how does this sound for a recording computer?

[jasonbraatz]

Here is what i plan to buy in a few weeks to make up a home recording/video work rig


Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard

Athlon XP 1800+ (a new one with the thoroughbred core, clockable to 2+ Ghz with no heat increase)

256 meg DDR 2700 ram (to start)

Western Digital "special edition" 80 gb hard drive (the special edition has 8meg of cache)

ATI Radeon 7500 LE video card (twin monitor support, eventually i'll get a 15" flat panel to have the DSP mixer control for the q10 or the video preview on)

Aardvark DirectPro q10

Win XP Pro
Vegas Video 3
Acid 4
FruityLoops
Reason


sound ok?

[awesome]

I'd personally get a intel p4 instead and rather 2 harddisks instead of 1 big HD.

Make sure you're motherboard is suited for recording. You can find a lot of information about compatibility problems on www.viaarena.com

[Jason Carota]

Originally posted by awesome
2 harddisks instead of 1 big HD.

I agree. With two HDD's, purchasing a RAID controller may be helpfull, too. Although, some may find this to be overkill.

[jasonbraatz]

why? the 80 gb one is only 25 dollars more, plus the extra cache will be faster.

[Jason Carota]

Originally posted by jasonbraatz
why?

Well, with two drives, you can dedicate one drive for audio files only. This can lead to less fragmentation among the files, allowing things to run more efficiently. It also adds comfort knowing that, if something drastic happens to the boot drive while you are working, the audio specific drive will be OK.

[awesome]

Isn't it just faster if you use multiple HD's, which gives you the possibility to record more tracks?

I'm not sure, but ...
1) I don't think the extra cache is important when recording, as it is only used for reading back data. (but probably useful for mixdown, I dunno)
2) An increase in cache doesn't always mean it will be faster.


from the aardvark website:
'If you decide on an AMD processor, get a motherboard with an AMD chipset (such as the 760 or 761). Chipsets by VIA and Ali will work with our products, but are not recommended for pro audio in general. '


I'm sorry for criticising your setup like this. It's just that I bought myself a PC, an AMD and a motherboard with via-chipset, and it's not as suited for audio as I wanted it to be. I don't want to see the same happening too you.

Don't want to hijack your thread, but I'm also thinking of a new pc myself. Want to get rid of my desktop for this . Am I going to have problems with it, it will set me back 1400 euro.

[jasonbraatz]

i have a 15 gig maxtor hard drive in this computer i suppose i could hijack for a boot drive and whatnot if necessary...wouldn't a partition keep the fragmentation down as well?


and the gigabyte board is new, with the newest VIA KT400 chipset on it...not sure if it's any different/better for audio but supposedly it's alot better in general.

what kind of problems are you having with your via chipset?

[awesome]

What problems did I have? My usb-ports can't deliver enough power at high transfer-rates (bought pci usb-card for that). And although I'm not sure it's the MB, I can't use DMA for my HD... which is quite important.
That and not being very stable makes me wish I'd gotten an Intel.

[ashbory]

Sounds like a good system.
I agree with Awesome about using two hard drives, one dedicated to audio only, and one for your system and program files. This will ensure that nothing tries to access the drive while you are recording (causing glitches etc.). It also makes it easy to keep the drive defragged. The 15 Gigger you currently have should be fine for the system drive.
I just started using the Western Digital 80Gig/8M cache for recording. I can record eight tracks at once at 24bit/96KHz no problem.
As far as processor, I'd say go with AMD, in general you get more bang for the buck. I think the VIA problems were with early boards/chipsets. If you haven't already, do a search for some reviews of the motherboard you want to get.
Good luck with your setup!

[ceeprm]

You might want to get hold of some software like Cubase on Sonar to do multi-track recording and midi sequencing- kind of like the nerve centre of a computer studio setup. You can integrate programs like Reason with both of these.