DIY PC DAW Build - newbie!

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 6:05 pm

those sweetwater pc's are high as hell , you might as well get a mac pro . sorry to tell yeah !

timcoalman · Post by **timcoalman** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:16 pm

You might check your old issues of Tape Op - I know there have been advertisements for companies/individuals who build computers specifically for audio work - and you would be supporting those who support Tape Op!

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:40 pm

I was just saying look at their specs for ideas, not buy one from them. The OP seems set on DIY which I wholeheartedly support in this realm.

thunderbroom · Post by **thunderbroom** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:56 pm

timcoalman wrote:You might check your old issues of Tape Op - I know there have been advertisements for companies/individuals who build computers specifically for audio work - and you would be supporting those who support Tape Op!

Absolutely. I've got a few years of TapeOp in storage outside my tracking room. Time to start breaking those out!

-Howard

thunderbroom · Post by **thunderbroom** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:57 pm

Snarl 12/8 wrote:I was just saying look at their specs for ideas, not buy one from them. The OP seems set on DIY which I wholeheartedly support in this realm.

Absolutely. At the very least, I learn something and save a few bucks simultaneously. I appreciate the comment.

-Howard

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:53 pm

I would suggest Western Digital Black series hard drives. They have bearings on both ends of the disk spindle, whereas other drives don't. Think of a top spinning up or down. You can find them at New Egg. The 6.0 drives are noticibly faster.
Even though my Asus board has an onboard firewire chipset approved by Focusrite for the interface I have, I've found it works much better to use an add on card. Either pci or pcie works fine.
Remember, PT won't run on AMD systems.

thunderbroom · Post by **thunderbroom** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:43 am

mrc wrote:I would suggest Western Digital Black series hard drives. They have bearings on both ends of the disk spindle, whereas other drives don't. Think of a top spinning up or down. You can find them at New Egg. The 6.0 drives are noticibly faster.
Even though my Asus board has an onboard firewire chipset approved by Focusrite for the interface I have, I've found it works much better to use an add on card. Either pci or pcie works fine.
Remember, PT won't run on AMD systems.

That was weird. Posted sans message. Anyway...

I agree about WD drives, and I have been hearing a lot about the Black series. I will definitely be researching those more thoroughly.

I did not know that about firewire chipsets. I'll definitely need to keep that in mind when shoppig for motherboards.

Speaking of PCI/PCIe, as I upgrade to PT9 LE, I wonder what decent PCI/e interfaces might be out there. In comparing PTLE to PT M-Powered, I saw little if any difference (maybe switch?), and there seem to be many good options through M-Audio for PCI cards for PTM-Powered. Ideally, I want to bypass my 002 board entirely if I can, and rely simply on my good outboard pres and other equipment. Any reason not to jump to PT 9 M-Powered?

And, thanks again for the AMD info. I was not aware of that altogether, though nowhere else had I seen much info about PT and AMD - so there you go. Thanks!

-Howard

LupineSound · Post by **LupineSound** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 5:36 am

mrc wrote: Remember, PT won't run on AMD systems.

Was that sarcasm? I run PT on an AMD system. It actually runs better on my AMD (Phenom II) than on my Intel system (Q6600).

thunderbroom · Post by **thunderbroom** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 5:13 pm

shithead wrote:
mrc wrote: Remember, PT won't run on AMD systems.
Was that sarcasm? I run PT on an AMD system. It actually runs better on my AMD (Phenom II) than on my Intel system (Q6600).

Uh oh, have I started a war within the thread? Let's be nice, gentlemen! Then again, what is the final word on this (not to add fuel to the fire, but, hey, for my benefit, what the hell!)

-Howard

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 7:09 pm

No Sarcasm and no War. When PT 9 was released I went to their site and that's what it said. If PT9 will work on my system, I'm all for it. If there's a work around and it's not a nightmare, please explain it. I have a system with XP 3 pro for myself, and am setting up a system with win 7 64 on it for my wife to do VO on. We both have qualified Focusrite, Line 6 (for those effect) and or Rme I/O's, but due to her needs she'll be running on a 9750 quad, while I'm running a faster chip with a couple of UAD's and a TC poco. The mobos are virtually the same and there is a spare exact copy of mine. If you can tell me how, I'm all ears. It will only expand her compatibility, and perhaps her income as well as mine. Her board is an Asus M4N72-E w 8gb of ram, but I have a newer version that will also run the TC poco, and extra ram for it, that I could drop into her machine. She has a Focusrite 6 USB ('cause she's wanting a lappy), a Trident Fet head, Sm7b and a pair of Shure 440's to work under. No sarcasm, I would love to know how you are doing it, I'm sure a lot of people would.

LupineSound · Post by **LupineSound** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 4:54 am

I'm still on PT8. Maybe that's the difference? I didn't have to do anything special to get it working.

thunderbroom · Post by **thunderbroom** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 3:57 pm

I would be curious to know that too, as the cost difference AMD to Intel can be enormous. Please let us know if you find anything out about PT9 in this regard (I'll be looking at windows 7, 64 bit (as this will match my laptop).

Howard

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 4:15 pm

mrc wrote:When PT 9 was released I went to their site and that's what it said.

Please don't believe everything you read on a web site. Even this.

Maybe they didn't want to bother supporting it on AMD so they didn't bother testing it there. You can go AMD, but it becomes a crap shoot. People might be sharing knowledge of known configurations that work on the Protools forum or somewhere though to help up your odds.

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:50 pm

Yeah, TC states on their website that the Powercore will not run on multi cpu Amd systems, but I've been running one for a couple of years. It's the north bridge/southbridge combination on the M4N72-e Asus motherboard that works, so any likewise configured board or brand will do the trick. It would be nice if the stars line up for 9 on AMD, too.

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