I still wouldn't recommend dual-processor configuration for DAW, since you won't get as much power as you would with a powerfull single processor machine + one or two DSP cards (UAD-1 and TC Powercore for example). The second downside is the possible stability problem... I haven't seen many dual processor DAW's around, so it should be a good advice to invest in some other things such as several large & fast HDD's, as well as more & faster ram... Just my point of view... CHeers ! :)

Hmmmm.....thanx for reply, very ineresting, your point of wiev seems to me right, but powercore is really expensive for me now, actually it would cost the same price as the dual processor system. But I need also RAM and CPU upgrade, and the HDD........ the faster hdd is good idea.

Originally posted by Orgy:
Hi everybody :) really nice board, I'm newbie here

Pentiums aren't dual capable, that's what the xeon is for.

What I would advise is to buy technology that was new six months ago. Don't buy a $500 processor. I'd say the best value is around $250. Which according to Pricewatch.com is an Athlon XP 3000, P4 3.0, or Xeon 2.66. You're not gonna see much difference with the newest processor that hit the market yesterday.

As for chipsets, as long as Intel is the manufacturer, you should be in good shape. For Athlons, NVidia is a good choice.

Your seagate should get you around 24 tracks of audio. Provided you put the OS on another HDD. RAID is good except you have to be careful, because some RAID cards don't like to share the PCI bus. Ideally the two HDD's should be identical. It would be best to buy them both at the same time.

What I worry about with a dual processor machine is, how much the second processor gets loaded. Check with your sequencer manufacturer on how it utilizes dual processors. It makes no sense to have two and only one is getting a workout. Because then you have extra muscle being wasted.

Also, study carefully, your motherboard is your most important decision.
mitz

I think the new single processors are plenty fast enough for a DAW and have less configuration problems. I would put less emphasis on fast and think more about being stable and silent. The Barracudas by Seagate are reported by most to be one of the quietest drives. Anything 7200 or better should be fine. Do a little research on quiet CPU heatsink/fans and quiet power supplies before you build also.

An option I've considered before but never tried was getting one nice, fairly current computer with a rockin CPU (agreeing with previous posts that the CPU that came out yesterday isn't worth the extra money that you'd pay over one that was out 2 months ago). Add a gig of ram and a couple nice hard drives. Then, depending what you're doing, get a second computer and use it as an EFX processor. This of course depends on which sequencing platform your using, but Cubase, for example, does have the VST system link, which can transfer audio data back and forth between two machines - you can have a 2nd machine be a software synth monster or a rack ofplug-ins I have 4 computers in my studio now - the main audio machine, a 2nd that runs only Tascam Gigastudio, a separate machine for office and internet etc, and my laptop. 1st time in my life they all actually run at the same speed!!! It's pretty sweet, and if I wanted to, I could turn my office or laptop machine into an EFX processing utility. Just a thought.

Best - steve

Just one word (well one hyphenated word): fx-teleport. (http://www.fxteleport.com)Makes me wish I was PC-based; wait, Mac version in development!!!!

mitz

Originally posted by mitzelplik:
Just one word (well one hyphenated word): fx-teleport. (http://www.fxteleport.com)Makes me wish I was PC-based; wait, Mac version in development!!!!

mitz

Wow, that looks amazing...