retired_steevo93

I'm liking the costcutting advice, keep it up! In answer to various posts:

Total cost of that package: £2421.98. Let's see if we can get it down eh?

rudi - I do have a great sound card, the Tascam FW-1804 and no, I probably don't need to spend that on a case. I also have an external 500GB HDD for storage. I'm open to advice on CPUs but I can't wait for anything to come out, as it's essential that I produce orchestral demos in the next 2 months.

I'm not exactly a supergeek so you'll have to explain: why does the amount of RAM I have dictate that I need a 64 bit OS? Programs as RAM-hungry as Vienna libraries predate 64 bit. I'd also have to check the compatibility of Cubase 4 and the Vienna library with a 64 bit OS, though in the case of Cubase I'd assume there'd be no problem.

Wasma - can you beat those prices?

Dane - I thought as much about the graphics card. I wonder how cheap I can go, given that I will absolutely not be running anything at all other than a limited selection of music software?

retired_steevo93

Umbongo - that package would seem to have 10GB of RAM. Is that even possible?

retired_jshendel

Vista yeah its possible but no idea why you would need that much

buffdaddy110

I read that PCI Express isn't kind to audio.

I read this after I bought an expensive new PCI-express motherboard and soundcard

I have few complaints about it for domestic use though - LoL despite my initial intentions, I haven't used my home computer for anything professional at all!

retired_steevo93

Having witnessed the rate at which Vienna gobbles it, I'd rather just go for overkill on that front. It's absolutely insane.

retired_Rynny

tbh, you can save about £500 by downgrading your cpu to the Q6600, obviously not as fast but still very much adequate and currently provides the best bang for your buck until penryns come out.

retired_Rynny

you need a 64bit OS Ceefax as a 32bit OS can only handle 3.5gig of ram due to it running out of memory address space.

retired_mandyg

£2500

That external HDD is great for backup but read/write speeds (assuming you are working directly from it) will be greatly reduced with an internal SATA one. A 500GB costs nothing nowadays. Maybe ditch one of the Raptors in favour of bigger, cheaper model.

Definitely check the 64bit OS compatibility thing if you really need 4GB RAM. I don't do the sort of things you want so I can't really comment but if you can have 3GB of really fast RAM instead (maybe even DDR3 which is pretty expensive right now) you might save yourself some hassle down the line.

The GFX card is a waste of money unless you want to play games. How low can you go? Onboard gfx quite possibly - 3d capabilities not really what you need here.

Get the Q6600 - it might even be overkill in itself (that $500 CPU almost definitely is) unless Cubase makes full use of all the cores.

Ditch the ridiculously expensive case and PSU - get quality stuff but spending almost £400 on those two things is a bit mad. I'd imagine you want something nice and quiet though.

Dunno if you already do but getting a dual-monitor setup could be very beneficial for productivity - you can spend some of what you save on a second display.

retired_eaglepdub

Yep the T5400 has 8 memory slots that will support 4GB in each, though 2x2GB are the best value. 8GB (4x2) is really the limit on a single processor desktop and with the price of memory being really low at the moment I'd really suggest you look at one as it's going probably going to be a better investment in the future. If you also need fast IO (I assume you picked Raptors for a reason) then the 15,000RPM SAS drives dell offer will be amazing for you. Great price too on those from Dell. 8x2.5GHz, 2GB RAM, 146GB SAS and 3 years of 4 hour onsite coverage (worth taking, Dell are really trying to sort their customer service out and sounds like your machine is important to your livelyhood) for £2,050. Add another 4GB (2x2GB) and if you then need more RAM in the future add another 2x2GB.

Probably worth calling Dell and speaking to a sales person, they may have people who know what cubase can take advantage of. Check cubase information sources too and see what hardware people have. I'm betting that more memory and processor cores would be an advantage that will vastly increase your workflow though. Might want to look at multiple displays like rudi mentioned too, that can really help with your workflow. Maybe you already have them though. I'd check with whoever makes cubase, but you probably want to stick with XP 64-bit if there are no issues from cubase with it. Though both that and Vista have alot of issues with drivers, vista more so with software.

I don't know if anyone else has prices for new workstaions in the UK aside from Dell at the moment if you wanted to look at other manufacturers, Penryn is definatly the way to go on that front, Dell I think are shipping on the 18th in the US, not sure about the UK, but you could find out if you contact them.

retired_steevo93

Rudi, I've added you on msn. Might need a little bit of tech advice in the next day or two if you're available...