PC Audio Issue 52
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Group #50 20/10/06 4:12 PM Page 1 REGULARS PC AUDIO Thinking of building your own dual-core PC? Having a shopping list of components will make the process a lot easier. Text: Martin Walker Dual-core processors (with two processors around 11% faster, but 70% more expensive). Unless you intend to play games on your sitting side by side on the same chip) provide Suitable Conroe-compatible motherboards new music PC, don’t bother buying a fast 3D stunning performance compared with either run Intel 965 or 975X chipsets. Those graphics card. You simply don’t need such their single-core predecessors, so it’s hardly featuring the 975X chipset provide excellent speed for displaying the non-3D screens of surprising that so many musicians have performance and native IDE ports for your audio sequencers, and you’ll also avoid noisy either bought one or are thinking of buying optical drives, while those with the 965 chipset cooling fans. If you intend to install Microsoft’s one. If you’re tempted, you can either buy an offer similar performance, more USB and imminent Vista operating system just make off-the-shelf model that may give unexpected SATA ports, and significantly lower prices, but sure you buy a card that’s DirectX9-compatible compatibility problems, a custom-built music rely on third-party chips to add IDE support, with 128MB or more of dedicated graphics PC that’s guaranteed to work well with audio so it’s possible you could have issues with your RAM. I ended up buying a Gigabyte 7300LE hardware and software, or you can build your DVD burner. I opted for the much cheaper 965 model for a very modest sum, which is totally own and save some money. If you favour the chipset, but while I searched for a suitable 965 silent and doesn’t get particularly hot either. latter course, choosing which components motherboard model I discovered quite a few The other components are very much down to to use is half the battle, so since I’ve just with just two PCI and two PCI Express slots, personal taste and requirements. Most modern completed building myself a new dual-core and many with no built-in Firewire ports. For hard drives are quiet, and I can recommend PC here’s a shopping list for AT readers, along a musician this combination could be a disaster, 7200rpm models with 8MB buffers such as the with my reasoning. since if you ever want to use a Firewire audio Seagate Barracuda, Western Digital Caviar A year ago there were two main dual-core interface you’d immediately have to use one SE16, and Samsung Spinpoint T-series for CPU contenders for the musician – Intel’s of the four slots to fit a Firewire card, leaving both low acoustic noise and performance. Pentium D range, offering good performance, little expansion potential. Drives of 120GB or lower capacity now work PCI Express slots and good compatibility I decided to concentrate on 965 motherboards out significantly more expensive per Gigabyte with existing PCI cards, and AMD’s Athlon featuring three PCI slots and three PCIe of storage than larger drives, while the price X2, with a few compatibility problems, but x1 slots (providing me with good expansion starts rising again above 400GB, so for my own easier to cool and arguably offering better potential), a single PCIe x16 graphics slot, plus system I bought two Samsung SP2504C 250GB audio performance for a similar outlay. Many integral Firewire ports, and was therefore able drives. I also added an inexpensive Pioneer PC musicians were tempted by X2-based PC to discard quite a few models. My final choice DVR-111 DVD burner, and a humble 3.5-inch (and still are for budget systems), but Intel was Intel’s DP965LT, since this featured two floppy drive. finally fought back when they released the Firewire ports compared with the one of most The final components to consider are the PC long-awaited desktop version of the processor competing models, and was also significantly case, power supply, and CPU heatsink/fan, that had performed so well in Centrino laptops. cheaper. and again it’s down to personal preference. Code-named Conroe, this CPU has proved I bought a Seasonic S-12 430W PSU, for its to be a superb performer that’s far easier to Although 1GB of system RAM is now the practical minimum for a desktop computer, reliability and slow-running 120mm fan, plus keep cool than its Pentium D predecessors, yet a Thermalright XP-120 heatsink and 120mm provides faster performance than the X2 range. 2GB is more sensible for any musician building a powerful dual-core PC, especially if you Akasa fan for cooling my Conroe processor. There are even faster choices, such as systems intend to stream lots of sample data or use For the case I used a new design from PaQ featuring a pair of dual-core AMD Opteron softsynths that gulp 100MB or more for a single (www.paq.ltd.uk), which is extremely quiet, processors, and those with a pair of dual-core patch. However, choosing the most appropriate but not yet available worldwide. Popular Intel Woodcrest processors (i.e., both run a type of RAM can be more confusing than alternatives include the Antec P180, Lian-Li total of four cores). Quad-core processors are many people expect, with various options for PC6070, and Nexus Breeze. So there you are also on the horizon (Intel’s Kentsfield with voltage, speed, and latency. My advice is to – armed with this or a similar shopping list two Conroe dies mounted on one physical follow any recommendations given for your you’re off to a flying start with your new dual- package will be first, followed by AMD’s true chosen motherboard on the website you buy core PC. Good luck! quad-core Barcelona), and then octuple-core it from, or to visit one of the major RAM processors will no doubt follow. However, the manufacturers like Corsair (www.corsair.com) vast majority of musicians should be more and Crucial (www.crucial.com), and enter than happy with a dual-core PC, which will your motherboard make and model into their provide the biggest leap forward in processing Memory Advisor Tools, to see what’s on offer. power that most of us have ever enjoyed. So, For my motherboard I bought two matched my choice of processor was a Conroe dual-core, 1GB sticks of DDR2 800 RAM from Corsair and the best ‘bang for the buck’ (as our US (part number CM2X1024-6400 RAM), with colleagues say) was the E6600 model, with both latency settings of 5-5-5-12 and operating at cores running at 2.4GHz (the next model up is 1.9V. For you local dealer please contact GroupTechnologies AT 72 Tel: 03 9354 9133 Email: [email protected].