Giga Machine Specs?

[A_Sapp]

I have the budget now for a giga-machine to compliment my current one-computer-controlling-everything setup, but I would like to know the specs for a good solid machine in the spending range of 500-600. If you have multiple giga-machine setups, please take time out to put some specs on a good machine with a gig of ram.

Here is my current computer:

1.2 Gigahertz Athlon, Windows 2k, 756 megs of ram, Gina card ( www.echoaudio.com (\"http://www.echoaudio.com\") ) 40 gig HD, 80 gig HD.

What do I need to be compatible with the above specs?

[A_Sapp]

Come on now. I know most of you have multiple machines. HELP!

[A_Sapp]

.

[christian marin]

Originally posted by A_Sapp:
... specs for a good solid machine in the spending range of 500-600<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">this are conditions, that cannot match, imho
pick two of three: fast, cheap, reliable
christian

[KingIdiot]

Duron 1.3 $40
ECS cheapo mobo $50(once you get it workign its great)
PC133 RAM 2 512MB dimms = $80
cheapo sys HD for $60 (40 MB or so)
Gig HD for $99+ (WD 80 gig with 8mb cache)
Egosys Waveterminal 192M $199
case/PSU = $30

thats \'bout 550-600

cheapo machine works great here for 2.5, I\'d expect it to sort of suck for 3.0.

[A_Sapp]

(Once you get it working, it\'s great) That\'s freakin me out. =) Is it hard to make work?

What does 3.0 do that 2.5 cannot?

[christian marin]

Originally posted by KingIdiot:
ECS cheapo mobo $50(once you get it workign its great)<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">so you picked the second and *some* of the third, the first not really ;-) and isn\'t there some video missing?
SCNR, christian

[A_Sapp]

I\'m talking about the whole shabang. What soundcard and video card would be suitable? What kind of card do I need for the two machines to work together? MORE!

[christian marin]

king mentioned the egosys waveterminal (has midi in and out), RME hammerfall is imho also excellent, but in another prizerange - depends on your needs and what you\'re intending to spend.

anyway you must have your GS connected to your sequencer via physical midi or via network

the quality of your sondcard depends on your method of recording (bouncing to a file or routing to another digital/analog device)

maybe you are fine with the specs posted above, possibly you will not stay happy when you upgrade to a newer release of your software
i would try to get some *headroom*

christian

[KingIdiot]

Here\'s the deal, there\'s a 600 buck budget here and thats what I\'m giving you (yah I fogot video, but you can get a cheapo AGP 8/16MB vid card for 10 bucks)

3.0 is supposed to take more use of the processor than Gga 2.5, so if you want something that will work well with 3.0 you need to get a faster processor and one with an FPU.

The ECS boards are notorious for having problems. The one I have doesn\'t turn on all the time and its not the power supply.

The waveterminal doesn\'t come with MIDI standard, you need to get an update daughter board, but its worhtless if all you need is 16 channels, go with a Joystick/midi convertor. If you need more, look at Midi Over LAN. The ECS board I have comes with LAN onboard.

This setup works pretty well for me, I get 160 poly on it. I wont however look at it as being a great giga 3.0 machine