.

 

[bierce85]

Looks like most of the dual processor motherboards are server motherboards. Does that make a difference or will they work with the same components as regular desktop motherboards?

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: bierce85
Looks like most of the dual processor motherboards are server motherboards. Does that make a difference or will they work with the same components as regular desktop motherboards?

Forget about dual processor boards.

Intel has CPUs with four cores avalible now and AMD will in the near future. Regardless; dual core CPUs from AMD or Intel should be more then enough for Pro Tools.

 

[crimson117]

You should get more than 1GB of ram. Get at least 2GB, or 4GB if you can afford it.

Raptors are nice and fast, but they are also loud, so hopefully your PC is not near your recording equipment.

Get a Seagate 320GB SATA drive as your data drive. And also, get an external drive or two to backup the data drive each night.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: crimson117
You should get more than 1GB of ram. Get at least 2GB, or 4GB if you can afford it.

Raptors are nice and fast, but they are also loud, so hopefully your PC is not near your recording equipment.

Your right about the RAM, 2GB would be ideal but wrong about the Raptor. It's actually one of the quieter drives SPCR tested.

 

[Tarrant64]

Lots of good suggestions here, bierce85. Be sure to check what you're ordering over before you rush out to order some things and then regret it later. 2GB would be ideal, 4GB is truly overkill unless you have something that demands it, IMHO. Money that could go elsewhere.

Also, with the right case, the noise from the Raptor won't be an issue. They can get loud, but some people actually don't notice. My 74gb raptor was quieter than my 36gb(which i got rid of. 🙂 ).

Operandi is correct, time to forget about dual processor boards. They aren't only for server use now, however dont' think of them as practicle by any means. You really can't go wrong with AMD or Intel when it comes to dual-core or more.

However, before you jump into 4-core action, you may want to check around and see if there is any information on how well the software runs with dual-core. That would suck to beef up a new system and find out software doesn't run on it!

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: crimson117
You should get more than 1GB of ram. Get at least 2GB, or 4GB if you can afford it.

Raptors are nice and fast, but they are also loud, so hopefully your PC is not near your recording equipment.

Your right about the RAM, 2GB would be ideal but wrong about the Raptor. It's actually one of the quieter drives SPCR tested.

Well, the raptor was quiet for me. But after about a year I notice the read/write gets rediculous at times. However, I have to check on both the hard drives because I'm not sure which of the 3 it's coming from, so I assume the raptor. Newer revisions are pretty damn quiet though, and I dont' have the newest ones out. I dream of a 150gb one day though...one day.

 

[theYipster]

Let's back up for a second.... What version of Pro Tools do you plan to use? I believe most versions are tied to specific mixing hardware. I have experience with the desktop / home studio version of Pro Tools which comes with the MBox external sound card / mixer, and it works quite admirably on an Intel iMac (2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2 Gigs of RAM.) I've also seen studio Pro Tools run w/o hiccup on boxes as old as Power Mac G4 Quicksilvers, so I'm not sure if, and/or why there is a need for a true dual processor / SMP motherboard. People are still buying old G4 PowerMacs for Pro Tools work on Craigslist and eBay for a few hundred $$$.

I actually have never used Pro Tools on a PC (since the Mac is so entrenched in audio content creation work,) but if ProTools works fine on old Macs, then my guess is you wont need a powerful PC for most versions. Actually, since you're constantly writing and reading from the hard disk, it may be better to invest in a fast Raptor SATA drive, or for even better performance, Serial Attached SCSI (although you'd need a serious add-on card or a server motherboard for the later.)

Mark.

 

[bierce85]

Thanks guys I'm really grateful for you clearing everything up for me. The dual-processor confusion stemmed from someone writing "x2" next to "athlon" in their listed specs, leading me to believe they were using two separate athlon processors with a motherboard that only had a single processor space, not realising the x2 is a type of athlon. This lead me to believe you could run two processors on just about any board. dumbass 😱

Anyway right now I'm looking at intel. Digidesign seems to have tested more intel motherboards to work with their software and hardware than anything else and if I'm gonna go with one dual core processor that seems to be the smart choice.

Would it probably be safe to say that the provided cooling with the Lian li cases would be enough?