Hello there everyone. Until very recently I have used a combination of two PCs:-
Main DAW - Pentium 4 3Ghz 1GB RAM Windows XP Running Cubase VST5 (yes VST5!)
2 x Sonic Core (prev. Creamware) Pro DSP sound cards
3 x Powercore DSP cards (2 PCI MKII + 1 PCI)
Second PC - Intel Core 2 6600 2.4Ghz 2GB RAM Windows XP Running Cubase SX2
Frontier Design Dakota + Montana Soundcards
2 x Powercore DSP cards (2 PCI)
4 x UAD1 PCI cards
Powercore + UAD1 in a 13 slot Magma Chasis
The two PCs were linked via midi and audio (via ADAT). I came to this setup over about a 4 year period - at one point I actually had 3 PCs on the go at one time! The main DAW I am sure is going to die soon and the second PC is basically crap! It worked fine when I was using it with Cubase SX2 to just host various plugins (so I was using the PC like a sound module). It had no problem with the Magma Chasis (with the Powercore and UAD1 cards) and the Frontier Design sound card combo. With a view to using just one PC, I tried using this PC as my main DAW over the last few days but it now coughs and splutters when I use the Sonic Core and Powercore cards in it. Having taken out the Fronier Design cards and replacing them with the Sonic Core cards I have come to the conclusion that I don't think it can handle the extra activity on it's PCI busses that the Sonic Core creates. From what I have read on the net the PC Chips P23G motherboard this PC uses is rather useless. I also need a PCIE slot for the new Sonic Core Xite (which will replace my current Sonic Core cards) plus I may possibly buy a UAD Quad PCIE card. There are various other reasons for changing my setup which I won't go into here (unless you want me to!) but I have decided that, as I have some redundancy money available, I should take this opportunity to buy a PC that can run loads of plugins, allow me to play loads of audio tracks, be able to cope with a fair amount of activity on it's PCI/PCIE busses, allow me to use the fantastic Sonic Core Xite now that I will actually have some PCIE slots and won't sound like a Force 10 gale is ripping through my bedroom.
I would like to be able to use the Magma Chasis in one of the PCI slots. The Magma Chasis will house 2 or 3 Powercore cards and 4 UAD1 cards. I would like to use one of the PCIE slots for the Sonic Core Xite which is a sound card/DSP card. I may get a UAD Quad card, in which case I would then remove all but one of the UAD1 cards from the Magma Chasis. This would allow me to use the plugins authorised for the UAD1 card on the Quad card. How I place the PCI cards will depend on the IRQ settings - it might be better if I placed certain cards in any free PCI slot rather than in the Magma Chasis. Can Scan provide details of the IRQ settings for the PCI/PCIE slots?
This looks like the system I will go for:-
System Overview
Custom Coloured Cases: *No Custom Colour Required*
Case: Silverstone KL03B "Kublai Tower Series"
CPU: Intel i7 965 Extreme 3.2GHz 6.4GT s QPI 8MB Cache
CPU Coolers: Thermalright TRUE Copper 120mm
Overclocking: **No Overclocking Required**
Memory: 3GB (3x1GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) 240 Pin Non-ECC Unbuffered CAS 9-9-9-24
NVIDIA Graphics: 512MB Palit 9500GT 550MHz GPU 32 Cores 800MHz GDDR2
ATI Graphics: *No ATI VGA Card Required* (NVIDIA Required)
Power Supply Unit: 650W Be Quiet Dark Power PRO BN073 Modular PSU 87% Eff
System Drives: 250 GB Seagate ST3250310NS Barracuda ES.2 7200 rpm 32MB Cache
Storage Hard drives: 1000 GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200 rpm 32MB Cache, 2 selected
Solid State Drives: *Solid State Drive Not Required*
Floppy Drive Flash Card Readers & Writers: Akasa Multi Memory Card Reader & USB 2.0 Port
DVD Writer: Samsung SH-S223Q BEBN 22x DVD±R 8x DVD±DL DVD+RW x8 -RW x6 x12 RAM SATA L scribe
Blu Ray Reader Writer: *Blu Ray Not Required*
Sound Card: *No Soundcard Required*
USB 2.0 Firewire Cards: *No USB Firewire Card Required*
Acoustic Sound Proofing: AcoustiPack ULTIMATE Multi-Layered Material Kit
Internal External (USB) Wireless Adaptors: ***No Wireless Required***
Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 OEM - Single Pack
Software Multimedia: *No Software Required*
Software - Application: *No Software Required*
Software - DVD Blu Ray Decoding: CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Standard Movie Audio Player & Decoder
Software - Security: *No Software Required*
TFT Monitor: *Monitor Not Required*
Keyboard & Mouse Pack: *Keyboard Not Required*
Application Specific Keyboards & Controllers : *No Keyboard Controller Required*
Professional Studio Monitors: *No Studio Monitors Required*
Extended Warranty: Standard 3XS System Warranty - 2 Years (1st Year Onsite 2nd Year Return to Base)
NVIDIA Graphics: 512MB Palit 9500GT 550MHz GPU 32 Cores 800MHz GDDR2
Not sure about whch graphics card to go for and I could really do with some help here. I currently use two Acer AL2416W 24inch analogue (DSub) monitors. Ideally I would to be able to use 3 lots of 24" monitors so that I could view my Sonic Core stuff (mixer and routing area) on one screen and Cubase5 (getting today hopefully) over two screens. But I don't think this is possible with any of the graphics cards Scan can supply. I may have to stick with using two monitors and maybe save up for two larger screens in the future (man, this redundancy money is going fast.........I am going to have to find a new job pretty quick at this rate! All this lovely gear but no time to use it then!) Plus, with my heavy use of DSP cards, I don't want my graphics card hogging the PCI/PCIE busses (should this be a concern?). One other concern is that I don't want to be prevented from being able to use one of the PCIE slots because the graphics card blocks it. Could this be a problem?
Due to phone Scan today to speak to someone about all this. Thanks for reading.
All the best.
Nev.