[linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

tommy illth at gmx.de
Thu May 12 18:14:53 EDT 2005


Noah Roberts schrieb:

>On 5/12/05, Lee Revell <rlrevell at joe-job.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>You can get a 64 and run in legacy mode.  The 64 is not much more
>expensive than the XP counterparts. 
>
true, but you can get a really good Skt A (abit NF7-S) board for €45.
OTOH when you go for a really cheap skt754 board, you have to pay
€50 (ECS something with sis 755). for an ok skt939 board you pay 69€
(gigabyte something with NF3U)
prices for cpus:
Athlon XP 3000+ : 98
A64/skt754 3000+ : 111
A64/skt939 3000+ : 118

so tahts 143€ vs. 187€ or + 30% price for the A64 solution.
the A64 _is_ faster OTOH, and does use less power, even at
stock speeds => lower noise.

and with 2 GB ram in mind, i would save at least 38 € for ram
(ie. the skt a has three memory slots; so i need one 1 GB and 2 x 512 MB
thats 128€ + 2 * 45€ = 218.
skt939 has 4 memory slots, so i need 4 x 512MB = 4 * 45€ = 180€)

so the diff would decrease to only 6 €. this will clearly favour the A64.

and, if i had the choice right now, id get the A64 anyway, even it was 50€
more expensive as this is a way more future proof.

> I have been using 64 for quite a
>while now...between 1 and 2 years somewhere.  Some stuff is not as
>stable and my DVD burner just now started working with the newer
>kernels.  I run into few problems really though.  There are several
>full fledged distributions for the 64.  I use Gentoo myself and they
>now have a GRP for the 64 (when I installed stage3 was most pre-built
>you could get).
>
>
>  
>




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