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Nice to see more people interested in this topic. Thanks to all for your input, that's great!
@ Mahlon: I'll try with the RME ADAT card then, and see how that performs.
@cm: didn't realize all the setups that have to be tested when you're a developper! But why bother with Vista? It's cute, but XP64 is already stable.
@luces: the Asus board mentioned in the first post is a ATX size board with 8 slots.
VISTA is a nightmare regarding memory usage for the OS only and it does everything but compute - walk with the dog, making coffee, change baby's nappies, ... you know what i mean - the list of unwanted services for an audio workhorse is endless. the explorer has been made almost unusable (try to read longer filenames), you need a trillion clicks for everything to bypass the playmobil assistants ... this OS is a living incapacitation, driver support is poor, the whole thing is and feels sluggish ...
and because all is working so wondeful MS has founded a *pro audio working group* ... that should say everything ...
christian
mon_art...are yousure about the sizeof that board? Unless I am looking at variations of the model you mentioned, it seems that the board is sized for "SSI EEB" and not ATX or even ATX ex.
cm...so if power is primarily an issue for the cpu, is 400 watts enough in your opinion? I am trying to "recycle" as much stuff as I can from my existing setup and this is the size of my psu(Antec True Power). In theory I will be running:
1x cpu, (probably 2-3 ghz)
1x pci soundcard,
1 x PCIe 256 meg video card,
3 x 500 gig sata drives
1 x DVD-Dual layer DVD-RW
and hopefully 12-16 gigs of 800 mhz ram
Thanks again for ALLL of the help!!!!!![Y][:D]
antec true power ... good choice, some 500W brothers work fine here, very stable and silent ... i'd say give it a try though it appears to be close to the limit. just double check if the plug fits the requirement of the motherboard (often overlooked)
@luces said:
mon_art...are yousure about the sizeof that board? Unless I am looking at variations of the model you mentioned, it seems that the board is sized for "SSI EEB" and not ATX or even ATX ex.
cm...so if power is primarily an issue for the cpu, is 400 watts enough in your opinion? I am trying to "recycle" as much stuff as I can from my existing setup and this is the size of my psu(Antec True Power). In theory I will be running:
1x cpu, (probably 2-3 ghz)
1x pci soundcard,
1 x PCIe 256 meg video card,
3 x 500 gig sata drives
1 x DVD-Dual layer DVD-RW
and hopefully 12-16 gigs of 800 mhz ram
Thanks again for ALLL of the help!!!!!!
You're right, this motherboard is "SSI EEB form factor: 12 in x 13 in (30.5 cm x 33 cm)". As for the power supply, don't be too shy. I've read many times a system instability is often cause by a cheap/weak power supply. A good one ain't that expensive either.
Hey guys, I hope you can help me!
I'm a complete noob here with Vienna, I currently have East West Symphony orchestra and have been very disillusioned with it so am looking at a full Vienna replacement; running Vienna over 2-4 machines over the ethernet interface running Ensemble 3 hosting in Logic and Protools.
I want to build bespoke machines for the purpose..BUT
What exactly do I need?
I'm guessing at this...
Motherboard and power supply.
64bit compatible.
Do I go for Intel or AMD?
If I go for an onboard graphics card is it sufficient to run the VE3 graphics?
RAM
Ive heard about RSRAM - meant to be the fastest and works with a Pentium 4 procesor...
Is this right?
I've seen on this board that for a full orchestra you would need around 16gb - but what if I split the sections over 4 computers running sections?
ETHERNET
Gigabit ethernet?
Also if the interface is running in Logic or Protools over the Ethernet cable is there therefore any need to install a soundcard to the PC? Does the sound not come back over the ethernet into the host program?
I have tried researching myself, but I dont really understand all the terminology behind the components and this has made it quite hard to understand what I need.
I would be glad of any help! If you can, please keep any Jargon either simple or explained for the simple of mind such as myslelf. :D
Trystan
I apologize if I give wrong or misleading information here but If you are building a slave machine for VE what can I ask please is the concern for a soundcard? RME is also my favorite cards (I have Multiface 2's in my machines). However, the requirement for VE3 is nothing more then a network cable. I am running a complete orchestra on Windows XP pro SP2 with unbelievable low latency over my gigabit connection with zero problems. I apologize if I missed something here or if there is some advantage I am unaware of by using a sound card in this equation.
I myself will be building a 64-bit XP machine most likely this weekend so I will post my results. I have a Supermicro motherboard. Here is a link to the motherboard. I have dual processors on it already (it's currently in use running Windows XP 32-bit) but will get wiped for a complete new rebuild of XP 64-bit.
http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron/nForce/H8DCi.cfm
I only ram for Crucial.com as I never have any problems with them. High end Corsair and OCZ server memory are the only other memory chips I would buy. I currently only have 4GB of ram for this machine but more is on order from crucial. Cheap memory will wreak havoc on your system.
I am running dual video cards (SLI mode).
I will post all my results for you once it is done. As you look around on the sight you will find newer boards but I cannot attest to their reliability. Mine has been without flaw for 1.5 years. I think the only thing it doesn't have is SATA 2, I believe mines only SATA 1 but so far, it hasn't been an issue.
I hope I have helped some and hopefully Christian and Herb and them can chime in and tell me if I am mistaken about the sound card idea (before I take my RME out of the equation entirely as I planned this weekend). I only have a Mac running Logic Studio and this one Slave Windows 64-bit machine will run all my samples. I am hoping to keep it that simple.
Maestro2be
At the moment there is a huge difference in price between 8GB and 8+GB machines. If you have the option of putting the salve machines in another room, then I would say get a couple of 8GB machines, rather than one 16GB machine.
On my latest 8GB machine, I used a Q6600, because they are so cheap. Motherboard was DP35DP.
DGi'd like to throw another consideration into the discussion:
also calculate the energy costs for two 8 GB machines vs. one 16 GB machine
even only the saving using just one PSU would shift the calculation (good PSUs work at 80% efficiency at full load, but all go down to 50% quickly for lower power consumption) ... you have also a second system drive spinning and various other compnents needing energy ...
purchasing only one (more expensive) machine you could easily save the difference within only one year ...
christian
@cm said:
i'd like to throw another consideration into the discussion:
also calculate the energy costs for two 8 GB machines vs. one 16 GB machine
even only the saving using just one PSU would shift the calculation (good PSUs work at 80% efficiency at full load, but all go down to 50% quickly for lower power consumption) ... you have also a second system drive spinning and various other compnents needing energy ...
purchasing only one (more expensive) machine you could easily save the difference within only one year ...
christian
I suppose that it depends on how much your electricity costs where you live. I can say that my electricity bill for a whole year (including 8 PCs and full air conditioning) is not as much as the cost of one slave machine. Also, electricity is an expense, whereas equipment is a capital allowance, and so financially it is always better to be able to claim £400 as an expense than £400 as a capital allowance.
Hey, this discussion should be moved to the Finance Geek forum. [8-|]
DG
@morphlite said:
DG,
Just out of interest, How many instances are you roughly able to get with this processor?
Paul
Don't know, I haven't tested that. However, the number of instances is not really governed by the processor; it's more a question of RAM, and limitations of VE. If you tell me how many you need, I'll get one of the kids to test this while I have a break....! [:D]
DG
Hi DG
I've debated for a while whether to upgrade may G5 2ghz mac to a macpro, but when you can put together a Q6600/8GB machine for about £450. if you can get maybe 30-40 instances out of a single processor machine, have two of them and a my master, it would make more financial sense.
Paul
@morphlite said:
Hi DG
I've debated for a while whether to upgrade may G5 2ghz mac to a macpro, but when you can put together a Q6600/8GB machine for about £450. if you can get maybe 30-40 instances out of a single processor machine, have two of them and a my master, it would make more financial sense.
Paul
It really depends on how you like to work. If you want to deal with multiple standalones and Soundflower, then a Mac Pro might suit you. However, if you like the idea of using plugin instances, the Mac Pro would be pretty much useless, unless you are running it in XP64 or Vista64 due to the lack of 64bit on OSX.
DG
That leeds me back to the idea of taking the cheapest MacPro with one quad core processor, put 2 x 4GB RAM into it and run it in Vista64, so I have the possibility to add RAM and maybe switch to OSX64 later.@DG said:
the Mac Pro would be pretty much useless, unless you are running it in XP64 or Vista64 due to the lack of 64bit on OSX.
Hi,
Having had trouble using soundflower i gave up on that and use VE and VI's in Logic and learn/freeze stuff when required.
Sometimes I just get fed up of messing about with several programs just to make it all work. I would probs use VMware with vista if i bought a Macpro. But if i could get two single processor slaves that would run 30-40 instances each and use VE3, and spend the rest of the money on Libraries that would be great. But if i could only get 20-25 instances out of each then it probs wouldn't be worth it. If you do try it let me know.No worries if you're busy.
Cheers
Paul
