Dedicated audio PC

[KBlair]

I need to build a system specifically for recording, editing and burning audio. I've got the audio interface already, Tascam FW-1884, and it uses Firewire. It's been 3 years since I bult a system from scratch and I just don't have time to research all the diff chipsets and CPU codenames and what all.

So I'm asking for specific recommendations: CPU, motherboard, memory. I learn towards AMD but soley from a price standpoint. Budget is around $400. Stability is the most important factor. No overclocking here. Video doesn't really matter.

The current machine is an AMD Athlon 800 w/ 1gb ram which did fine while only doing one or two tracks at a time. We are now doing 8+ tracks and the machine is just not up to the task.

TIA

 

[keeleysam]

What hardware do you already have?

 

[jwhitt]

id look into a base skt 939 system say 3200+ deffinetly a gig of ram maybe a mobo with an integrated geforce 6100 card and i think i say a standard ata 300 gig hd western digital hd for like a hundred and change but i might of been on acid then so dont quote me on that you shouuld be around your budget maybe like 550 ish 400 is tight

 

[KBlair]

Just the audio interface. The $400 is just for CPU/mobo and memory. I've got a case and a DVD burner that I'll reuse. I'll get 2 harddrives at least, one for performance and one for bulk storage. The harddrive money isn't included in the $400.

Oh, the monitor is one of those huge Sony 24" Trinitron tube monitors, so any builtin video will do fine. It would be nice if the mobo had Firewire, but I do have a Firewire card if need be.

Thanks

 

[KBlair]

Just the audio interface. The $400 is just for CPU/mobo and memory. I've got a case and a DVD burner that I'll reuse. I'll get 2 harddrives at least, one for performance and one for bulk storage. The harddrive money isn't included in the $400.

Oh, the monitor is one of those huge Sony 24" Trinitron tube monitors, so any builtin video will do fine. It would be nice if the mobo had Firewire, but I do have a Firewire card if need be.

Thanks

 

[KBlair]

Actually, I was thinking more like 2GB ram.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

You should be able to reuse the 1gig from the 1800 rig if its 2x512 PC2100 or PC2700 and just add another 2x512 relatively cheap for a total of 2gb. Ram speed isn't the bottleneck on A64 systems so the peformance difference between PC2700 to PC3200(current) is negligable.

I would recommend

Epox 9NPA + ultra $105
AMD X2 3800+ $295


The epox board is a really solid board and has 2 firewire outs, and all the other NF4 features

If your budget won't allow the X2 you can get an A64 3200+ for around $160, but I think the dual core would serve your purpose well.


You can buy the older style memory on ebay for cheap
512mb pc2700 on ebay

Oh yeah! You would need a cheap video card like an mx300 for $30

 

[KBlair]

Thanks. That certainly would fit the bill, but I'd need to go with the 3200+ and use the extra cash for RAM. The current machine is an 800, not an 1800 so the memory work work, I don't think.