AMD audio editing system advice

[Dalamar]

Ok first off I'd like to thank you for helping me. I trying to build an AMD system that I can use for audio composure, synthesizing and editing. I plan on hooking up a keyboard or piano to it. And it needs firewire ports. That’s all I know. OH! And I'd like to stay around $1200. I was going to buy from New Egg, and I also have someone that’s going to put it together for me.

Thank you again for helping me.

[Dalamar]

Can no one help me?

Also I don't need a moniter, only the computer itself.

[sigmaseven]

Lets see.... get

AMD 3500+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103514
$267

Cool ABIT FATALITY nForce4 Ultra motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813127196
$185

Creative Audigy 4 Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102181
$279

Seagate Barracuda 400gb HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148068
$293

Corsair 512x2 mb sticks (1 Gig)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145450
$115

Gigabyte 6600GT 128mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125156
$169

Thermaltake 420 Watt Powersupply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153006
$39

NEC 16x DVD+-RW Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152039
$48

Western Digital 80 GB HD w/ 8mb Buffer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822135106
$57

Thats a total of $1159, which leaves approximately $41 for a case. Feel free to get a lower video card, or lower motherboard if you need more money for a better quality case.

[kram 2.0]

I agree with many of the things listed by sigmaseven - just a few personal suggestion. Save money and go with the Asus A8N-E (50 USD cut), take the Corsair RAM down to ValueSelect with very minimal performance impact (30 USD cut), and upgrade to the WD Raptor 37 GB 10k HDD - store OS files and small important files in there (65 USD increase). Get either the Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro VIVO (76 USD cut). You would have around 91 USD to spend (without considering shipping) - get the MS Win XP Home - perfect.

Just my suggestions.

kram

[thefultonhow]

Okay, all of these posts are ignoring that you're doing audio editing -- a 6600GT or even an X600 is overkill, and most of the parts (e.g. the Raptor hard drive) are focused on performance rather than sound abatment. Here is my idea for a configuration.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754 Processor -- $146
Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU CPU Heatsink/Fan -- $45
Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard -- $132
Corsair ValueSelect 1 GB (2x512MB) PC3200 DDR SDRAM -- $81
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Video Card -- $74
Lian-Li PC-6070B Plus Black Aluminum Case w/ Sound-Deadening -- $178
Thermaltake Silent PurePower 420W PSU -- $38
M-Audio Delta 1010LT Professional Sound Card -- $229
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive -- $140
3x Lite-On SOHR-5239S 52x CD-RW Drive -- $81
Microsoft Windows XP Home -- $91

TOTAL -- $1235

[mountainking]

hey fulton... im just wondering why that sound card is so much better than audigy cards? im not real knolegable in the sound card area and im just wondering why its so great.

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by mountainking hey fulton... im just wondering why that sound card is so much better than audigy cards? im not real knolegable in the sound card area and im just wondering why its so great.

M-Audio is top-notch concerning professional Audio Editing - SB Audigy 4 Pro is geared towards the enthusiast gamer and some who work audio.

I'm going to stick to my first recommendation though - while Raptors are not capacity oriented, as fulton so mentioned, with an allowable budget, it's hard to refuse.

kram

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by kram8806 I'm going to stick to my first recommendation though - while Raptors are not capacity oriented, as fulton so mentioned, with an allowable budget, it's hard to refuse.

I agree to an extent -- but I think it's a little more important when you're recording audio to go for that expensive case with all the sound-deadening than it is to have a fast drive (and also, the Raptor is louder than the Seagate drive I picked out). In practically any other situation with this kind of budget I would say to go for the Raptor, but I see sound insulation as more of a priority than I/O performance on an audio-oriented machine.

Dalamar, do you have speakers and a monitor already?

[Cricket]

Where's SonicVanguard when you need him?

Dalamar: Try sending a Private Message to SonicVanguard to come look at this thread. I believe he does audio work for a living.

Cricket

[SonicVanguard]

The WD Raptor is overkill - digital audio doesn't need a 10K RPM drive, you need space.

The 1010LT is a great card - I would seriously consider the M-Powered ProTools bundle from M-Audio. Avid Technologies (owners of DigiDesign, the makers of ProTools) recently purchased M-Audio and have bundled a very powerful version of ProTools with the Delta cards. If you don't need the 10 ins/outs, look at the other Delta cards from M-Audio, the Audiophile 192 (stereo in/out), Delta 44 (4 ins/outs) or so on. One thing about recording and I say this with every once of experience I can offer - if you think you need X amount of channels to record, double that number and you'll be happy.

Fulton could be dead on with the Lian-Li case - if you are doing a lot of microphone work in the same room as the computer will be located. If you are doing MIDI/direct audio from a synth, that case could be a budget buster. I'd rather see you get a Zalman heatsink/fan, a passive hard drive cooler, a couple Panoflo or AcoustiFan case fans and a decent case to save your budget. You can always add acoustic baffling later.

3 CD-RW's is overkill as well. One DVD-RW (Plextor or Lite-On) and one DVD-Rom drive is all you need. Duplication fees are low enough that it's pointless to do it yourself. I think I saw that Guitar Center is offering 500 burned copies with 4 color printed CD and 4 color insert for around $.80 each. You can't beat deals like that doing it yourself.

Video card wise, get something with dual heads - I can guarantee you'll be wanting dual monitors in no time.

I guess I'd go this route:
Intel DOXD915PCY Motherboard: $96 I know, you want AMD. But for serious digital audio, Intel is pure rock solid and the last thing you want is anything - and I mean anything - flaky happening.
P4 3.0Gig HT 800MHz FSBCPU: $176.99 Hyper-Threading will do more for you in the realm of digital audio than a 64bit CPU will - there's not a audio package written for a 64bit CPU yet - there are plenty that will take full advantage of a HT CPU.
Zalman CPU Cooler: $24.95
Chenming case: $51.50 Basic but get's the job done and it's got room to grow.
AcoustiFan 80mm case fan x2: $33.50
Zalman 400W PS: $69.95 As quiet as them come without breaking the bank.
GeForce 600 video card: $129 if only for the dual DVI out. Start with one monitor, move to two later.
Mushkin PC2-4200 DDR2 2x512Meg Dual Channel Kit: $92
Seagate Barracuda S-ATA 200Gig HDD: $116 Storage drive
Seagate Barracuda S-ATA 80Gig HDD: $65.50 OS & Programs drive
Lite-On DVD Burner: $46.99
Lite-On DVD-Rom drive: $21.00

That totals a bit under $925. That doesn't leave much for your OS or audio card. If you have an old OS that allows for an upgrade, you can go that route or get XP Home OEM for $92. You could then do the M-Audio Delta 44 for $149 - total cost $1165 without figuring shipping. And I know some of that stuff isn't from NewEgg - I like QuietPC.com and buy from them quite frequently. I'm sure some of what they have can be had at NewEgg, but some things are unique to them.

As I said, I know you want an AMD system - but you'll get better results going with the HT P4 and DDR2 over any AMD CPU.

[SonicVanguard]

Originally Posted by Cricket Where's SonicVanguard when you need him? Dalamar: Try sending a Private Message to SonicVanguard to come look at this thread. I believe he does audio work for a living. Cricket

Cricket, you believe right

[Lamilia]

ok for the OS go with this (sorry its not a newegg link) it is made for music plus it's cheaper (see I pay attention unlike SOME PEOPLE!)

[glc]

see I pay attention unlike SOME PEOPLE!

Ahem.

http://forum.pcmech.com/rules.php

The moderator staff will not tolerate flaming, childish name-calling or other types of personal attacks on the forum. All members, as adults, are expected to be able to have civil discussions at all times, regardless of whether they agree or not.

I need to respectfully correct what you have said. Your link is to an addon pack for Windows XP, not a standalone operating system.

[SonicVanguard]

Originally Posted by Lamilia ok for the OS go with this (sorry its not a newegg link) it is made for music plus it's cheaper (see I pay attention unlike SOME PEOPLE!)

The Media Center Edition of Windows XP is not a good choice for recording musician. There is no additional feature(s) that could be taken advantage of so it would simply be a waste of money.

And to your comment - I know I didn't find everything based on a need to shop at NewEgg. As much as I like NewEgg and find their prices attractive and their customer service top notch, there are some things they do not offer. Considering the given nature of this build, I gave my opinion based on my experience - 20+ years of experience BTW - and what I suggested from QuietPC.com is well worth using a second vendor IMO.

[glc]

Sonic, that's not even XP MCE, it's the "Plus! Digital Media Edition" addon pack for XP. I don't see anything in there that would be worthwhile for a recording musician, just consumer multimedia toys.

[Lamilia]

sorry glc umm am I leaving out anything? I know i was going to say something else....it'll come to me

[Dalamar]

ok guys thanks for all your input, I ended up getting a Gigabyte K8NS-Pro 754 mobo, AMD 64 3000+, 1gb of ram. M-Audio 1010tl, 2 sony CDRW's, and an Antec case.

Now the problem I'm having is that the floppy drive read light always stays on and windows doesn't always see the cd rom drives in my comuter nor in device manager, the mobo does see the cd drives. I'm really frusterated and don't know what to do. What am I missing?

[glc]

Cabling and jumpering. The floppy cable is on backwards. You need to jumper the IDE devices properly for the type of cable. 40 wire is master/slave and 80 wire is cable select, and you must observe the color codes on 80 wire. The black connector does not go to the controller, the other end does.

[Smidget]

Two thumbs up for researching and not buying off the shelf Creative stuff !!! It may be a slight headache at start-up not buying a pre-made machine, but it will be well worth it in the end.

[Dalamar]

.

[Dalamar]

Thank you, i switched the floppy cable around but the light still stays on constant. the cdrom drives still aren't being recognised, they are both on CS, nad an 80 pin ribbons, in device manager it says :

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. (Code 42)


Unless i'm still making a mistake with the jumpers...

[Cricket]

For the floppy cable, you must align the red stripe to pin 1 on the motherboard side and on the floppy drive itself. You have to look at the floppy PCB to find out which side pin 1 is on side it's not standardized.

The end with the twist goes to the floppy drive. The opposite end goes to the motherboard. The middel connector (if available) isn't used.

Some optical drives don't like being on a 80 wire IDE cable. If you have a 40 wire IDE cable available, use that and jumper the optical drives to master and slave.

Cricket

[Dalamar]

Originally Posted by Cricket The end with the twist goes to the floppy drive. The opposite end goes to the motherboard. The middel connector (if available) isn't used. Some optical drives don't like being on a 80 wire IDE cable. If you have a 40 wire IDE cable available, use that and jumper the optical drives to master and slave.

Done and Done but the problem lives on!

[Smidget]

Try putting the top on as master and the one below as slave.
also try testing the 80pin cable you are talking about on other drives you know work,,, perhaps it's even backwards?

[Dalamar]

The top is master. and they are now on a 40pin cable.

[Smidget]

is the one below set to slave?

[Dalamar]

of course! I took ou on of the soy drives and put a samsung in there and now it works just fine....course now i have a white bezel drive in a black case.