Thanks for everyone here who has been a help answering my various questions lately. In return, I'd like to report a bit on the new music PC I put together, in the hopes that this information will be useful to anyone who is planning on doing the same. It is running 64studio version 1.0, augmented of course by various Debian packages. I won't comment much on the software end of things here; mainly I wanted to post a list of hardware that I found to be compatible with this distribution. I haven't found any Linux support problems (yet!) with this hardware, but I haven't tried the DVI video output on the motherboard, nor the on-board sound - neither of which I will use. The cost was about $1250US : $400 for the M-audio 1010, ordered from www.musiciansfriend.com, and $855 for the rest of the goods, which were ordered from www.newegg.com. The cost will increase by $400 or $500 or so when I add a touchscreen LCD. After considering various methods of user interface, keeping in mind that this machine will be used as a gig synth occasionally, I have settled on getting a touchscreen LCD. I thought also of an LCD monitor together with an input device such as one of those jog-wheel controllers that are used for video editing, or perhaps this USB button panel: http://www.x-keys.com/xkeys/xkbuttonp.php. I also am considering whether the media-center display and knob on the case might be adequate for simply synth use. Even though I don't relish the thought of spending money on a touchscreen, I think I will do it, because in terms of time spent on the software end, this will certainly be the least work to get going, in comparison to the other options. Here is the list of the hardware, with my comments on each component: === Sound card: M-audio Delta 1010 : http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta1010-main.html I overspent on this one; the 10 audio I/Os are way more than I need, and I don't plan on doing recording. Something like the 1010LT would have been fine for my needs. However, I thought that having the I/O in a rack was a big plus. A minor detail that I hadn't considered is that there is no headphone amp in this rack, as I suppose is the norm for high-end audio. === Case: Antec Fusion media-center style with 430W power supply : http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15738 I chose this because of its reputation for being quiet, and because of the 2 line display and knob on the front panel. I haven't done anything with using the display and knob yet; I plan to, but it's low on the priority list right now. My original plan was to get a 3U rackmount case, but in the end I gravitated to this one instead. I would like to try to be able to put it in a rack still. I think it should be possible to screw some brackets in the side panels with rack-mounting holes, since the case is about 17 1/2 inches wide, and it seems that the sides are sturdy enough to carry the weight - the case cover is just the top panel, and the bottom and sides are one piece. I'm not sure if it's as quiet as it could be, due to my choice of CPU cooler, but it's plenty quiet enough for my needs. I have both the chassis fans running on low speed. === Motherboard: Abit NF-M2 nView Socket AM2 nVidia GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD : http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=327 I chose this one because out of the micro-ATX socket AM2 boards, this was the one that I found the most positive Linux-compatibility reports for. I'm using the on-board video. I don't however have the nVidia video driver running yet, mostly because 64studio doesn't have a debian package of it that matches the SMP multimedia kernel that version 1.0 installed. However, things like scrolling in Firefox are painfully slow without it, so even though I don't care about the video performance, I will probably have to address this. === CPU: AMD 64X2 4200+ === CPU cooler: Thermaltake CL-P0373 : http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product/Cooler/TMG/CL-P0373/cl-p0373.asp I found it difficult to tell which coolers would really work with the AMD AM2 socket, and which ones would fit the Antec Fusion case. This cooler is rather tall; the top of it comes to under an inch from the top of the case. I imagine that this may be resulting in more noise and less cooling performance than a shorter but horizontally larger cooler might achieve. However, since it is certainly quiet enough for my needs, I'm not going to bother trying something different. === RAM: G.Skill 2GB ( 2 x 1GB dual channel) === Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 250-GB I bought this because of the Barracudas' reputation for quietness. I haven't addressed RAID yet. My credit card is still a little sore from the purchase, but especially since I plan to take this machine out to use as a MIDI driven synth, I had better get a second drive at some point. === DVD/CD R/W : Asus 16X : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135082 ==== Well, that's about it. Of course, I'd welcome any comments or questions about this setup. Larry
