[LAU] Christmas present for self.

David W. Jones gnome at hawaii.rr.com
Thu Dec 14 23:35:55 UTC 2017



On December 14, 2017 10:51:23 AM HST, Len Ovens <len at ovenwerks.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Dec 2017, Will Godfrey wrote:
> 
> > I'm thinking of getting a new 'pooter for music, and also thinking
> of making
> > it one of the new Ryzen ones. I don't think there is much point in
> going for
> > more than quad core. The 1500X looks like a good bet 3.5 to 3.7G,
> and not
> > overly expensive.
> 
> My choice is i5 with 4 cores no hyperthread... no video problems...
> but 
> then I don't do video editing or games. Video viewing has been just
> fine.

My laptop (2.4Ghz, 4 core 8 HT) gives me more throughput than the 2.8Ghz, 4 core no HT AMD Phenom 2 in my desktop. I've tried some i5 systems, they seem slow to me.

I've had no issues with xruns and hyperthreading on my laptop.

Since I do large panoramas on the laptop, I need the higher core/HT counts. I might move the desktop to an 8 core/16HT Ryzen sometime. Fits budget better than Intel now.

> > On (say) an asus motherboard with on-board radeon graphics. I'm not
> really
> 
> I went with asus as well. There were about 20 MB that would fit the
> CPU 
> choice. I wanted maximum pci slots (ice1712 and AudipPCI card for
> MIDI) 
> and was able to find a few with 3 pci slots. I chose midrange, high
> enough 
> to take extra memory and have fast sata, but leave out as many bells
> and 
> whistles as I could because those just clog up ones irqs. This one was
> 
> able to do either old or new style bios and allows turning boost
> and/or 
> onboard audio off.

I like the Asus boards, too. The BIOS in my wife's laptop is marvelously configurable!

> > The one think I've no idea about is the sound card. I've got a
> positively
> > ancient 2496 that survived 3 PCs so far, but I think it's time for
> an upgrade.
> > Anyone any ideas about a well supported PCI-e one· It would be nice
> to have
> > balanced IO for a start!

With a modern motherboard and USB3.1/USB-C, I'd go with an external USB card.

Also, there'd be the option to use Apple's Firewire to USB-C cable to hook a Firewire device in. But with a desktop, you could just add a Firewire PCIe adaptor, yes?

> As an almost direct replacement for the 2496 my first thought was the 
> Juli@ XTe which has balanced io. 
> http://www.esi-audio.com/products/juliaxte/
> However, it is no longer made, ESI now sells the MAYA44 eX. This does
> not 
> have balanced io, but rather 1/4in stereo. Also, Juli@ says there are 
> ALSA drivers, but the maya does not.
> 
> From there you go to RME, AudioScience, Lynx and digigram. So far as I
> 
> know, AudioScience has full Linux compatability (including programmers
> 
> API), Digigram has ALSA drivers for some of their devices but not all,
> 
> Lynx might be none and RME Linux support seems to have gone downhill. 
> However, I would suggest asking on the rivendell list/forum/whatever
> for 
> more info. (They suggest AudioScience right off the top)
> 
> Personally, I think when I replace my D66 (probably when I can't get a
> MB 
> with PCI) I have been thinking of the AudioScience PCIe cards as one
> of 
> the possibilities. (in the USB world... probably MOTU AVB with the
> thought 
> of figuring out AVB on Linux)
> 
> Personally, I have not needed more than the 6 inputs I have... in fact
> I 
> don't think I have even used more than 2 and most often use 1. So
> having 
> room for a drumset and needing more inputs may be another reason to 
> upgrade.
> 
> --
> Len Ovens
> www.ovenwerks.net

--
David W. Jones
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community
http://dancingtreefrog.com

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