Hi folks,
I'm in urgent need of a PC for my multi-track recording needs.
It's going to be a self-build.

For those of you who are fairly up to date with current component
offerings, how does the following setup look:
----------------------------------------
Asus A7N8X-X
£47 : http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5556.html

Crucial PC3200 DIMM 512mb
£63.50: http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5232.html

AMD Athlon XP2500
£60 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5623.html

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

Quiet case with quiet psu:
£80 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1210.html
--------------------------------------
I could have opted for a 120Gb hard drive for not much more, but I
figure that two 80Gb drives (one for backup) would be wiser.

Thanks for any comments. I'd also appreciate advice on choosing a
CD-writing drive, because I want to burn music CD's that can be played
on most home hi-fi systems.

Many thanks...

Ally

PS

Help in choosing a soundcard would also be appreciated.
I'm on a tight budget, but want to make decent recordings - mostly
from mics. I have a decent analog mixer already. I'm told that I need
something better than a regular sound card.

Thanks again,
Ally

I have never favored Seagate drives - I like Western Digital better.

Most tech types around here will suggest that for an inexpensive card, the
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do recordings indistinguishable from the best
analog source.


Mark Z.

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
have rendered my regular e-mail address useless.


"Ally" wrote in message
...

PS

Help in choosing a soundcard would also be appreciated.
I'm on a tight budget, but want to make decent recordings - mostly
from mics. I have a decent analog mixer already. I'm told that I need
something better than a regular sound card.

Thanks again,
Ally

"Ally" wrote in message

Hi folks,
I'm in urgent need of a PC for my multi-track recording needs.
It's going to be a self-build.

For those of you who are fairly up to date with current component
offerings, how does the following setup look:
----------------------------------------
Asus A7N8X-X
£47 : http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5556.html

I'm not a fan of Nvidia chip sets. Gamers like them, but... I've built a
number of them and they have been relatively troublesome.

Crucial PC3200 DIMM 512mb
£63.50: http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5232.html

RAM is pretty much RAM particularly at commodity speeds.

AMD Athlon XP2500
£60 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5623.html

Been there done that, they work.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

I build mostly machine with WD and Hitachi drives. In the 80 GB range,
drives are pretty much drives. They all have disappointing relibaility. For
a lot of audio work, two drives are far better than one for performance
reasons. Later on you say you're going to use 2. Hold that thought!

Quiet case with quiet psu:
£80 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1210.html
--------------------------------------

I have one sitting right here on my desk. It's got an A64-3200 system that I
use to mix audio and surf the web.

I could have opted for a 120Gb hard drive for not much more, but I
figure that two 80Gb drives (one for backup) would be wiser.

Thanks for any comments. I'd also appreciate advice on choosing a
CD-writing drive, because I want to burn music CD's that can be played
on most home hi-fi systems.

Liteon CD ^ DVD drives are good performers for a good price. At this point
you might want to just cut to the chase and go with an 8X DVD burner.

PPS

I'm wondering now, if a better-than-average soundcard will be
necessarey. I just read the motherboarrds description at
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...x/overview.htm
which says:

(Is this mobo OK?) Specs say: The A7N8X uses an onboard Realtek®
ALC650 audio CODEC that lets you enjoy high-quality 6-channel audio
without having to buy advanced sound cards. (Sounds good!?)


Does this board need a graphics card or is graphics cirquit onboard?
Spects aren't very clear on that.

Thanks again,

ALly

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 05:50:52 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

I have never favored Seagate drives - I like Western Digital better.

Most tech types around here will suggest that for an inexpensive card, the
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do recordings indistinguishable from the best
analog source.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping not to have to pay such a high
price. Budget is pretty tight... But I'd pay the price, if I could
only convince myself of the need to... Comments welcome..

Ally

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 07:11:17 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message

Hi folks,
I'm in urgent need of a PC for my multi-track recording needs.
It's going to be a self-build.

For those of you who are fairly up to date with current component
offerings, how does the following setup look:
----------------------------------------
Asus A7N8X-X
£47 : http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5556.html

I'm not a fan of Nvidia chip sets. Gamers like them, but... I've built a
number of them and they have been relatively troublesome.

Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Failing that, there are dozens at the URL below, all at fair prices
(for the UK, at least!) (it's a lo-o-o-ng URL!) I like the idea of one
that takes a money-saving AMD cpu (now that you say they work ok):

http://www.dabs.com/uk/templates/Cha...uest&catid=192

Crucial PC3200 DIMM 512mb
£63.50: http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5232.html

RAM is pretty much RAM particularly at commodity speeds.

AMD Athlon XP2500
£60 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5623.html

Been there done that, they work.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

I build mostly machine with WD and Hitachi drives. In the 80 GB range,
drives are pretty much drives. They all have disappointing relibaility. For
a lot of audio work, two drives are far better than one for performance
reasons. Later on you say you're going to use 2. Hold that thought!

Someone told me that WD drives were quite noisy compared to Seagate
these days...

Quiet case with quiet psu:
£80 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1210.html
--------------------------------------

I have one sitting right here on my desk. It's got an A64-3200 system that I
use to mix audio and surf the web.

Wow - that's a coincidence. How do you like it? Is it quiet like the
suppliers claim?

I could have opted for a 120Gb hard drive for not much more, but I
figure that two 80Gb drives (one for backup) would be wiser.

Thanks for any comments. I'd also appreciate advice on choosing a
CD-writing drive, because I want to burn music CD's that can be played
on most home hi-fi systems.

Liteon CD ^ DVD drives are good performers for a good price. At this point
you might want to just cut to the chase and go with an 8X DVD burner.

Thanks... are the different brands all much the same as far as
reliability, performance, etc., then?

Thanks agin, Arny..

Ally

AMD Athlon XP2500

PS... can I get away with a fanless heat sink for this cpu?
Anyone recomment a low-cost one?

I was looking at one at:
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2649.html

Cheers,
Ally

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:06:17 GMT, (Ally) wrote:


AMD Athlon XP2500

PS... can I get away with a fanless heat sink for this cpu?
Anyone recomment a low-cost one?

NO.

One place NOT to stint is on an Athlon cooling system.

Particularly on a machine to be used for audio recording. Office
applications spend most of their time waiting for input. Clever
systems of "software cooling" can kick in, reducing the power use of
the CPU.

Not with recording programs though. The soundcard is constantly
"listening", streaming audio into the system, (even if it IS
silence:-) No let-up for the CPU. If a system is GOING to
overheat, it's a music-recording application that will make it happen.

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 05:50:52 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:


Most tech types around here will suggest that for an inexpensive card, the
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do recordings indistinguishable from the best
analog source.

That's fine if you use your computer as a straightforward substitute
for an analogue recording system.

But if you're at all involved with the possibilities for sound
creation WITHIN the computer - midi-controlled software synthesisers
and samplers - a more modern card with low-latency ASIO drivers is
desirable.

If you want, for instance, a good acoustic piano sound, the BEST
solution is of course a full-size Steinway grand, in a good-sounding
room, with carefully-chosen, high-quality microphones.....etc.

But a software imitation, like Steinberg's The Grand, is MUCH better
than any live recording most of us can practically achieve ;-)

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA chipset
models - A7V8X

Failing that, there are dozens at the URL below, all at fair prices
(for the UK, at least!) (it's a lo-o-o-ng URL!) I like the idea of one
that takes a money-saving AMD cpu (now that you say they work ok):

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

I build mostly machine with WD and Hitachi drives. In the 80 GB
range, drives are pretty much drives. They all have disappointing
relibaility. For a lot of audio work, two drives are far better
than one for performance reasons. Later on you say you're going to
use 2. Hold that thought!

Someone told me that WD drives were quite noisy compared to Seagate
these days...

Horsefeathers.

Quiet case with quiet psu:
£80 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1210.html
--------------------------------------

I have one sitting right here on my desk. It's got an A64-3200
system that I use to mix audio and surf the web.

Wow - that's a coincidence. How do you like it? Is it quiet like the
suppliers claim?

Yes.

The CPU fan was the major source of noise, but all I had to do is slow it
down with a Zalman Fanmate, while keeping a close eye on CPU chip
temperature. IME fans can be often slowed down a lot, before CPU chip temp
rises more than a few degrees.

Liteon CD ^ DVD drives are good performers for a good price. At
this point you might want to just cut to the chase and go with an
8X DVD burner.

Thanks... are the different brands all much the same as far as
reliability, performance, etc., then?

Not at all. I've tried some off-brand drives and they ran at somthing like
half the speed of the Liteon, Yamaha and Sony drives I compared them to,
despite being rated at the same speed.

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

Thanks... are the different brands all much the same as far as
reliability, performance, etc., then?

Not at all. I've tried some off-brand drives and they ran at somthing like
half the speed of the Liteon, Yamaha and Sony drives I compared them to,
despite being rated at the same speed.

Do you mean when set to, say 8X, some brands took longer than others
to burn the same data? Or that the (IMO useless) maximum speed
figures were fanciful?

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA chipset
models - A7V8X

Wow - and thats much cheaper than the A7n8x!!! (like £27 against £47!
How come?! If you don't believe me, see:
http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...&source=kelkoo

The CPU fan was the major source of noise, but all I had to do is slow it
down with a Zalman Fanmate, while keeping a close eye on CPU chip
temperature. IME fans can be often slowed down a lot, before CPU chip temp
rises more than a few degrees.

I should imagine that the biggest heatsink you can find, with the most
and biggest fins must make all the difference, yes? Then, the fan
should need to come on even less, yes? (assuming the fan is controlled
by some heat-sensing device). I would have thought that with a big
enough heat sink, a fan could be avoided altogether, but I'll go along
with your greater experience on such things...

But, actually, cpu fans hardly make any noise when they are in good
shape. It's the PSU fans that make most of the noise, yes?

Ally

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 18:55:35 GMT, (Ally) wrote:

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA chipset
models - A7V8X

Wow - and thats much cheaper than the A7n8x!!! (like £27 against £47!
How come?! If you don't believe me, see:
http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...&source=kelkoo

PS - Oh, I see, it is cheap there because it's on special offer.
Otherwise it'd be around the same price as the A7N8X.

Perhaps I should grab one while the offer's on....

Ally

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA chipset
models - A7V8X

Failing that, there are dozens at the URL below, all at fair prices
(for the UK, at least!) (it's a lo-o-o-ng URL!) I like the idea of one
that takes a money-saving AMD cpu (now that you say they work ok):

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

I build mostly machine with WD and Hitachi drives. In the 80 GB
range, drives are pretty much drives. They all have disappointing
relibaility. For a lot of audio work, two drives are far better
than one for performance reasons. Later on you say you're going to
use 2. Hold that thought!

Someone told me that WD drives were quite noisy compared to Seagate
these days...

Horsefeathers.

L, I found a 120GB HITACHI 7K250 8MB CACHE 7200RPM IDE HDD
for a low price (the cheapest supplier of the mobo you recommended).

What kind of graphics card do I need (I don't play games but I might
want to play a movie or two at some stage).

Thers a bunch of them offered by the same supplier. Here are the
cheaper offerings:


hehttp://www.planetmicro.co.uk/results...low&image s=1

Do you reckon I should buy Windows XP, OEM, while I'm buying the
components? It's cheaper than the upgrade, which I'd also qualify for,
being a Win98SE user.

Which of these CD writers would you pick? I guess if one has decent
software included it would be good:

http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/results...iters&images=1

Regards RAM, Will 512MB PC2700 333 DDR DIMM MEMORY, OEM do, or is it
better to pay twice as much and get PC3200? (The budget is tight..)

Are there any of these components/OS that I should NOT buy the OEM
versions of?

One more thing: do Hard drives, floppy drives and CD drives usually
come with all the necessary cables?

I was lucky to find this supplier. Prices look excellent. (eg., tower
case with PSU for £17!)

Thanks again. If you can endorse my choices, or suggest improvements,
I'll place the order...

Thanks...

Ally

"Laurence Payne" wrote in
message
On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

Thanks... are the different brands all much the same as far as
reliability, performance, etc., then?

Not at all. I've tried some off-brand drives and they ran at
somthing like half the speed of the Liteon, Yamaha and Sony drives I
compared them to, despite being rated at the same speed.

Do you mean when set to, say 8X, some brands took longer than others
to burn the same data?

I don't know.

Or that the (IMO useless) maximum speed figures were fanciful?

Yes.

For example, I did max speed burns on indentical media in 2 identical
computers using a cheap 52X drive in one and a Sony 52x in the other. The
Sony finished in half the time.

"Ally" wrote in message

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA
chipset models - A7V8X

Wow - and thats much cheaper than the A7n8x!!! (like £27 against £47!
How come?! If you don't believe me, see:

http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...&source=kelkoo

The CPU fan was the major source of noise, but all I had to do is
slow it down with a Zalman Fanmate, while keeping a close eye on
CPU chip temperature. IME fans can be often slowed down a lot,
before CPU chip temp rises more than a few degrees.

I should imagine that the biggest heatsink you can find, with the most
and biggest fins must make all the difference, yes?

I do a lot of work with the AMD heatsink.

Then, the fan should need to come on even less, yes? (assuming the fan is
controlled
by some heat-sensing device).

Well, here's another fact - just because its bigger doesn't mean its better.

I would have thought that with a big
enough heat sink, a fan could be avoided altogether, but I'll go along
with your greater experience on such things...

Absolutely no fan is a lot less ventilation than a fan running at half
speed.

But, actually, cpu fans hardly make any noise when they are in good
shape.

No, they can be noisy if brand new and spinning fast. 5200 rpm is noisy, no
matter how expensive or how good of shape its in.

It's the PSU fans that make most of the noise, yes?

Well, not with the Antec case we've been discussing.

However, guess why the Antec PS is fan is quiet?

Big and slow, but you knew that, right?

"Ally" wrote in message



L, I found a 120GB HITACHI 7K250 8MB CACHE 7200RPM IDE HDD
for a low price (the cheapest supplier of the mobo you recommended).

OK.

What kind of graphics card do I need (I don't play games but I might
want to play a movie or two at some stage).

http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/results...low&image s=1

Something cheap and Nvidia.

"64MB XFX MX4000 8X AGP DDR TV-OUT (LOW PROFILE"


Do you reckon I should buy Windows XP, OEM, while I'm buying the
components? It's cheaper than the upgrade, which I'd also qualify for,
being a Win98SE user.

OEM is fine.

Which of these CD writers would you pick? I guess if one has decent
software included it would be good:


http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/results...iters&images=1

"LITE-ON 52X32X52 IDE CD-RW RETAIL BOX "

Regards RAM, Will 512MB PC2700 333 DDR DIMM MEMORY, OEM do, or is it
better to pay twice as much and get PC3200? (The budget is tight..)

Find out the minimum speed which in this case is I believe 333, and go up
one notch to 400 which is PC3200. Usually PC3200 doesn't command more than
a few bucks premium.

Are there any of these components/OS that I should NOT buy the OEM
versions of?

No

One more thing: do Hard drives, floppy drives and CD drives usually
come with all the necessary cables?

No, but the MB comes with 1 HD cable and 1 FD cable. You need another HD
cable so that the CDROM is on its own cable. Some CDROMs come with IDE
cables but IME that is pretty rare.

"Ally" wrote in message

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA
chipset models - A7V8X

Arny, I'm a bit concerned about the problems people seem to be having
with that mobo. For example, see:
http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...threadid=53332

Maybe that's why it has been reduced to such a low price some
places...

I wouldn't mind paying a little more for a mobo with a better track
record - and with a simpler BIOS to set up....

I've built a number of systems based on this board and they just worked.

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA chipset
models - A7V8X

Arny, I'm a bit concerned about the problems people seem to be having
with that mobo. For example, see:
http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...threadid=53332

Maybe that's why it has been reduced to such a low price some
places...

I wouldn't mind paying a little more for a mobo with a better track
record - and with a simpler BIOS to set up....

Ally

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 18:23:26 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

Do you mean when set to, say 8X, some brands took longer than others
to burn the same data?

I don't know.

Or that the (IMO useless) maximum speed figures were fanciful?

Yes.

For example, I did max speed burns on indentical media in 2 identical
computers using a cheap 52X drive in one and a Sony 52x in the other. The
Sony finished in half the time.


Ah. Mildly interesting. But how reliable each drive was at its
optimum burning speed for a particular media would be way more
interesting.

Have you any reason to believe the cheaper drive burnt an inferior CD
at, say, 8X?

I'm looking for reasons I DIDN'T waste money buying Plextor :-)

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:04:46 +0100, Laurence Payne
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:06:17 GMT, (Ally) wrote:


AMD Athlon XP2500

PS... can I get away with a fanless heat sink for this cpu?
Anyone recomment a low-cost one?

NO.

One place NOT to stint is on an Athlon cooling system.

Particularly on a machine to be used for audio recording. Office
applications spend most of their time waiting for input. Clever
systems of "software cooling" can kick in, reducing the power use of
the CPU.

Not with recording programs though. The soundcard is constantly
"listening", streaming audio into the system, (even if it IS
silence:-) No let-up for the CPU. If a system is GOING to
overheat, it's a music-recording application that will make it happen.

L, Thanks for the info. I would never have known that. I'll get a
proper cooling fan+heatsink.

Ally

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 18:42:23 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:59:20 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Ally" wrote in message



Arny, Good Sunday morning! Thank you for the input.
How about one of these (especially the cheap EpOX one?)

Asus is IME a good idea. I've had no problems with recent VIA
chipset models - A7V8X

Arny, I'm a bit concerned about the problems people seem to be having
with that mobo. For example, see:
http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...threadid=53332

Maybe that's why it has been reduced to such a low price some
places...

I wouldn't mind paying a little more for a mobo with a better track
record - and with a simpler BIOS to set up....

I've built a number of systems based on this board and they just worked.

I believe you. I think most of the returned boards were due to buyer
configuration problems. I hope mine is straightforward to set up. I've
built two PC's before without any problems (apart from a duff board
that I had to send back once (one out of two bad... hmmm, not a good
statistic).

Ally

Ally wrote:
Hi folks,
I'm in urgent need of a PC for my multi-track recording needs.
It's going to be a self-build.

For those of you who are fairly up to date with current component
offerings, how does the following setup look:
----------------------------------------
Asus A7N8X-X
£47 : http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5556.html

Crucial PC3200 DIMM 512mb
£63.50: http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5232.html

AMD Athlon XP2500
£60 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5623.html

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

Pretty much same as my Studio DAW, which goes reliably, with MOTU interface.


You may be einterested in joining the PCDAW yahho email list:

Ally wrote:
On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 05:50:52 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

I have never favored Seagate drives - I like Western Digital better.

Most tech types around here will suggest that for an inexpensive
card, the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do recordings
indistinguishable from the best analog source.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping not to have to pay such a high
price. Budget is pretty tight... But I'd pay the price, if I could
only convince myself of the need to... Comments welcome..

High price ?!!!

geoff

Ally wrote:
PPS

I'm wondering now, if a better-than-average soundcard will be
necessarey. I just read the motherboarrds description at
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...x/overview.htm
which says:

(Is this mobo OK?) Specs say: The A7N8X uses an onboard Realtek®
ALC650 audio CODEC that lets you enjoy high-quality 6-channel audio
without having to buy advanced sound cards. (Sounds good!?)


Does this board need a graphics card or is graphics cirquit onboard?
Spects aren't very clear on that.


Forget about on-board audio - DISABLE IT.

It invariably low quality.

geoff

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 23:58:21 GMT, (Ally) wrote:


L, Thanks for the info. I would never have known that. I'll get a
proper cooling fan+heatsink.

The one that comes with a "boxed" Athlon is adequate.

Arny Krueger wrote:
"Ally" wrote in message

....

Someone told me that WD drives were quite noisy compared to Seagate
these days...


Horsefeathers.

If I may jump in here...

I have have several WD drives ranging from 40 - 160 GB. I like them and
have had no problems, but they do make some noise. I have read Seagate
spec sheets with very good dB figures, and the cheap Maxtor Fireball 3
is surprisingly quiet (I have one in a Korg D1200 digital recorder).

I just tolerate the noise of my WD drives (I can't really hear it over
the whine of my ultra-cheap CPU fan), but if you want quiet, you might
look into this:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/zm-2hc2.html

Quieting and cooling, seems like a good combination. My experience is
that if you keep the hard drive cool, it will last a long time.

The CPU fan was the major source of noise, but all I had to do is slow it
down with a Zalman Fanmate, while keeping a close eye on CPU chip
temperature. IME fans can be often slowed down a lot, before CPU chip temp
rises more than a few degrees.

This looks like a good way to deal with CPU noise on a new system:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/axp-3200.html

The Zalman heat sinks look good too, and only a little more expensive.

--
Phil Nelson

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB ST380013AS
£45 from www.dabs.com

I build mostly machine with WD and Hitachi drives. In the 80 GB range,
drives are pretty much drives. They all have disappointing relibaility.
For
a lot of audio work, two drives are far better than one for performance
reasons. Later on you say you're going to use 2. Hold that thought!

Yea two of anything. Make sure you put them on seperate IDE channels.
Personally I find the Seagate 80G to be quiter and more reliable. I haven't
been disappointed yet, and I've got six.
The only drives I've had fail in the last few years were both WD, that's the
reason I don't buy them any more, but YMMV.

Liteon CD ^ DVD drives are good performers for a good price. At this point
you might want to just cut to the chase and go with an 8X DVD burner.

Agreed, but given the cost of CD burners these days, it can be handy having
one of each. Any thoughts on whether a CD burned in a DVD drive is as widely
readable as one done in a DVD drive? I haven't bothered to test it myself,
since I still use the CD burner for that purpose.

TonyP.

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for reasons I DIDN'T waste money buying Plextor :-)

Easy, buy a Lite-On and check it with K-Probe.

I do have one bitch though, I was getting better burns in my 812S before I
upgraded the firmware to USON. Lite-On don't allow you to go back, is there
a work around, anybody? (I have the USOJ file, but can't install it)

TonyP.

"Phil Nelson" wrote in
message

I just tolerate the noise of my WD drives (I can't really hear it over
the whine of my ultra-cheap CPU fan), but if you want quiet, you might
look into this:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/zm-2hc2.html

Quieting and cooling, seems like a good combination. My experience is
that if you keep the hard drive cool, it will last a long time.

The CPU fan was the major source of noise, but all I had to do is
slow it down with a Zalman Fanmate, while keeping a close eye on CPU
chip temperature. IME fans can be often slowed down a lot, before
CPU chip temp rises more than a few degrees.

This looks like a good way to deal with CPU noise on a new system:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/axp-3200.html

The Zalman heat sinks look good too, and only a little more expensive.

The full-court press quiet PC product of the hour also appears to be from
Zallman:

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product...dx=64&code=020

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040115/

http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showde...ID=121&CATID=9

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 12:41:33 +1200, "Geoff Wood"
-nospam wrote:

Ally wrote:
On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 05:50:52 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

I have never favored Seagate drives - I like Western Digital better.

Most tech types around here will suggest that for an inexpensive
card, the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do recordings
indistinguishable from the best analog source.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping not to have to pay such a high
price. Budget is pretty tight... But I'd pay the price, if I could
only convince myself of the need to... Comments welcome..

High price ?!!!

Geoff - They are expensive here in the UK. I bought a Terratec Phase
22 in the end. (Still awaiting its arrival).

Ally

Ally wrote:
On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 12:41:33 +1200, "Geoff Wood"
-nospam wrote:

Geoff - They are expensive here in the UK. I bought a Terratec Phase
22 in the end. (Still awaiting its arrival).


Get one off the internet ! But you've now got something usable anyway...

geoff