How's this sound. . .

[CygnusX1]

Hi guys,

Here's the system I'm thinking about building for recording. Please take a look and see if I missed/forgot anything. Thanks!

OS: Windows 2000*
Motherboard: CUSL-2*
Processor: Pentium III 1GHz*
Memory: 256 MB CAS-2 PC133 SDRAM*
Video Card: 4MB AGP (It's for audio only. . .)*
Sound Cards: 3 Echo Audio Layla Cards*
CD-ROM: Plextor 40X CD-ROM*
Burner: Panasonic 4X External*
Hard drives: 9GB IBM 9LP*, 18GB Quantum Atlas IV*, 36GB Quantum Atlas 10KII
SCSI Adapters: Adaptec 3630 for CD-ROM/Burner* Tekram DC-390U3W for hard drives

* <-- Something I already have. . .

Thanks for any comments/advice!

CygnusX1

 

[xtreme2k]

Is it really necessary to have 2 SCSI card?

Is 256MB RAM enough?

 

[CygnusX1]

Hi xtreme2k,

Here's the deal with the SCSI cards. I already own the Adaptec 3630. It is a decent card but isn't really meant to have more than one hard drive attached to it. Because I need to update it anyway I felt I might as well keep the CD-ROM and Burner separate from the hard drives. I'm guessing that at least one of my hard drives runs in SE mode while the other two probably run in LVD mode. So I can keep them seperated on one controller to optimize performance. Also, the external burner has a 50 pin connector, which the 3630 has but the Tekram controller does not.

I guess while RAM is so cheap I might as well pick up another 256 MB stick. . .

Cygnus X1

 

[xtreme2k]

Yep that sounds nice. Just one reminder, you cannot go more than 512MB on an i815 motherboard. If you require more than 512MB you need to go elsewhere with your board.

I am not an expert at SCSI controllers, but how is the Adaptec 29160 compared to the Tekram controller?

 

[CygnusX1]

More expensive. . .

 

[xtreme2k]

How much more? And is the Adaptec really 'better'?

Since I can see you are going all SCSI, you arent going under a strict budget

 

[Noriaki]

What kind of 4MB AGP card is that?

You know the CUSL2 has an i752 built in right? It's actually a pretty decent card for basic functions.

I'd get 512MB of RAM, other than that it looks good.

 

[CygnusX1]

Sorry, I just looked and the 29160 is about the same price as the Tekram DC-390U3W. The big difference is that the Tekram is a dual channel card while the 29160 is a single channel card. If it turns out that one of my hard drives is a single ended drive and not a LVD then having a dual channel card is important. Otherwise, I suppose I could go with the 29160. I don't think I'm going to be bottlenecked by 160MB/sec. I forgot about the video card built into the motherboard, I disabled it in the bios when I first got the board. I already have a generic AGP card, do you think the built in video would be more stable/compatible. The reason not to get a fast graphic accelerator is that they can hog the PCI bus causing distortion and dropout when recording audio. For another $100 I'll definately pick up another 256 MB RAM. This is looking to be a very expensive project though. $450 for the hard drive, $500 for another Layla, $200 for a SCSI card...

CygnusX1