Dave Phillips wrote:
> Greetings:
>
> Many thanks to all who responded to my orginal query. I just purchased
> a brand new Delta 66 on eBay, for a very good price, with cables and
> breakout box included. I'm looking forward to finally having some more
> professional recording capability here.
>
> I'm still undecided about the mobo. Is it possible for me to continue
> using an 800 MHz machine for recording ? I have 512 MB RAM, which seem
> like it should be plenty, and I have a fair amount of free drive space.
> Money's tight, so I'll stave off buying the mobo if my current system
> will do for small-scale multitracking. Any & all advice will of course
> be galactically appreciated !
>
> Best,
>
> dp
>
>
>
Dave,
Well, obviously an 800MHz machine will at first glance seem
underpowered compared to all the newer stuff out there, but my thought
is that for just recording/playback you'll probably be fine if you pay
close attention to the rest of your hardware. Good optimization, a good
audio drive, etc. and you'll probably be fine up to a somewhat limited
track count. (8? 10? 12? 14? just guesses...)
Get other people's inputs, most especially those who really depend
on Linux, but instead of a new MB, new processor, new memory, etc., and
all that money, consider adding a second drive (or maybe an external
1394 hard drive) to this machine for audio. Internally it's pretty
cheap, and for 1394 this is probably no more than $150 for a 60GB drive
in a 1394 case. Add a 1394 adapter and off you go. It's the way I work
on Pro Tools. Really consider 1394b if you want to protect your monetary
investment, but be advised that there hasn't been all that much
Linux-based 1394b testing done yet and the 2.6 series kernel support is
very much in flux.
When you do eventually get a new system you just plug the drive in
and off you go, even with a new laptop should you go that way.
Good luck whatever you do. You're an amazing credit to this whole
Linux audio movement.
Cheers,
Mark
