Building dual dual-core AMD 270 or 280 PC need help

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Member Since: Feb 28, 2006

Hello,
I am wanting to build a dual dual-core AMD 270 or 280 PC for audio. I am switching from a Mac so this is new to me and need some guidance - I'm not up on compatible or best Motherboards, etc.

I do Ambient music with many layers of synths, wavestations, samplers, atmosphere, Reason on Cubase SX3 and usually four layered voices of four tracks each (16 tracks of vocals) in most songs. I'm planning on recording everything 24/192 and will be getting the Motu 896HD firewire audio interface.

Want a couple of 300 or 500 gig HDs - I suppose 7200s will be fast enough but should they be SATA or SCSI?

Planning on 4 gigs of memory but don't know the right type for setup.

I have no idea which motherboard is best and most reliable for this.

I've been trying to gather the above info, but it is new to me it's hard to know what I'm reading about since I'm not familiar with all the model numbers of these items.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA - Joe

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Time Waster
Member
Since: Jan 12, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 01:43 pm

Seems like overkill to me.

You'd need a server class mainboard like:
www.tyan.com/products/html/tigerk8we.html

The board above will allow up to 24GB of memory.
The CPUs are close to $1K each.

SWT makes a system using that board:
www.swt.com/dualo5.html
www.swt.com/dualo6.html

A dual AMD 280 starts at $3179.00
I have no experience with that equipment myself so I can't really help you out...

You might find some good info at:
www.tomshardware.com/

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Feb 28, 2006 01:49 pm

Not really too much overkill considering the softsynth usage and hi rez recording...I'd go with SATA myself, it's pretty much the current standard.

Time Waster
Member
Since: Jan 12, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 01:54 pm

Do be aware that some software requires that you purchase a license for each CPU you want to run it on in the system...you buy one license, it can only run on one CPU. Also be aware that some drivers have had trouble with dual CPUs.

As far as overkill, maybe it's not. I'm not familiar enough with soft synths and high rez recording to have made a call on that... so I defer to those who have experience...

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Feb 28, 2006 09:49 pm

Sonar 5 PE will run on duals without an extra license or any trouble. I would hope SX3 can do the same, but I know Steinberg is a bit of a nasty company when it comes to that kind of thing.

The Tyan is a well known board, I dont know any of the others right now making a high quality compatable mobo for that set up. Here is a list of recomended mobo's for that chip. www2.amd.com/us-en/recmob...1~68707,00.html

I would suggest the 280 as it is outperforming the 270 in most of the benchmark tests I have read.

And being of the same vein here you will do well with as much ram as you can get. You will want to get the fastest buss speed on the ram as possible. As dB stated the heavy softsynth load will need it.

SCSI is not the boon it used to be. These days. SATA is really just as capable now.
I run 2 seperate SATA drives set aside strictly for storage of the samples and files used by the software synths and samplers. The second is for running projects only, then everything is transfered to and IDE drive for storage. The OS is on a seperate IDE drive as well as the recording software.

Member
Since: Feb 28, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 09:57 pm

Thanks DungBeatle and DB Masters,
I appreciate the pointers and links. Interesting about the license per CPU limits that some software has - I'll watch out for that. I'll definitely go with SATA drives. The driver issue is also very important. Will check out the links.

So many people have said that they can build a PC with more power than a Mac Quad for less than a Mac. I hope that is true.

Thanks very much.

- Joe

Member
Since: Feb 28, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 10:40 pm

SX3 does not require extra for the other CPUs and is built to utilize them.

The tips on HD usage was good. I wasn't thinking to that extent but your setup sounds very useful. Will make a plan for the different uses. Storage will be an issue.

Didn't know about the bus speed on the ram. I have been using mostly 2 adats with a BRC and Cubase 4 for midi and also Reason. Also did 3D animation for a while and have an ALPHA 64 bit computer for doing 3D and Video, but had someone build the computer for me. Then Windows NT4 stopped supporting the ALPHA and the ALPHA was bought out to kill the line.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Feb 28, 2006 10:44 pm

Oh, by the way Joe, welcome to HRC.

I will say the performance increase from running drives like that is great. But the switch to SATA for the samples and softsynth data rely made a big differance for me as almost everything I do is very synth intensive. Thank goodness Sonar has the ability to freeze and un-freeze both audio and softsynth tracks.
Wow, it sounds like your into several uses for high powered PC's.

Good luck and keep us posted on how things go with that.

Member
Since: Feb 28, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 10:44 pm

Noize2U,
Thanks for help.
- Joe

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Feb 28, 2006 10:47 pm

Thats what we are here for Joe.

Good Luck,

Noize

Time Waster
Member
Since: Jan 12, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 10:53 pm

You will need to check into which versions of Windows supports that much RAM too. XP Pro only supports 4GB. There's a 64-bit version but will any of the consumer software run on it? and reliably?

You said:

"So many people have said that they can build a PC with more power than a Mac Quad for less than a Mac. I hope that is true."

I would be skeptical... I will look further..

Member
Since: Feb 28, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 11:03 pm

I loved doing animation, special effects and compositing. If you ever saw Thumb Wars or Thumbtanic by Steve Oedekerk, I did a lot of the special effects and compositing work on them.

I'm really looking forward to the kind of music I can do on this new system.

You guys have given me some great advice. Thanks.

I'll keep checking in and also will let you know how it comes together.

- Joe

Member
Since: Feb 28, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 11:11 pm

You're right - good question - will software run well on 64 bit Windows . Will have do some research on that. I know about having the wrong OS.

- Joe

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Feb 28, 2006 11:11 pm

I loaded win xp64 on my amd3500 pc. I couldn't get my drivers for my esp1010 to load, so I went with w2k for now. Windows would see the device, and try to install, but the inf = device part kept failing.

my .02 is to avoid the xp64 for anything more than expirementation.

I'll try again when I reload, but am not expecting much.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Feb 28, 2006 11:32 pm

Well Sonar 5 PE is allready ported for 64 bit so that might be an alternative.

Time Waster
Member
Since: Jan 12, 2006


Feb 28, 2006 11:56 pm

Good drivers will be tough to find... depends on what hardware you go with...

Eat Spam before it eats YOU!!!
Member
Since: May 11, 2002


Mar 01, 2006 09:25 am

Quad or more boards are generally going to be used in Linux/Unix workstations as far as I know... If you want a turnkey system you should consiter buying a workstation from IBM or Sun...they seem to average $8K

www.sun.com/desktop/index.jsp
www-03.ibm.com/servers/intellistation/index.html

Linux and Unix workstations are commonly used in 3D animation in movies... which is prettymuch the most intensive thing you can do to a PC at the moment...



Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 01, 2006 09:31 am

PC's, as I recall, can't build a "grid" or shared computing power except thru some proprietary features that some apps have...whereas Linux/Unix type systems can grid, which is awesome. OK, thats totally off topic, I know...sorry, the thread, and zek's last post just made that thought pop in to my head.

The system you are talking about building shouldhandle most of what you are talking about doing. Just don't overload it with background running utlities like instant messengers, anti-everything apps and all that stuff...while a couple wouldn't matter and anti-virus is basically a necessity, what you are talking about doing is some very intense computing work...

Hey, zek, can PC's grid? Man, I have been out of teching a long time...

Eat Spam before it eats YOU!!!
Member
Since: May 11, 2002


Mar 01, 2006 10:13 am

basically.. the popular thing is a renderfarm which is like a grid.. grids share everything equally where renderfarms have a "master" computer which is primarially network cards. ...something like SETI@Home or the current Fold@Home would be a renderfarm... the limit is primarially on network bandwidth...so the *nix's have things like Firehose which can combine network connections sort of like how you can get 96khz signals over two channels of ADAT :)

I havn't had the equpiment to build a small renderfarm but I expect to as I progress on another movie project which will probably be 3D animation... which can take a year just to render... compaired to that, audio is pretty light weight :)


Eat Spam before it eats YOU!!!
Member
Since: May 11, 2002


Mar 01, 2006 10:57 am

here's a windows audio renderfarm app
www.fx-max.com/fxt/product.html

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Mar 01, 2006 07:35 pm

Yikes, that might be something I will try as well. Right now I just run a basic midi network between the 2 machines. It works great for what I need but this would maybe work faster/better and would allow me to use FX and not just the synths.

Member
Since: Feb 28, 2006


Mar 01, 2006 10:24 pm

The computer is only going to be used for music, so definitely want just the music software and whatever else is needed. It seems that Windows 64 is not the way to go.

I definitely will go with a drive setup similar to what Noise2U described.

I think I'm going to have to build it myself if I want even a halfway reasonable price for this type of computer.

There is definitely a learning curve here.

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