1. In principle there is nothing in the way of moving your old hard drives over to a new system, assuming they are IDE. You should try and find out which transfer mode your old HD's support. If you're lucky you might find them supporting ATA33 or even 66, in which case you should seriously consider using them as your C: drive for the OS and programs (the initial loading doesn't need to be superfast). If they are even ATA100 or ATA133 drives (prob. not too likely if they are as old as the system) they are definitely fast enough to even work as data drives. Are they a good size (min. 10GB)?

If the disks don't support DMA transfer you could still consider using them for daily backups, provided they are a big enough ...

If none of this sounds reasonable you might be better off getting a couple new drives.

2. Don't know what you are referring to but a good source for latest computer component pricing is http://www.pricewatch.com.

Hope this helps,

MisterBlue.

Thanks for the reply, but I wasn't really referring to the drive's compatibility with the new controller, but the data on the disk. For example, the hardware on the old computer may be not match identically with the hardware on the new computer, so will the system be looking for hardware that no longer exists in a completely different system configuration? (Different video card, etc.

Hopefully that makes more sense!

And for prices, I realize that I can go to Pricewatch, but since it has been a couple of years since I built a box, I was just curious what the approximate cost of a new ANUS was...$1,000??? $1,500??? Just ballparking it at this point.

I am thinking in the range of a P4, 3 GHz or so..(are the 3 GHz out yet?)

Well, in THEORY you should be able to still use the previous OS installation. What will happen is that upon first startup the system will install about 30-40 new drivers for the new motherboard. While this might work it is generally advisable to start with a clean installation for Windows. There is usually just too much stuff on dated installations - unused drivers, unnecessarily loaded dll's etc. that are dragging down the performance. Sometimes it simply doesn't work at all.

I personally have had reasonable results with moving WindowsXP from one MoBo to another but I still decided to do a clean install ...

2. I am unfortunately still not clear on what you refer to as an ANUS ... it certainly opens the door for all kind of rude jokes but I won't go there :D .

The price of a new computer system in the 3GHz category should be somewhere between $1200-$1500, could be less depending on the chosen components, more if you need fancy displays etc..

MisterBlue.

Thanks for the reply Mister Blue (I'm a Northern CA boy myslef! Grew up in the Sacramento area, Fair Oaks actually, went to UC Davis...).

I am using Win 2000, and have all the latest patches and service packs, and it is such a pain to start all over again, especially since I just did it about 6 months ago, and it took me over a week to get everything setup and installed...

You are probably right though, and I should just start all over again...

Thanks again!

Hi DH,

yeah, I live in Silicon Valley (or "Silly Valley" as we tend to call it these days ... :D ).

Why don't you just give it a try and install the old disk in your new computer? If everything installs OK and the performance is satisfactory - you're done ! Worst case is that you have wasted about an hour.

Then again, if you are using the machine for audio recording and mixing you want it to be optimally tuned ... :roll: . But a try won't hurt, I guess.

In any case, I would strongly advise to create a Disk Image before you upgrade or reformat. I tend to use DiskImage 2002 but Norton Ghost is supposedly also a good program. If nothing else, you can always revert to your old installation. I count these programs among my "most valuable software packages".

Good luck !

MisterBlue.

As usual, prices vary pretty drastically depending on what you get. I just put together a ***killer*** system (3 gHz P4, 800 mHz FSB, 1 gig ram, dual monitors, etc. etc.) It ran me about $2800. The CPU is already about $100. cheaper than when I bought it a couple of months ago. One or two small steps back from the bleeding edge can really help the price.

I've been getting *great* service from newegg.com - good prices too. You might want to check out their prices.

Buy only what you need today - it will be cheaper tomorrow! There are some very cool developments, such as a faster PCI interconnect, on the horizon.

-lee-

Good point, Lee.

That's why I usually buy components at what I call the "knee of the hockey stick". Fast enough to be still close to the cutting edge but nowhere near as expensive as the bleeding edge stuff.

For AMD processors this is probably currently the 2600+ 333MHz series. Pretty darn powerful but still quite affordable.
For P4's the "sweet spot" is also somewhere around 2.4 and 2.6 GHz. Everything faster is exponentially more expensive.

I will never own an "ultimate" computer, knowing that this questionable title comes with a very hefty price tag and has a halflife of only 4-8 weeks best :D . There are way too many other music toys out there that make a much bigger difference in my studio than the last 0.4MHz CPU performance ... ;) .

But that's just me.

MisterBlue.

MisterBlue makes a great point in recommending that you clone your hardrive with Norton GHost (that's what I use). Here's my backup plan.

1. Install a fresh OS with all updates, service packs, etc. (Tweak your OS for audio as well)

2. Install all of your recording, sequencing,plug-ins etc.. software - also with all updates.

3. Install anything else that you may need (ex. antivirus, MS Word, Outlook setup for email, etc.)

4. Make a disc image and burn it to (multiple) CD's as a backup. I've gotten infected by a virus before and this saved me in the neighborhood of 20 hours of the install/reboot/update/reboot rountine.

Yeah, I always use Norton Ghost as well, right before I make any changes to my OS drive!