Advice for building a computer

[Bad Disciple]

Hi everybody,

I am about to build my next computer for my Music Recording Home Studio.
I'm quite 'handy' for doing this (I've already built two computers in the
past)
but I need help with the newest cry of the tech.

-1st question, is it still valid to believe that Intel Pentium are the best
processors?
-Next, is it still true that putting 2 HDs in a RAID (for OS and programs)
is
better than the normal ?
-Next, is ASUS still the leading name for mother boards?
-Next, are Hard Discs with 8 or 16 MB cache the fastest; and ATA or S-ATA
and 7200rpm or 10000rpm is to prefer ? Best label, WD, Maxtor etc. ?
Or is there anything new?
-And finally the eternal question, is a Mac still more reliable than a PC ?

Thanks for feedback

[Rod Speed]

Post by Bad Disciple
I am about to build my next computer for my Music Recording Home
Studio. I'm quite 'handy' for doing this (I've already built two computers in the past)
but I need help with the newest cry of the tech.

Is that last the same as tears before bedtime ?

Post by Bad Disciple
-1st question, is it still valid to believe that Intel Pentium are the best processors?

I still prefer them myself.

Post by Bad Disciple
-Next, is it still true that putting 2 HDs in a RAID (for OS and programs) is better
than the normal ?

It can be faster, but is more hassle and not warranted
with modern hard drives except in special situations.

Post by Bad Disciple
-Next, is ASUS still the leading name for mother boards?

Thats arguable, but I still prefer them myself.

Post by Bad Disciple
-Next, are Hard Discs with 8 or 16 MB cache the fastest;

You wouldnt be able to pick the cache size in a proper double blind trial.

Post by Bad Disciple
and ATA or S-ATA

SATA does give you more future, we are already starting
to see motherboards with just one ATA port, two drives,
and one of those is usually needed for the optical drive.

Post by Bad Disciple
and 7200rpm or 10000rpm is to prefer ?

I stick with the 7200 myself.

Post by Bad Disciple
Best label, WD, Maxtor etc. ? Or is there anything new?

I prefer Samsungs myself, very quiet. They are slower to
release the bigger drives tho, currently only 400G max.

Post by Bad Disciple
-And finally the eternal question, is a Mac still more reliable than a PC ?

Nope. Tho you may find that in that specialised area the Mac is better covered.

[Bad Disciple]

You guys are marvelous! Thank you all for your cool feedback.



Just to point out that, in music recording and processing, the speed is
vitally

important. So, whatever I can do for speed, I'll do it and it still will
never

be enough! That's why people in my branch use to say that Mac is more

reliable, which I very often hear to be contradicted. Budget is not a
problem

but want to keep it at reasonable level.



My current system is:

ASUS P4B 533(-E) - Intel P4 2,4Ghz 533 FSB - 1.5GB RAM - 4 MAXTOR

HDs, 7200rpm, 8 MB cache (2 on RAID 0, +1 to data storage, +1 backup).

All with 500W power supply.



So I can get an ASUS (or good equivalent) motherboard, Intel or ADM CPU,

the maximum possible RAM memory, Samsung HDs for silence, 10000rpm,

16 MB cache, 2 HDs on RAID 0 for my OS and programs (+ another HD to

store data + another one to backup). I must decide if RAID 0 with two HDs,

or RAID 5 with more HDs, as I don't know if the difference in speed will
justify

the price for several HDs (and the box). And I guess backing up my system

should prevent failures, I only don't know what's best for system backup.



I ask myself is it worth replacing my current system and how much better I'll
get ?

[kony]

On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:12:59 +0200, "Bad Disciple"

Post by Bad Disciple
Just to point out that, in music recording and processing, the speed is
vitally important. So, whatever I can do for speed, I'll do it and it still will
never be enough!

Depends on the job. A Pentium 2 can record music fine. It
takes a lower-speed Pentium 3 (or equivalent) to record MP3
realtime. Multi-track recording may depend on the
compression level (or lack thereof) but more important, the
hard drive (presuming it is the destination for the files)
write speed which has nothing to do with rest of system
(given anywhere near a remotely modern system, above ATA33
or ATA66 for the more demanding work).

Processing it later is another story, it will depend a lot
on the particular jobs. Again the HDD speed tends to matter
a lot no matter what else you're doing, unless it were a
rare case of importing or outputting highly compressed
format like MP3, but that is seldom considered, nobody doing
serious work would be touching such formats in general
except for some kind of download service or to play on a
portable player.

Post by Bad Disciple
That's why people in my branch use to say that Mac is more
reliable, which I very often hear to be contradicted. Budget is not a
problem

Reliability is pretty much a nonsense concept, either
hardware platform will be fine, you merely choose a well
written application, and audio is not a new frontier, either
platform can do it fine so it comes down to your personal
preference or needs.

Post by Bad Disciple
ASUS P4B 533(-E) - Intel P4 2,4Ghz 533 FSB - 1.5GB RAM - 4 MAXTOR
HDs, 7200rpm, 8 MB cache (2 on RAID 0, +1 to data storage, +1 backup).
All with 500W power supply.

So where is the bottleneck? Without knowing this, there's
little we can do to suggest an upgrade. The described
system should record audio and edit it fine, in general.

Post by Bad Disciple
So I can get an ASUS (or good equivalent) motherboard, Intel or ADM CPU,
the maximum possible RAM memory, Samsung HDs for silence, 10000rpm,
16 MB cache, 2 HDs on RAID 0 for my OS and programs (+ another HD to
store data + another one to backup). I must decide if RAID 0 with two HDs,
or RAID 5 with more HDs, as I don't know if the difference in speed will
justify
the price for several HDs (and the box). And I guess backing up my system
should prevent failures, I only don't know what's best for system backup.
I ask myself is it worth replacing my current system and how much better I'll
get ?

No, it's not worth replacing your system until you can
pinpoint an area that needs improvement. That does not mean
there could not be one, but randomly replacing a system
without a clear need makes little sense.

[Bad Disciple]

You guys are marvelous! Thank you all for your cool feedback.

Just to point out that, in music recording and processing, the speed is
vitally
important. So, whatever I can do for speed, I'll do it and it still will
never
be enough! That's why people in my branch use to say that Mac is more
reliable, which I very often hear to be contradicted. Budget is not a
problem
but want to keep it at reasonable level.

My current system is:
ASUS P4B 533(-E) - Intel P4 2,4Ghz 533 FSB - 1.5GB RAM - 4 MAXTOR
HDs, 7200rpm, 8 MB cache (2 on RAID 0, +1 to data storage, +1 backup).
All with 500W power supply.

So I can get an ASUS (or good equivalent) motherboard, Intel or ADM CPU,
the maximum possible RAM memory, Samsung HDs for silence, 10000rpm,
16 MB cache, 2 HDs on RAID 0 for my OS and programs (+ another HD to
store data + another one to backup). I must decide if RAID 0 with two HDs,
or RAID 5 with more HDs, as I don't know if the difference in speed will
justify
the price for several HDs (and the box). And I guess backing up my system
should prevent failures, I only don't know what's best for system backup.

I ask myself is it worth replacing my current system and how much better
I'll get ?

[Merrill P. L. Worthington]

Computer speed is everything with recording. A recording computer needs
a very fast A/D converter and the ability to write the data fast to a
hard drive.

Processor performance will depend on the application you're using. To
get an idea of relative performance, Tom's Hardware has a CPU comparison
chart that includes some encoding appplications. See

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

for more details.

Using two WD 250g SATA II drives with 16mb cache in RAID0 with a fast
processor makes for a wickedly fast system. But for recording /
encoding, two gb of system memory will provide good system cache for
write buffering (if the app is configured to use it).

At the current price of WD 320gb drives, that might be a consderation
for the "data" drive. Doesn't matter if the data drive is SATA or PATA
since the read or write time for either is still much slower than the
bandwidth of PATA.

MLPW

Post by Bad Disciple
You guys are marvelous! Thank you all for your cool feedback.
Just to point out that, in music recording and processing, the speed is
vitally
important. So, whatever I can do for speed, I'll do it and it still will
never
be enough! That's why people in my branch use to say that Mac is more
reliable, which I very often hear to be contradicted. Budget is not a
problem
but want to keep it at reasonable level.
ASUS P4B 533(-E) - Intel P4 2,4Ghz 533 FSB - 1.5GB RAM - 4 MAXTOR
HDs, 7200rpm, 8 MB cache (2 on RAID 0, +1 to data storage, +1 backup).
All with 500W power supply.
So I can get an ASUS (or good equivalent) motherboard, Intel or ADM CPU,
the maximum possible RAM memory, Samsung HDs for silence, 10000rpm,
16 MB cache, 2 HDs on RAID 0 for my OS and programs (+ another HD to
store data + another one to backup). I must decide if RAID 0 with two HDs,
or RAID 5 with more HDs, as I don't know if the difference in speed will
justify
the price for several HDs (and the box). And I guess backing up my system
should prevent failures, I only don't know what's best for system backup.
I ask myself is it worth replacing my current system and how much better
I'll get ?

[WindsorFox]

Post by Bad Disciple
You guys are marvelous! Thank you all for your cool feedback.
Just to point out that, in music recording and processing, the speed is
vitally
important. So, whatever I can do for speed, I'll do it and it still will
never
be enough! That's why people in my branch use to say that Mac is more
reliable, which I very often hear to be contradicted. Budget is not a
problem
but want to keep it at reasonable level.
ASUS P4B 533(-E) - Intel P4 2,4Ghz 533 FSB - 1.5GB RAM - 4 MAXTOR
HDs, 7200rpm, 8 MB cache (2 on RAID 0, +1 to data storage, +1 backup).
All with 500W power supply.
So I can get an ASUS (or good equivalent) motherboard, Intel or ADM CPU,
the maximum possible RAM memory, Samsung HDs for silence, 10000rpm,
16 MB cache, 2 HDs on RAID 0 for my OS and programs (+ another HD to
store data + another one to backup). I must decide if RAID 0 with two HDs,
or RAID 5 with more HDs, as I don't know if the difference in speed will
justify
the price for several HDs (and the box). And I guess backing up my system
should prevent failures, I only don't know what's best for system backup.
I ask myself is it worth replacing my current system and how much better
I'll get ?

I replaced mine more because I wanted to, but also it would not do what
I wanted to do. What you listed *should* do what you want, if you have
some type of problem you should figure out what it is, as the new system
may do it too. In my case I wanted to play Elder Scrolls - Oblivion at
full detail, so I upgraded.

[WindsorFox]

Post by Bad Disciple
Hi everybody,
I am about to build my next computer for my Music Recording Home Studio.
I'm quite 'handy' for doing this (I've already built two computers in the
past)
but I need help with the newest cry of the tech.
-1st question, is it still valid to believe that Intel Pentium are the best
processors?

Intel haven't been "the best" for at least 6 years :-P

Post by Bad Disciple
-Next, is it still true that putting 2 HDs in a RAID (for OS and programs)
is
better than the normal ?

In the proper configuration it can be faster or more reliable or a
little of both. You decide which is better.

Post by Bad Disciple
-Next, is ASUS still the leading name for mother boards?

I't one of a number of good boards. Some better, some not it
depends on the particular model and what you are looking for. There are
quite a lot of review sites out there. Read some reviews to determine
what is best for you particular use.

Post by Bad Disciple
-Next, are Hard Discs with 8 or 16 MB cache the fastest; and ATA or S-ATA
and 7200rpm or 10000rpm is to prefer ? Best label, WD, Maxtor etc. ?

10,000RPM SCSI is prob still the fastest, 10,000RPM anything will be
fasterbut pricey. When I built my new NASA killer in April all the
rsearch I did pointed to SATA2 not being any faster than the comparable
IDE drive. THe ones with the higher speed and bigger cache are faster
and usually have the longer warranty.

Post by Bad Disciple
Or is there anything new?
-And finally the eternal question, is a Mac still more reliable than a PC ?

I never saw a Mac as more reliable. Better in some ways for some
tasks, maybe, easier for some people to use but not particularly more
reliable.

[paul]

1. yes, intel is still stronger than amd about incording
2. raid mode is fast than normal mode
but have no accesstime profit.
3. yes, ASUS and GIGABYTE are good until now
but, not good in amd system.
4. wd raptor is fastest hard in ata mode but It has nose. I recomand you to
buy wd aaks series or seagate 10 series.
5. I dont know well about it. however mac is looks good than pc.

Post by Bad Disciple
Hi everybody,
I am about to build my next computer for my Music Recording Home Studio.
I'm quite 'handy' for doing this (I've already built two computers in the
past)
but I need help with the newest cry of the tech.
-1st question, is it still valid to believe that Intel Pentium are the
best processors?
-Next, is it still true that putting 2 HDs in a RAID (for OS and programs)
is
better than the normal ?
-Next, is ASUS still the leading name for mother boards?
-Next, are Hard Discs with 8 or 16 MB cache the fastest; and ATA or S-ATA
and 7200rpm or 10000rpm is to prefer ? Best label, WD, Maxtor etc. ?
Or is there anything new?
-And finally the eternal question, is a Mac still more reliable than a PC ?
Thanks for feedback