New DAW Build in Progress Tips & Advice

Hi,
I purchased the Gigabyte K8NS Ultra 939 mobo and AMD X2 4400+ CPU and looking for advice on the new build. All the parts should be here this week and that's when I plan to try my luck at getting things up and running.

Here are a few questions that I’ve been wondering about.

1) Should the 80GB HD and DVD share the the same IDE cable with the HD being Master and the DVD being Slave or would it be better to connect them individually to the mobo’s two separate IDE connectors and set them both as Master? Does it matter for performance and any pros or cons to either method?

2) What size partitions would you recommend for the 80GB HD that will be used for OS/Programs? Should the OS be on one partition by itself and the Programs on another?

3) What software do I need to make a backup restore disc in case I ever run into problems and need to reinstall everything. I’ve heard of Norton Ghost, Aconis True Image, Casper XP, and Terabyte Boot-It & IFW. I’ve never used any of these before and wanted to find out what’s recommended and is easy to use?

This is my first DAW build, so any other tips & advice is much appreciated!

Here is the List of Parts:

Evercase ECR9400B 4U Rack Case
Antec TP2 550W PSU
Gigabyte K8NS Ultra 939 Mobo
AMD X2 4400+ CPU
2GB OCZ PC 3200 RAM
ATI 9600XT Video Card
WD 80GB PATA for OS/Programs
WD 250GB SATA for Samples
WD 250GB SATA for Audio
Plextor PX-716A DVD/CD
Samsung Floppy Drive
Windows XP Pro SP2
RME Fireface 800 Firewire Audio Interface
Software - Sonar5, Project 5 V2, BFD, and DFHS.

Thanks for the info! JD...

Hi Larry,
I'm hoping all goes smooth with the new build and all the parts work well together.

1) I'll be going with the CD/DVD and HD on separate IDE channels.

2) I think I'll go with Dual Boot in case I need to hook up to the internet or need to use the DAW for other tasks in the future.

3) I purchased Ghost 9/2003 & Partition Magic 8 to help with the new build. I never used either program, so I'll have to figure out how to use them.

Thanks for your help. JD...

I just finished building a intel pentium D 930 3.0 and a 955xbk. so far so smooth. as far ad HD's go, just install os drive first than install the other drives. on the audio drive i set my cluster size 64k. See how it runs with service pack 2, alot of people are doing well with it. I'll be burning mine in for a couple weeks before I put it into Service though. Good luck and happy building. Arthur www.dmsstudio.com

I've had my current system for about a year, and I have the optical drive as a slave to a HDD--haven't noticed any performance hits; device manager reports all disks functioning at the correct UDMA. If I didn't prefer an internal HDD for Ghost images, I'd probably have the DVD/RW on its own IDE, but I've found the internal HDD for Ghost too useful--fastest backups and restores that way (of course I write my key Ghost images to DVD too). I've been Ghosting to an NTFS drive with no problem, and since both your will be WinXP, you will probably be OK with NTFS too, unless there's something about dual-boot systems I don't know about that would affect things. I'm only running WinXP, single-boot.
I don't see why all the samples on one partition would be a problem. Wouldn't BFD and DFHS be in their own folders anyway?
Also, I've been running SP2 for a long time now with no problems. Don't know if it matters, but I did a fresh install with SP2 before installing anything else. If your DAW is going to be connected to the Internet at all it's a must--at least for that install.
Good luck with your new system!

ORIGINAL: kellog

Looks like a really nice system. I went with the same MB and the 3700. Curious on your video selection JD - any particular reason you picked that card? I need a card for a backup system and usually just get cheap cards or go dual-head. I'm still on CRT's as I haven't got funds for nice big LCD's yet. I'm seeing this card with 256 RAM at pricegrabber for $79.00.

Thanks,

kellog

In my research for parts I noticed the ATI 9600XT video card being used successfully with the Gigabyte K8NS Ultra 939. I was thinking about getting the Matrox P650, but I got a good deal on the ATI and figured I'd give that a try first. I'm still using a CRT too, but plan to get a nice 19" LCD in the near future.

Thanks! JD...

A lot of people don't connect their DAW to the Internet at all; some are very vehement on the subject. If you don't have broadband, and your friend does, it may be more reliable than having to contend with dial-up and possibly getting disconnected or whatever. I know SP 2 can be downloaded as a separate package; I don't know about the individual hotfixes. I don't think it will hurt your system not to be connected to the Internet, and if you are getting a new copy of XP, SP 2 is probably already a part of it anyway. I am going to rearrange my system when I get my new drives and do a fresh install as I always do when I rearrange my hardware; I will take note of which hotfixes I have to install when I first go online and post back. If they are security-related (I seem to recall that most of them are) and you know for sure you won't be connecting your DAW to anything else, you probably won't need them. If any are stability-related, that's a different story, of course.

Just a small update:

I put all the hardware together, replaced a fan in the case with a quiet one, and wired everything neatly for good air flow. I'll still need to add the 2 SATA HD's after I get Win XP Pro installed and things are running smooth.

After installing the HSF with Arctic Silver 5 I did power up the system and it posted. I then updated the bios to the newest version and that was successful. So far, so good. :)

I'll probablly call it a night and get back to it tomorrow, but had another question before installing Win XP Pro SP2 & Updates/Drivers.

Should I do anything first to burn everything in properly? I recall a program called memtest and wondering if I should do that first before moving on? Of course, I never used that either, but it shouldn't be too complicated.

Thanks! JD...

I ran memtest86+ last night for a couple hours with no errors and did the same thing again today. I checked PC Health Status in bios and my CPU temperature is currently at 32C at idle. I'm hoping that is a good temperature for the X2 4400+ at idle and that the HSF and Arctic Silver 5 install was a success.

Now it's time for to me to make a decision about the dual boot setup and partition sizes. I think this is the part I dread the most, because I don't understand it as well as I would like to.

Thanks! JD...

You can also download it here
(or have your friend do it). This is what I used on both systems and it worked fine.