Some Advise on my New Build please.

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Hi All,

I was hopeing for some advise on my new PC build im going to hopefully be buying in the next couple of weeks. I am not 100% about compatibility of all my components...esspecially my Two Sound cards, and I am wandering if you all think it will all run nicely togeather etc.

Firstly incase any one is wandering, I was going for the two soundcards for use as djing on the pc. To allow for one soundcard to be used pretty much exclusively as a moniter output, allowing me to cue up the next track via the second card/output to a set of headphones.
I have also always loved to have the livedrive so I went for the 'Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series Sound Card. inc Livedrive'. and a 'Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Music UAA Vista-Certified 7.1 Sound Card' as my moniter output card.

Do you think there would be any compatibility problems useing these two soundcards togeather?

Is there another option that I could use, other than going for the two cards, that anyone is aware off?? Im kind of out-of-date when it comes to knowledge of the tech these days :\

I am also wandering if the livedrive is going to have any problems with the case I am buying.. Will the buttons stickout on the front of the livedrive so much as to stop the case door closing?

Do you think this sytem would be a quiet one? I also plan on buying some quiet fans with fan controlers to replace the stock fans on the case. and on the heatsink. I REALLY want to build myself a quiet PC, so any advise here would be useful also.

So any advise for a music user would be quite helpful to me as well as anyone else who wishes to input into the components im using for the system.

I know I am asking a lot, but this seemed to be the best place for it as I am buying the components from here also :) I appriciate any advise you all can give me, Thanks in advance.

Tekz.

*Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
*Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
*LG GH20NS15 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
*Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x1GB)
*Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2
*Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
*Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series Sound Card
*Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Music UAA Vista-Certified 7.1 Sound Card
*Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
*Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
*Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 32bit
 
I'm not sure how much I can help on the soundcard front but if Creative haven't solved their Vista compatability problems recently they probably aren't the best choice. Asus make the Xonar which seems fairly well regarded but it is mostly for gaming I think. If Creative have solved their Vista issues then it might be easier to mix and match with an Asus and a Creative (for the Livedrive). If mainly for audio quality then I've heard good things about M-Audio products so definitely worth a bit more research.

Any particular reason for the 32bit version of Vista?

The rest is all compatible. I might be missing it but what PSU are you going for?
 
You dont need 2 separate soundcards to DJ these days. What you need is a soundcard with at least 2 outs. Then you use software to set the outs to monitor/cue or whatever. Have a look at audio interfaces freom the likes of M-audio or EMU (which is part of Creative).

Other points- your graphics card is overkill for music use, maybe look at a less powerful passive one. Also if you ever want to go on the road maybe a smaller matx case would be better. Software wise check out Ableton Live.
 
Thanks very much for the info,
Im mainly making it for gaming hence why i'v decided on that graphics card. The sound side of things is kind of less important, although I have always wanted to use my pc for mixing between the decks and ableton, (thanks for the suggestion, I already use ableton, it's a great program!) but I never had the second output so was not able to get the moniter headphones going on via ableton. So I will have a look into 2xoutput cards now!

Would you go for that graphics card or go for an 8800GT ?

I assumed Vista 32bit would be more stable...am I wrong? I dont mind buying the 64bit if it is the better choice. what do you think.....?

The power supply is also a corsair 620w modular power supply, im also thinking of doing a little bit of overclocking.

It will not be on the road with me, I will be using it for bedroom online mixing/producing or just when my DJ buddy comes over and we can have some fun with it! (that's why it is a secondary component of my build)

I will have a look at the M-Audio/EMU available cards now...
 
I think the 4850 is the better choice, bit newer and a fair bit faster than the 8800GT from what I can see.

I don't think Vista 32bit is any more stable than the 64bit version generally, in fact I'd suggest going with 64bit and 4gb of decent PC6400 since it will be easily sufficient for overclocking your CPU if you want to. Something like G.Skill PC6400 PQ would be a good option.
 
Good news on the Fans and PSU as they are what i was thinking off ^^

So does the M-audio Audiophile 192 have 2 outputs?

and why not go for the PC8500 versions?
 
Because PC8500 is rather overkill for a CPU with an FSB speed of 1066mhz generally unless you are quite seriously overclocking i.e. 3.6ghz or above.

I don't know how much you know about Intel CPUs so to explain a bit further and feel free to ignore if you already know this. The current Intel range have their FSBs in effect quad pumped so to get 1066mhz you need Ram capable of 266.5mhz as the minimum level - that is PC4200 speeds. Now I wouldn't recommend getting PC4200 for a system such as this but it is simply to illustrate a point, PC6400 is guaranteed to run at 400mhz (and you can often overclock it further) so that would give you 3.6ghz based on the 9x multiplier of the Q6600 and the 400mhz guaranteed from the Ram. To go above this you need good cooling and a good chip as well as the suitable motherboard and Ram of course.
 
Yes the Audiophile 192 has 4 outs! However for your purposes I would perhaps recommend the M-audio Revolution 5.1 - This has the advantage of a dedicated headphones amplifier as well as better support for gaming. Its probably better as an all round gaming plus music recording card.
 
does the M-audio Revolution 5.1 card have 2x outputs on it?
I have been looking at it but i can't seem to see it mention 2x outputs anywhere..
 
Er sorry you're right, I'm not overly familiar with this card. However using its ASIO drivers you can normally route the audio signals how you want to. On reflection maybe its better to stick with the Audiophile 192 or perhaps the Delta 44 which has a breakout box.

As an aside did you know it's completely possible to DJ with Ableton using onboard sound? Just download and install the universal ASIO drivers for WDM audio from asio4all.com, then set up your speakers as a 4 channel system (control panel> e.g. Realtek/Soundmax) then in ableton select the asio driver (options>preferences>audio), then highlight the relevant outs (options>preferences>audio>output config e.g. 1/2 stereo and 5/6 stereo), then assign your cue out (on the right of the main session view) to whatever you just highlighted eg 5/6 stereo. You are effectively assigning your headphones to the rear 2 speakers of what would normally be a 4 channel surround setup. Make sure your monitors and headphones are plugged into the right plugs on the back panel! Sounds a bit complicated but its how I learnt to DJ using ableton before I got a dedicated soundcard.
 
Im going to try what you just mentioned, it sounds a little complicated hehe, but i think I see what you are saying.

I'm off to try it now, would be interesting to see if i can get it working...even though after reading up about it that Audiophile 192 I am slowely falling in love with the idea, and to be honest I would be happy to invest in such a card, as I am still saving quite a bit of money considering i was first talking of getting an x-fi with livedrive and another similar hehe.

loading up ableton now!

Thanks for the info :)
 
:S


Ok so I am trying to get this thing going...... without any success.

I dont even know where to start with explaining my problem.........

I actually have 2 sound cards already.. I have nvidia onboard and an audigy as a second card. I am actually even too confused to explain what is going on lol.

I basically cant get any sound comeing through with the asio drivers... on either card... IF I go into the asio hardware setup, it says that the output is unavailable. As soon as i switch it from asio to other MME/DX drivers everything works ok. and on asio, there is only the
'1(mono)&2(mono) / 1/2 (stereo)' option even though I set my sound settings to quad speakers like you suggested.

But everything is just confusing me... I just realised that I already have 2 cards... but I could never get what i wanted to work actually work.
Also wierd things were happening when i was playing with the settings on ableton...(which was only confusing me further). For example, at one point I had all asio selected, and my sound settings set to the audigy, but when i pulled out the output cable and plugged it into my Nvidia card.. 'The music started comming through!!!' And I didnt even have the Nvidia selected in ableton or on my system audio settings. Bizzare!
So im just so confused now I just feel like im wasting my time and im not going to beable to get this silly thing working properly...

Sorry for the long post, I do really appriciate your help guys :)
 
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