Dell Dual Xeon Poweredge for music?

[russarteaga]

Hey folks I have been using a homebrew PIII 733 with 384MB ram for some time now and I am in the middle of trying to decide if a dell poweredge would be a good machine to use. As for the usage it would be strictly an audio and midi machine. I am not concerned about anything except the performance of my apps and recording/playback. I currently use reason 2, Abelton Live, CubaseSX, ACID4, SF6 plus loads of Plug's and Soft Synths. I am considering leasing a dual xeon based poweredge and will run dual 10K 36GB U160 drives for recording and playback. I haven't stayed up with PC technology because I have had a great time making music with my P3. But now I need POWER and using Live 2.0 or CubaseSX alone have fully exceded my current systems capability. I am hoping to get any advice I need to get a new system asap as I have some projects that are needing to be done. What does everyone think? Should I go Dual? Xeon? How much ram? Current PCI card compatibility? Thanks ANY help will be apreciated as I can't find ANY info online about using a Poweredge. PS anyone want a PIII with a Lexicon Core2?

[russarteaga]

If anyone would like, you could hit me using anyone of these. I am pretty much always online.

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[This message has been edited by russarteaga (edited 04-22-2003).]

[Bops2000]

I hear a dual processor ain't gonna make a difference, thats all I know is what I hear.

[Polaris]

Originally posted by Bops2000:
I hear a dual processor ain't gonna make a difference, thats all I know is what I hear.

That highly depends on whether or not the software you're using supports MP.

I think Sonar does, in which case it would most definitely be a benefit.

[russarteaga]

I will be using a combination of CubaseSX , Reason, Reaktor, Abelton Live, and pretty much all Native Instruments stuff. My understanding is that a dual processor based machine will speed up OS and any application that supports SMP so my thinking is that if cubase and win2k run faster then the overall system should. This is a link to Steinbergs info on Dual Processing.

http://service.steinberg.net/knowledge_pro.nsf/show/dual_processor_support

[Polaris]

Sounds like a duallie would probably suit you well.

I would look at something other than the Dell though; not only am I not thrilled with Dell in the first place, rackmounts aren't generally engineered to be quiet.

[russarteaga]

Thanks Polaris for your comments, I will be leasing and fortunately I will be putting this in a seperate machine room so the noise won't matter. My only question then is which os. I have 2K Pro now but would consider getting XPPro if it would run better.

[bubba freaktree]

from what i've seen, a dual processor machine will give you about a 30% performance increase on average.

so a 2.0ghz dual will be about as strong as a 2.6ghz single.

then it becomes an economics question of a high-powered single verses a somewhat lower speed matched dual. or taking it down a notch and putting the extra money towards a dsp card like a uad-1 or powercore.

[russarteaga]

Everything that I read says pretty much the same thing. I am hoping to go Dual Xeon 2.4 and with that I think it should work out for a year or two without needing to upgrade. That is a major factor. Then the other is RAM and with the poweredge they recomend PC2100 ECC registered. At least RAM is cheap these days.

[kPreston]

I have years of experience with DELLs, virtually all models.

Not knowing the price point of your PowerEdge lease, I would recommend you take a look at the Precision 530 line. It's better geared for what you want. I have a Precision 420 (DUAL CPU) in my studio. My next upgrade will be a Precision 530 or better.

Are the Dual 10K SCSI drives in the Poweredge in a RAID? If so, you really need more than two. One for booting (non-RAID) and two in RAID for data. Note that with the PowerEdge you're leasing redundancy with the PowerEdge that you don't need (money wasted). I think the Precision 530 would be money better invested.

Since you're running many programs at once, you will benefit from DUAL CPU's. You may benefit with any particular program, but it must be written to take advantage of two or more CPU's. It must be multi-threaded, but that in and of itself is not sufficient to get signficant gains with dual CPU's. Most quality PC audio recording programs, will run better on a Dual CPU as the Graphics engine will run on the other CPU.

Now back to the Precision 530... a Precision 530 is a great computer with a lot of capacity. I would also recommend you take a look at DELL's refurbished Precision 530's. If you're patient, you can get a great deal and these computers are every bit as reliable as the retail version. Since 1994 I have bought over 25 DELL computers (retail and refurbished, Precision, PowerEdges, Optplex, and Dimension) and I have bought 9 Precision 530's (DUAL 2.8 XEON) computers in the last several months. I live on this computer all day. What a great computer.

FWIW...

[donsaudio]

I dunno, maybe I'm biased because I can't afford the dual cpu route? If someone has alot of cash to spend, why not add dsp cards to the system instead of investing in endlessly aging computer parts. Adding a UAD and TC powercore will give alot more horsepower, not to mention add alot to your mixing capabilities.

[bubba freaktree]

i just built my system for under $800. the thing screams and is rock solid. this allowed me the cash to buy my new toy: the uad-1. installed perfectly, works great!

[russarteaga]

Kpreston, thanks for the info I will have a look at the Precision 530's. DonsAudio, I think the DSP card route is a great way to go. One that I will most definitely persue. It is just that with leasing it seems that I can get a super powerfull PC that will not cost a whole lot on a monthly basis and that will still leave funds for a DSP card like the UAD or Powercore. Mostly though, I really want the PC to be able to run my apps with the greatest of ease. As for building a PC I think that is fine if you have the money upfront, I would rather have a well built and tested system that I can return at the end of the lease and get a whole new model. It seems that I am a minority in this thinking. Again I appreciate all the comments and suggestions.

[Nick Driver]

Anybody have any experience with how well the ServerWorks chipsets (commonly used in multiprocessor server mobos) are compatible with pro audio interfaces?

[Polaris]

Originally posted by Nick Driver:
Anybody have any experience with how well the ServerWorks chipsets (commonly used in multiprocessor server mobos) are compatible with pro audio interfaces?


I saw that too. THough Newegg.com still has a lot of Intel chipset-based boards there.