13 Oct
2004
13 Oct
'04
11:10 a.m.
I use a Shuttle SK41G (old by now), which is a little "lunch box"
style PC. It has one PCI slot, which I use for my M-Audio Delta 66.
It also has on AGP slot (empty on mine). I use onboard video and
ethernet without any trouble. It's a sorta-portable system, with an
LCD monitor. I intend to pack it up and bring it to a friend's house
to record there (he has a room with his drums set up there). I've
also got a combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM, and USB qwerty keyboard (Happy Hacking
keyboard) and MIDI keyboard (Evolution MK249C).
I like it better than a laptop for the reasons you already mentioned.
Theoretically, I can get a new Shuttle XPC motherboard if some
component goes.
I would avoid a Mac since they use a different processor; I think most
Linux audio software is developed for little-endian x86. My bet is
that most programs will give you trouble on big-endian PPC.
On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:36:51 -0700 (PDT), Brian Redfern
<bredfern(a)calarts.edu> wrote:
It seems that the little "lunch box" form
factor with a flat screen
monitor is really portable but has the advantage of giving you control
over the kinds of hardware you're using, as opposed to a laptop where
you're at the manufacturer's mercy.
I would think that your safest bet would be to convert a mac power book
into a PPC linux machine, but building a little linux lunchbox machine
would still be a lot cheaper than forking out $2000 for a powerbook, but
that's still better than spending $850 on a paper weight.