[linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

[Lee Revell]

On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 06:44 -0400, lanas wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
>   I'm plaaning to get a new home PC that could also be used (along with
> software development) for creating and recording music.
> 
>   What I'd like to do: sequence MIDI external sounds (synth module(s)),
> add accoustic guitar and flute, record everything to wav and/or Ogg
> Vorbis formats (using original external synths sounds).  Optionally, to
> be also able to choose from a palette of SoundFonts (as I did with
> my current PC, using a SB Live! card and MusE).
> 
>   What I'd like to get as PC: an Athlon 64bit based mobo, 2 GB RAM, some
> 250 GB disk storage. graphics card not that important as it's not used
> to play games (why not on-board graphic ?).  Operating system: in the
> end most likely handmade Linux based on LFS (Linux From Scratch) but for
> starters SuSE 9.3 64-bit, or any other that's good enough.
> 
>   Now, is there some strong allergic reaction between a Linux Audio
> setup and 64-bit CPUs ?  Are 64-bits platforms recommended for audio
> purposes or is it better to wait a few more years ?  If it's OK, which
> mobo would you recommend ?

If you want it to Just Work I would say wait a year or get a 32 bit
system.  Many people seem to buy x86_64 systems and expect it to be 100%
as reliable as a 32 bit system.  But of course this will not be so, as
32 but x86 has been around for 20-25 years, and x86-64 came out what, 6
months ago?

I would recommend avoiding 64 bit systems until there is a mature
pure-64 distro to run on it.  AFAICT it does not exist yet.

I would recommend to use the onboard video, as an Nvidia or ATI card
will require binary-only drivers for full support, and high-end video
cards often are not good PCI bus citizens.  It's very common for vendors
to cheat in ways that adversely affect the entire system, just to
squeeze out a few points on some Windows benchmark.

Lee