Nawledge Posted January 20, 2003 Posted January 20, 2003 I'd really appreciate you sharing some of your expertise. ok, I need to get a new system, desktop. I want to get something that I can throw anything at and it won't hicup, I'm pc based. what do you suggest for a motherboard,Cpu, ram, and the rest of the essentials like Fan or whatever. I only Have $500.00 to spend. and if possible I'd like to put it in the smallest case possible. I already have --------------- firewire drive ide drive inter zip cd burner 21" monitor m-Audiophile 2496 I would Like the mobo to have ------------- usb 2.o firewire network conn the ability to do video good graphics with dual monitor ability The Software I run is ---------------------- win 2000 pro win xp pro Sonar Abletons Live Acid Reason amplitube kontakt Battery Sounforge WavLab T-racks 24 coming soon ---------------- vegas video sonoruous firewire audio interface My Objectives Our -------------------- Just be able to record audio without worrying about being under powered. I do hardly any midi - none just sequencing audio in Sonar and Live mainly and I need something that will let me record all the imputs of the Sonorous simotaneously with out any drag or again being underpowerd. Just in case it matters --------------------------------------------- I'm plugging up bass, guitars, and turntables doing heavy amounts of sampling on the computer. I would like to be able to have a gazillion snippets of audio all on seperate tracks processed with heavey automation and efx thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Salyphus Posted January 20, 2003 Posted January 20, 2003 Have you checked out the Nforce2 boards from Nvidia? They should be out by now.
Salyphus Posted January 20, 2003 Posted January 20, 2003 Here's a good price comparison for Nforce2 boards in case you want to check it out: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=913668&highlight_key=y&keyword1=nforce2 You can find a lot of other deals on PC stuff at that site as well.
Nawledge Posted January 20, 2003 Author Posted January 20, 2003 thanks Sal, need all the help I can get. :thu:
Nawledge Posted January 20, 2003 Author Posted January 20, 2003 Damn Sal, that link is full of confused people like myself, I don't know which way is up.ummm which one is best for music?
Salyphus Posted January 20, 2003 Posted January 20, 2003 No problem. You can also find good deals on the Athlon XP chips at Newegg.com. I think they had the XP 1700 for $49 last time I looked.
Salyphus Posted January 20, 2003 Posted January 20, 2003 [quote]Originally posted by Nawledge: [b]Damn Sal, that link is full of confused people like myself, I don't know which way is up.ummm which one is best for music?[/b][/quote]That thread I linked to is a couple months old, (though the first post with the links + prices is kept up to date,) so for the first couple pages people are speculating becuase the things weren't even out yet. I think any of them should be OK for audio if they are set up correctly with the right components (it's not like you're trying to use Gigasampler or anything ;) ) but since you said you wanted Firewire and USB 2.0 you'll want to look at the '+' version of the mobo. Make sure you don't skimp on the power supply. Look for the Enermax Whisper if you want quiet fans, and make sure the power rating is at least 400 watts. I'm sure others will chime in with more opinions too :thu:
polyt Posted January 20, 2003 Posted January 20, 2003 You can get an nforce2 board with decent integrated graphics, but after some cursory searching, I don't think it offers dual monitor support. That said, I'm very happy with the chipset. I do nearly all of my PC shopping at [url=http://www.googlegear.com]googlegear[/url] . I'm sure someone can prove me wrong, but I have yet to find lower prices. AMD makes a great cpu, but they generally run hotter than P4s which equals more fan noise. They are also more power hungry. On the plus side, 1.74ghz (XP 2100) and slower are sub $100. I would recommend name brand memory modules, especially with the nforce2 chipset: Crucial, Kingston, Corsair. Same goes with power supplies. Antec, Enermax. If your building your own, you probably better bite the bullet and go with the not-so-small ATX form factor. Downsizing would require a lot of extra time and research I would imagine. But if your up for it...
Nawledge Posted January 20, 2003 Author Posted January 20, 2003 thanks again SaL, and thank you also Paul, I was planning to just get the parts, I've installed cards and drives but I thought it would be better to have someone else throw it all together. or just pick up a system with all of the recommended parts. so far i'm looking at: an nforce-2 motherboard Antec or Enermax 400w power supply whisper fan and brand name ram btw anybody got a lead on a cpu already put together with those specs, on the cheap?
Salyphus Posted January 21, 2003 Posted January 21, 2003 Here is a comparison of the Nforce2 boards: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1759 You can get one of these motherboards and and an Athlon XP processor for <$200 at the links I posted. Not bad at all.
polyt Posted January 21, 2003 Posted January 21, 2003 This looks like an interesting [url=http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,822090,00.asp]article[/url] . I haven't read it but [url=http://www.extremetech.com/default/0,3971,,00.asp]ExtremeTech[/url] is always good reading. Found that looking for these guys: [url=http://www.polywell.com/us/index.asp]polywell.com[/url] I [i]almost[/i] had them build me an nforce2 machine. The prices aren't that much more than DIY. PC magazine seems to like them too. Edit: search Polywell for the 880nf2 model. They have preconfigured boxes or you can customize.
Nawledge Posted January 22, 2003 Author Posted January 22, 2003 great article polyt, thanks for the link. Alndln got your message, sometimes I think you know too much man, lucky for me huh. :D
Alndln Posted January 22, 2003 Posted January 22, 2003 No problem,feel free to ask anyting regarding this matter. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows"
Salyphus Posted January 22, 2003 Posted January 22, 2003 Please share the info with the rest of the class :) I tried to help the best I could, but I know Aldn knows more about this subject than I do, so please post it here so we can all learn something. :thu: Are the Nforce2 boards all they are cracked up to be?
Alndln Posted January 22, 2003 Posted January 22, 2003 [quote]Originally posted by Sal Ø: [b]Are the Nforce2 boards all they are cracked up to be?[/b][/quote]The NForce 415 and SiS 735/745 have been the the best AMD chipsets availible as far as PCI bandwidth/card compatibility ect.,but the were slightly beaten out in memory scores by Via,but Via always allocates most of their bandwidth for AGP.The newest NForce 2 wins in all categories hands down,but wait,the new SiS 746 is due anyday now and in early tests is benching out the NForce 2.SiS has always the highest PCI bandwidth and fastest data transfer due to the fact that the chipset resides on 1 chip,not a series,and is not routed through the PCI bus like most chipsets allowing for high bandwidth count and lightning fast communication,but in the latest NForce 2 configuration,this was somewhat copied.Either chipset will be fine,and both support the newer 333 and 400 FSB Athlon T-Bred "B"'s up to 2800ghz and 400 DDR of course.To complicate things even more the Hammer and Opterons are due very soon,so you might consider waiting.My personal plan?Keep my ECS based SiS 735 and get a 266FSB 2600 T-Bred B when they drop under $200.00 and wait a year and go for the Hammer.Those who need a bit more right now would go for the NForce 2 or SiS 746.I'm not at all convinced yet that an NForce 2 running at 400 FSB and DDR 400 would be that much faster than my old 266 FSB and DDR 2100 just yet,especially the way I have it configured with no Explorer and no internet,it's almost too fast.The main point here is that NForce and SiS are the way to go for AMD Daw,but you have to plan on how much power you need now,how much you want to spend and when,and what are your upgrade options,and part of that is knowing what's coming ahead of time and what your needs are. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows"
Salyphus Posted January 22, 2003 Posted January 22, 2003 Thanks Alndln. Sounds like the Nforce2 is a really good bet for someone wanting to put a PC system together right now as far as price/performance ratio goes. I mean, for under $200 you can get the processor and mobo with built in GeForce 4 MX graphics, USB 2.0, Firewire, Ethernet. As far as I know the SiS 746 doesn't include any/most of those extras, correct? As for me, I'll stick with my Abit BH6 with SlotIII 1Ghz PIII for a while longer, since it isn't my main machine and it seems to be fast enough for what I need it to do.
Alndln Posted January 22, 2003 Posted January 22, 2003 [quote]Originally posted by Sal ©: [b]As far as I know the SiS 746 doesn't include any/most of those extras, correct? .[/b][/quote]No,it has the same extras depending on which model you want.The ECS SiS 746 will probably start out at $50-$60 for the basic stripped down model and go up from there.An Abit NForce 2 or SiS 746 wouldn't be that much more.Like Intel,you pay a bit more for the "Asus" name. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows"
polyt Posted January 22, 2003 Posted January 22, 2003 Well I finally played around with a cheap multitracker package last night. Sidenote: Anyone else try Fasoft's n-Track package? I gave it a shot based on the recommendation from the article I linked to above and I'm fairly impressed. $45 for the 16 bit version and $65 for the 24. Back to the topic: Out of the box, Nforce2's Soundstorm APU is a full duplex unit, capable of recording at a resolution of at least 24/96 (I didn't try any higher), however, onboard analog playback is limited to 20/48. You can get around this by routing your signal through the SPDIF though. It also supports ASIO, WDM, DX, and MME. I'm not entirely certain how the inputs function. The driver lets you select two different stereo inputs. The wierd part is the speaker channels are included in the dropdown menu. I guess this means you could run lines into your speaker outs, which is totally useless. However, it appears you can run a line into the SPDIF and record in digital 5.1 (I'm assuming). I would love to see if this is possible but, alas, I don't have the hardware. All of this is pretty useless info for dedicated professionals, but for tightwads like myself, the board's sound package is pretty decent. Most users rate it at least as good as the Audigy.
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