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AMD Processors

I already asked but I didn't get a good enough answer...

I am looking for a excelent AMD music producing processor and Motherboard...
I need something that will hold for a long time and I wont be in the situation where I need to buy new ones in a year.

Can any bodybody give some advice?
TNX

well if you have the cash to dish out id suggest getting a dual athlon64 mp and spend the money to get 4 sticks of 1gb ram...

This system might be a pricey one but when you look at the fact your going to be running a dual 64bit system in all reality its rather good. dual 2.2ghz 64bit cpu with 1mb of l2 cache is rather insane.. itd be safe to say youd probly not have to worry about upgrades in a year.

heres mobo/cpu/ram info for one
CPU: 2x AMD Opteron 148 2.2GHz 64-Bit CPU
Ram: 4x Micron DDR-1000-2100-ECC-REG 1Gb PC-2100 266MHz w/ECC Reg
MSI Part No. MS-9131-010S

CPU
� Supports dual Socket 940 for AMD� Opteron DP� processors (SledgeHammer DP)
� Supports Opteron DP � 1400MHz and up
Chipset
� AMD� 8131� Chipset
� AMD� 8111� Chipset
Main Memory
� 144-bit DDR at 200, 266, 333MHz
� Supports 6 DIMMs, registered ECC DDR DIMMs memory
� Supports a maximum of 12 GB of memory
Slots
� One PCI-X 64-bit 100MHz slot
� 1 mini PCI slot

Mini PC Upgrade Card
SCSI Add-In Card (MS-9518) optional
- Adaptec AIC-7892B SCSI controller
- Adaptec U160 Chipset

BIOS
� 4Mb Flash EEPROM
� PCI 2.2 compliant, VPD, and DMI
� PnP 1.0A, SMBIOS 2.3, ACPI 1.0A, 2.0
� Supports PXE boot protocol
� APM 1.2, WOL
� PC2001 system design compliant
Power Management Feature
� Wake up on LAN (WOL), USB, PCI, Mouse
� RTC alarm
� Supports ACPI S1, S2, S4 and S5 functions
System Management
� SMBus (I2C)
� Temperature, voltage, and fan monitors
� Chassis intrusion
Video
� ATI Rage� XL video controller
- Built-in DVD decoding
- Provides integrated TMDS transmitter support for digital Flat Panel (DFP) monitors
- Onboard 8MB Video SDRAM
Network
� Broadcom BCM5704 Gigabit LAN controllers
- Provides 1000, 100 and 10MB/s data rates, 64-bit/100MHz PCI-X bus
- Supports dual Ports
Onboard I/O
- 1 floppy port supports 2 FDDs with 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB, and 2.88MB.
- 1 PS/2 keyboard port.
- 1 PS/2 mouse port.
- 2 serial ports (COM1 serial port + COM2 serial header).
- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode.
- 2 RJ-45 ports (with LEDs).
- 4 USB ports (two on front and two on rear).
- 1 VGA port.
Dimension
SSI EEB 3.0 Form Factor: 12" (w) x 13" (h)
Mounting
21 mounting holes (SSI Standard)

Well i use a 2400xp with abit pro motherboard and its quite decent

but i recomend the 939 sckt(ithink there them) 64bit processer i dunno bout motherboard

www.ebuyer.com

thanks for the info

But lets say I am not going to buy a dual motherboard and all that but a singal one instead... what would you recomend?
And what is better for producing? Operaton or Athlon? and what is the diffrens?

Athlon is the fastest, ive got 3000 mhz, really i have never speed problems, though i must say... If you buy a athlon 2600 you will save lots of money, and whats 400 mhz on 2600 mhz? But i shouldnt be posting this because i have no knowledge on processors, so ignore me

well then get a athlonfx 53 939
operatron is merely a more powerfull cpu then say the athlon xp. its more server oriented and high load workstation. ie mostly used for cad and shit like that.. honestly tho if your going to dump a grand on a system might as well dump 2 grand and get you a dual operatron. however if thats not an option id suggest getting a athlonfx 53 939 and look for a decent mobo by asus/abit/msi they all make very good motherboards. but keep in mind if you get a athlon fx 53 939 you will still need to purchase registerd ecc ram. and for ram i suggest micron and corsair. the rest just plain fucking suck.

fastes isnt the case here its about workload. plain and simple the high end athlon fx and operatron series blow the competition out of the water. in all honesty if your going to dump some cash get a athlon fx 53 939 or a operatron 148. the mathamatical processes they can handle are insane.

devil: about your dual opteron tip there. Does the opteron need ECC memories or did ya just pick them because ECC sounded good?
afaik ECC memories are meant for servers wich need a good uptime etc.


well anyway, I'd suggest you wait untill ABIT comes out with their new SLI motherboards (or if you can't wait, get a DFI lanparty motherboard) and then grab yourself one of thoose together with an Athlon FX 55 processor. And then a Zalman CNPS 7700CU cooler for that.
Then on top of that buy a package of OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum Rev2 2x512MB (400mhz) memories.

Now why a PCI express motherboard you might ask, "doesn't that mean that I'm going to need a new graphicscard that works with the PCI express interface?"
Well yeah, AGP graphicscards doesn't work with PCI express so you'll need a new GFXcard too but it's more worth it for the future since PCI express is the future and AGP is not.

"And why would I want SLI on top of that?"
now for thoose of you who doesn't know the SLI interface makes it possible to use two graphicscards at once and let them share all the graphical workload.

"now why is that good for musicproduction?"
Well today it doesn't give any benefits to be honest so you might aswell just start out using one GFX card BUT there's a new technique under work wich will let you utilize your GPU as a DSP processor (so far only for NVIDIA cards though) so imagine how much DSP power you'll get with two PCI express cards working together

"and last, why only 1gb of ram?!?!"
well first of all, it's echonomical. Second it allows you to run them in dual DDR mode and third (and most important of them all). I've seen many indications that systems tend to get unstable when you put in more than 1,5gb of ram into them. Most programs today aren't built to be optimized with more ram than that so instead of working better they start to fuck up A LOT. In theory 4gb of ram would be prefered but unfortunatley it's not like that in practice today :/

okay so in short, a really nice package would look like this:

1 x DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR
1 x Amd Athlon 64 FX-55 Socket 939
1 x Zalman CNPS7700-Cu (this one is really quite but still cools like a monster)
1 x OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum Rev2 2x512MB (they sell in packages of matched pairs)(timings on theese monsters are "CL 2-2-2-5")
1 x Geforce 6600GT 128mb PCI-E (it's very very VERY important that it's PCI-Express and NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT _AGP_ since AGP GFXcards wont work with PCI-E)

this package is the future. It has the socket 939 platform for the processor wich will be utilized for at least 2 more years. It has PCI-E wich is the new GFX standard and it has some really fast memories

you need registerd ecc ram to run operatron and athlonfx 939 systems properly... most mobos ive seen dont even take non ecc..

vizay made alot of valid points. so id have to go with looking into both options that him and i stated. now personlly id say the ram point is only invalid becuase thats assuming your using a older os.. however it is true i rember in 2000 when i put a gig of ram in my windows 98 system it acted kinda funky sometimes and wouldnt boot correctly.my main system is a athlon fx 53 939 on a msi 9130 with 4x corsair pc3200 400mhz 512mb sticks m-audio delta 1010 ati radeon 9800 all in wonder pro and 4x maxtor sata 300gig 16mb cache 7200rpm drives running 0+1 raid and a plextor 12x dvd+/-rw drive running on windows 2000 pro. honestly its one of the most stable systems ive ever built and probly one of the best. ive encounterd 0 problems with it music production on it is great ive yet to really max it completely out ive gotten close but ive yet to completely max it. running fls5 and a collection of vstis and vst effects. never had any problems with instabilty or anything.

argh! PCI express?! 64 bit Operating Systems?! SLI interfaces?!

i fear the PC market has left me behind again. i remember when you could install SIMMsin 486s and not have to buy them in pairs! god my dx-2 66 ruled. it doesnt quite rule now...

I suspected that you need ECC for the opteron systems but just to make one thing clear, Opteron is socket 940 and not 939 No socket 939 processor needs ECC ram to run but I guess all the 940 does


and about the big sizes in ram, I guess it comes down to what brand you use. Just over a year ago there were barely any other brands than original and kingston on the market but various high-end brands have popped up now so I guess there's a very little chance that it'll fuck up theese days thanks to the rise in quality wich has come from the competition of the market

well well, about the systems. Wich system you pin down to is mostly depending on what youre using the machine for.
If you want to have good performance in other things than production (olike games & such) I'd suggest the s939 system with the athlon FX-55 but if it's going to be a 100% dedicated machine for production I'd say go with the opteron. (although one should keep in mind that there are no mobos available with PCI-express for opteron platforms as it looks today wich is a big minus imo)


[edit]
OT: devil I take back what I said before, you do post some usefull stuff too

all these tips indicate the downside of running software synths..but in any case you would have to spend shit loads of cash anyway for HD synths...I've been running a crappy PIII 500(celeron too) for years and I haven't had any major issues with concerns to audio...but hey now its just about toast and I just got me a Athlon Xp 3200 so who am i to talk.

A really good HD is just about all I need to keep me in the groove.

You all must be incredibly rich or something. I'm in the process of building a computer with ABIT NF7-S v2 for under 500$. And I think that will hold up just fine.

ya there is no need to go overboard like that, another tip(dont use all soft synths) that eat the shit out of your cpu
my p4 3ghz 1gb ram has been suiting me well for audio recording and the fer plugins i use.

vizay i think its the other way around on the ecc ram becuase i know when i first started researching the fx 53 939 everywhere i went said it required registerd ecc ram. where as with the operatron it appears they only highly reccommend it but some mobos require it. haha and i know you were mistaken im just a asshole quite often which leads people to think im not knowlgeable(sp) but in reality im somewhat. in some areas more then others but ohh well. ohh and btw dropping 4grand on a computer is worth it imo. considering the fact that my box can rip and encode video and then burn it all to dvd. plus the fact that i can run enormous amount of softsynths. and my hard drives have little to no seek time due to the 0+1 raid and the fact its sata however i wish i would of bought 10k rpm drives instead of 7200. but 16mb of cache kinda makes up for that.

ohh yeah and theres been high quality ram for quite a while. just harder to find and way more expensive. micron i know for a fact has been recommended by amd for over 5 years and same with corsair. they are the best quality ram manfactures around. another issue tho you need to worry about with ram is making sure if they arent the same speed of ram sticks that you have them placed in your motherboard correctly.

Lets say it like this...

Will a

AMD ATHLON 64 3200+
and a
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI nVIDIA nForce4 SLI Socket 939

Suit me well. With no sound interuptions and all that shit. So i can Load many variuos VST's at the same time with out having sound problems.

And would it be good enough for producing for at least the next two years?

By the way. Is it nessary to buy a Sound card? Will it help with the smoothness or whatever? Is the "EMU 1212M" good enough?

devil: well again about the ECC memories, I'm 100% shure that you don't need them for the FX platforms. When it comes to computers, processors and overclocking and that kind of stuff I'm kind of a really big (maybe even a bit geeky) enthusiast

I hang out on various forums dedicated to that kind of hobby and I've seen over 30 persons wich are runnning s939 FX processors without ECC ram

uphoric: well I'm shure that it'll do good for you but we all have different demands
If I bought that kind of system I'd probably regret it after two months, sell it and upgrade again

today the software synths have basicly caught up with the hardware synths so imo. there's no way you can spend to much on a computer


[edit]

devil I did some reading on the subject regarding ECC memories and now I know how it is!

From the beginning the FX processors only shipped for the socket 940 system. The socket 940 will always demand ECC memories.
Now latley though the FX processors have started to ship for the socket 939 platform and will therefore NOT need ECC memories

i dont know about two years but definatly for a year or so. but really like i said if your going to drop the cash you might aswell make it worth it. about the emu cards i have no clue only soundcards ive ever used besides the creative ones are m-audio and in that case only m-audio ive ever used is the dc1010. but yes itd not be a bad system for a year or so. just when youg et into the operatron systems and fx systems you get alot more math crunching power.

quote:

Lets say it like this... Will a AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ and a Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI nVIDIA nForce4 SLI Socket 939 Suit me well. With no sound interuptions and all that shit. So i can Load many variuos VST's at the same time with out having sound problems. And would it be good enough for producing for at least the next two years? By the way. Is it nessary to buy a Sound card? Will it help with the smoothness or whatever? Is the "EMU 1212M" good enough?

well you will be able to run alot more softies simultaneously than i can but ultimately it boils down to working practice. if you just run everything realtime you are, sooner or later you are going to hit 100% cpu load. its inevitable if you work exclusively like this. i hit 100% cpu load after 2 vanguard pads. so when the cpu load gets high, i bounce everything down. cut them up into wav loops. reassemble in a new file with 0% cpu load and continue from there on. as such, you dont need an immensely fast PC to write good, complex tunes although it undoubtedly saves you some time have to bounce and chop and it undoubtedly makes the music making process more fun the less you get contrained by CPU load.

as for the dream PCs that are in this thread - go for it if you have the cash, the knowledge and the experience and expertise with PC components to build an absolute softy running monster. unfortuneatly im not so well up on PCs and im skint as you like. my trusty 1.6 ghz p4 continues to serve me adequately

About the sound card... Do I have to Buy one for producing smoothly?

that explains it vizzay, becuase when i first looked into it i was told to get ecc only but i guess it was kinda pointless. hoever i dont mind the quality. derrivitive you ahve a complete point as i produce alot of tracks on an old compaq armada m300 laptop which has a p2 333mhz 128mb of ram and a 7gig hard drive. and i can do somewhat complex tracks aslong as i bounce everything to wave. which sometimes i do enjoy alot just trying to do the automation and such when bouncing makes it somewhat of a pain which is why i mostly do it with tracks that im not going to do alot fo knob tweaking automation.

Devil:
Is it that all producers convert to wav?

Cause that is the kind of thing that I'm tryng to avoid...

no lots dont thats the advantage of having a powerhouse system is taht you dont have to convert to wave. take for example the orginal system i suggested. im quite sure youd be able to work a song with complete fx and without having to dissable any of them and full softsynths enabled without any issues. however on slowe systems about 70% through the production process you will start tog et choppiness and thats becuase of high cpu load and such so to avoid that you bounce your synth tracks to wav so you can save cpu power.

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