Building a Music Computer

[nickdahl]

I use Pro Tools 7.0 to record music and I'd like to build a better computer.

Well, I looked into building my own box. Does anything here seem out of line?

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
I-STAR Storm Series D-300 3U Rackmount Case w/460W Power Supply
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
Seagate NL35 ST3250623NS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE 5X DVD-RAM Write DVD Burner w/LightScribe
Crucial 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory X 4
BFG Tech BFGR6600GTOCX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
SIIG IEEE1394 3-port PCI Card NN-440012
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

I can do this for $2000. Is that appropriate for this system? Did I forget anything?

Also wondering if anyone's used an I-STAR rackmount case before.

Thanks,

Nick

[USMDude]

One thing that I would say watch for when you build this is whether or not the processor is the 110W or 89W model, because while most likely you aren't going to need to update the BIOS to get the thing to start up correctly with the former, you most likely will have to with the latter, as the BIOS upgrade necessary to use it was only released at the end of December. ASUS has a bad habit I've noticed of not listing that certain processors may or may not work with the board depending on when it was made.

EDIT:

Welcome to PCMech, btw!

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by USMDude One thing that I would say watch for when you build this is whether or not the processor is the 110W or 89W model, because while most likely you aren't going to need to update the BIOS to get the thing to start up correctly with the former, you most likely will have to with the latter, as the BIOS upgrade necessary to use it was only released at the end of December. ASUS has a bad habit I've noticed of not listing that certain processors may or may not work with the board depending on when it was made. EDIT: Welcome to PCMech, btw!

Thanks for the welcome. How would I figure this out? Newegg reports 1.35-1.4 V, but they don't say anything about watts. And if I'm needing the BIOS upgrade, how would I do this?

Thanks again,

Nick

[USMDude]

I don't know how you would figure out which one is which, to be honest it's probably ASUS making up their names for chip revisions. As for getting the BIOS upgrade: put your head between your knees.... No seriously, what you'll need to do is either put a compatible 939 AMD in the mobo and download the BIOS upgrade from the ASUS website, or get the BIOS chip flashed by ASUS (you have to pay for shipping), or get a brand-new BIOS chip from ASUS and flashed by ASUS (you have to pay $20 for the chip, and shipping is either $5/$20 depending on your preferred method). To order the new BIOS chip go to: http://helpdesk.asus.com/biosorder .

[nickdahl]

Thanks again for the help. Say, have you, or anyone else, worked with one of these rackmount cases? Anything I should be aware of?

Nick

[jayb1234]

I'm not familiar with that brand of case, but you might want to look into the power supply that comes with it. Most case brands use pretty poor PSUs in thier cases.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by jayb1234 I'm not familiar with that brand of case, but you might want to look into the power supply that comes with it. Most case brands use pretty poor PSUs in thier cases.

Thanks for the advice, Jay. Here's a URL to the case:

http://www.imageshape.com/3U/3810.htm

I couldn't figure out what kind of PSU they use. I'd like a good one.

Here's another question. The pictures of the case show wires included. Are these the cables that will power the hard drives and DVD burner? I guess I'm wondering who supplies those, or if I have to purchase them separately.

Thanks again for the help,

Nick

[nickdahl]

Here's another question about this upcoming build. What motherboard should I use?

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ATX AMD Motherboard

or

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

My software (Digidesign Pro Tools) manufacturer recommends the A8N-E motherboard, but are these boards similar enough for me to substitute the SLI board for it?

Thanks,

Nick

[glc]

Don't get a SLI board - those are designed for dual video cards for gaming. You are building a specialized use workstation. In fact, I would not use an overclocked 6600GT or any other gaming card - I'd use a workstation card like a FireGL or a Quadro.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by glc Don't get a SLI board - those are designed for dual video cards for gaming. You are building a specialized use workstation. In fact, I would not use an overclocked 6600GT or any other gaming card - I'd use a workstation card like a FireGL or a Quadro.

Oops! I should have made this clear in my post. I do run two 17" DVI displays. I'm unsure, though, just "how much card" I need. My software redraws waveforms, but I'm not sure how "graphic intensive" it is. Definitely not as intense as 3D gaming!

If I understand correctly, the SLI board has built-in FireWire, and that's something I could use. My music hardware, that connects to the computer, connects with FireWire.

I'd love to hear what options I have for video cards. Thanks again for the help!

Nick

[glc]

A Firewire card is pretty cheap - just use one of those. I've had real good luck with Koutech cards, and they are a lot cheaper than that SIIG *or* the premium price for that premium motherboard.

I'd just get a consumer grade dual DVI card if that's what you are doing - this one should do the job fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131426

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by glc A Firewire card is pretty cheap - just use one of those. I've had real good luck with Koutech cards, and they are a lot cheaper than that SIIG *or* the premium price for that premium motherboard. I'd just get a consumer grade dual DVI card if that's what you are doing - this one should do the job fine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131426

Thanks for the help, glc. This is exactly what I'm looking for. It saves me $100 and gives me the same functionality. I really appreciate the help.

I guess I don't understand all the differences between the SLI motherboard and the nForce4 Ultra motherboard Digidesign (software company) recommends for Pro Tools. Digidesign also recommends the SIIG FireWire card.

Nick

[Drkboarder]

The MSI Neo4 Platinum (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130484) motherboard has built in firewire and 4 available PCI slots. I don't know what sound capture device you're using, but I know the extra pci slot could help down the road. The mobo also gets pretty decent reviews (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1770). If you're not comfortable with MSI, as I know some people aren't, then I might recommend the Asus Premium. I know you don't really need the SLI, but the board performs very well and with built in firewire it's only really costing you like $30 more. And who knows, maybe there will be a PCI-e x16 audio capture card in the future . You can check a review of it at the same site for the MSI review.

[glc]

I would stick with Digidesign's recommended components. A SLI board has more stuff than you need, and a correspondingly higher price. It's a gamer's board at this point in time. The second PCI-Ex16 slot will go to waste.

[nickdahl]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Here's a question...I decided I'd not put the computer in a rack, so I'm looking for a case. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't like all the extra slots on all the cases I see... I need two external 5.25 for a DVD burner and DVD-ROM, and nothing more. My computer will have 3 internal hard drives.

The only case I found that is built for 2 external 5.25 drives and 3 internal 3.5 drives is a Lian Li PC-V800B case. It's kind of fancy, and looks like it's designed for home theater. I'd rather have a small/mid ATX tower.

Anyone know how I could track down a case like this?

Thanks,

Nick

[glc]

You are going to have to take at least 3 external 5.25" bays to get a midtower - which is what you need to take a 7 slot motherboard and a proper power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811125486

[nickdahl]

After days of reading everything I could track down, here's what I came up with for my DAW:

AMD A64 X2 4400+ CPU
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Motherboard
PNY Quadro FX1300 128MB PCI-E x16 Video Card
2 GB Corsair DDR 400 RAM
1 Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000 RPM SATA150 Hard Drive
2 Western Digital Raptor 150 GB 10000 RPM SATA150 Hard Drives
Lite-On DVD Burner
Lite-On DVD-ROM
Lian LI PC-V880B Case
Enermax Whisper II EG565P-VE PSU
XP Pro SP2

I hope to start building it next week. I'll need some help, for sure!

If you spot anything that might be tricky, please let me know, so I can bone up for what I've gotten myself into!

Thanks,

Nick

[David M]

All ASUS A8N-SLI boards come with firewire.

I am curious, why three raptor drives? One 74 gig Raptor drive would suffice for loading your OS and things you want to boot up quickly and one large 400 Gig, yet fast, hard drive would be able to store pleanty of music. There is pretty much an imperceptible difference in in read/write times between the Raptors and drives like the Western Digital Caviars with 16mb of cache. I am just thinking better cost effectiveness and data storage.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_t...terid=10802147

If you have two screens then obviously two cards in SLI is better. I would not call it overkill. How fast do you want to go? Two stock speed 7800GT graphics cards would work well and are very cost effective.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Asus_...ard,__10785054

[nickdahl]

Thanks, David. I went with the Raptor drives because I wanted to have a fast OS and software drive (74GB), a fast music drive (150 GB), and a fast drum/instrument drive (150 GB). I use this drum program called BFD that needs its own drive to work its best. Pro Tools records/reads from the other big drive. My decision came about because I'd read that RPM and storage were the two things to consider when checking out a drive.

I do have two DVI displays and read some stuff that said the Quadro video card would be better for what I'm doing than the GeForce card. It had something to do with multiple windows being open (I'll sometimes have 10 windows open, and they're all doing something).

I'm really new at computer stuff: I play guitar and record music. Still, I wanted to do this, because even if I waste some $$$ in places, I'm still building a better box than I can buy off the shelf (or at least what I could afford).

Nick

[glc]

David, a Quadro workstation card is made for this kind of work - not a pair of gaming cards in SLI.

I assume you went with that board to get the fanless northbridge cooler?

[nickdahl]

Thanks for the help,guys. Yes, the board I chose is supposed to be quieter and easier to cool.

Nick

[nickdahl]

My DAW setup doesn't include a floppy drive. As I read about this stuff, I see people talk about using floppy drives to install drivers. Will I need some kind of floppy drive? Or can i use something like a USB jump drive to accomplish the same thing?

Thanks,

Nick

[BobGunderson]

From my own experience, you never know when you might need a floppy drive. Plus, they're cheap enough that it's worth just buying one.

[nickdahl]

Thanks. I think you're right, although I don't really want one in my new computer. I've used the floppy drive in my Dell about 3 times in the past three years. So, perhaps I should have one handy as I build the new computer, just in case I need it to help the install process?

Nick

[glc]

Right - you don't have to put it in the case - just have it and a cable handy. It's only 8 bucks and the motherboard should come with a cable.

[arix]

first off u dont need a powerful graphics card if ure not gaiming just recording the most important part of this rig (back bone) is a sound card i just recommend u a Sound Blaster LIve with 7.1 support 128bit an Audigy would work.

[glc]

arix, this is a specialized workstation build. The sound processing is done with external hardware through Firewire. The graphics card chosen is appropriate, again, a workstation card.

[nickdahl]

Right! A Digidesign 002 Rack does the audio stuff:

Digidesign 002 Rack

I'm hoping the onboard audio from the motherboard is good enough for what I'd need it for: playing iTunes, system sounds, and CDs/DVDs. Any audio I record goes through the 002 Rack.

My case arrived today. Looks like there'll be plenty of room for everything. The directions are written in broken English. Everything else should arrive in a couple of days.

Nick

[nickdahl]

This article helped lead me to my choice of video card:

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_...id=3321&page=3

It just seemed appropriate to go with the Quadro card, since I'll often have 10 or more windows open at once, with them all doing things. Games seem to require only a couple of windows open at once, and those windows take a lot of computing power.

Nick

[glc]

If the onboard doesn't work good enough for you, it's easy enough to put a card in. It all depends how audiophile you want to be.