This is a stock Gateway GT5032 Media Center PC -

Athlon 64 4200 X2
1 Gig RAM (upgrading to 2 or 3 gigs soon)
onboard Geforce 6100 video (upgrading to a real videocard soon)

25msec - %18
18msec - %20
12msec - %24
6msec - %29
3msec - %35 - %45
1.5msec - %62 - %79

It looks like I'm not sacrificing too much by going with an off the shelf system. At $850, I think it was a bargain.

I'm currently setting up a new DAW running two separate SATA RAID-0 configurations using WD 10k/150GB/16MB, the Intel P940, 975x chipset mobo and 4GB of Corsair XMS2 Twin-X DDR2 800. Dual-boot system with XP-Pro and XP-64.

It'll be a couple of weeks before it's built and tuned but LMK if you're interested and I'll PM the numbers once available.


Brendan.

Hello Tombo.

No offense, but...

Absolutely none taken, and I'm always keen to listen to those that have more experience than myself at DAW's, quirks and foybles. It's a hugely complex subject with lots of interaction and interdependencies. Certainly the bottom line is "Does it do the job well", and I've no particular pre-conceived notions as to the "best" arrangement or technology - if indeed there will ever be one. Your feedback is therefore very much appreciated. I'm not a professional and I know my limitations, though I love music composition and I just wanted a really good platform to move on.

Now without elaborating, suffice to say that I did particularly well on the stock market and this was an exploratory venture - though with serious intentions of-course. From the start I considered that if I just go with what I felt comfortable with then anything that I wished to switch out later would just get transferred to my (soon-to-be non-DAW) other workstation. I did start to look at building an AMD-based system, but I have never used AMD before and quite frankly so much AMD/Intel tribalistic talk put me right off. Refreshingly, I'm not reading this in your post and I fully accept that AMD architecture and potential looks particularly bright. I'll be watching developments very closely.

The 975 chipset? - well, a bit of a venture into the unknown with regard to future chipset possibilities so I figured that I would just give the latest a shot. Initially I don't plan installing a UAD-1, though this would certainly free up considerable CPU bandwidth and I may just do this yet. If the 975x gives me grief then the mobo goes. Certainly I would be interested to know of other experiences, both AMD and Intel, so I'll be monitoring the forums so I can make better informed decisions about future changes - or perhaps just a new DAW for the rack. For the immediate time it's more a case of get it built and get cracking on those bigger projects.

Very interesting f/b regarding RAID-0 as-well. I initially looked at RAID-1 for samples but in practice the reports suggested nothing even approaching x2 theoretical read (these dedicated to samples). It was then that I looked at RAID-0, though was not aware of PCI-hogging being a particular issue at that time. My third considered option was simply to mirror the drives and manually/arbitrarily select the drive and source when configuring the instruments in Kompakt/Kontakt - thereby distributing resource demand. I also purchased a plain ol' Seagate 400GB/8Mb/7200/ATA133 for regimented backups and recordings (in anticipation of using a RAID-0 configuration) though I'm sure this drive wouldn't touch your Samsung for performance. The 10K/16MB WD SATA-II's however offer 4.5ms seek and I probably wouldn't have to RAID them for necessary speed .

At this stage I think that I have sufficient flexibility in the setup to trial various configuration modes, though I will fully take on-board your advice and considerable experience with DAW's and RAID-0. Who could knock that?

Anyways - Better finish there as this is all a bit off-topic (sorry all).

Many thanks Tombo, all the best.

Brendan.

And one more thing...if Xeons were faster, I might have bought a dual Xeon setup...and I am seriously eyeing a dual CPU, Opteron 2** series Dual Core setup...think about it: four cores in two CPUs...more cowbell! More power!

bump

You need to get the AMD X2 driver. THose results are either backwards...or you need some updates. I have your config....with a 4600 X2....and it should certainly improve with enabling dual proc.

I saw the results between an AMD X2 3800 and AMD X2 4400 processor and i saw a little difference in performance.Here in mexico the price of X2 3800 is about 400 dlls and X2 4400 is about 700dlls. My question is if 1Mb vs 512kb of cache have more stability??? i want to know because i like to buy a new DAW. THX

OK.

Here's some numbers for my machine.

4400 x2 with 1gig high performance corsair RAM.

1.5ms - ~55%
2.9ms - ~35%
5.8ms - ~27%
11.6ms - 22% static.
23.2ms - 19% static.

all with multi-processing enabled and the RME fireface. Latest drivers and firmware.

oh, and no overclocking anywhere - and using the 64bit mixing engine.

Kind regards

Dave Rich

Uhhm...I do not know what I was thinking....or where my brain was at the time....but I totally agree with you now. Apparantly....I was backwards...cause I thought I was reading worse performance with Multiprocessing enabled.....LOL. Forget I said anything.

ORIGINAL: jpkeys

ORIGINAL: Elvenking
You need to get the AMD X2 driver. THose results are either backwards...or you need some updates. I have your config....with a 4600 X2....and it should certainly improve with enabling dual proc.

Huh? I think those numbers are great. I have the AMD X2 driver. Why in the world do you think they're backwards?

JP

Nice looking rig. Just one question/comment:

ORIGINAL: brendantownsend

For the record, DAW specs as follows:

CPU: Pentium D940 (2 x 3.2GHz, 2+2Mb cache)
Mobo: Asus P5WD2-E Premium (975X chipset)
Boot HDD's: 2 x 74GB 10k/8MB SATA Raptors in striped (RAID-0) array on PCI-based SiI-3112 h/w controller card
Data HDD's: 2 x 150GB 10k/16MB SATA Raptors in striped (RAID-0) array on Intel ICH7 h/w controller chip (on-board)
Memory: 2 x 2GB paired Corsair matched XMS2 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz FSB (i.e. 4GB total)
Graphics: GeForce 6600 running dual-monitors
Audio: Creative X-Fi Elite Pro ("un-professional" I know but with scant info I just had to try it)
OS: Win XP-Pro SP2 (soon to be dual-boot with XP-64)


Incidentally, in the light of other comments the two RAID-0 configurations are really just an experiment at the moment - both being hardware-driven implementations on the latest chipsets as opposed to software RAID.

I'm wondering if you wouldn't be better off using the 2x 74G disks seperately. One for boot and one for sampler data. Like that you keep the other RAID for audio data and have samples seperate, the OS seperate and maybe put the PictureCache on the OS disk too. Like that nothing gets in the way of anything else.

UnderTow (who is very happy he just ordered a Tyan Thunder K8W to go with the two Opteron 246s he got cheap. )

Ooops

Just updated my systems a bit from my initial post. Previously:

System Specs
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X deluxe (nForce2 dual channel)
RAM: 512Mb Corsir TwinX Timed at 2-2-2-5
Processor: AthlonXP 2700+ T-Bred B core
FSB: 333 MHz
CPU: 2.17 GHz
Multiplier: 13
Audio Device: WDM M-Audio Delta 0.29 driver set to 64 sample buffer

46.4ms: 33%
23.2ms: 33-36%
11.6ms: 39-43%
5.8ms: 51-58%
2.9ms: 73-76%
1.5ms: Warning shown but doesn't drop out

Same motherboard.. new chip. I got a mobile AthlonXP 2600+ barton core chip, widely regarded as a great overclocker, and a 1G pair of Corsair value select. The motherboard doesn't know what the mobile chip is, but the chip is completely unlocked so I could clock it however I want. I brought it up slowly and ended up matching a 3200+ setup exactly. New Results:

RAM: 1Gb Corsair Value Select Timed at 2.5-3-3-8
Processor: Mobile AthlonXP 2600+ Barton core
FSB: 400 MHz
CPU: 2.2 GHz
Multiplier: 11
Audio Device: ASIO M-Audio Delta, I forget which version

5.8ms = 46%
2.9ms = 65%
1.5ms = won't engage

Edit... with the exception of the 1.5ms not engaging, it's interesting that I'm beating the Athlon64 3200+ just posted... interesting.

specs :
17" Imac Core Duo 1.83Ghz, running Windows XP SP2 under Bootcamp
667Mhz buss
2 GB RAM
Stanton Final Scratch 2 Firewire audio interface

first column = Sonartest3 CPU load
second column = ADK Sonartest CPU load
third column = latency setting soundcard

19% 48% 25ms
20% 51% 18ms
22% 54% 12ms
24% 56% 10ms
25% 59% 8ms
27% 65% 6ms
34% 75% 4ms
40% 83% 3ms
50% 91% 2ms
66% audio engine stopped 1.5ms

to give you an idea : my dual Pentium 4 system (Asus P5 motherboard, 2GB RAM, 800Mhz buss, Terratec EWS 88 MT PCI audio interface) reached 75% with Sonartest 3 @ 1.5ms (11% more than the iMac), and the lowest latency I could get with the ADK sonartest was 7.6ms (93% CPU load), any value lower than that stopped the audio engine ...

the iMac cost me 800 EUR, and an additional 230 for the RAM ... 1030 EUR for a top notch system that's dead quiet ... I can recommend it to anyone. Especially the absolute absence of fan noise is a relief, my Pentium was stored in a separate closet with cable extensions for monitors and keyboard, no more need for that now.

in addition, it apparently even scores better than the MacBookPro with a faster processor ...

@ Twigman : try disabling HT, it made my system way more reliable and responsive !

ORIGINAL: cappy

I am not able to get the results on the sonartest that I have been seeing posted on this forum. I am running an opteron 180 dc with a gigabyte k8nf9 ultra mobo, 4 gigs of corsair CL2 ram, and a tascam 1884.

I have an Opteron DC 180 as well on a Gigabyte K8-U 939, but with only 1gb Ram and a PCI Audiophile and am getting competitive numbers. I think possibly your problem lies in the Tascams drivers as I hear their not very efficient, but I could be wrong. Aside from AMD's DC fix, I also installed Microsofts Hotfix with the registry edit, and made sure the multiprocessor engine option was on in Sonar, plus the 64 bit engine option, other than that I can only guess what the problem might be.