New computer .......

This has been a useful thread.

I'm fairly handy around computers in an "install a new hard drive or PCI card sort of way" and was getting ideas above my station, considering building a new audio workstation computer for myself.

Having heard of all the pitfalls, I think I'll find somebody to do it for me!

Bob

there was an error message but it only would flash for a second before the computer would shut down, not giving me a chance to read it.

This is most likely a driver problem. Now, it looks like you're happy with Vista up till now, so I think I shouldn't even bother, but nevertheless (for future reference, if you decide to remove Vista and go for XP again here it goes. There is a simple way to view the error on screen: go to Settings/Control Panel/System. Click Advanced tab. Click on the Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section. Uncheck the "Automatically restart" box. Click OK. In case of a critical failure, leading to the feared Blue Screen of Death, you will see the reference to the driver, dll or whatever, that causes the error. And with that information, you can solve the problem.

This has been a useful thread.

I'm fairly handy around computers in an "install a new hard drive or PCI card sort of way" and was getting ideas above my station, considering building a new audio workstation computer for myself.

Having heard of all the pitfalls, I think I'll find somebody to do it for me!

Bob

My wife and I have been building our own PC's for over a decade. The secret to a successful build is performing due diligence on your system's components and compatibility prior to beginning.
Of course issues will crop up from time to time but that's part of the learning process. We troubleshoot everything ourselves and haven't come across an issue we can't resolve on our own with an organized QA process and some internet research.
We set aside about three days for assembly, testing and loading software and at the end if that we have a new hot rod.

Actually assembling the PC takes a day (around all the other things we have to do) but it's the re-loading of all my applications and configuring the system that takes two days.
We also have a dedicated game PC...those take about a day and a half to build. Not as many persnikity apps to re-load on a game PC.

A few months ago we retired my long-faithful D875PBZ/P4 workstation for a new Core-Duo/D975XBX2.
Here are the system specs:

D975XBX2-504/E6600/4 GB Mushkin EM-6400 /Sapphire X1950XT/HP f1905 19" flat panel/Gina24 Soundcard/Mbox 2 Factory Pro/Two Maxtor 6B300SO's/One Maxtor STM500AS/One Western Digital WD2500JD/PleXwriter Premium/Plextor 716A/Logitech Revolution MX/Antec P-180b/PPC&C Silencer 610/Zalman CNPS9500 HSF

On of the best parts of this system is it has an upgrade path to Quad-core yet still utilizes the rock-solid 975 'board.

   

there was an error message but it only would flash for a second before the computer would shut down, not giving me a chance to read it.

This is most likely a driver problem. Now, it looks like you're happy with Vista up till now, so I think I shouldn't even bother, but nevertheless (for future reference, if you decide to remove Vista and go for XP again here it goes. There is a simple way to view the error on screen: go to Settings/Control Panel/System. Click Advanced tab. Click on the Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section. Uncheck the "Automatically restart" box. Click OK. In case of a critical failure, leading to the feared Blue Screen of Death, you will see the reference to the driver, dll or whatever, that causes the error. And with that information, you can solve the problem.

Thanks for the instructions, but I'm sticking with Vista for now.  It's running great on this machine. At this time I don't want to change any settings for fear of losing what I have now. I don't really know enough about settings to start changing things. I just have to accept the fact that I have a Vista machine, which really ain't so bad. It'll work for me. I know some people detest Vista, but it's working good for me right now. The only thing I'm concerned about now is getting a midi signal into the computer, seeing how's my Audiophile 2496 or 1010LT still don't have Vista drivers yet, I have to get an Midi to USB interface of some sort....a one or two channel would probably be enough for me, so it's not really a big deal, but it's something else I have to do for AA3.


 Bob- As far as building computers go, if you have somebody who knows what they are doing and you can talk to them about computers, I'd say go for it, as usually it's a fairly simple thing IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT COMPONENTS. That was my problem, I thought I did have the right parts, and according to what I read I thought I did, but apparently, I got some bad information somewhere on the E6750 processor. Had I bought the E6600, I probably wouldn't have had anywhere near the problems I did.
Luckily my computer guru friend is interested in buying the Intel board from me, so I may not get stuck with that board, that I don't need anymore. Even though I had a tough couple of days, I was able to get thru it and ended up with a really good computer....Asus board, Intel chip, 256 ddr video card, 2 gigs ram,250 gig sata drive........this is not a bad computer to end up with.

Well, here it is a couple days later and Vista and the new computer have been running great. I've got all my important programs on the computer now and they are all running very nicely. I even got my East/West Silver Pro and Kompakt sound sample programs up and running, and they sound great.

With the ASUS morther board, came a mini sound card manufactered by Microsoft. It's a High Definition 24bit/192K hertz sound card  that has up to 8 channel surround sound capabilities.....I haven't tried recording with it yet, but it does have a nice sounding output. It's definitely a step up from the AC'97 onboard sound card that came with the older computers.

Have I understood this correctly? Doesn't that Asus P5N32-SLI. board come with a Realtek HD Audio interface, similar to the ones I'm fighting under Vista? I do appreciate that the hardware design of these laptops may be causing the poor recording performance, so it would be interesting if you are using one of these.

But does it really have a separate audio interface as well as this?

I'm not sure what you're talking about, but here's a picture of the sound card I have. It's called the "SupremeFX (ADI 1988b)"...goto this link and scroll down to the audio section, for a little more info and a picture of the sound card I have........

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1459&l1=3&l2=11&l3=397


*In my system information page on my computer, it says it's manufactured by Microsoft.

I did a sound test with Loreena McKennit's new HD DVD,  "Nights  From The Alhambra" and it sounds just as good as live if not better, I can say this as I was at the concert a couple of weeks ago.

So I'm a very happy camper right now.

I was looking at the

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=745&l1=3&l2=11&l3=227&l4=0

which sems to be very different. Sorry about that.

Interestingly, both the audio and the firewire chipset seem to be better on your -E version.

It seems quite common for Microsoft to put their name over things. That looks like an Analog Devices chipset, and I've always had a soft spot for AD since the days of a very early ISA soundcard.

Well I don't really know who makes it, but it does work nicely, and I'm happy to have 7.1 capabilities, as I am into surround sound. My M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card I don't believe is compatible with Vista and there are no drivers in development for it, so it looks like that'll be a Windows XP only sound card....so this is why I'm happy to get this 7.1 sound card with the motherboard......and what the heck, it works great and didn't cost me anything extra, aaaannnddd, (this will make Steve happy,)... it's not a Creative Labs Sound Blaster sound card. hehehehehe....

Just a quick question to the panel:

I'm considering upgrades to my main DAW PC. Currently this includes two IDE hard drives and two IDE DVD/CD writers, all of which I'd like to retain  (though I could probably lose the smaller of the two HDDs at a push, the other is a new 500GB drive). Looking at the motherboards referred to here and elsewhere I'm finding it hard to come up with anything that's got even a single onboard IDE interface, and certainly not two - everything's SATA these days.

Given that I'm looking for an evolutionary upgrade rather than a whole new PC, what's the best way forward? Anyone have any experience of IDE-SATA converters, for example? Or would a PCI IDE card be a better bet?

Given that I'm looking for an evolutionary upgrade rather than a whole new PC, what's the best way forward? Anyone have any experience of IDE-SATA converters, for example? Or would a PCI IDE card be a better bet?

My new Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard has three (!) disk controllers, providing a total of 7 SATA (1 external) and two IDE sockets.  Two of them are (different) RAID controllers.  Also 3 PCI slots as well as 2 each PCI-E x1 and PCI-E x16.  And Firewire.

A superb (and very stable) board, ideal as an evolutionary upgrade, say when you need to handle both old and new sound card interfaces.  Specifically recommended by gurus on the MOTU forum and by the supplier of Hauptwerk as a good board for glitch-free audio.

I have a Q6600 sitting happily on mine with 4GB of memory (of which XP 32-bit can see 3.4GB), and soundcards: DAL CardDeluxe, E-MU 1616/PCI, MOTU Traveler.  I have turned off the built-in wireless AP, extra network interface, 7.1 sound chip, and music while in standby capabilities.

Paul

All my old hard drives are IDE and the new drive in the new computer is SATA.  So far, I like it.  From what I've read, SATA transfers information much better than IDE which means  better performance for you. So far, the biggest benefit to me is the SATA cables are much easier to deal with than the old fashioned ribbon cables. They are even making DVD players with SATA cables now....and that'll be my next dvd drive.

The best way forward is to go with the flow and start thinking SATA, for your next hard drive.

My new board has just 1 IDE connection but 6 SATA inputs in a similar sized space.

I know this may sound a little weird, but changing out a mother board really isn't that hard, as long as you have the right components.  I installed my current mb in about 15 minutes.

I junked all my old IDE drives and my IDE DVD and got pure S-ATA - the cabinet seems almost empty without all those ribbon cables and I am sure the air circulates better!

Yep, I don't miss the ribbon cables one bit. No more IDE anything for me. The SATA drives are a dream in comparison. I'm just saving my old drives for reference only. My new SATA drive is cooler, quieter, takes up less space and hooks up in a couple of seconds, and it was fairly inexpensive (250 gig Seagate for $64, it's kind of hard to beat that.)