Post your working system config here

[nutsadamus]

Submit your perfectly smooth as silk running
system config here and include

CPU
Mobo
RAM
OS
soundcard
audio software

as well as any out of the ordinary hoops you had to jump through to get it that way.

Peace out

[This message has been edited by nutsadamus (edited 04-06-2002).]

[Floydian]

hey nutsadamus

After much stuffing around with the wrong stuff, i've finally settled for the following:

P3 1000 on Asus Cusl2-C
512mb Kingmax Cas2 sdram
2 x 40gb IBM 60gxp deskstars
Ricoh burner, pioneer dvd
Promise ATA100 IDE controller card
Matrox G550 running 2 x LG 17"
Capture Card
Hoontech C-Port
SB Live 5.1

Previously i had a dual 866 setup with the Abit VP6 mobo, 768mb ram (cheapest crap i could buy - 1 problem), 32mb TNT2 Video (MAJOR PROBLEM), and most of the other stuff.

From day 1 with that setup, i had problems, not so much pops and clicks (but they were still there), but more like constant crashing in the wierdest places (installing programs, internet, my computer! - and this is with 98SE!).

So i first changed all my ram for 2 x 256mb cas2 kingmax which is the most expensive ram i could find, didn't fix anything. Then i tried a friends hdd - didn't fix anything, numerous bios updates followed by changing to a single 1000 on the cusl2-c, STILL DIDN'T FIX ANYTHING! http://www.audioforums.com/forums/eek.gif what else could it be!?!

finally i got some more money together and decided to get 2 monitors and the matrox g550 dual head and that was it! It was my crap CBC 32mb TNT2 m64 card that was causing all this crap from the start! i confirmed this when i sold it to a friend who has now inherited all my previous problems (we had to undo the trade http://www.audioforums.com/forums/frown.gif ).

Either way, now everything works great, i use a dual boot setup with 98SE for games and DVD's (in surround with the sb live) and watching tv through the capture card, and Win2000 Pro for audio, which has been working extremely stable. I also format about twice a month just to keep the system as clean as possible so win2k is also running VERY fast.

Either way, my suggestion to you is be VERY careful about what you buy! DO NOT SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST!

cheers

[blacknile]

Asus A7V266 Motherboard
256mg DDR ram
Layla 20bit Sound card
Asus AGP-V7100 twin view G2 card
Western Digital 20gig HD
Athlon T-Bird 1.4ghz
Sound blaster
Windows XP Pro

[bassdude]

PIII 1Ghz
ASUS CUSL2-c
2X 256MB CAS2 Crucial RAM
WIN98SE with 98Lite (sleek)
3X Creamware Pulsar cards

If you are going to by any Creamware cards, I'd recommend sticking with intel unless you are heavily into tweaking.

[Rv-Sound]

Mine is pretty similar to prorec's RYO Athlon with a few additions:
Athlon 1.4Ghz
Iwill's kk266 Plus mobo (kt133a)
512 MB Micron PC-150 CL2
Win2k SP2
Aardvark Direct Pro 2496 (running Pre-R and working good).
Matrox G450 Dual head (2 MGC 17" Monitors)
Plextor CDRW
Pioneer DVD
2 Maxtor 20G/40G 7200 RPM drives
Samplitude, N-Track, Fruity, Soundforge and some VSTi's.
This thing was almost like a turnkey system. Install of win2k went smooth, after that, i followed prorec's win2k optimization tips,and last, I installed George's PCI latency patch for VIA chipsets. The patch gave even better results for an already great performing DAW. I reccomend anyone running a system with VIA's kt133a to give it a try. It can be found here: http://www.networking.tzo.com/net/software/
See ya

[Nick Driver]

Originally posted by nutsadamus:
Submit your perfectly smooth as silk running system config here and include

CPU
Mobo
RAM
OS
soundcard
audio software

as well as any out of the ordinary hoops you had to jump through to get it that way.


Not exactly my machine, but I picked all the parts and built it for my friend's recording studio (so it's "my" machine in the same sense that a fighter jet "belongs" to the crew chief http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif ). It is ungodly fast and now after the first software install problems are getting cleared up, it is very smooth and rock-stable. We haven't really had much time to tweak and tune it yet, but will in the next few weeks.


P4 2.0a GHz "Northwood" retail cpu.
Intel D850MVL motherboard
1GB of Kingston rambus memory
Antec soho tower case with Enermax 431W powersupply that has adjustable fan speed. The case fans have been wired with the 7 volt hack to run at half-speed for quietness.
A pair of Maxtor 60GB 7200rpm ATA/100 disk drives (wished they were the "liquid bearing" units, but unfortunately are the plain regular dry bearing disks).
TEAC 8x SCSI cd burner. It's a good idea to not "pollute" your IDE controller with cd drives and only run one "master" hard drive per IDE controller, besides, he already had this cd burner from his old computer.
Windows 2000 Pro
Echo "Gina" 20-bit soundcard (already had this from a previous computer) soon to be replaced with something much more substantial.
Cool Edit Pro 1.2 audio software. Also soon to be replaced/upgraded/augmented with something more substantial.
Nero 5.5 cd burning software. Do not put Adaptec/Roxio EZ CD Crater on a Windows 2000 or XP system, you'll be sorry.

We did have problems at first, before we knew about not installing Windows as an ACPI computer, and had to reinstall everything as "Standard PC". The IRQ sharing from ACPI was a royal screw-up with the soundcard.


I'm about to build a similar, slightly lower powered machine for myself for home studio use, and either already own, or have just ordered the following pile of parts:


ASUS P4T-E mobo
P4 1.6a GHZ Northwood cpu (retail, hope I
get an "M" chip... not a "CR" http://www.audioforums.com/forums/tongue.gif )
512MB Samsung rambus memory
ATI Radeon 7500 video card
Pair of 80GB IBM 120GXP disks on a Promise FastTrak 100 TX2 raid controller card, each drive is a "master" occupying one channel of the card.
Philips CDRW drive on a motherboard IDE channel by itself.
Windows XP Pro
Soundcard and software yet to be determined, but something with at least 4 analog inputs and 4 analog outputs.


[This message has been edited by Nick Driver (edited 03-19-2002).]

[erichenryus]

Thanks to all on these boards who helped with suggesting the right components. I don't spend any time screwing around with this system. I just make music now. It's extremely fast. I have yet to even push this thing. I've done up to 12 stereo tracks with 1-2 plug ins each and never pushed the processor meter past 20%. The hard drive hardly hits 10%.

ASUS A7M266
Athalon XP1900+
Matrox G450
Linksys PCI Ethernet card (slot 5)
512 Megs Crucial DDR
3 60 gig IBM Deskstars
Plextor 24/10/40 cdrw
Echo Mona (slot 3)
I use the onboard audio for midi only.

Sonar XL 1.3.1
Win2k+sp2

Necessary Tweaks:
1. Get rid of ACPI! And you don't have to reinstall windows to do it. You simply recofigure your computer in device manager as Standard PC, reboot, reload all drivers, delete the extra Standard PC that shows up in device manager without drivers. (Thanks to Cakewalk support for that one)

2. Make sure the SK2 slew rate (in the bios version 1005 and beyond) is set to 1 if you're using AMD XP chip. Don't ask me what this is or does, just got the tip from someone on the amdmb boards and it worked. Prior to that I couldn't run the system at 133. Had to run at 100.

Even with the system underclocked at 100 mHz bus and processor at 1200 mHz it was very fast and very stable.

3. The processor fan is LOUD. I recommend getting something quieter than the standard fan if you're gonna run this in the same room as your mic. Personally I moved the whole machine to another room. I've got a real nice cardiod mic that ignores most noise that isn't right in front of it so I'm happy.

Thanks again to everyone on this forum.

[Nick Driver]

Originally posted by erichenryus:
Necessary Tweaks:
1. Get rid of ACPI! And you don't have to reinstall windows to do it. You simply recofigure your computer in device manager as Standard PC, reboot, reload all drivers, delete the extra Standard PC that shows up in device manager without drivers. (Thanks to Cakewalk support for that one)


On some mobos, you might not be able to escape having to reinstall. On my friend's P4 2.0a/Intel D850MVL mobo machine, when we tried the short reconfigure method of changing from ACPI to Standard PC, it would then BSOD at bootup time. Only took less than an hour to reinstall Win2000 plus all the drivers and other application software, but still a PITA.

[marpix]

Athlon 1900+
Gigabyte GA-7DXR
768 Crucial 2100 DDRRam
2-Western Digital 40g-7200rpm in Raid0(audio)
1-Maxtor 60g 7200rpm as(OS)
Delta-1010
Delta-66 Omni Studio
Layla 20
WinXP Pro
SonarXL,Waves, Sound Forge5,Ozone,dbaudio
24 tracks audio 1.5ms latency

[erichenryus]

Originally posted by Nick Driver:
On some mobos, you might not be able to escape having to reinstall. On my friend's P4 2.0a/Intel D850MVL mobo machine, when we tried the short reconfigure method of changing from ACPI to Standard PC, it would then BSOD at bootup time. Only took less than an hour to reinstall Win2000 plus all the drivers and other application software, but still a PITA.

I'm actually going to reinstall the OS anyway. Probably wiser to do that in the end.

[jonnyboy]

I'm running an AMD800
256meg RAM
CD/CD/RW
DVD ROM
Creative 5.1 player
Fruityloops 3
Soundforge 5
Rebirth etc
All hooked up to a DJ setup (Vestax PDX2000 + Pioneer DJM500 Mixer)

[mr blubbs]

CPU - athlon xp 1700
Mobo - ABit KG-7 Raid
512MB DDR
2 x IBM Deskstar 60GB
Voodoo 5 (neeeed to change)
SBLive Platinum (neeeeeeeeed to change!)
Win2k +SP2
Sonar, Sound Forge, Acid, Reason, T-racks

anyone tell me how much my voodoo is gonna affect my DAW? g450 is next purchase but what difference am i gonna see?

shazbutt

[Yul]

Athlon 1.4
A7V266(probably the worst element in my config but still works OK).
256 DDR Generic
Sblive ASIO KXDrivers (10 ms)

WinXP (No ACPI, No paging of Kernel,Disabled services)
FAT32

Reaktor/Cubase

[agrikk]

My current setup:

AMD Athlon 1.4GHz processor @1598MHz (1.85v Core)
Asus A7v266 Motherboard
Asus V8200 Graphics Card
256MB PC2400 DDR RAM
SoundBlaster Live! value sound card
Adaptec AHA-19160 SCSI Controller
2x Quantum Atlas 10000RPM 18GB Ultra-160 SCSI hard drives
56x IDE CD-ROM
HP 8100 CD-RW
1.44" Floppy drive
MIDIman/M-Audio Delta-44 PCI Analog Recording Interface
US Robotics 56k External Modem
Aopen HX08 Full Tower Case
DigitalDoc 5 with 8 temp sensors
Flowmaster Max watercooling kit with fan shroud (and 86cfm fan)
HP SureStore 12/24GB SCSI Tape Backup


It's running Win2k and Cubase VST v5.

The thing works awesome and rock steady, and the watercooling setup keeps fan noise to a minimum.

[Sky Blue Lou]

This is a dedicated audio-only box. No games, no internet, no nuthin! Full specs follow:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 ghz
Iwill KK266+ motherboard
Enermax 430 watt whisper-quiet power supply
4u Rack-mount case
Matrox 450 dual-head video card
(1)20 gig Maxtor 7200 rpm HD IDE (system)
(2)60 gig Maxtor 7200 rpm HD IDE (audio)
Yamaha CDRW
2 X 256 Micron cl 2 sdram PC 150
M-Audio Omnistudio (Delta 66 card)
Cubase VST32 5.0
Windows 98se
Yamaha mps5 Near-field monitors
(2) 17" Dell monitors

We have 2X256 micron cl-2 ram running at 150 mhz. We set the multiplier to 10.5 so the 1.4 gig T-bird is slightly overclocked at 1.575. Temp is at 52c w/o the system fan (noisy bugger) 48c with the fan.
This is another example of the ProRec.com Roll yer Own Thunderbird. Never mind the bleeding edge stuff if you're new to computers. Build something that works.
lou

[johannbad]

Dual PIII 1ghz
Asus CUV4X-D
1GB PC133
Promise Fast trax TX2 ide raid card
2x Seagate baracuda IVs (RAID0)
Audiophile 2496
geforce 2 GTS
intel nic

Also, i have the complete range of quite fans from http://www.quitepc.com and they are well worth it! i have one on my vid card, the quite PS, two quite fans for my CPUs, and two case fans... the thing is quite! i can hear it sure, but it is not audible if there are any other sounds going on at the same time. it is way quiter than my apple G4 (and way faster)...

I use cubase VST 5.1r1, Sound Forge 5, Acid pro 3, tons of VSTi and plugs in WinXP pro... all in all every thing is good. i can max out the system easily tho as this machine was top notch last year when i built it.. but now i'm itching for faster... oh computers, what a waste of money! ha!

john

[edit: added OS used]

[This message has been edited by johannbad (edited 04-01-2002).]

[soulscientist]

Nick, I have a question to you. You said this:
"P4 1.6a GHZ Northwood cpu (retail, hope I
get an "M" chip... not a "CR")"
I bought an 1.6Ghz northwood a couple of weeks ago, is there something I should know?

And what is ACPI? I recently installed win98 2nd edition on my new pc, is there something I can do to improve the stability...?

[nutsadamus]

The M and the CR refer to the country where the chip is packaged. M is Malaysia and CR is Costa Rica. The M's are reputed to be the creme fom overclocking.

[Trak718]

Pentium III 1GHz CPU
VIA P6VXAT Motherboard
384 MB RAM
Windows XP Pro
GeForce 2MX Graphics card
MOTU 2408 Audio Interface
Cubase VST 5.1
Wavelab 4.0
Cool Edit Pro
Samplitude Producer 2496

[This message has been edited by Trak718 (edited 04-02-2002).]

[Trak718]

Originally posted by Nick Driver:
Nero 5.5 cd burning software. Do not put Adaptec/Roxio EZ CD Crater on a Windows 2000 or XP system, you'll be sorry.

I've got EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum running without a hitch on my XP Pro system...
"What you talkin bout Willis?"

[bcwdwks]

Dell PIII 800mhz
815e chip set
256 sdram
30 gb ata100 (OS, softwares)
40 gb ata100 Deskstare (wave files)
Promise ata100 controller card
Seasound Solo ex
Samplitude 2496

It's been pretty much smooth sailing from day one.

BC http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[ramallo]

CPU: 2x Pentium 3 1000 MHz
Mobo: Asus CUV4XD
RAM: 512 MB SDRAM 133 ECC cas 2,5 Transcend
OS: Win 2000 Pro SP2
soundcard: RME Hamerfall 9652 with RME ADI 8 S
audio software: Vegas Video 3, Sound Forge 5, Acid 3 Pro.
HD's: 1 Quantum Atlas V 9 GB (OS), 2 x Segate Cheetah 18 GB in raid, on a Adaptec 29160 SCSI Host

[guitar-mj]

Athlon XP 1900+
ECS K7S5A (SIS735 chipset)
384Mb DDR
Maxtor 20gb 7200
SONY 24x10x40
Promise ata100 controller card
Terratec EWX 24/96 (great performance with this card)
TNT2, and SIS326 for DUAL monitor setup
Cubase 5.0 R6
WIN-XP pro v.2002

Achieving 30+tracks w/6,7 or so DSPs. ALWAYS at 24-bit 96Khz

[Xochi]

I dont have any Audio Software yet. I'm hoping that youz guyz can help me. So far I have a PC with.
Processor: Pentium 4 2.0Ghz "Norwood"
Motherboard: Epox (Cant remember the model#)
Chips: (dang cant rember but the techs
that were in the room were im-
pressed) Either DDRram or Ram-
Bus.
OS: Windows Me
Plus: Plexor 40-12-40a and more stuff

Anyhow, I would like some feedback, as to what might go good with this. Xochi http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gifLove

[This message has been edited by Xochi (edited 04-14-2002).]

[Xochi]

http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by Xochi (edited 04-14-2002).]

[agrikk]

http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by agrikk (edited 04-16-2003).]

[DaveDiamond]

http://www.davediamondonline.com/equip.html

[alpha_zone]

Athlon XP 2000+ OEM
Soltek SL-75DRV5
512MB PC2700 DDR Corsair CAS2
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI Card
18.2GB Seagate Cheetah 10000 rpm UW/LVD SCSI Harddrive
9.1GB IBM Ultrastar 10000 rpm UW/LVD SCSI Harddrive
80GB Maxtor 7200rpm ATA100 Harddrive (all drives formatted NTFS)
Echo Mia Audio Card
Creative Riva TNT2 Ultra AGP Video Card
Linksys PCI Ethernet card
Windows XP Home
Cubase VST 5.1
Wavelab 3.0
Steinberg The Grand
NI FM7
NI Battery
JunoX2
Waves Native Power Pack
DB Audioware Plugins
Prosoniq Timefactory

I recently upgraded to this system 3 weeks ago. It has worked flawlessly and definitely better than my old setup. Previously I was using a super-stable setup that consisted of all the same hardware except I had an Abit BH6 with a PIII700E and 256MB PC100 SDRAM running Win98SE. This system worked great but I ran into limitations when I got upwards of 50+ tracks with some plugins. Also I recently bought the Steinberg Grand VSTi and it is great but I couldn't run it on my old setup. Also, I sold a bunch of synths and I plan to start using VSTi's so I definietly needed more power. Some of the new VSTi's are great. FM7 is great sound quality, and Battery is an awesome program too. Download the demo of Absynth! This is a great program, sound quality is second to none. I thought long and hard about whether to upgrade to Athlon XP or P4 and Win98SE vs. XP - but in the end everything has worked out great. In the case of my setup, which is fairly typical if not more demanding than most DAW's, I have no reservations about the new setup.



[This message has been edited by alpha_zone (edited 04-30-2002).]

[pongthrob]

Finally got the bugs out... Read problem below.

PIII 1.2gHz
Asus TUSL2-C
512 Mb
2x maxtor 40Gb 7200 drives
Matrox G550
Realtek network card
Soundblaster card
Windows XP Pro
M-Audio Delta 1010
Nuendo

Things were mostly fine except for the occasional pop/crackle. I thought maybe I'd had some bad RAM or the crummy network card...but i reinstalled everything to a bare system a few times until I realized the problem was in using the Delta's MIDI port..*THAT* was the problem. I unhooked the MIDI cable and things are very solid indeed now. A nuisance for sure, but getting another MIDI interface is no big deal, I needed another anyway...now i'll just get a dual or a quad. I'm pretty sure MIDI output is no issue...just input ...so the delta could still probably still be used for sync or whathaveyou.

regards,
graham

[pongthrob]

I wound up adding a Midisport 4x4 USB MIDI interface to the above system and everything works flawlessly now ...wow.

graham

[howie15]

Athalon 700Mhz
Asus A7V 200
128 MB PC-133 SDRAM
IBM Deskstar 30 gig ATA 100 7200RPM HD
Toshiba CD-ROM
Mat****a CD-R/RW
Audiophile 24/96 (audio/recording)
Soundblaster (for computer sound)
Voodoo3 AGP video card
Creative Modem Blaster modem
Win 98SE
Sonar for recording and sequencing
Finale 2001 for scoring
(various other programs including CD burning and labeling programs)

I have read some posts about the VIA KT133 chipset and problems but either it's not that bad or I'm lucky. For a while I thought I was the only one around with an A7V board. I have the T-bird fan so I'm ready to move up anytime and 2 more memory slots open, but I'll do that when I start to fill up this system, or I get more money. Works great for now.

Howie15 http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[Win]

AMD T-Bird 1.4 w/Alpha PAL8045 & a Sunon
1 gig Crucial DDR @ CAS2 + tweaked other ways
Abit KG7-Raid
ATI VIVO 64DDR
Plextor
Pioneer slot
Zip
Bios Savior
2) 30gig Maxtors
1) 40gig Maxtor
1) 3gig Seagate for downloads (Is this excessive?)
1) 4.3 Fujitsu for wave files in progress.
SB Live! Drive Platinum (This is why I came here. This card has to go!)
XP Pro

[midiboss]

ATHLON XP 1700
ECS K7S5A/DISABLED LAN&INTERNAL AUDIO
512 MB DDR
W98
MAUDIO AUDIOPHILE
RAID SETUP/HP 370 CHIP & 2X IBM 60Gb/7200
GIGA/SONAR/NUENDO

NEVER CAME NEAR TO THE LIMIT OF MY SYSTEM.
HAVE TESTED TRACKS; CAME TO 200 TRACKS IN NUENDO AND I GOT BORED 'COSS CPU CAME TO 18% AND DISK/RAID WAS STILL AT 0%(???)
WITH MY PROJECTS I NEVER COME BEYOND 80% CPU LOAD WITH ALL PROCESSING IN REALTIME WITH SOME HEAVY PLUGINS.

RECENTLY TESTED P4/ASUS BOARD/ RAID SETUP W/ 1.8a AND IT FELT LIKE... SORRY BUT P4 DOESN'T COME CLOSE TO ATHLON XP AND SYSTEM WAS VERYYYYYY PROBLEMATIC TO SETUP. I'D SUGGEST ATHLON, BUT..HEY IT'S YOUR $.

BTW, thx to all who gave valuable info on this board to help me build my sys.

[pongthrob]

<gulp> ..i spoke a wee bit too soon about my system ...please see problem under

"BSOD's in Windows XP ...gads!! help"

[dawboxpro]

Intel 2.0a 512K
(New) Asus 850-E chipset with USB 2.0
512 PC-1066 RD-Ram
40gig Seagate SoftSonic OS
100gig WD Caviar with 8 Meg cache
40gig External 7200rpm USB Bus link Drive (For Samples)
1394 PCI fire wire card
ATI Radeon 7500 (All in Wonder)
Pioneer DVDR/RW CDRW and DVD burner
32x10x40 CDRW
Omni I/O bundle
Cordless Keyboard & Mouse
Windows XP-Home
_________________________________

The USB 2.0 on this system is a God send, plus the PC1066 Rambus memory is has enabled me to do about 20% more direct X plug ins than before on DDR ram or PC-133.

They said that the USB 2.0 would be 40x faster and I am seeing it right now, finally an external fire wire or USB drive that handle the throughput thrown at it. This system did not cost me much to build and is very rock solid.
www.dawbox.com (http://www.dawbox.com)

[slaves666]

CPU - P4 1.6a northwood
Mobo - Asus P4B 266c
RAM - 256 samsung DDR
HD - 30 gig IBM Deskstar 7200rpm
- 60 gig Maxtor 7200 rpm
CD - Yamaha 4260 scsi burner
SCSI card - Adaptec 2910 scsi card
OS - Win 98se
soundcard - Tascam US428
video card - Matrox G450 dualhead

audio software - Nuendo, Reason, Rebirth, Absynth, Acid, various plugin's. I may change to Sonar XL 2 in the near future.
I also have an Oxygen8 which is amazing and easy to use as well as Event 20/20 power monitors, a KDS 15" LCD, Line6 POD, ESP, Gibson and Fender Guitars and a few cool pedals. My system is very stable and have no problems so far......I'll post some pix soon.

[krelnarb]

Don't laugh, it's a Dell XPS-H266:

PII/266
LX440 chip set
128MB (it's maxed out for that board)
onboard Yamaha OPL3-SA2
Matrox MGA Millineum (PCI)

A: genereic 3.5
1 4gig drive w/ 3 partitions
(C:OS .9g, D: audio 2g, E: disc images 1.2g)
F: generic X12
G: Plextor 12/10/32A
H: external 250 Zip

98lite w/ 95 shell
CWP8, ACID2, CE2000.
FruityLoops (demo)
Orion (demo)
Tuareg (shareware ver.)
Easy CD Creator 5 Platnum

a MOTU PCXpress 6 port MIDI interface (ISA)

Had to juggle IRQ's and try much install juju (load this, THEN that... try again) to get the MIDI, AUDIO & VIDEO to work together but now it works great (as long as I don't push it to hard).

I've been saving up for a big gun like you guys have and hope to have by the end of summer.

I also have a Mac G4/450, but it's not integrated into the studio yet, it's got a lot of graphic/video junk on it, but I put ProTools Free on it and look forward to messing with it.

Cheers
k

[TimOBrien]

krelnarb, I'm with you.... you don't need a 2Ghz machine to make music.

PII-450Mhz Gateway G6
384Mb RAM
2-20Gb drives, CD, CDRW, Jazz drive
Echo Mia and SBLive soundcards
Win98SE
Midisport 2x2 USB MIDI interface

N-Track Studio, SoundForge5, FruityLoops, ACID Music 2.0

Super stable system. I easily run over 16 tracks of 24-bit audio and have run as many as 35 tracks at 16-bit, which is more than I need to do.

[LeoIX]

Well, it's not the latest, but it's working...at least for the moment http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif

Pentium III 500MHz
ASUS P3B-F
256 MB RAM
40 gig 7200 RPM WD HD
Delta 66 and Omni I/O
Midiman USB 2X2 MIDI
Win98SE
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.03
Acid Pro 2.0
Sound Forge


Delta absolutely refuses to work for multitrack recording (simultaneous record/playback) with anything but the original drivers on the CD.

I'll be upgrading to a Northwood P4 with XP and Sonar when I win the lotto http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by LeoIX (edited 05-30-2002).]

[mding]

AMD Athlon tb 1200
Via 133a
512mb
Win98
Delta1010
Cubase 5.1 r1

My Audio is running clean now (finally), but I'm almost afraid to use it. I've screwed around a lot with bios settings--turning off everything I'm not using. If I load the optimized defaults in bios, then turn off all power management and disable sound, cubase seems to run smooth. I read in another forum to disable pci to cpu write buffering in bios (via chipset). The guy who built my computer is a keyboard player. He has the same chipset, but he's using nuendo with no problems. I'm wondering if my cheap, crappy video card has something to do with all my problems. It's a ATI card with a XPERT 98 PCI adapter. I just wish I could feel good about all this money I spent, and get back to making music. One question to anyone who knows----Removable hard drives are they worth the trouble?

[JoeCool]

P4 2.4Ghz Northwood 533
Asus P4B533
512Mb
WD drives (40Gb OS and apps 80Gb 8Mb cache audio)
Win2000 sp2
Echo Mia
SB Live Platinum (Soundfont and Midi interface)
Cubase VST32 5.1 with HALion
Finale for Scoring

This is brand new. Took me 2 years to save the money. I think I will never have the time and talent to push this baby to the limit.

[filipe]

P4 533 2.4Ghz
Asus P4B533
512 Mb RIMM 800
IBM 40 GB 7200 rpm
Adaptec SCSI controler 39160
Seagate Cheetah 15000 rpm (ordered, waiting)
Matrox 550
SB Audigy

Had some problems trying to fit my old sblive value into this, and ended up buying sbaudigy bulk version for 80 euros. in the end it was an excelent choice, because of the asio driver very low latency (currently working with 10ms) wich is extremely useful for the use of virtual instruments.

the first days were difficult solving software conflicts, and the soundcard problem wich i ended up declaring unsolvable, but now the system is working pretty smooth, and i'm really satisfied.

next year i hope to buy 1GB RIMM and a professional soundcard.

[mc-kk]

CPU - im running a AMD Thlon XP 1700+ (1.47ghz) which i have overlocked to a 2000+ (1.65ghz) and it runs with no problem

Motherboard - my motherboard is a socket A GA-7dXe Gigabyte motherboard which works very well with my other hardware

RAM - 256mb 184-Pin Dimm 32mX64 PC2700 made by Crucial , my OS has been tweaked to register this as 512mb's so my pc can actually use the RAM to its right extent instead of only using up to about 190mb's of it

HDD - my hdd Western Digital a 80gb with 8mb Cahe, 7200rpm, the 8mb cache makes a LOT of difference to how the pc perfromans and how quick it is in the form of music making, my hdd is mounted in hardcano 5 cooling box with fan and temperature gauge

AGP - my grpahix card is a geforcee2, mx400 mkII on a 17inch monitor

sound card i use is the onboard sound from my motherboard which is perfect for the job of music making, i have never had 1 problem with it

iv also got a 48x read, 24x re-write and 48x write cd re-writer, and a 52x read normall cd drive

iv also got other small bits such as temperature sensative case fans, even tho my cpu is voerclocked by 200mhz it enever runs over 45oC, and my motherboard never runs over 20oC and my PSU doesnt go over 24oC

Software - My OS is XP Professional, and the software i use are such as, Cubase SX, Fruity Loops, Sound Forge 6, Nero Wave Editor, Goldwave, real producer just to name a few of the things i use

im soon to be upgrading it in a lot fo ways, such as another hdd the same as i alreayd have, a AMD Athlon XP 3200+ cpu and several other things
http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by mc-kk (edited 03-06-2003).]

[This message has been edited by mc-kk (edited 03-08-2003).]

[nutsadamus]

Cool. I can't believe this thread was started a year ago and I was yet to be a daddy. Time sure does fly....

Also, i'm very impressed by the variety of systems listed above. Let's keep the posts coming because I still see so many new members asking about what hardware they need for a stable DAW.

Well, I guess its finally my turn....

CPU...............Intel 1.8A overclocked to 2.4 (stock HSF but with Arctic Silver applied)

M/B...........ASUS P4b266 Intel 845E chipset
MEM.........1 stick 512MB Corsair 2400XMS

VID...........ATI 9500 Pro to 17" Dell trinitron and 21" Viewsonic G810

Audio........DAL Card Deluxe (+onboard sound enabled on m/b) into mackie 1202 VLZ

Storage....10G IBM Deskstar (system) and 30G WD Caviar (audio) hard drives

Lian Li PC-60 case with 550W Enermax PSU

3 X Vantec 80mm Stealth fans

Windows XP pro with a few tweaks from musicxp.net applied.

Cool Edit Pro, Fruity, Reason, and Wavelab for apps.

All in all, I've found a satisfying balance between stability and performance.

Trying now to save up for a pair of decent mic's, a good set of powered nearfields (hoping my boss will let me borrow an extra set of genelec 1029A's) and eventually a multichannel soundcard.

Being a parent sure does take its toll on gear expenditures, though.

[bubba freaktree]

this guy has some serious hard drive action going on!

Originally posted by alpha_zone:
Athlon XP 2000+ OEM
Soltek SL-75DRV5
512MB PC2700 DDR Corsair CAS2
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI Card
18.2GB Seagate Cheetah 10000 rpm UW/LVD SCSI Harddrive
9.1GB IBM Ultrastar 10000 rpm UW/LVD SCSI Harddrive
80GB Maxtor 7200rpm ATA100 Harddrive (all drives formatted NTFS)
Echo Mia Audio Card
Creative Riva TNT2 Ultra AGP Video Card
Linksys PCI Ethernet card
Windows XP Home
Cubase VST 5.1
Wavelab 3.0
Steinberg The Grand
NI FM7
NI Battery
JunoX2
Waves Native Power Pack
DB Audioware Plugins
Prosoniq Timefactory

I recently upgraded to this system 3 weeks ago. It has worked flawlessly and definitely better than my old setup. Previously I was using a super-stable setup that consisted of all the same hardware except I had an Abit BH6 with a PIII700E and 256MB PC100 SDRAM running Win98SE. This system worked great but I ran into limitations when I got upwards of 50+ tracks with some plugins. Also I recently bought the Steinberg Grand VSTi and it is great but I couldn't run it on my old setup. Also, I sold a bunch of synths and I plan to start using VSTi's so I definietly needed more power. Some of the new VSTi's are great. FM7 is great sound quality, and Battery is an awesome program too. Download the demo of Absynth! This is a great program, sound quality is second to none. I thought long and hard about whether to upgrade to Athlon XP or P4 and Win98SE vs. XP - but in the end everything has worked out great. In the case of my setup, which is fairly typical if not more demanding than most DAW's, I have no reservations about the new setup.

[This message has been edited by alpha_zone (edited 04-30-2002).]

[trock]

ECS K7S5A/Athlon XP 2400+
1GB Crucial DDRAM
IBM Deskstar 75GB & WD 80 GB HD with 8 MB cache HDs
External Buslink 80GB Firewire drive for backups
LynxOne and RME Hammerfall 9636
Powercore & UAD-1
Matrox Millenium G450 with 21" and 19" monitors
Windows XP Home with the usual tweaks
Samplitude Pro 7, Fruityloops 3.5, Acid Pro 4
plus plug-ins up the gazoo

System is crash-free and fast and seems to have tons of overhead no matter what I throw at it in terms of tracks, plugs, softsynths etc.

This is the first system I've had that finally seems to fulfill the promise of a complete studio in a box that works and just lets me get on with creating stuff http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

trock

[TeleCarlos]

Well, here it goes. This is what I have at the moment to begin learning about harddisk recording. Fo sure to be modded later...maybe.

AMD 2100+ (1.73ghz)
Asus A7N8x Deluxe
Asus V9180 TD video card (don't ask why, but has 2x monitor for later)
512 mb os DDR ram
Win XP
Delta66 / Omni thingy
Cubase 5.0r4
many free vsti's
Plextor cdrw
Antec TruePower 430watt Supply
Vantec Aerroflow cpu fan
Edirol PCR-50 midi keybrd controller
19' monitor
AKG K55 headphones (gulp, for now...)
40 gig Western Digital 7200rpm (2mb buffer)
80 gig Western Digital 7200rpm (8mb buffer)

I think that is it. Thats what all the research was for. Now, it's all uphill from here, learn to write, play and record. Beats playing video games I guess.

Does this count?:
Fender American std Strat (1991)
Ampeg Reverborocket 2x12
...many pedals.....
many cheapo acoustics (steel and nylon)

Later,

[Pretty Pretty Cyanide]

Asus A7N266VM
Athlon XP 1800+ (not over clocked)
384MB DDR2100
Radeon VE (dual for cheap works http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif
Audiophile (MIDI and Audio unit)
W2K (SP3)
10GB [OS and Plug-ins]
120GB WD[Audio]
450W Whisper (Quiet fan)PS

AND:
ACCESS VIRUS
Korg Karma
Electribe R
Oxygen 8
Cubase VST 5.1

[brain90210]

Asus cusl2-c without audio 1ooo mhz intel
512 kingston total memory
matrox 450 video ,2 17 in. monitors
plexWriter 24/10 40 A
korg oasis sound card
2 ibm 40 gig deskstar hds

works well under windows ME . it doesnt crash
I built it based on imformation found only on this website last year. Its to easy to build your own ,just pay close attention to what everybody is using. My system is very very commen for DAW.thank god I found audio forum.com to help me

[DAW-Freak]

P4 (533FSB) 2,53Ghz oc'd @ 2,80
Abit BE7(Intel 845PE chipset)
512 MB Kingston CAS2 DDR
Win XP Pro
Edirol DA-2496, M-Audio Delta 44
Sonar 2.2, Soundforge 6

Disabled from BIOS: onboard sound, USB, serial ports, etc. stuff I don't need.

APIC enabled in BIOS and XP installed in ACPI Uniprocessor mode. Runs smooth as silk http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif Lowest effective latency in Sonar 1,5 - 2,9ms

[Rico Rider]

P4 2,4 Northwood 533
MSI 845PE Max2 (most of the special features disabled in bios)
512 MB 333 DDR
Raid 0 array with 2 IBM 30GB Harddrives =60 GB for audio. (Onboard RAID)
IBM HD 80 GB partitioned into one 20 GB partition for OS and Apps and one 60 GB partition mostly used for dokuments, samples and stuff.
Matrox G450 16MB dualhead
Soundblaster Live Player (MIDI only)
ST Audio DSP 24 + ADC/DAC 2000 breakout box (a.k.a. C-port)

WIN 2000 SP 3
Cubase SX 1.0.62 (i think?!?!?)
TC Native Bundle 3.0
Waves Native Bundle 3.5
Wavelab 4.0
Adobe Premiere 6.5

This system is only a week old and is very stable. So far, so good...

Haven't tried it on video yet...

[Omb]

long time no see every one .
it take me some time to sell my old computer
my new one is:
p4 2.4Ghz
asus p4pe
kingstone 512ddr 333Mhz
matrox g450 dualhead
80 giga maxtor
and...
my pulsar2 http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif
simple and solid
i'm stil fighting my win200 but in a few
it will run as hell.

cheers
Omb


[This message has been edited by Omb (edited 04-04-2003).]

[Bops2000]

if i told you, I'd have to kill you

[howie15]

Bops...as much as I don't like some of your posts and your views....I just have this to say on that post:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HOWIE!

[howie15]

(translation)-> That's really damn funny!!

[Bops2000]

Howie I'm a good guy
What ? don't like my Posts?
I am highly insulated.

[trock]

"I am highly insulated."

Must be all that soundproofing material you bought http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[Bops2000]

what you say ?

[trock]

in·su·late: verb. 1. To prevent the passage of heat, electricity, or sound into or out of, especially by surrounding with a nonconducting material.

[This message has been edited by trock (edited 04-05-2003).]

[Bops2000]

wise ass http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[trock]

Why, thank you http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[Easto]

AMD 1.73GHz (2100+)
Gigabyte GA-7DXE (barebones board)
1.28 gig of PC 2100 (mixed - Crucial/Kingston)
W2K SP3 (setup as Standard PC)
Darla 2496
Cubase SX (latest version)

Smooth as silk. No install problems, no glitches. I'm quite happy :-)

[This message has been edited by Easto (edited 04-06-2003).]

[Rico]

... okay here goes

Celeron 800E
Asus CUBX-E (you have to love the BX chipset)
512MB PC100 CL2
Matrox G200
Maxtor 40GB (audio)
WD 3GB (OS & system)
MOTU 1224/PCI-324
Sonar 2.2


Its a little doggy when using real-time effects on multiple tracks. Otherwise its been very reliable. I'm thinking of an upgrade, but want to wait until I can realize a factor of x4 in speed and power.

[petervien]

celeron 2 566 @ 933mhz
abit bh6
386mb sdram
17.2 & 80gig seagate drives (hot swapped, 1 for gfx/office the other for audio work)
tnt2 card & 15" nec monitor
creamware pulsar 2 plus
mackie hr824s
novation supernova 2 keyboard
evolution uc16

software :
cubase sx 1.0.561
creamware sfp 3.1c, stock plugins & minimax
wavelab 4
emagic sound diver 3
ni fm7 & reaktor 3, d'cota, pentagon1 & z3tra+, waldorf ppg 2.2

works pretty good - combination of DSP, hardware and software synthesis

[stompbox]

Shuttle SS51G XPC
Intel P4 @ 2.53Ghz
550MB DDR RAM
120G WD 7200 Drive
Windows Home XP
MAudio 2496, Presonus Firestation
GeForce4 MX440

Running Logic Audio 5.5.1

Works perfectly.

[This message has been edited by stompbox (edited 04-09-2003).]

[Zikes]

Nutrend Factory built computer with only the soundcard and second hard drive added by me, includes.

AMD XP 1700
Gigabyte GA-7DX Rev 4.3 with AMD761 chipset
512K Ram
Windows XP
Leadtek GF2 64MB Video with TV out
2 40GB IBM Deskstar hard drives
Echo Mia soundcard with latest 6X drivers
Midisport 2X2 USB midi interface

Cakewalk Sonar 2.1
Cakewalk Project 5 (rocks!)
Soundforage

Minor problems were system would not recognize soundcard when first installed a a little over a year ago, fixed by reinstall of OS. All power management turned OFF fixed soundcard problems after computer idle for too long. A few other tweaks which were recommended here and in Sonar 2 Power by Scott Garrigus.

[This message has been edited by Zikes (edited 04-09-2003).]

[djderricke]

Windows XP Pro
Intel 2.4ghz P4
Soyo P4VDA Mobo
512 Meg DDR Ram
Geoforce 440mx AGP Video card(dual headed)
2 19" Monitors
15 Gig Quamtum Fireball (system drive)
20 gig Maxtor
40 gig WD (both drives are set up as dynamic volumes so they appear to be one drive.)
40x CD Burner
Tascam US-428
Midiman Oxygen 8 Keyboard

[eriddick]

PC-1 -- FOR RECORDING
4U Rackmount Case w/450w PS
Intel D845PESV MB (onboard 10/100 & USB2.0)(DISABLED on/board AUDIO)
P4 2.53
Windows 2000 Pro SP3
(2) PNY DDR 333 512MB
(1) WD 100GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache(OS & APPS)
(1) WD 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache(RECORDING)
ATI Radeon 9000 Dual Monitor
(2) Aardvark Q10's
(2) Viewsonics 17" Monitors
Motu MIDI Timepiece AV (USB)
Logic Platinum 5.3
(2) Mackie HR824 Monitors
(4) Shure PG-81 Overhead Condenser Mics
(1) Shure PG-52 Kick and Bass Cab Mic
(5) Shure PG-56 Snare and Tom Mics
(1) Blue Baby bottle w/Shockmount and Pop Filter
(1) Oktava 319 Mic
(1) Marshall MXL Mic
Use included Shure XLR cables for drums and BLUE Cranberry XLR cables for vocals and Cab Mic'ing

--------------------------------
PC-2 -- MIXING/VST/ETC
2U Rackmount Case w/350w PS
Intel D845PESV MB (onboard 10/100 & USB2.0)(DISABLED on/board AUDIO)
P4 2.53
Windows 2000 Pro SP3
(2) PNY DDR 333 512MB
(1) WD 100GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache(OS & APPS)
(1) WD 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache(AUDIO FILES)
ATI Radeon 9000 Dual Monitor
(2) Viewsonics 17" Monitors
MOTU MIDI Timepiece II
MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV (USB)
DBX Quantum Mastering Processor
Logic Platinum 5.3/REASON 2.0/ACID 4.0/VARIOUS Native Instruments APPS/SOUNDFORGE 6.0
Roland V-Concert with Alesis D4 and DM Pro, microKORG, and several other MIDI controlers

--------------------------------------------

1st PC is for recording only, then take tracks to 2nd PC for mastering, mixing, editing, adding effects etc.

On PC-1 the 1st Q10 is setup as master time clock @ 96khz, other Q10, and MOTU are slaves.

On PC-2 the Quantum is master and MOTU is slave.

I have only had this setup for about 30 days and so far it has been rock solid, hasn't crashed yet, no glitches. The most simultaneous tracks I have recorded were 12 drum tracks at 24bit 96khz, no problems yet.

I FORGOT TO ADD THIS -

I don't know about you guys but this new hobby has become very addicting and expensive.

[This message has been edited by eriddick (edited 04-18-2003).]

[This message has been edited by eriddick (edited 04-18-2003).]

[wogg]

Perfectly good home recording system:

AthlonXP 2700+ T-Bred 'B' core 2.166GHz

Asus A7N8X-Deluxe
2x256Mb 333MHz Corsair TwinX timed 2225

M-Audio Delta 1010

Utilizing on board sound for windows mapping, and on-board 3Com NIC.

VisionTek GeForce3 ti200 video

WD400BB (40Gb OS) WD800JB (80gb storage / recording)

Sonar 3.11 Producer + Waves Ren 4.0

I have an additional PC for games so this machine is my office workstation and DAW. I have both a hardware and user profile setup with minimum configuration for recording and have had no trouble thus far. I have yet to run into a disk related track limit but can choke my Athlon at about 30-40 plug ins (depending on how many verbs). I have the PC set up as an APCI system without trouble.

[Polaris]

Athlon 1800+

Asus A7V333 with KT333 chipset, 512MB Crucial DDR

Echo Mia

ATI 9000 Pro 128MB DDR

WD 40gig 7200rpm ATA100, times 2

Cubase 5.1, Acid Pro 4.0, Sound Forge 6.0

Gateway 1450LS notebook, 15" LCD, 512MB RAM that will soon have:

Toshiba 5400RPM 16MB cache 60gig HD
Tascam US122 USB interface.

[This message has been edited by Polaris (edited 04-18-2003).]

[Auriculum]

Athlon XP2400+

Asus A7V8X (Via KT400 chipset)

512MB DDR 333

Samsung 80GB SP8004H (7200 RPM/ATA 100/2MB)

ATI Radeon 9000 (64MB)

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

LG CD-RW

Samsung 753V 17" monitor

Win2K SP3

Sonar 2.1
Acid Pro 4.0
Reason 2.0
Sound Forge 6.0

-------------

Simply amazing and fast as hell! I was VERY scared at first, 'cause there are many people reporting probs related with Via chipsets...

But thank God! Everything is working sooooo nice. I got only 2.7ms latency with Audiophile (driver version: 5.10.00.27).

Can't be any happier with my DAW! http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[Bops2000]

OK HER YA GO HOWIE

SOYO P4-P4VSA Mobo
(northbridge Via vt8753, Southbridge
Via vt8233)
P-IV - 2 Gig Mhz Board (Cost bare
bone = $378 usd)
RAM - 512
Windows 2000 pro
IDE 2 hard drives @ 30 gig each, one is at
ntfs, other is at fat 32.
One burner @40 max, one reader at 56 max.
M-audio 24/96
SbLive Pci 5.xx
Cakewalk Homestudio 2000XL, Pro 9.0, 8.0, 3.0
Sonor 2.2 XL
Acid Pro
Sonic Foundry 5.5
Behringer ub1832fx
Sure 57's, 58's
Audio Tech 3035
Elctrovoice pls 1776
some old elctrovoice 'radio lookin' mics
(havent tried yet - adjustable roll-off thingies)
Fender Delux tube amp (old)
Fender Champ
old fender bassman cab - 4 10's (old)
Yamaha Tx81z fm syntisizer module (old)
Alesis d16 (old)
Roland ddd5 drum machine (old)
Yamaha psr somthing midi keyboard )old)
Rogers drum kit (post CBS) (old)
K- Zildjians, C- Zildjians (old)
$99 dollar nicked Squire Bass (which i set up via bass 'sites')
'fake strat' which i wired the pickups out of phase.
Samson ch700 headphones.
A wife - who puts up with it all http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[Neil Wilkes]

Dual P3 1.4 GHz Tualatin processors
Gigabyte GA-6VTXD mobo
2 Gb ECC Registered Crucial PC133 SDRAM
Win XP Pro, SP1
RME HDSP 9652 Sound Card
2x UAD-1 DSP cards
Matrox G550 DH graphics
2x 19" CRT monitors @ 1280 x 1024
Steinberg Nuendo & WaveLab
Minnetonka discwelder Chrome for DVD-A

This is running off of a Tekram DC-390 U2/W SCSI controller, with an 18 Gb Quantum V 7200 ultra 160 system drive, and 2 36 Gb Atlas 10KIII audio drives.
Pioneer DVR105 DVD-R burner
standard CD-ROM
Removable IDE caddy bay for Archiving
Nuendo 8 I/O 96k ADC/DAC

everything is 100% solid, the system NEVER crashes.
Next upgrade is either FireWire Powercore, or maybe dual xeon processors.

[pmestrez]

Mainboard SuperMicro P4DC6+
2 * Pentium 4 Xeon 2.2 Ghz
1024 Rambus
Adaptec 2005S Ultra3 RAID5
275Go (5*HD Ultra3)
20Go System UATA
RME

[applemax]

Not strictly on topic - I have been tearing my hair out over my new DAW:
3200amd barton
asus a7n8x-x mobo
m audio 1010lt
uad dsp card
1g mem
and a riva tnt2 m64
I been getting loads of weird crashes + clicks on all my audio render outs - checked out:
acpi (now disabled)
2nd hard drive
changing soundcard
changing pci slots
changing pci latency
disabled lan, ports, screen saver, graphics accel., system backup
etc etc
all to no avail
now I find out through one of your posts it could be my graphics card - this could really save my bacon - thanks guys!

[MrM]

Just this weeK I got a Roland Studio Package Pro; a SI-24 control interface with build in preamps, phantom power, moving sliders and such cool toys :) in combination with the Roland RPC-1 PCI card.
It came bundled with Logic RPC Pro.

So far it has been a dream come true :)

The fact that I am out of work isn't so bad with this new toy on my desk!

For the rest, see the signature below, and add this; Asus P4P800 deluxe motherboard, carefully installed Windows XP Home on seperate drive.

[jpw23]

Amd 1800+
1. 2 ghz processer
640 megs ram
2- 40 gig wd hd's 7200 rpm
st audio/ hoontech ext. 8 ch interface
st audio/hoontech sound card
2- 52x cd burners
running cakewalk guitar tracks pro & logic sound track 24
cool edit pro
mix man
fruity loops
cakewalk pro audio 8
multiple os/ win xp/ win 98 / some dos apps.....for those of you who remember dos

Took a long time to get all of the bugs worked out of this system....I know there must be an easier way!

[Cylkk]

Athlon XP 2600+
Gigabyte mb with onboard lan, onboard sound disabled
512mb DDR Ram
Radeon 9600xp
Audiophile 2496 pci
Seagate 40 & 80 gigs @ 7200rpm/ATA100
DSL Modem pci
40x Samsung CDRW
Ultra silent Zalman 300w psu
17" AOC LCD

Running Sonar 3.0 on Win2k pro sp4

Can run about 25-30 vst/dxis before cpu gets stressed

[stevejay]

Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Northwood 800MHz FSB CPU
Asus P4P800E-Deluxe
1 GB Corsair Cas2 3200 RAM
Matrox Millennium G550 Graphics card
2 Samsung Spinpoint SATA hard drives
Echo Mia MIDI
UAD-1 DSP Card
Windows Home Edition
Cubase SX version 2.2

Worked _perfectly_ from the get go. Horray!

[dawboxpro]

System One Studio Tracking, Mastering, Editing


4U Black Rack Case
14db 350W PSU with internal 80mm Fan
Asus AMD64 MB
AMD 64 3200+
Silent Heatsink & Fan 18db
80G Seagate S-ATA OS
80G Seagate S-ATA Record 1
120G Seagate S-ATA Record Drive 2
80G Seagate ATA-100 Sample Drive
512m of kingston DDR400 ram
Lite-On DVDRW/CDRW Combo
Windows XP-Home
_____________________________________

This setup blows doors! Using Sonar or Acid, or Sound Forge I can hardly ever get it to crash with more effects than I will ever use. It also does graphics and video editing well with vegas.


System Two: Mobile Recording Rig

Custom Core Elite-2 Laptop with Intel 865PE Chipset
17" Display
2 Internal 60G 7200 rpm Drives
Firewire
USB 2.0
24X CDRW
Motu 896HD
Digimax LT
XP-Home
Sonar, Acid, SF, CD-Architect
________________________________________________

Same story a few less plugs but just as many tracks and as powerfull as my former Intel Desktop. Of course this rig is more expensive that the rackmount AMD64 but I can bring this bad boy to shows, record friends bands, do production at coffe shops. Record at any one elses big or small studio and take the tracks right home from a killer room after just doing drums through an SSL.
The 896 and the Digimax are just in a mobile rack with wheels as is my head phone amp and compressors and limiters. I get home and bingo I fly tracks to any machine or simply burn bundle files, connect external firewire drive and transfer songs to the bigger rig. In many situations I do not ever need to transfer anything from the laptop unless the files are massive from live recording.

About $1000 more than my desktop but I have done about twice as much with it than my home rig. I still love my home rack rig and it is more silent but for tracking drums at other places and getting access now to other studio's I am loving it! My workload and contacts with other musicians has increased as well since I am mobile and able to go where ever, whenever.

I have basicly approached bands before or after shows, shown them the goods and bingo I got a gig recording them live or where they want.

I remember the days of 24 track tape and the cost. These rigs combined with everything do not even cost half as much as my first three adats!

[Batiste]

SYNTH STATION AND RECORDING STATION


2 AMD ATHLON XP 2800+ (CLOCK SPEED 2.2 GHZ)
2 X 1024 MB KINGSTON DDR 400(3200)
2 wINDOWS XP SP1
2 MOTHERBOARD ASUS A7N8X DELUXE CHIPSET NVIDIA2 oN BOARD SOUND WITH NVIDIA ASIO2 DRIVERS
1 TASCAM FW-1884
1 M-AUDIO 4-10
1 EMULATOR-X
1 EMU(1212M)
2 MPU- MIDI DEVICE
2 19" DISPLAY
2 32" DISPLAY (TV-OUT)
2 aLL-IN-WONDER RADEON 9800
1 AKAI MPD 16 DRUM PAD
1 M-AUDIO OXYGEN 8 CONTROLLER
1 STUDIOLOGIC SL-990 PRO CONTROLLER
4 80G SEAGATE S-ATA(AUDIO)
4 120G SEAGATE S-ATA(VIDEO)
2 80G SEAGATE IDE (SYSTEM)
2 LITE-ON DVD-ROM
2 LITE-ON DVDRW/CDRW COMBO
2 SERIAL-ATA RAID CONTROLLER
2 ultra silent 400w power supplies

This is my setup at home it's 2 boxes using the same MB
it's very stable and I built this configuration for others. I like it a lot and the base is very reasonable to put together.

[patsplat]

Athlon XP2800+/ASUS A7N8X(regular)/1 gig Mushkin DDR PC 2700/2-Maxtor 80 gig HDD's(7200-8mb)/Antec case w/ PSU(350 wt.)/FDD/Win XP Home SP1/Plextor PX-PREMIUM SW-BL CDRW/Jaton GF4 MX440-8X-64mb(dual VGA)/2-Dell 17"CRT's/Aardvark Q10/Samplitude 7.22...It has worked great since day 1.

[samigascon]

Althon XP3200+ +Thermatake Silent
3FR 400w Power Supply
MOTHERBOARD ASUS A7N8X DELUXE CHIPSET NVIDIA2
512 MB DDR 333 (infineon chips) in only one DIMM (no more money :)
Radeon 9600 PRO 256 Mb
Western Digital 120 gb 7200 rpm 8 Mb cache ATA133
40 GB seagate slow hard disk (just to store MP3s and mixes)
Aardvark Direct Pro Q10 + Sound Blaster Live 5.1 (just for games)
CRT Hitachi 19"
Sony x8 CD recorder
Pionner A106 DVD-R Recorder (DONT BUY THIS **** hahahhahah)
A real crappy midi keyboard (just to make basslines and drums sometimes)
Cubase SX 2.01
and not much more =)

Except some problems with those plugins in cubase that dont work at 24/96... stable as a rock

[applemax]

AMD Barton 3200+
Asus A7N8x-x mobo
2X512M KingMax
Windows XP pro
m-audio 1010lt
uad-1 dsp plugins card
cubase sx

took me ages to get this working - hadn't quite got my bios settings right (see clickety click posts) but now it kicks butt.
the uad card plugins are awesome. xcellent compression, eq + reverbs. but how do I get the barton above 2.2G?

[Afrotronic]

My mobile setup:

Sager 8890 laptop
3.0Ghz Pentium 4 with HT, 800Mhz FSB
512MB 400Mhz RAM
60GB drive 7,200 RPM for audio only
MOTU 896HD via FireWire
Sonar, Reason, and Project 5 are my virtual tools of choice

[Michael Quayle]

The below works just fine for me, although thinking of changing the DVD burner to a lite-on, as nero dvd speed has shown some rather shaky results with this drive.......