s939 DAW

[imported_ceefka]

So what do you all think of this setup? It is supposed to be reliable, silent and still pretty powerful.

1. Antec P150 (case includes the Neo HE 430W ATX12V v2.2), might add 2 x 92mm fans. So sad it doesn´t come in silver/black
   Gigabyte GA-K8NF9 ULTRA
   AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core 2.0 GHz, 2000 MHz, Boxed
   Corsair TWINX 2048-3200C2PT 2048 MB, PC3200, 400 MHz, 2, Kit Of 2
   MSI GeForce NX6200LE 128Mb, DVI, TVo,Passive,PCI-E
   NEC ND-4550A Bulk, Silver
   Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 250Gb, 7200rpm,16Mb SATA300 music
   Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 250Gb, 7200rpm,16Mb SATA300 video
   Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 80Gb, 7200rpm, 8Mb ATA133 os + prog

Now I have heard about Maxtors being loud and I have looked around for Samsung Spinpoints that are supposed to be less noisy. With video and music there is a certain advantage to the 16MB buffer.

If the stock cooler turns out too loud I will probably replace it with a Zalman AlCu 7700 or so. I have heard they´re pretty decent though, so I'll wait and hear.

I will be operating dual TFTs. No games, just music and video. I know... boring

Your comments are much appreciated.

 

[Lasthitlarry]

Get the WD 16MB drives

 

[Goi]

Looks good, but I hear Opterons are the rage nowadays. Also, I'm not sure if the 6200 series has full PureVideo support, which might be important to you if you're into videos, especially HiDef ones. I think I remember seeing that the 6200s are based on the 6600s, which have full PureVideo support, but you might wanna check that out. I'm not a fan of Maxtors, and I'd only get them if they were dirt cheap, like my $30 Maxtor DM10 200GB
Otherwise, I'd go for Hitachis, WD and Seagate. I don't think music and video is that bandwidth intensive. Even HD video doesn't normally exceed 10Mbps, which is easy for all modern drives as long as you keep them relatively defragged. If you're editing videos then it might be a different story.

 

[imported_ceefka]

Thanks for your replies.

What makes you choose WD, Seagate or anything else over Maxtor?

I have 2 80GB Maxtors 9 in my P3 that have now lasted longer than the aggregate of their predecessors from WD and Seagate. Plus I see these drives in a lot of DAWs. There can still be valid arguments to buy anything else.

About PureVideo: it looks like all you need a DirectX compatible graphics proc. So I'll be OK. Thanks for pointing that out. I will have to postpone my IMAX remake of LotR, though.

I have looked into the Opteron 165 1.8HGz also, but having it run at 2.0GHz needs OC-ing. I'd rather refrain from doing stuff like that. It's just not my thing. The 165 is also very scarce and its price rising. The 3800 X2 should overclock quite well too. If I ever can pump out an extra 2MHz that'd be fine, but I do not need to.

About bandwith: I think that 16 tracks * 24 bits * 48,000Hz = 18.5 Mb/s give or take. Max track count will be 32 (which is a lot for a home studio). There's lots of tracks that do not even have a continuous signal. So I think it will average around 20-25Mb/s

 

[Goi]

Well, Maxtor isn't a very popular brand because it has failed on many people before. Their warranty period isn't that long either, and they're frequently in the bottom of the performance list based on reviews/benchmarks, which is why people tend to choose other brands(WD/Hitachi for performance, Seagate for warranty/reliability) over it. Like I said, if they're dirt cheap I'd get them, but at the same price, I'd choose something else. If you have had good experience with them, by all means get them.

Most of nvidia's graphics cards nowadays has PureVideo, but I'm not sure if the 6200LE has it actually. I googled around a bit and the results seem to suggest that it has a crippled feature set or something, but I could be mistaken since I only searched for it briefly. nvidia.com has a page that lists exact PureVideo support on all of its 6 series cards, but I forgot the URL. Perhaps someone else could point that out.

So you're doing multitrack home recording. Good for you. I thought it was just for watching movies and listening to music rather than making them What soundcard are you using then?

 

[Sureshot324]

Don't get maxtor's, their only advantage is thier cheap. I'd get Seagates, since they tend to be the quitest drives. WD will be a bit faster though.

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: Sureshot324
Don't get maxtor's, their only advantage is thier cheap. I'd get Seagates, since they tend to be the quitest drives. WD will be a bit faster though.

In a DAW? I don't know which Seagates you've worked with. But, the ones We've worked with were far from quiet. If you want Quiet in a DAW, stick with Samsung Spinpoint series. We also use Maxtor D10's as well.

 

[imported_ceefka]

Hi y'all,

Thank you all for your input.

Just ordered the whole bunch. The only thing I had to change was the videocard that has become the GigaByte VGA GV-NX62TC256D8 128 MB (GV-NX62TC256D8). In the end I just copied someone elses setup apart from the case and psu.

I know Maxtor isn´t very populair here. ReMeDy, it's like you said. There´s more than one DAW out there with Maxtors. There are turnkey DAWs sold with Maxtors. I´ve looked into the Samsung Spinpoint but they don´t seem to have the 16MB buffer that I wanted and the 8MB ones were a little expensive. Maybe I don´t really need the 16MB buffer, but hey, everyone wants something to brag about ;-)

 

[imported_ceefka]

Originally posted by: Goi
What soundcard are you using then?

No soundcard. The connection with my 01v96 is through mLAN. I was contemplating an ADAT expansion and an RME HDSP 9652.

 

[imported_ceefka]

Originally posted by: Lasthitlarry
Get the WD 16MB drives

Ended up with one WD250 as my system drive. This is indeed a quiet drive.

 

[Bobthelost]

16mb cache is nice, but if you'd looked at the performance comparisons then you'd have seen it doesn't make that much difference at all. You chose poorly if you do want a quiet PC. Bad luck.

 

[jwpeer]

I would not suggest maxtor. The 16 mb cache will not give you any advantage whatsoever. If you look at a company like Glyph, who markets their enclosed firewire hard drives specifically for audio applications (and get a lot of use in pro audio applications) they just use Seagate 7200 rpm drives with an 8mb cache. You're going to be much happier with a Seagate or a Samsung Spinpoint in terms of noise, warranty, and speed of performance.

 

[KBlair]

ceefka, where did you order the stuff from? I'm putting together a DAW myself and am really just looking for a place to start. What software do you use?

 

[imported_ceefka]

KBlair, where do you live? I live in the Netherlands and ordered my stuff there at Salland Automatisering in Raalte. If you're in the US, that won't help.

I will start out with Cubase SX, but have to build from there. I am still looking for some decent drums.

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: jwpeer
I would not suggest maxtor. The 16 mb cache will not give you any advantage whatsoever. If you look at a company like Glyph, who markets their enclosed firewire hard drives specifically for audio applications (and get a lot of use in pro audio applications) they just use Seagate 7200 rpm drives with an 8mb cache. You're going to be much happier with a Seagate or a Samsung Spinpoint in terms of noise, warranty, and speed of performance.

too late.

ceefka, awesome choice. i personally would've gone with the Western Digital drive too