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Suntower 27 April 2009

Hi,

Sorry, but I get confused. About 2.5 years ago I got an AMD X2 4400 that has served me -very- well. However, I need another computer now to run Adobe In Design and Flash and I was thinking I could take this thing and re-purpose it for that and get a new PC to take me into the next 2-3 years with Windows 7.

So... I have 2 UAD-1s a Poco 'classic and an RME 9652 so I need at least 4 usable slots that can handle standard PCI cards. I know little about the various flavours of newer chips except that
1. One wants a Intel Core2 'Duo' of -some- kind. Most people here seem to have the '2.88' ghz version?

2. As per usual, the memory bus has changed and there are memory chips that now communicate up to 1333MHZ, right?

I use Cubase 5 with a LOT of VSTis and sample playback and this supposedly helps a lot in this regard.

Anyhoo. Based on that, could some Good Samaritan give me some direction. I sort of tune out of the technology unless I need a new PC so I apologise for the newbie-behaviour. I don't need cutting edge. I just need something that will work reliably and not be -too- far behind the curve 2 years from now. The X24400 worked =perfectly= in that regard---I got it right at the sweet spot when the price had come down but the performance was still near the top. Looking for that sort of bang for buck thing.

TIA,

---JC

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Comments

TheJackAttack Mon, 04/27/2009 - 23:41

Finding 4 PCI slots is going to be difficult on current mobos. If you could get by with 3:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131252

The P5B was always a good stable board. Jeremy's building or just built a music pc with this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131347

As for behind the curve, a business computer's life expectancy is 2-4 years. If you beat 4 years then you are on the luckier side or you know how to do dust and dirt maintenance and how to feed it clean power. My oldest pc was built in 2002 and was on 24 hours a day for the first five years of it's life. All my computers get blown out/vacuumed several times a year.

Suntower Tue, 04/28/2009 - 00:00

TheJackAttack wrote: Finding 4 PCI slots is going to be difficult on current mobos. If you could get by with 3:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131252

The P5B was always a good stable board. Jeremy's building or just built a music pc with this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131347

As for behind the curve, a business computer's life expectancy is 2-4 years. If you beat 4 years then you are on the luckier side or you know how to do dust and dirt maintenance and how to feed it clean power. My oldest pc was built in 2002 and was on 24 hours a day for the first five years of it's life. All my computers get blown out/vacuumed several times a year.

Thanks, I went to NewEgg. I did find a candidate with 5 PCI slots...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Suggested&Description=13-182

SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SBC-Q-O LGA 775 Intel Q35 ATX Intel Motherboard

I was not familiar with the Q35 chipset, but the other features seem pretty good. Do you see any obvious problems with this?

Thanks again,

---JC

Suntower Tue, 04/28/2009 - 01:02

TheJackAttack wrote: Perhaps check that board again. The ones I saw had five slots but they weren't PCI. PCIe (PCI Express) is not the same thing. PCIe x16 is definitely not the same thing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182151

Seems to have 5 PCI 'original' slots per the photo. The only downsides on the surface are
1. It only goes to 8GB RAM and
2. Only supports DDR2-800 RAM

...but other than these, does it look OK?

TIA,

---JC

TheJackAttack Tue, 04/28/2009 - 07:41

Ah. Missed that one in the wee small hours last night. That particular board would fit your requirements. I haven't used that particular brand at all but by specs alone it looks fine. I wouldn't worry a whole lot about "only" supporting 8gig DDR2. You'll need a 64 bit OS to access anything more than three gigs. Also, if the BIOS supports 8 gig when the documentation was written then the board might support more than 8 gig. The problem there is that it gets expensive to play trial and error. Remember to use matched pairs of ram in any case for best efficiency.

Win7 will fit the bill when it comes out. The beta version ends in August so I wouldn't bother to use that (the beta I mean). The beta drivers so far are working very nicely with only a small problem and that hasn't interfered with recording to date. It is definitely more pleasant than Vista to use.

One thing I did in 2002 when I started building machines was to check the Digidesign website for specs. I was trying to be compliant with their hardware but I also figured that Digi had done more research than I had or could afford to do inre audio pc's. That machine always worked well and is still in service.

Suntower Tue, 04/28/2009 - 10:06

The SuperMicro board has gotten great reviews at NewEgg and with at least 2 UAD-1 users.

So, now for the CPU. I am confused as to the benefits of the Duo-Core vs. Quad Core. Are both compatible with Cubase and it's 'multiple processor' support? The Quad seems to run hotter but both are similarly priced. Should I play it safe and stick with the 'Wolfdale' (E8400) or g with the Quad-Core Q8200?

Your thoughts?

Thanks!

---JC

Suntower Tue, 04/28/2009 - 20:08

iamfrobs wrote: You can overclock the 8400 very well, and it will stay rock solid. Just something to think about, you might get more speed/bang for your buck.

I keep coming back to the 8400 as well. It's Quad -and- it has the 1333 FSB... which I have read in a few places is the best choice for running lots of samples. Oddly, about the same $$$ as some Wolfdales.

Thanks!

---JC

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