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Help with new Hauptwerk PC

Buying or building computers for Hauptwerk, recommendations, troubleshooting computer hardware issues.
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eddie_ce

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Help with new Hauptwerk PC

PostSun Aug 30, 2009 4:55 am

Hi Guys,
I am in the process of putting a dedicated Hauptwerk PC together (on a rather limited budget). As I have difficulty keeping up with the speed of PC technology, I would be very grateful if any of you guys could comment on the following points:

1)
I plan to use an Asus P5QL-Pro mainboard
Intel Q9550 Quad-Core µP
Arctic Freezer 7 cooler
Midi Tower with 400W ATX PSU
M-Delta Audiophile 24/96 Audiocard (which I already have) any suggestions on upgrading?
at least 8 GB DDR2 RAM which brings me to my next point

2)
AFAIK the Asus P5Q has 4 DIMM-Sockets. If I aim to start with 8 GB and eventually upgrade to 16GB that means
using 4 GB memorymodules - these seem to be very difficult to obtain (at least in Europe, most offers seem to consist of kits 2x2GB) - however I do not wish to use 4 x 2 GB which I then cannot upgrade without discarding them. Any suggestions?

3)
I am torn between XP Pro 64 Bit (I am already used to XP Pro 32 on my laptop) or Vista business 64 Bit (have no
experience with vista) - any reason not to use XP pro? (I know it's old, so am I ;-) )

Many thanks for any help.

Thanks for a great site and a great product.

Eddie King
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kevin_sa

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Re: Help with new Hauptwerk PC

PostSun Aug 30, 2009 5:35 am

4GB DDR2 and DDR3 modules are difficult to obtain anywhere at a reasonable price.

I would recommend an Intel i7 920 setup. The processors are far superior to the Q9xxx series. A further advantage is that many 1366 motherboards (the ones that take i7 processors as opposed to 775 which take Q and E series processors) have 6 DDR3 (max 24gb) slots, which means you can get 6x 2GB which should be sufficient for a while and when 4GB DDR3 modules are cheaper (doubt it will be soon) then you can go with that. The price of an i7 setup is slightly more expensive than a Quad setup, but the performance is much better.

Vista 64 and XP 64 give very similar performance for HW. I would say go for the one you are more familiar with.

Another important thing you forgot to mention is which sample sets you plan to use? Do you use HW basic or advanced? If advanced you may want to upgrade the 24/96 to something with more outputs.
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eddie_ce

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Re: Help with new Hauptwerk PC

PostSun Aug 30, 2009 6:13 am

Hi Kevin
thanks for the quick reply.

All comments noted - will look up an equivalent i7 setup this afternoon.

Have just got HW basic - apart from getting a new HW-PC I am in the process of canibalising and MIDIfying three Yamaha Keyboards using Nick Appleton's design and getting them into a stack.

I am an absolute MIDI-Newbie and don't quite understand why if using HW advanced (I do plan to upgrade as and when funds are available) I would need another (better) audio card?

OK re Win XP Pro x64 and memory modules - 6 DIMM-sockets seems to be the way to go

regards
Eddie
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wurlitzerwilly

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Re: Help with new Hauptwerk PC

PostSun Aug 30, 2009 6:55 am

eddie_ce wrote:Hi Kevin
thanks for the quick reply.

All comments noted - will look up an equivalent i7 setup this afternoon.

Have just got HW basic - apart from getting a new HW-PC I am in the process of canibalising and MIDIfying three Yamaha Keyboards using Nick Appleton's design and getting them into a stack.

I am an absolute MIDI-Newbie and don't quite understand why if using HW advanced (I do plan to upgrade as and when funds are available) I would need another (better) audio card?

OK re Win XP Pro x64 and memory modules - 6 DIMM-sockets seems to be the way to go

regards
Eddie
I have no connection with them, other than as a customer, but you can find most of your needs at Ebuyer.com. The service is always good and the returns service is also fair, if things do go wrong.

Not being familiar with an M-Delta 24/96, I tried to look it up and couldn't find it. Do you mean the M-Audio Delta 1010LT? If so, I see no reason to upgrade apart from adding extra ones. :)

I see no point in buying Vista and especially not the Business Edition. You can get a 64 bit version of XP at a reduced price - get the OEM version anyway, but you'd probably be better off using the release version of Windows 7, which will work far better and MS say you can buy it when it's fully public, without having to re-install. You can use Vista drivers with W7 in most cases.

I fully agree with the i7 setup and Asus mobo. The gain in performance is absolutely 'stonking' and provided that you have enough DDR3 memory installed, you will have no hiccups with Hauptwerk.

There are better processor coolers around than Arctic (using a fan). There are now fin and water cooled models which are efficient and don't cost much more, with the advantage that they are silent, so ideal for VPO work.
Regards,

Alan.
(Paramount Organ Works)
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kevin_sa

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Re: Help with new Hauptwerk PC

PostSun Aug 30, 2009 9:28 am

wurlitzerwilly wrote:Not being familiar with an M-Delta 24/96, I tried to look it up and couldn't find it. Do you mean the M-Audio Delta 1010LT? If so, I see no reason to upgrade apart from adding extra ones. :)


I think Eddie probably means the M-Audio 2496 Audiophile http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html

Eddie,the 2496 has 2 RCA outs and a s/pdif out, so you are only really getting 2 usable outputs (the RCA's) which is perfect for the basic edition which has two-channel output (stereo). The advanced edition of hauptwerk supports multiple channel output so you would then need to upgrade your sound card to use this feature.
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wurlitzerwilly

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Re: Help with new Hauptwerk PC

PostSun Aug 30, 2009 9:56 am

kevin_sa wrote:I think Eddie probably means the M-Audio 2496 Audiophile http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html

In which case a replacement to enable use of extra facilities would be highly desirable. :)
Regards,

Alan.
(Paramount Organ Works)

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