Yet another recording PC question.

[DC]

I've got the older Leoni machine right now (Cele 600 @ 900MHz) and it's actually been quite good. I'd like to build another computer that's just a bit faster and quieter. I've asked questions before and I was all set to build an Athlon machine around the ASUS A7N8X mobo, but I've recently learned that the nVidia chipset and Win98se just don't mix. I'll upgrade to XP one day (maybe) but right now it's iffy if a lot of my software will work and my ADAT card definitely won't work. I don't want to upgrade all my software at present, I just want a stable quiet computer (going with an Antec Sonata case).

 

Win 98 with the Internet Explorer stripped out of it has been pretty darn stable for me.

 

So, can someone recommend a mobo or chipset that will work well with win98se? I had good luck with the old Cele machine so I'm thinking of going for a Cele 2.8 Ghz CPU, and an Intel D865PERL mobo (Intel 865PE chipset). Would this work? Other win 98se mobo recommendations?

 

Thanks!

[philbo_Tangent]

At the moment, you can get 2.4GHz celeron PCs at a mucher sweeter point on the price/performance curve. I guess it depends on how much you're willing to pay for another 15% in performance.

[theblue1]

Hi, Dave.

 

I faced a similar dilemna a few years back. I liked W98 and when I was careful to only install solid mainstream apps -- but plenty of them, from graphics production to database design to audio/multimedia it was very stable. (It was all those little programs you find, utilities, games, etc, that seemed to tip things toward lesser stability. But, even so, it was pretty solid.)

 

That said, I'm happy to say that XP is very, very stable. As long as your careful to use signed drivers -- or at least drivers the hardware manufacturer will stand solidly behind.

 

I replaced my once-wildly-expensive Frontier one port ADAT interface with an Echo Mia since the ADATs had gone blinky a bit before and finally stopped lighting up at all. The Mia doesn't have a signed driver, but Echo swore up and down it was solid and, indeed, it's been absolutely trouble free. (Products from other vendors may not produce the same results -- I was about to buy a certain USB interface for my new laptop recently when I decided to google the product just to be on the safe side. It was then that I found an entire website and BB devoted to people with problems with the device. I've been around, and I know the difference between the normal little complaints and something that's really troubled. As one unhappy user said, before I bought my ------- ------- I thought all these people on this board were just the typical whining complainers who don't RTFM, but, no, it's really got problems.

 

Anyhow, you might look at some of the newer ADAT i/o options. You no longer have to pay $700 just to run digital signal from ADATs in and out of your box -- hey, and they make them for PCI busses and FW, too! (Mine was an old ISA card... btw, make sure your new motherboard can handle your old card.)

 

Anyhow, I ended up buying a MOTU 828mkII, a FW unit, so I could move it back and forth between my laptop and my own new desktop when its built. The 828 is pricey at under $750, but it has 10 analog ins (including 2 mic pres w/ phantom) and 12 analong outs, as well as potentially simultaneous ADAT and S-PDIF io. But there are other options, including more affordable PCI cards with ADAT io.

 

XP likes to see a more RAM (but it's stupid cheap these days) but is a big jump in stability past W98; I hated the way it looked, but you can switch it back to Windows Classic and everything is laid out in the familar ways without the kindergarten colors (I since switched to XP's silver skin and I find that easy on the eyes but pleasantly novel. Since my old desktop is a Pentium 3-500, I turned off the silly little animation stuff that MS obviously thinks makes XP 'friendly' -- I think most of it is silly, although the menu and mouse shadows are a nice touch. But I nixed them 'cause they took a percent or so of CPU.)

 

Still, I like the idea of you running your old interface and W98 because you have them and you don't have to spend for them.

 

Good luck!

[polyt]

Depending on what you need to do, Celerons are pretty gutless. The lack of L2 cache really hampers performance.

 

A slower P4 is preferable to a fast Celeron most of the time.

[theblue1]

I have a bias for Intel chips -- but I'd avoid the celeron. Sure, it's cheaper, but its performance is much less than you'd expect from the specs. You get what you pay for but building a new machine isn't that expensive. But going through the tedium of installing all your old software, etc, is an investment of time. As far as I'm concerned, finding the sweet spot for price vs. performance (probably around 2.8 gHz on the P4s these days I'm thinking, but there are certainly great deals on 2.4 gHz chips that make them tempting -- and it's only an 18% chip speed difference between the two, much of which difference will be 'absorbed' by similar memory, HD, etc, performance... you get the idea.)

 

Yeah, get a good Athlon or Pentium 4.

[DC]

Thanks for the replies everyone, but I guess I should have rephrased my question:

 

Can anyone recommend a relatively modern chipset/mobo/CPU combo that works well with win98se and audio recording?

 

Thanks!

[theblue1]

Ok... go ahead, cling to the past.

 

Good luck, man!

 

(And don't let anyone give you a hard time. I had a client who until two years ago was running a database system I designed in 87-88 on a 10 mHz (that's mega-, not giga-) PC-AT with 640 K RAM and a 30 MB hard drive. And it ran great. But it wouldn't run on modern BIOS machines and we finally ditched it. He's now running a proper modern system with an Access system (also designed by y.t.) but before he got replaced his funky peer-network Pentium 1-133 'server' with a new 2.4 gHz P4 running XP-server, the old 1988 system was faster (at some stuff and, yeah, woeful at others).

[Dylan]

Im partial to P4s and Intel Mobos. The 865Perl is what I used recently when building my rack PC and its a great friggin board! This setup would work fine under 98, but Id recommend XP Pro in a heartbeat over it. I wouldnt recommend a Celeron, however. Even an older 533MHz FSB P4 would be better. The 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB P4s are a good deal at the moment. Check out newegg.com for more info.

[DC]

theblue1, you're cracking me up. Keep in mind that you're talking to someone who until a few years ago was using an Atari STe with Dr. T. & smpte for midi and a black face ADAT. Might still be if the Atari hadn't given up on me.

 

I love the tones I'm getting now days thanks in large part to a new front end and a Card Deluxe, but the Cele 900 does choke when I get too many plugs or tracks going. Just like to get a bit heftier and quieter hardware going on.

 

So Cele's suck? For around the same price, I could get a P4 2.0 gig compared to a Cele 2.8 gig and the P4 would be better for audio?

 

Also, which ram do I want again for 400, 533 or 800 front side bus speed? If I'm reading it right, the D865PERL mobo uses dual channel memory so I'd be best off with 2 X 256 meg chips -don't use soft synths, loops etc.

 

Thanks again folks.

[polyt]

The P4 is the way to go especially if your running lots of plug-ins.

 

Yes I know I wasn't helping earlier .

 

I can't remember my memory specs, but I think in the case of P4s you divide the FSB by 4 to find the memory frequency to match your CPU. (For AMD you divide by 2).

 

800=200 (PC3200? DDR Ram)

533=133 (maybe PC2100?)

400=100 (I have no idea)

 

You can always go higher in anticipation of future upgrades, but I believe most chipsets run best with the memory frequency matching the fsb frequency. So if you buy fast memory, you may end up running it slower for the time being.

 

Plus, I heard a few months ago that chip makers are increasing their timings in order to hit the speed necessary to sell sticks labeled "PC3700." In other words those fast sticks didn't actually perform any better than the slower stuff. Make sure the CL is 2 or 2.5 no matter what you buy.

 

Sorry if this is confusing but I gotta run. I may be wrong on some of this so hopefully someone in the know will help out.

 

Good luck!

[theblue1]

DC

 

Yeah... my ADAT's were black face... it broke my heart (a tiny bit -- I hadn't started a tape-based project since '96 -- but I was still using them as A/D and D/A. One went south [wouldn't even light up] and I subbed my Quadraverb for it in the A/D, since the QV had an ADAT lightpip i/o, and since I usually record solo wasnt' too much hassle. Then the other one went and i had to do something. I used a Soundblaster Live for a while and finally broke down and got the Echo Mia.) I still have the comatose ADATs. Maybe I can give them to a church or something... the Goodwill won't take 'em.

 

Those Ataris were great. They and the Amigas were inarguably the most advanced computers of their era.

 

I wouldn't say Celerons suck. But I'm pretty sure I'd go for the P4.

 

I'm going to defer to others on the memory/fsb issues. I haven't loaded those issues into my head since I built my desktop in 2000. I found out a long time ago that I have to empty my head all the time. (It's really nuts when I'm dealing with online databases 'cause I typically use ASP on the server, Javascript for the local client, and, of course html to hold it all together. But anyhow... I clearly need more RAM upside my head.)

[boosh]

I use a pentium IV,3ghz,1gig ram and believe me,...making music with this monster is more heavenly than F...... Carmen Electra.

 

Windows XP pro is what I have and when I'm creating stuff(wether it be videos ,graphics or 24 channels audio with an amount of vsti's and plugins,...It doesn't matter, I can still surf the net and burn a dvd while rendering audio or video. Just make sure you tweak your PC.....