minimum PC for hard disk recording?

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:32 am

Hi!
i'd like to assemble a super-cheap PC for hard disk recording in the reharsal room of my group.
i need ONLY to record audio, no processing, fx, or other.

i will mount a pulsar 1 to connect via ADAT to a mixer, and i need the following:

1) i need to record 10 mono track at once (for drums multitrack recording)

2) i need to playback a maximum of 10 tracks at once while i will record 4 more track at once.

3) it would be better to record at 24 bit/44.100!

4) just to remind, i need ONLY to record/playback audio, nothing more!

i plan to mount win98SE and cakewalk9, and 2 HDD: one for OS and one (7200 RPM) for the audiodata.

i have experience that a p3 800MHz will work well... anyone can suggest anything less powerful and axpensive? P2? P1?

which brand of motherboard and models?

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:00 am

i'm not interested neither in FX nor in low latency, since i will deal only with recording and playback of audio tracks!

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 4:17 am

Anything above 350MHz should be fine. Might want to stick to a P3 and up if you do 24bit under Windows, more for Windows than for the 24bit.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 4:38 am

stick with the classic ASUS TUSL2-c and a Celeron/PIII in the 1G range.
I've recently bought one with 192KB, 8MB ATI, 1.2 Celeron for 60 Euro

That mobo has enough space to allow a BIG cooler (I used one from a P4), which should work even without fan if the PSU blows over it.

it's the best bang for the Euro you can get
a shop bug sponsered VDAT would make it a top notch recording machine.

cheers, Tom

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:07 am

Check out this one, just for fun - it's tiny, and has no moving parts (except for the power button;)

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:53 am

yeah, it's fun - exactly that kind of thing with various IX-ish operating systems inspired me to some nasty comments...

not to be misunderstood, the box runs great under any version of Windows (even with a Pulsar One - 4 masterverbs btw, despite VIA), and is a nice performer considering the specs of the chips.

The pic is somewhat misguiding: chipset and CPU cooler are missing and the latter requires either a fan or a heatsink - and it's not half as cute with cables as without

I tried to fit one in a case similiar to a 5.25" external drive bay (supposed for that purpose), but that's definetely the point where fun comes to an end - it had to be done, just to proove it could...

Since I own the 'pre-heatpipe version', I'd have to cut a hole into it's top cover where the cpu fan is located if I want to run it closed (left it open currently)

btw, my TUSL2-c has (almost) no moving parts either - it runs from a flash HD (1GB) with integrated IDE interface, looking like a stretched HD connector)
Win98, SP 3.1c, TripleDat, DevineMachine, CrusherX, still 400 MB free - boots in 20 seconds into SFP

cheers, tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2005-11-08 05:55 ]</font>

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:19 am

I need to think to a solution for a live pc, to put a Pulsar2 and a Pulsar1 just to load some modulars and some other device to play live.
That's not going to record anything, one drive can be enough, although that sleek solution is cool it can't mount 2 cards....
What do you guys suggest? Tom?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 10:08 am

well Alfonso, what can I say ?
you have that very same mobo for longer time than me and certainly know it's advantages

It has some of the best PCI performance and is a charm in handling interupts and the bios hardware setup.
It doesn't emit much heat and allows quiet cooling, whether one is to go fanless or applies an 'oversized' P4 thing running slow (like the 15 Euro Arctic ones).
A Celeron with 256k cache is more than adequate, but with a Tualatin 1.4G it's even comparable with a mid clocked P4.

Only drawback is the limited amount of memory, but for SFP that's not a big deal.

If it's supposed to look good, one might get a 3 unit rack case (should work without a riser), and mount it together with an A16 into a 4 units SKB case.
The charge for rack and case will exceed the price of the 'PC' by magnitudes...

cheers, Tom

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:36 pm

On 2005-11-08 10:08, astroman wrote:
well Alfonso, what can I say ?
you have that very same mobo for longer time than me and certainly know it's advantages

It has some of the best PCI performance and is a charm in handling interupts and the bios hardware setup.
It doesn't emit much heat and allows quiet cooling, whether one is to go fanless or applies an 'oversized' P4 thing running slow (like the 15 Euro Arctic ones).
A Celeron with 256k cache is more than adequate, but with a Tualatin 1.4G it's even comparable with a mid clocked P4.

Only drawback is the limited amount of memory, but for SFP that's not a big deal.

If it's supposed to look good, one might get a 3 unit rack case (should work without a riser), and mount it together with an A16 into a 4 units SKB case.
The charge for rack and case will exceed the price of the 'PC' by magnitudes...

cheers, Tom

Thanks Tom,

Yes I have that mobo, and it's cool, it's my main system actually...

I will have a main system stable in the studio with 2 big cards plus a Luna2 (unless I decide that I don't need it really there)
then I want to use the P2 and P1 as live machine, mounted in a rack case with Noah, I'd like to be able to manage both noah and the PC rack desktop from the laptop...I don't really need the A16 though...

Another Tusl? apart the difficulty to find it, but I would maybe use the one I have in the rackmount, then get a new mobo for the studio....

He, decisions.... not easy, expecially because they cost!

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 8:00 pm

Bosone you really do not need much. I once managed to record 30 stereo tracks in Samplitude with my Tusl2c celeron 1@1.3GHz 512MB RAM PC. It really struggled, but it managed. The thing you should be most aware of would be motherboard chip set. In that older leage, Intel chipsets are the ones to go for. Also, an AMD chipset - the one for CPUs up to 1.4GHz (maybe it was called 751?) should handle your needs just fine.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 8:10 pm

still use my asus a7n266-c as mothrbrd, behavingnicely with an xp1800 cpu. i figure you can get a box like that for $90 used.

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:15 am

It's not so long ago people were using their Creamware stuff(tripledatharddisk recording) on a pentium II with win98, and they were also happy with it then.

I have the same like you, I have an old pentium II in a other location with a luna board with adat extension, until recently I was running win98 on it. but now I have upgraded it with XP-pro, this is what I should have done before. its much more stable now.
maybe you(or a friend) has an old system just give it a try, you can always spend some money later if it doesn't work.