DC Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I really need to get a better net computer as mine gave up and died on me and the one I'm using now is a P266 and it's riding a slow horse. I'd like to move my music computer to internet/writing duties if I could come up with a better one for not a lot of dosh. It's the Leoni machine a few generations back based on a Cele 600 @ 900. Very stable but a bit underpowered sometimes. I've found a pretty descent one at tigerdirect for around 5 bills: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=672623&Sku=E400-W2785%20P but it's got a pretty unupgradeable mobo. For the same amount of money I could get the components for a newer Leoni machine based on the Asus A7N8X mobo and an Anthelon 2500 or so CPU. If I get the really good components, I'll still have to use Win98se. Thing is it might be best as I'm still happy with Cakewalk 9.03 and a lot of the programs I use may or may not work on XP. My ADAT card definately won't work and I doubt programs like the VG-8 program loader and some synth editors will either. So here are my questions: 1 Is XP way way better OS? My sound card (DAL Card Deluxe) is beta testing WDM drivers right now, would that make a huge difference? 2 Would the newer ram (DDR 2700) and the faster hard drive (Maxtor 133) plus the much faster CPU make my Cake smoke with Win 98se? Does it fully support the newer features/hardware? 3 Are the average computers now days with XP just way more stable? Any thoughts or insights are welcome. -David http://www.garageband.com/artist/MichaelangelosMuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 XP is way better than 98SE. Get the new Athlon machine. It will kick ass. I have an athlon 2500XP as well. It rules. IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanmass Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 1) Yes, XP is that much better than 98 2) Ram will have a dramatic performance impact on NT based machines (NT/Win2K/XP). 98 is much less efficient, and I believe does not do much with anything above 192 meg. 3) Xp is the way to go, expecially on a new system I got www.krex.com email specials this week, and they have an entire ASthalon system for $299. Good Vendor...Cheap stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rim Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Since you're looking into refurbs anyway, check the ones from Dell If you click on the Price heading to sort it ascending, you should see some P4 2GHz starting from $375. aka riffing Double Post music: Strip Down http://rimspeed.com http://loadedtheband.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 I recently built a sweet little Mini-ATX Athlon XP 2500 system for a client with XP Pro, 512 MB of RAM, 40GB 7200 RPM HD, Geforce4 64MB AGP, 52x CD-Burner, etc for $600 using parts from PC Club . Go with XP Pro if at all possible. Personally, Id recommend rolling yer own or having someone build a system for you. Dells are good for the money as is the E-machine, but any pre-built is going to come with loads of shit software that will bog your system down. Plus, it wont be setup to run XP efficiently out of the box. If you do get a pre-built then make sure you can get a fresh OEM copy of XP without all of the crap that comes standard. This is getting harder and harder to come by with name-brand systems. Most of these systems come with NO CD and instead use a cloned image on a hidden partition. So if your HD goes tits up you have to wait for the company to ship you out a new HD with a preinstalled image. http://www.pcclub.com/products/A1313157.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Oh yes, and XP is ten gazillion times better than 98. 98 barely qualifies as an operating system, in my not so humble opinion . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 98 is a gui. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philbo_Tangent Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Originally posted by Coaster: 98 is a gui.AMEN! Phil Tangent Studios http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Tangent2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcskid Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 XP is so much better, i call it MS first real OS for the end user. NT wasnt bad for severs. DAL cards work fine in XP. i am gonna give you a few hints if you want to go cheapo ECS mobo (yes we have tested them for audio) either Sis or nforce2 chipset. XP 2500, 2600, 2800 are all 512k cache barton chips. anything after that gets a little high. if you do alot of VST/Sampling get 1gig of ram otherwise 512 should do ya fine. no maxtors are not any faster anymore. either maxtor or WD. a slow OS drive is ok, a WD drive with 8meg cache for audio. Sata really is only a tad faster. everything else is fluff. quiet power supplies, fans etc if needed. make sure you get a 380w power supply or better and of name brand for AMD, not all power supplies are the same. Scott ADK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Originally posted by jcskid: ECS mobo (yes we have tested them for audio) either Sis or nforce2 chipset.I totally agree. While I have some VIA chipset boards, Sis and Nvidia tend to be less hassle to setup and are more reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alndln Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I have 2 ECS boards based on the SiS 735 and 746 and their fine,but I would never buy a refurb because you usually wind up with problematic rev 1 boards or defective boards in 1 or 2 areas.The Asrock K7S8XE is only $51.00 and sports the latest SiS 748 chipset and is solid,if you really need on board SATA the Asrock K7S9XE+ is $5.00 more.Asrock is putting out a more consistent product on the budget end than ECS,although Asrock is a joint hybrid company of ECS and Asus.For a few bucks more,Asrock is also releasing a new Athlon 64 board with the SiS 755 chipset and the 3,000gz 512 L2 version of the Athlon 64 is only around $200.00(OEM) so you may want to consider that. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alndln Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 Oh,and as far as OS goes,nothing but Win 2K SP4 with the IE Explorer ripped out for me for DAW,XP is too slow and buggy by comparison,although I haven't tried it with XP lite.I'm going straight to Win 2003 Server,the 32 bit version for my net machine and the 64 bit version fo my future 64 or Opteron setup.Win 2003 Server is actually the lighter of the 3,and a better CPU performer. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Posted January 19, 2004 Author Share Posted January 19, 2004 Hey, thanks for all the great info guys! -David http://www.garageband.com/artist/MichaelangelosMuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Originally posted by Alndln FX-51: The Asrock K7S8XE is only $51.00Asrock ? Who was the marketing genius who came up with that name ? Do they have a buttrock model too ? Maybe with a Winger sticker... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Originally posted by Alndln FX-51: Oh,and as far as OS goes,nothing but Win 2K SP4 with the IE Explorer ripped out for me for DAW,XP is too slow and buggy by comparison.A while back I had XP Home SP1 and 2000 w/SP3 on the same partition using a dual boot. I benchmarked Sonar 2 with the same project and both OSs were virtually identical in performance. I believe that XP used about 1% more of CPU usage than 2000. I still like 2000 since its pretty stripped down and doesnt require much tweaking. But I like XPs built-in driver support and it looks better on an LCD display when using the ClearType font. My recommendation for an OS would be either Win 2k SP3 or higher or XP Pro w/ SP1a. XP will require more tweaking to get similar performance, but its not that difficult to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franknputer Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 I'd vote for 2k also - XP needs more RAM just to be happy. Sure it's cheap, but why waste it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Where you can find an OEM Windows 2000 Pro copy these days? I know that none of the local companies I deal with carry it anymore... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcskid Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franknputer Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Check out Ebay. I've gotten various Windowses there for decent $$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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