I've built many a "big I/O" boxes using the following specifications:
* Supermicro SC760A chassis with 400 watt power supply
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/Chassis/sc760A.htm
* Supermicro P6DBU dual-processor mobo (made in USA)
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440BX/p6dbu.htm
http://www.supermicro.com/images/Imag_html/P6DGU.htm
* 1 or 2 Pentium iii "Coppermine" 650 MHz, 750 MHz, or 850 MHz processors
* 256 MB, 512 MB, 1024 MB PC-100 SDRAM (or ECC-SDRAM)
* Matrox G-400 "dual-head" AGP graphics card (can feed 1 or 2 monitors. 2
monitors for a very wide display of 2560 pixels x 1024 pixels or very tall
stacked display, which works very well for multi-track recording.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g400/home.htm
* 1 or 2 Mitsubishi DP-2040U 22" *flat* screen CRT monitors
http://www.necmitsubishi.com/products/home/product.cfm?productid=106&cfid=32
7133&cftoken=31711925
AUDIO
------
It depends on exactly what you need. I'm guessing you don't need to
digitise 8 audio channels at one time or interface to a digital audio
standard like ADAT, so...
* Lynx Studio LynxONE 4 channel digital/analogue audio card. Simply one of
the best pro audio cards with the highest audio quality you can get, without
resorting to expensive outboard A/D convertors -- and affordable at about
US$300. Full-duplex MIDI. Drivers for Windows 2000 / NT4 / 98 /95.
http://www.lynxstudio.com/
OPERATING SYSTEM:
-----------------
Windows 2000 Professional (i.e. -- Windows 2000 workstation). Better at
*everything* than WinNT 4.0 ever was and FAR more stable and robust than
Windows 95/95OEM2/98/98SE.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE:
----------------------
Any Windows 2000-compatible audio application, like:
* Sonic Foundry Vegas Video / Vegas Audio
* Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 4.5
(PS: these 2 can utilise dual-processors under NT 4.0 or Windows 2000)
...there are others!
STORAGE:
----------
Supermicro P6DBU mobo has built-in Ultra2 LVD SCSI channel, so you could
attach one high performance 10kRPM or 15kRPM SCSI hard drive of your choice
(IBM, Quantum, Seagate), or use just any IDE drive (preferably a 7200 RPM
drive like the IBM 75GXP series 30 GB, 60 GB, or 75 GB) in the IDE channel,
or go with RAID (below) for "big I/O"...
RAID:
* Adaptec ARO-1130U2 Ultra2 SCSI "zero slot, RAID-Port iii" RAID controller
(plugs into Supermicro mobo)
http://www.adaptec.com/products/overview/aro1130u2.html
For RAID, 2 or more of the following IBM 36LZX Ultra-160 SCSI hard drives
(18 GB, 36 GB), or 2 or more Quantum Atlas 10Kii (18 GB, 36 GB, 72 GB), or 2
or more Seagate X-15 (18 GB only).
Alternative to SCSI RAID would be 3-Ware 6200 (2-port) 6400 (4-port) or 6800
(8-port) IDE RAID controller. (PS: Stay the hell away from the Promise IDE
RAID controller)
http://www.3ware.com/products/index.shtml
Stick with IBM 75GXP IDE hard drives, since they work much better in arrays
than other brands.
http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/table.htm
Except for mouse and keyboard, chances are I missed something above. E-Mail
me for questions / details.
I'm running out of time here, so, got to go...
C:\Gary H@>
http://www.gary-hendershot.com/
mailto:ghenders@gary-hendershot.com
mailto:ghendershot@gmx.de (junk mail)
Houston, TX USA
================================================================
>
> Please excuse the slightly off-topic post but I just couldn't pass up on
> your collective wisdom. After fighting with my Compaq Presario and
> formating the HD four times now I decided that I want to build my own
> system. I plan to give the Compaq to my parents and just take the 2nd HD
> (30 gigs) and the CDRW. I plan to use this computer explicitly for sound
> and graphic editing and of course MS Office type stuff. Here is what I'm
> thinking:
>
> Motherboard: Asus -- maybe dual processor, depending on the price
> Memory: Micorn or Simple Tech -- I want at least 256
> HD: 30 Gigs
> CDRW: HP 10X
>
> What kind of soundcard and videocard should I get? Any and all leads are
> greatly appreciated.
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 15 2000 - 03:49:44 MET DST