Newbie Vikki's AMD Phenom II x4 computer/DAW?/build thread...

Wow, you still have sequencing equipment with floppy drives on them? :D
A new fast hard drive will definitely be a boon for you if you're doing music sequencing - as will lots and lots of RAM!
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Well I do live out in the sticks...in the country...we are a little behind the times here!
 
Introducing my new DAW



Thank you so much for all your help, guys, I am truly grateful. Anytime you need a computer building:D:D:D

Vikki
As a matter of interest, can you bring up the health check without going into the bios? CPU temp seems to be around 34 degrees at general usage.
Seems very stable and well behaved.

PS - Big thanks as well to absic115 and a few of the guys on the Gigabyte forum who also shared thoughts and ideas with me and for pointing me in the right direction.
 
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vikki said:
As a matter of interest, can you bring up the health check without going into the bios? CPU temp seems to be around 34 degrees at general usage.
Seems very stable and well behaved.
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Check out CPU-z, Intel TAT, Everest, Orthos, apps like that can monitor temps and voltages and can stress-test your CPU.

Out of interest, what sequencing software is that?
 
i use core temp to monitor my cpu temps on the rig in my sig and sometimes speedfan for harddrive temps etc, also gpu-z has a sensor tab that shows my graphics card temps.

oh and congrats on your new build sounds like you had a load of fun putting it together :)

i have had a sony optitrac dvd drive for a year now and it performs that good i just recently bought another one their good drives for the price, my dad is using them as well in his new comp :)
 
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Great thanks....i haven't actually used the Gigabyte disk supplied with the Mobo, are there any utilities or anything on there i need to load, thats the same with the disk supplied with the Sony DVD drive?
Wiring needs tidying up a bit, i see now why people use modular psu's as i think you can just plug on which cables you require, but i thought this one was not a bad buy considering all others for £59.ish.
Total build so far was just shy of £500 including a Windows 7 disk, i was hoping to have built it for £350 ish using my old case and psu but i soon realised things had moved on quite a bit since i managed to get my old P4 machine going 7 years ago:rolleyes:I'm glad i used a larger case than the Micro Atx case i was looking at, there's a bit more room to work in there.......and some of the braided psu leads are quite thick...
The recording software i have on the machine is this one.....
http://www.presonus.com/products/SoftwareDetail.aspx?SoftwareId=11
I've used most of them but for me this is probably the best of the crop for what i do, the Presonus Studio One runs very smooth and the workflow is amazing, i can record a project in quarter of the time i could my other recording software.
There's a demo on the Presonus site.
Thanks
Vikki
 
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I imagine there would be some software on the disk for monitoring temps and even overclocking possibly. Mostly the disk will contain drivers which will be out of date and windows update should find the latest ones for you anyway.

I don't mind physically building machines its putting the software back on i don't like. We take for granted how much stuff we have on our pc's and how long it takes to get it installed.

manveruppd made some good suggestions. CPUID HWmonitor is what you are looking for. This measures temps from the cpu cores, HDD and gfx card etc etc.
 
Just loading my recording software, i have the DAW software installed but i'm having trouble getting the M audio soundrivers to work,. I ended up reformatting the System hard drive on the new machine and loading a clean load of Windows 7. Just hope the M audio card works o.k. with Windows 7, or it will be "buy a new soundcard too":eek:
By gum there was some stuff on the old P4 machine, mostly rubbish:D
Vikki:)
 
I'm sure i mentioned this in another thread you started Vikki. If you have gone the 64bit windows route then drivers for old hardware can be hard to find.

The mobos soundcard should be ok but if your "hardcore" when it comes to audio you probably have invested in a better soundcard. You can go into control panel, then system and on into the device manager to check what devices are working ok, you can ask the machine to search for newer drivers from here too.

Hope that helps
 
What M-audio drivers are you talking about? Is it for a soundcard you brought over from your old system, or does your motherboard have an M-audio chipset as integrated sound? :confused:

I've had lots of trouble getting M-audio stuff to work with Windows too tbh, got a big 88-key keyboard which my computer refuses to see, even though it worked just fine on my gf's mac. And it's not a question of new drivers for old kit, cause I'm on Windows XP-32.

Like honosuseri said, no need to bother with the Gigabyte disk, just get the latest motherboard drivers from the web if Windows hasn't found them automatically already.
 
Having downloaded the updated drivers from m-audio for my audiophile 2496 and midisport everything seems to be working ok, so far!:rolleyes:

I have also downloaded a health status checker as you recommended and just wondered if everything here seems to ok ...





Thanks
Vikki
 
Yeah looks good, happy to hear the soundcard was supported.

What you can do is "stress" the cpu. Most people use prime95, this helps check stability of the system. Whilst it is running keep an eye on the temps in CPUID HW (you don't want it near 70 degrees!). Your max reading tells me that the cpu is basically idling as its only a degree or so higher than the minimum reading, so you haven't really worked it yet!

I'm sure the CPU will be ok tempwise but by doing what i've suggested above you get an idea of how hot the CPU will get in a worst case scenario. Hope this helps
 
Well, everything seems to be running OK:D. I will run it a few days and see what's cooking...:eek:or not - hopefully..??? Just spending all my time loading all my software most of it's going on OK with win7 x64 update downloads from the web - this bits actually more time consuming than the actual build because you don't realise until you build a new DAW just how much stuff you've accumulated - bit of nightmare really.

EZdrummer seems to be my main issue right now because I've tried to load from my old disks and they're obviously incompatible:rolleyes:. It worked at first but as soon as I tried to load the extension kit it wouldn't have it:mad:. It seems you have to download the whole of your products from your toontracks account to make them work with win7 x64. Then the updates, then the extension kits and their updates and each time you add to it you'll have to authorize it before it'll let you work with it.

The downloads from the web onto my laptop take more time than the actual upload to the new DAW because the DAW is sooooooooo much faster:cool:. My first attempt it tried to unzip the whole prog to my memory stick - :o and when I stopped it from doing that it corrupted :eek:- lesson learned moved whole thing across before opening zip....doh!

I'll keep you posted....;)
Vikki
 
It's the whole process. I can probably assemble a pc and read a childrens book in the time it takes windows to install. Then you have system updates, driver updates, software installs etc etc.

Putting everything together is ok but then time just seems to flyby once you get the disks out ;p
 
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