New computer .......

Okay, I started buying stuff for my new computer. I'm planning on building my own from scratch. Today I bought the new computer case and 500 watt power supply......tomorrow I order the Audition 3 software. I'm planning on an Intel Duo Core chip, Asus motherboard, 2 gigs memory, dvd drive I already have, memory card reader I already have, 200 Gig hard drive I already have, Windows XP, Audiophile 2496 sound card........The new computer is going to rock !!!!!! It should be ready about the same time Audition 3.0 gets here.

Sounds like a great little setup you are making 

A couple of suggestions - Core 2 Duos are being phased out for the more powerful (and slightly more expensive) Core2 Quad (4 core) processors, which you might want to consider as your processor.   Regardless of which you choose - both should serve you very well.

Also, IDE harddrives are being phased out for the far superior SATA drives, so if the drive you have is IDE, check to make sure that there are enough IDE ports for both the harddisk and your CD drives on your motherboard you wish to purchase, or consider spending a bit on SATA drives, which have higher transfer rates than IDE drives (and are reasonably priced, to boot)

Thanks for the heads up on chips and SATA drives. We'll see how things go, and I'll be making buying decisions in the next couple of weeks. I wasn't planning on a new computer so I have to work it into my budget a little at a time, but at least I've started. The next thing I want to get is the motherboard, so I can get it installed and wired up.....

I also have to plan out wiring to hook it up with my studio mixing board and monitors. I may even use the Delta 1010LT sound card...I'm not sure yet.

I've heard Intel chip prices are about to come down, so we'll see, when I'm ready to buy, which one I get.

Anymore, the computer stuff you buy today is usually outdated before you get it home, so we'll see.

The Q6600 (quad core) is just a little more expensive than the E6600 dual core.  I had a fairly new core duo E6600 rig for my new DAW - and it RAWKS!  I used the ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard and a fanless nVidia 7600GT graphics card.  (4) SATA 300 drives - both the 320GB boot disk and the 400GB data disk are mirrored RAID drives - FAST.

Excellent suggestions....thanks !!  Will definitely keep them in mind.....

I pre-ordered Audition 3 this morning, so that's done.

I ordered a Sony black floppy disk drive to match the case...not a big deal, but occasionally I still use one.....

I've been checking out mother boards looking for one that's NCQ compatible with no luck, so I may have to give up on that.

These oldies support NCQ: http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20041015917263.html and http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/gigabyte/GA-K8NXP-9/g1.htm

NCQ takes two: supported hard drive and controller. It requires a driver and is switched on/off in Windows. NCQ is supposed to be supported by Serial ATA II ports. Or you might try a separate hard drive controller. With all these fast processors, memory and hard drives, I'm not sure if NCQ is still an up-to-date technology. Most publications are from 2003 - 2005. If you go to the ASUS site you won't find any reference to NCQ...

How about cooling your PC. Any thoughts on that already? And what OS? XP I presume?

Yes XP with Service pack 2 seems to work best with all my software and hardware.....so I'm not even considering Vista at this time. I do have Vista set up on a separate drive, but find myself liking XP's speed better.

Cooling--- Yes I have been looking at ASUS motherboards which have a heat pipe built onto the board. Heat is a concern to me and I may end up going with a duo core instead of a quad core for this reason.... I may be wrong but it seems to me a duo core would run cooler than a quad...I'm not sure about that though.

Thanks for the links, but I think I'm sold on ASUS boards. I've had very good luck with my current ASUS board. But now I need to have an Intel based board instead of an AMD based board.

I don't need a monster computer, just an up to date computer capable of running Audition 3, and a few VSTI instruments at the same time. Most of the music I record is limited tracks, the most being maybe 20 tracks. My current computer handles that with no problem at all.  But with Audition 3's midi capabilities, I may be using a few more track, but they would be midi tracks more so than audio tracks, which are very small files.

I think we've given up on the NCQ as nobody seems to be talking about it, and I haven't been able to find any components that support it.

The whole point of building a new computer is so that it will be totally compatible with AA 3's system requirements, including SSE-2 enabled processor which my current AMD chip isn't.  My current computer is plenty powerful enough for most things, and running fine, but is getting up there in age, so now's the time to think about replacing it BEFORE it dies out.

FWIW, I used the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 cooler in my box - economical, PWM compatible, and the fan is rubber mounted.  Quite effective and very quiet.  I tried a Rosewill cooler first - it was too noisy.  It wasn't fan noise, the fan motor was loud, and the plastic housing resonated to make it worse.  The fanless ASUS motherboards are working well for me.  I have numerous 120mm ANTEC fans in both of my computers and they are running cool and quiet.

That Artic Freezer looks pretty cool...no pun intended. New Egg has them for around $20 bucks......I'll have to put that on my list....

After much research and consultations with my computer guru, we've decided on an Intel Motherboard. It's won New Egg's Customer Choice award and has the features I'd like to have for the next few years.....for info goto......

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d975xbx2/index.htm

[three]

I went (following a pointer from a MOTU forum) with an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, with a 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of memory (for running Hauptwerk); carried over the case, PS, 400GB SATA disks, Plextor CD and DVD drives, and audio interfaces.  The mobo has three PCI slots, so didn't have to replace any cards; and 6 internal and one external SATA sockets (there are no less than three different RAID controllers!).  The PS doesn't have the extra contacts for the extended power connector, but I reckon that my power usage is low enough to get away with it - the fancy extras are all disabled (8-channel audio, built-in WiFi, remote control for using CD and audio while machine is off).

I was pleasantly surprised that the stock Intel processor fan is as quiet as my previous Zalman.  More important, the disk that I thought was beginning to corrupt data transfers turns out to be rock-solid - it seems that the old motherboard had a dodgy SATA connector.

I made a list of things to reinstall (I made a clean Windows installation) - so far it runs to two pages...  And I remembered to deactivate Audition before changing all the hardware 

Paul

That sounds like a hot computer.



Here's my shopping list I put together the other day......



Eagle Case & 500 watt Power Supply

Sony floppy disk drive

Intel Motherboard

Kingston 2 Gig Memory

 EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT Video card

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual Core Processor

Artic Freezer cooling fan

Seagate 250 gig SATA  hard drive


Mac's are using Intel components, so I figured...why not ??

Sony floppy disk drive

Floppy disk drive?  Why?