Old 11-28-2006, 04:44 PM   #1
b2001
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Default Older PC and 2496 Soundcard

I've got an old pc - 2001 vintage - that I got from someone about a year ago real cheap, and upgraded - basically new western digital 120 gb hard-drive and windows home xp. I've been using it primarily for midi sequencing - an old version of cakewalk pro audio with an Akai s5000 sampler.

The pc has what I believe to be a shuttle ak12ac motherboard with via kt133 chipset, 1.2 ghz AMD Athlon CPU, 640 mb of ram, and a builtin soundcard.

I've also got a Roland vs1680 digital recorder, and became aware of Reaper through the efforts of randygo at being to to bring proprietary formatted files from the recorder into Reaper:

http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3613

I suspect that I will primarily track in the vs1680, and mix and master in Reaper. However, I would like to also get an maudio 2496 to allow me flexibility in going directly into Reaper, if I so desire. I will also use the midi in/outs of the 2496 with Cakewalk and the Akai. My goal is to completely bypass the internal sound card - it's crap for sure. Best I can tell, installation of another card will cause it to be "turned off" by the bios, I believe.

Are there any performance issues with the pc in general - it seems its on the bottom end of recommended - or with the pc/2496 combination. I'm sure a ram upgrade would help.

I can't afford to build a new pc just right now - but that's my eventual goal. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thanks ...
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Old 11-28-2006, 08:33 PM   #2
manning1
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best thing just try reaper on your pc n run tests.
if your looking at upgradeing for dirt cheap consider an amd 64 with 2 gigs ram mebe plus two 7200 rpm drives with 16 mb cache.
NOTE the cache. one for windows and one drive to record to.
depending on your performance needs...get a pc tech to check if your current pc can take a hi performance drive to save you upgradeing for awhile n mebe add ram.
if u got big buks to upgrade consider intel core duo 2 processor. n a raptor drive for recording to.....
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Old 11-29-2006, 05:48 PM   #3
b2001
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Thanks for the response. The Western Digital drive that I have now (WD1200JB) is a 7200 rpm, 8mb cache drive. Hopefully, I can get by with that for a while.

Thanks for the ideas on what to upgrade to. I need to save up for eventually doing that. I've never built a computer before, but I've tinkered enough with computers, and there's enough information out on the internet, that I feel comfortable doing it. I going to have to go that route to get the most for my money.

Hopefully, I won't run into the problems mentioned in the

"The Ever Common Glitch Problem" post:

"Reaper and any other multitrack audio app I've tried run fine on my current system (P4, 1 GB RAM). My last computer (Athlon, VIA chipset) was a glitchfest; it never settled down."

... since I've got an Athlon with a VIA chipset. Otherwise, I'll have to figure out a way to upgrade sooner rather than later ...
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