AnalogNews wrote: Hey and thanks in advance for your help!

The smilie should describe my current state of mind whilst deciding on a new system...

:roll:

I use Cubase SX2.2 rev39 and mainly track between 15-20 audio tracks, (vocals, sounds, guitars etc) using a LOT of midi running BFD, Kontakt, Spectrasonics Atmosphere, Stylus (not RMX) and The Grand.

I am looking for flawless performance and plenty of resources, and
I'm trying to decide on an upgrade to my main system components (mb,ram,cpu) and am a bit stuck between going for a short-term fix with a setup like this:

Asus P4C800-E
2GB Corsair TwinX Ram
Pentium 3.2GHZ (800fsb) Prescott
(Possibly using my existing 1GB Ram to make 3GB in Total
Using Windows XP Home. (SP2)

or a more expensive but perhaps more future-proof setup such as:

Asus NCCH-DL
Dual Xeon 2.8 or 3.0
2GB Corsair TwinX Ram

or... :shock:

LG775 or Dual Core board like a 925 / 955 (but how well tested are these in comparison to a board like the p4c800e or the ncch-dl?)

________________________

The downside to the dual-rig is that I use Kontakt 1.5 and have not yet upgraded to version 2, which supports dual processors. So I presumably could not use Kontakt which would be unfeasible.

The other is that 64-bit is still at a very early stage and my audio card does not have 64-bit drivers available yet. (Nor does UAD cards - not 100% on this - must check)
Only 2 PCI Slots for further UAD cards

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks :)

Hello,

dual core D840 on ASUS 945 or 955X and you are going to be very happy. Gigabyte great too.

Great performance and stability.

Buying a system with a P4C800 at this stage is really a very bad investement if you are using a DAW that supports dual processing.

Also, you can't get X64 to run on the P4C800 as it doesn't support 64 BIT processors.

Also, you can run single processor apps on a dual processor system.

Nuendo and Cubase SX3 are 64 BIT already, X64 is very, very solid, RME has already a 64 BIT Fireface driver, E-MU is on 64 BIT beta, SONAR 64 works great, etc. I would buy a 64 BIT ready system at this point.

As far as we are concerned the P4C800 is absolete.

My best.

Guy Cefalu
Sonica Audio Labs
http://www.sonicalabs.com

Hi Guy.

Thanks for your reply.

I'm thinking that right now, I'd like to up my performance and I was wondering if:

I'm running a P4PE at the moment, at 2.53ghz p4 533fsb

Were you familiar with the P4PE board when it was in its heyday- is it any good/considered stable?

I was considering upping the RAM to 2GB from 1GB

and maybe trying the onboard RAID controller on the board (Promise Fasttrak controller)

to up my track count for heavy VSTi stuff using 2xSeagate 200GB in Raid-0

Could this help what I have now?

Thanks again!!! :wink:

I use the original P4PE board and love it. Using it with a P4 3.06Ghz HT and 1GB of RAM. Flawless and reliable board in the long run.

Anytime you can upgrade your CPU, go for it. Anytime you can upgrade your RAM..go for it..well, at least up to 2GB(more than that you need to do stupid things to XP to get it to work properly)

Opus

Hey Opus!

Yes, you were the kind and very patient person who recommended it to me way back when in 2002!!!

I've had a great learning curve of a couple of years, it's been a no-brainer as far as being stable and fast and I'm using every last drop of my resources in SX to keep from upgrading...

But something is niggling at me that I might have to go dual...

:shock:

Just can't get that finger past the checkout yet...

:wink:

thanks for your reply.

Analog, Just thought you should know that if you run the RAID 0 and one of the drives fail or the tables get out of sync you loose all of your data. Striped arrays are fast but not the most secure way to store your music. I would suggest at least a large drive (twice the size of your array drives) to back up to so you can rebuild your array if needed. Better yet buy 4 identical drives (instead of 2) and setup a 0 + 1 array. This way each of your striped (0) drives is also mirrored (1) to another drive. No matter what drive would fail or if a drive becomes unassigned you can rebuild the array and not loose any data.

Hope this helps

i agree 100% with Guy!

anyone buying Intel at this point is nuts not to buy Dual Core.
or not 64 bit ready.
for $100 more you have 2 CPUs on a single socket.

get the Asus or Gigabyte 955 board and a DC processor.

Scott
ADK

Thanks guys for your help.

Unfortunately dual-core processors are not yet available in the UK, so I might have to get something in the interim.

ADK audio wrote: i agree 100% with Guy!

anyone buying Intel at this point is nuts not to buy Dual Core.
or not 64 bit ready.
for $100 more you have 2 CPUs on a single socket.

get the Asus or Gigabyte 955 board and a DC processor.

Scott
ADK

Scott we agree!

I am sorry about the other day, you know how I get on AMD/Intel arguments.

My best.

Guy.

As I have said I cannot get hold of a Pentium D in Europe yet as they are not available.

Would the Dual Xeon on a NCCH-DL board be a good enough alternative?

Thanks.

if they are not available right now they will be within weeks
it really would be best to wait. (as far as cash outlay)

if not yes the NCCH-DL is a great board.

Scott
ADK

Thanks Scott!

Actually, since posting last night, they have shown stock at one of the online stores over here.

Is there a brand of PCI-E card that make the X300SE that would be as stable as possible for audio work?

Also, can I use Windows XP Home with the 955X / 840 Dual Core?

Thanks very much again!!! :D