Hi everybody,
I am about to build my next computer for my Music Recording Home Studio.
I'm quite 'handy' for doing this (I've already built two computers in the
past)
but I need help with the newest cry of the tech.
-1st question, is it still valid to believe that Intel Pentium are the best
processors?
I just built one. Ive got 3 PCs and maintain a few for neighbors and
friends so I just went through that with their PCs too. My two main
PCs consist of an AMD X2 diual core and an AMD single core 3200.
Heres the lowdown on the processors. AMDs seemed to get the edge the
last year or so. Most sites seemed to be leaning towards AMD and dual
cores are really popular. Thats why I bought all AMDs. However, the
buzz now is INTEL is coming out with a whole new line starting in July
--- especially the conroes that have been claimed to have killer
performance much faster than the AMDs supposedly. Whether they will be
much more expensive too will be another factor obviously. However some
claim theyll be moderately priced ones that may be hot cause INTEL
wants to stop their eroding mkt share to AMD.
AMD also has intro-ed their new line AM2 which uses DDR2 instead of
the DDR. The problem is --- that seems like the main difference. The
previews have said there isnt a whole lot of difference between AM2s
and comparable X2s so people are expecting all the excitement to go to
INTEL and there are rumors of huge price cuts for AMD very soon
because Conroe etc will be coming out. Intel is also cutting the price
of their old stuff clearing it out supposedly starting in July. Ive
read AMD is really hustling though to move to the 65 nm process I
suppose to catch up to INTEL hopefully - if the hype is true of the
conroe line etc, by the end of this year or mid next year.
So you might want to wait for the ending part of July and see if there
are any deep AMD price cuts on their AM2 and X2 939 lines , deep cuts
on older Pents or a hot new lower end Conroe.
For the existing CPUs ---- AMD X2s are great , Ive got one as I said
but look for possible big price cuts in July. If you are into OCing
the hot chip maybe the Pent 805D which has been hyped everywhere. Its
an older Pent dual core super budget chip hitting almost 100 now I
think and maybe lower this month which OCs insanely high. Its been
talked about ad nauseum everywhere.
MUSIC PC
I bought the 1212m recording card and posted a super long thing on it
at one forum. Heres the thing --- several DAW sites were abuzz with
claims that tests show nforce4 boards had a weird problem with
latency. Much worse than nforce3 or older Pent boards. Even the newer
Pent boards werent as bad as the nforce4 but they were claimed to have
a problem too. The fix with some newer Intels was use a wimpier video
card. I guess dont use a high end card. With AMDs --- there were long
threads at music sites about it with technical tests showing the
problem. I didnt follow the thread over the year everyone was talking
about it but from what I could tell the main solution was USE A DUAL
CORE X2 AMD. That was claimed to be a fix. Im not sure if later
revision nforce4 boards fixed the problem too or if there were other
fixes but thats all i know. That was one of the main reasons I
switched over to X2 and also upgraded my 2nd PC to a nforce3 3200 AMD
64 just in case. I actually want to upgrade it again to a dual core
Pent 805D.
So it depends on how much you want to spend. The cheapest deal at the
moment would be a Pent 805D Ive seen some Abit boards as low as $59
for it. The mainthing will be -- how low the AMDX2s will go this month
and if there will be a cheap budget conroe.
Its good to get at least 1 gig or 2 gigs.
-Next, is it still true that putting 2 HDs in a RAID (for OS and programs)
is better than the normal ?
Anandtech and Storage Review had a blurb --- both seemed to say forget
the RAID 0 performance boost claims. Anandtech did various tests like
game loading etc and found little or no performace gains contrary to
popular belief and he pointed your risks of losing everything is much
higher when you use raid 0. Thats the main one people use for
performance supposed performance gain.
I tried it and had a disaster so after reading such blurbs decided to
forget about Raid 0. Strange thing is TOMS HARDWARE still seems to
hype RAID for performace for game machines etc.
-Next, is ASUS still the leading name for mother boards?
-Next, are Hard Discs with 8 or 16 MB cache the fastest; and ATA or S-ATA
and 7200rpm or 10000rpm is to prefer ? Best label, WD, Maxtor etc. ?
You dont really need super duper disks for a music machine. If you
want a fast disk , the relatively expensive Raptors are still very
popular and good. They are dinky for the price though in size.
You can get large PATAs which I still mostly use for almost dirt
cheap. The thing about PATAs --- they are still very good , 7200 rpm
and large sizes of 160-200 were selling for ridiculous prices after
rebate for years. Unfortunately with the Seagate takeover of Maxtor
and inflation pressures and stores in the US phasing out a lot of
rebate deep discount sales , prices have actually gone UP in the
bottom end. I routinely got 160-200 giggers for 19-29 bucks, became a
bit boring. However now prices are around 49-59 after rebate nowadays.
SATA though has come down a bit but not as much as Id like. If you
want to get a bit better drive though the PATAs are fine , the
Hitachis and Seagates and WDs are OK.
The Hitachis and some of the 16 meg cache newer Seagate, WDs have been
reviewed well and I have a Hitachi sata 8 meg cache and subjectively
it does feel a bit better than my 6 PATAS -- WDs, Seagates and one
Maxtor. I like the Seagates cause they have 5 year warranties.
However ALL the brands have been bashed. Many still bash Maxtor, more
and more bash WD and now there are people who avoid the current series
of Seagate drives especially the large capacity ones after they seemed
to have some real bad ones which were bashed at AMAZON by consumer
reviewers. Ive never had any problems in recent years with all my
WDs, seagates and Maxtors or Hitachis.
Or is there anything new?
-And finally the eternal question, is a Mac still more reliable than a PC ?
Get a PC ! Youll have options for lots more parts and cheaper parts
etc. Those days are kind of over though you still have some people
saying it , I hardly ever hear that anymore unlike the old days.
For music cards
Budget end --- EMU 0404 $100 or less
Audiophile 2496 which is an older card but
still decent
Mid level - EMU 1212m $180-200
Audiophile 192 $180-200
These dont have tons of inputs but do have midi etc.
Theres another card that has 8 INS but no midi I think if you need
a lot of inputs at one time for live band recording. I think it was
made by Maudio too around $180 or so.
