is Athlon XP shitty?

[medula]

I found a guy in nashville(that is where i live) to bulid me a PC. His computers spec out a hell of alot better than the carillons and the price is a little better. He works for a reputable high end studio gear store(Mac Midi Music) and he's offering me one-on-one tech support.

the fact that we live in the same city is very tempting.

His uses Athlon xp processors.

Should i be leary of this?

Thanks.

[stillafool]

Alot of highend workstations use Athlons. I've always used intel cpus on intel motherboards because there is absolutely no possibility of any hardware conflict. Probably 95% of the athlons out there work fine with most interfaces, but intels are always 100%. If the builder has a system that works (he can vouch that it will work with your software/hardware), then go for it. I tried installing my old layla 20 on a friends athlon and all hell broke loose. I think Carillons are kind of a burn, but the cases look pretty cool. I personally have a Dell dimension and it works great -- very quiet, cheap, and returnable if you don't get it to work. I use it with a layla 24 (which was kind of a bitch to get to work right -- but works great now), with Sonar 2.2 , Cubase Sx, and Nuendo 1.61. Hardly ever crashes. I've never flexed it, but I've heard with similar systems you can get over 100 audio tracks w/ realtime fx, etc. Me personally, I wouldn't go Athlon, primarily because I've been using intel for 10 years, and, as I said, if it ain't gonna work on intel, it ain' t gonna work at all.

[apropos of nothing]

Probably 95% of the athlons out there work fine with most interfaces, but intels are always 100%.

Nothing is 100%.

I have an Athlon XP1600+, and have successfully used it with an Aardvark DP24/96 and a MOTU 2408.

Good friend of mine has been using a 1700+ with his MOTU 24i with no hassle.

I strongly suggest the NForce2 chipset. It clocks fastfastfast (love that dual-channel memory) and seems to be very compatible with a whole lotta soundcards. The other good chipset is older and not as fast, but very reliable: the AMD-761. I personally would avoid mobos that use the SIS, VIA and Ali chipsets.

Bang fer buck y'r not going to get a better deal. If the fellow is recommending it, the likelihood is he's got a hardware combination that works properly.

I have gotten something on the order of 40 simultaneous tracks of audio and virutal synthesis out of my (comparitively ancient, slow) system with a decent spot of plug-ins running.

If y'r feeling squeamish about it, get him to give you a warrantee for incompatibility troubleshooting.

That's my assessment.

[cassembler]

Yeah, I agree with the above. If he'll give you a warranty and some tech support (if anything goes sour), then go for it.

I still think Carillon systems are the way to go if money is no object, but when is that ever the case?

[JES]

Athlons are pretty common processors for home DAW applications, so I doubt you'll have problems. Just spec out your system carefully and make sure everything works with everything else. A week of research on the front end is worth a few hundred dollars of switching stuff in and out.

But if I was going PC, I'd be totally into the Athlon thing.

Best,
--JES

[Auxillary]

Athlons have faster floating point units than intel processors. Hence, they are quicker with most major software.

Also they dont suffer from the lower denormalization threshold!

Athlon XP is THE choice for a pc daw using anything but Nuendo. If nuendo, your choice is clearly intel.

[percussion boy]

I personally have a Dell dimension and it works great -- very quiet, cheap, and returnable if you don't get it to work. I use it with a layla 24 (which was kind of a bitch to get to work right -- but works great now), with Sonar 2.2 , Cubase Sx, and Nuendo 1.61. Hardly ever crashes.

Stilla: Can you elaborate on what it takes to make a Layla 24 (or 20?) live happily in a Dell?

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