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bossa 5 January 2005

Greetings computer audiophiles and groovers in general.

A local computer company can assemble this for under $1200 inc tax & shipping. Seems like a good deal. This is my first audio computer. I will be running Pro Tools 002R with factory bundle, recording mostly small budget-minded projects, demos etc

Here's the setup

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe nforce2 AGP8X w/A/L/SATA
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.0GHz/333FSB/512K)
Zalman CNPS700B-Cu pure copper CPU cooler
2x 512MB DDR400 Corsair Value Select Lifetime
Maxtor 6Y080M0 80GB 7200 SATA/150 8MB
WD1200JD 120GB 8.9ms 7200 SATA/150 8MB
Matrox Millenium G450 AGP4X Dualhead 32MB
PLEXTOR PX-712A 8-in-1 DVD+R/RW CD-R/RW Black
Quiet Balck Mid tower ATX 350W
Logitech kboard and optical mouse

Questions... :D ...(you'll be tested later!)

1) I see some of you use the A7N8X MOBO, and wondered if there are any problems I should look for in advance. ie is the firewire card 002R compatible? Is this mobo overkill and would I be better off with an Asus A7V600?

2) Will I need to upgrade the power unit to reduce noise?

3) Is the Zalman going to improve the silencing/cooling aspect, or would the money be better spent elsewhere?

4) Does anyone know a good rackmount 4u case that is quiet and doesn't cost over $200!

5) has anybody had a problem with their cordless mouse interferring with signal noise, etc?

6) will this set-up allow me to plugin 2 monitors? I believe it will, but thought I would double check in case the Maxtor is a waste of cash.

Many thank you's for all and any help and advice. I really dig this forum. I've learnt a lot and probably saved myself $100's in community college fees!

If anyone wants to know the computer company in question email me or post the question and I'll reply. They're in California.

Happy new year
Shaun
http://www.houseofbossa.com

Comments

golli Thu, 01/06/2005 - 18:27

The Asus A7N8X-E has been working wery well for PT LE for quite some time now.

There have been reported issues, regarding the onboard Firewire chip. 002 is picky about that. But all in all, it has been working flawlessly.
You can get detailed info on setting up a PT LE machine here: http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB32&Number=360675&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1

Big_D Thu, 01/06/2005 - 20:03

Sounds like a very nice machine. As for 002R I don't know Digi's requirements but you can find them at their site. On to your other questions,

1) Golli covered this one quite well

2) You didn't mention what PS it has so I can't comment

3) Athlons could use better cooling than the stock unit so I think it's money well spent (maybe David will drop in and give us his opinion)

4) I would avoid rackmount unless you plan to put it in a closet, they tend to be noisy (they're intended for network use). I use one in my live rig where noise isn't an issue.

5) No

6) Yes

Hope that helped, Good luck!

golli Thu, 01/06/2005 - 21:09

Sorry but I was in a hurry.

About the PSU thing. Enermax is the official PSU and also the one I've got in my 001 rig. It's fantastic, dead silent and can go well beyond it's own wattage (mine is 350w and according to calculations I should be having a 407-412w PSU).

About the CPU cooler. The Copper editions of Zalman's are reported to be on the heavy side. Meaning that they are overkill, for those who plan to use they'r rigs for location work. They can damage the CPU socket. I remember very well a respected DUC'er, Phil O'Keefe, made some experiments with this exact cooler, and it's potential weight problems. He recomended the aluminium edition of that cooler.

And Big_D is right about the stock coolers.

About the PC case itself. I'm a big fan of case manufacturers, that have tought about ventilation and vibration dampers for the Harddrives, and therefore I have one with both:

CompuCase LX-6A19 ATX MIDI TOWER. (with an air-intake on the side for CPU)

I would personally stay away from the Plextor PX-712A. It seems to have quite a reputation as a bad release (as much as I love my Plextor Premium). But that has no bearing on Pro Tools though.

As for everything else. It should all work well, Corsair, Barton, Maxtor, Matrox, WD.

Hope this helpes.

Big_D Fri, 01/07/2005 - 18:02

Glad we could be of assistance.

One thing I would like to add, I would take the opposite opinion as Golli in regard to the Plextor. I'm sure he has his reasons for not liking them (perhaps this model has problems) but my experiences with Plextor drives have been great. I have owned several and find them to be the most error free, stable drives on the market. They burn CD's faster and with less bad disks than any drive out there. Some don't care for them because they tend to be finicky with cheap DVD media. Buy decent quality media and you won't be disappointed. IMO the best burners out there.

golli Fri, 01/07/2005 - 21:38

I LOVE my Plextor Premium to death.

I do not own the PX-712A myself. But I have never seen such a landslide of bad reports on a particular computer unit. And now the much antisapated PX-716A is getting the same treatment.

They (both 712 and 716) are extreemly picky on media and deliver high error rates. I've been following:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?s=a924b617a99c7df8716bc0c4b65a7aed&f=43

For over allmost two years now.

I'm very much hoping that this will change. I'd love nothing more than a good Plextor DVD burner. The PX-708A was a badass burner though.

Big_D Sat, 01/08/2005 - 19:37

Golli, Thanks for posting that link. I glanced over it a little and will give a full read later. I was unaware of the issues with these drives. I knew they were picky with media (as are most plextors) but the errors are a shock. That's just not like Plextor. Oh well I guess there's always a first time.

The PX-708A was a badass burner though.

You got that right, I love mine. We benchmarked it against the fastest DVD/RW's out at the time and on CD's nothing could touch it. DVD's was a different story, even though it's an 8X unit it would only do 4X media so the Sony beat it. After frimware updates it runs the 8X media around the same as the Sony but with less errors. All in all one hell of a drive!

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