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What computer setup do you use?

Hello

Searched for this in this forum but didnt find anything so I thought I'd ask you all what computer setup and soundcard you use, what pros and cons it has!

Myself I had a AMD64 3000+ on a Socket 754 board and it worked lovely, but picking up a AMD x2 4200+ on a AM2 board next week. anyone with experiences of this socket and CPU for musicproducing?

using stock setup:

daw:
- dell inspiron 6000
- 1.73ghz centrino
- 512mb ram
- 60gb hard disk
- stock sound card...

headphone:
- mdr-v150

imo, the setup is a minimum (to me it's decent) requirement... able to run some of the lower memory comsumption vsti's at the same time. it was a mistake to buy a dj headphone for production, but it's still good for dj'ing. latency-wise, it's still okay as i'm using asio4all driver... no problem so far. good thing about laptop is surely the portability, u can produce or dj, anywhere, anytime. it's a plus if you're a final skratch user too. the downside would be the $$$ as it's a lil bit more expensive than pc setups.

XP2800+
1024MB DDR
2x80GB HDD's
TerraTec DMX 6Fire 24/96
Tannoy Reveal Active studio monitors
2 Fujitsu-Siemens TFT screens (17" and 15")

Starting to cough a bit during the more intense parts of my tracks... but it still does the job.

AMD64 3700+ Overclocked
512 + 512 MB RAM
300 + 300 GB
Shitty integrated soundcard
17" monitor
Asus A8N-E motherboard

My old rig was:

Sony RX-201
Pentium 4 1.6 ghz
256mb RAM
M-Audio Delta 1010 PCI

Noisy fans. Slow. Not enough memory and its slow CAS 3.0 crap.

My new rig is:

Shuttle SN21G5
AMD A64 3200+
1gb Corsair XMS RAM
M-Audio Delta 1010 PCI

Much quieter. Decent memory. I want to ditch the Delta 1010 at some point for a Focusrite Saffire as it would reduce case temperatures and to be honest, I dont use all the inputs/outouts anyway. I dont need them.

After July 23rd when Conroe comes out the AMD X2 3800+ is going to get a 50% price reduction. I am *so* buying one of those when that happens so I can finally join the dual core crowd.

The transition to my new rig in the past couple of weeks means I can finally produce at 24/96 and not max out CPU load after adding 2 instances of SIR. The difference is amazing and its so much more convenient to produce now. I cant wait for AMD dual core prices to drop. Bring it on!

quote:

Much quieter. Decent memory. I want to ditch the Delta 1010 at some point for a Focusrite Saffire as it would reduce case temperatures and to be honest, I dont use all the inputs/outouts anyway. I dont need them.

Do yourself a favour and get an RME. They are absolutely the best sounding cards by far.

I'm using in my studio:

AMD XP2800+
512 + 512 RAM
40GB + 80GB HD
RME Digipad Soundcard
UAD DSP Card

And for Live:

AMD64 3400+ Laptop
1GB RAM
60GB HD
Echo Indigo DJ soundcard

I got a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard and a box on the ground that makes funny noises when i overlap my main leads

Main(Stationary)
-Fujitsu Siemens Scalio 600
-Intel Pentuim 4 (2.4Ghz)
-512+256 Mb RAM
-M-Audio, Audiophile USB soundcard.
-80 + 150 Gb HDD

Slave(Laptop)
-Acer TM2300
-Intel Centrino (1.6Ghz)
-256 Mb RAM
-60 Gb HDD

But this is what im changing to


Frost ACM-340D - DualCore
The ACM-340 is designed to cope with the most demanding audio projects as well as processing the heaviest plug-ins, all at the same time of course.

It has triple harddrives, one of the fastest 64-bit processors on the market and as much as 2 Gigabytes of RAM fitted as standard.

All this carefully built and wrapped up in an anodized black aluminium tower case - the ACM-340 is our top of the line desktop computer.

Aluminium Tower - Black Anodized aluminium
Intel�945P Chipset
Intel� 64-bit Pentium D 950
(2x 3.4 GHz 4MB Cache)
2.0 Gb PC533 DDR2 RAM
DVD +/- Dual Layer writer
250 Gb 7200 rpm System HD
(16MB Cache 24/7 cert.)
250 Gb 7200 rpm Audio HD
(16MB Cache 24/7 cert.)
250 Gb 7200 rpm Audio II HD
(16MB Cache 24/7 cert.)
2 monitor outputs (1xDVi/1xVGA)
1

2x Ti Firewire (front/rear)
6x USB 2.0 (2front/4rear)
Gigabit (1000 Mbit) Network

4x available PCI slots
2x available PCIe 1 slots
1x Printer port
1x serial port

Windows XP Pro - Multilanguage, optimized for audio
Keyboard/optical mouse

Visit Frost Audio Computing machines
http://www.frostacm.com/

Right now my production setup is:

13.3" White Apple Macbook
Intel CoreDuo T2400 1.83GHz
80.0GB HDD
1GB RAM
Sennheiser HD497 headphones

I use:

2.8 ghz dual core processor. (intel)
1gb ram.
M-audio, audiophile 2496 soundcard.
Wharfedale diamond 8.1 active nearfields.

its a good set-up, only downside is that Live 5 and reason dont support Dual core processors. meaning that those programs run capped at about 1.4 ghz processing power.... thank god for the freeze function is all i can really say..

if anyone knows anything different about Live 5's support with dual core processors, please for the love of god let me know :| (PM would be best)

Bear in mind this computer wasnt originally built for music production, but after a couple of part swapping ventures, it soon turned that way (hence the less than ideal processor choice)

I have a DAW which i built:

AMD64 Dual core Opteron @2.6ghz
Lanparty Ultra D NF4
1GB BH5 ram running at stock
2x80gb SATAs, 2x160GB SATAs (System, Audio recording, sample library, drum sample library.)
Antec true powerII 480w
Customized case and cooling system

M audio audiophile card for ASIO2 and direct monitoring
DBX386 for recording and post production work thru S/PDIF.


Pros- The moddified case is small! It has a handle so it it's very portable for live sound and studio work. I designed it for that purpose. The processing power is enormous allowing me to run all synths/effects realtime and not have to render to audio. This gives me optimum flexibility. The powersupply is outside the case so it stays very cool and the inside of the case is cooler also.

Cons- The computer is noisy, almost as loud as a server at times. So it must stay in the machine room, not in the studio when mic recording. Hard drives tend to run a bit warmer because of the small case design.

see it here. HERE

digital village(uk) music pc

2.8 ghz celeron
512ddr2 ram
m audio 2496

running cubase sl 2.0

monitoring ;-
smartlight sl2750dp power amplifier
mordaunt short ms20 (from 1980's)

I have a monitor and a keyboard. They're dope.

I use both my computers for mixing, here is the spec of my main machine :

Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D
AMD 64 3200 @ 2.5ghz
XFX 7800GT LED ED
Relisys 17" Wide Screen TV
2GB Gskill 2GBHZ
160GB SATA
525W HIPER
Windows XP PRO SP2

The onboard sound on the Lanparty board is more than ample for music. Also the Amd 64 cpu is great

And a pic just for fun :






And I will get this one in before you do :

quote:

Originally posted by dj_palm what sequencer is that? looks cool

I believe its mixmeister

that windows theme is cool... anywhere i can download it?

Asus A8nsli Socket 939 Mobo
Athlon 64 3800+ Cpu
Four gig corsair Xms Pro
Eight Maxtor 250 sata hard drives
Pioneer DVD-RW DVD-109
Pioneer DVD-RW DVD-11D
Custom Power supplies
Custom Cpu cooler
Case bought from pc world with five fans and neons
Computer built by me

Soundcard is Delta 1010
Monitors are Mackie HR824's
Cheap second pair of monitors for refernce are from maplins

build my DAW over the years and have updated it oh so many times, finally it's running like I want!

DFI LanParty NF3 Ultra MB Socket 939 AGP board
AMD Opteron 165 dualcore @ 2628mhz/core
1gb Geil one S Memory stable @ 292mhz fsb. (584mhz DDR)TCCD chip on Brainpower PCB, 2.5-4-3-8 timings
Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT GFX card running at stock atm.
480gb Storage (to many disks and partitions to keep track of what's what, it's two maxtors and one WD disk anyway, or was it two WD and one maxtor? )
OCZ Modstream 520w PSU
Shitloads of Zalman fans for cooling
Chieftech chassi (gonna buy a Antec P180 as soon as I have the money for it)
ESI ESP1010 WaMi Rack Soundcard

quote:

Originally posted by LENG that windows theme is cool... anywhere i can download it?

You need a little prog called windowblinds, you should be able to find it ok. There is also a prog called icon packager , that sorts your icons.

Best site for downloads for these programs is :

http://www.wincustomize.com/



The mixing program is mix meister as was mentioned. The other nvidia box is just for playing about with sounds and effects, that sorta thing. (On board sound of the motherboard)

Also the little nvidia thing on the left is just a skin for Windows media player.

The 2gb of memory helps a lot with multiple tasks, and games of course

just a little general tip, windowblinds can suck a whole lot of power from the computer so if the machine isn't top notch it's not a very good idea to use it while producing....

quote:

Originally posted by Vizay just a little general tip, windowblinds can suck a whole lot of power from the computer so if the machine isn't top notch it's not a very good idea to use it while producing....

Thats true, it does constantly run and use some power, its easy to turn off though from your task bar.

The only time I would turn it off is maybe if im playing a game with high detail settings.

It looks great, here is my latest desktop

Few of my other desktops, its a cool program

This one is pretty good, I used the xbox theme, and a Pioneer skin for winamp (Few months ago)

Lets post some desktops bitches!

Heres mine:



Windowblinds is the dogs bollocks.

My current computer setup:

Intel Pentium3 600 MHz, Abit mobo with Intel chipset.
448 MB RAM, 260 GB HD, Linux, Win98, Cubase.

Good things: enough power for all kinds of applications, super reliable, no virus threats, good compatibility, cheap.

Bad things: not enough HD space.. hmm, can't think of anything else.

-Intel Pentium D 940
-1024 MB DDR2
-250 GB HDD
-DVD-RW
-Viewsonic LCD 19 inch wide
-Creative soundblaster live (going to upgrade to the X FI soon)

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