Need help with Audio/Video Editing machine

I know this is a long post, but if you think you can help, or already have this sort of set up, at least just post your specs or a website. Thanks.

Here's the deal, I'm looking to build a box that will be used for some fairly heavy-duty audio editing (8 tracks, 60 minute files). Some video editing will be done as well, but I think I know what to do as far as thats concerned.
I'd like to go the Windows route if possible, mainly due to the high cost of Macs, and since I will be able to get the software much cheaper for win.

I'm really not sure as to what I need though, in terms of sound card. I'm guessing (hoping?) a SB Audigy isn't the solution... Not to knock it, but I don't think it's much of a high end audio-editing card. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Brand? Models even? Cost isn't that much an issue, but I probly won't be able to spend $500 or whatever on the audio card alone...Maybe more in the $200 range? Is that enough? What will I need for this? Or should I just get a good firewire card and get some kind of external audio input device?

Also, would this type of system benefit from Dual processors? I'll be using programs like Pro Tools. Not sure if it takes advantage of duallys or if there are audio editing programs that do.

I'm thinking of a gig of RAM, not sure if I'm gonna go Athlon/DDR, or P4/DDR or P4/RDRAM. Any hints as to which will be better? (Not looking for a flame war, I am looking for actual facts as to which processor will be more useful for my specific application) Do any of these editing programs use SSE2? or anything like that? I'm kinda leaning towards the P4/RDRAM route, for maximum memory bandwidth. Also, there will be NO OVERCLOCKING!!! Please don't post and tell me to get a whatever and oc it to 300000MHZ. I'm also leaning towards Pentium for the quietness of the hsf...Since this machine will be used for audio editing, noisy fans will be HIGHLY distracting. I'll probly be able to choose out my own motherboard once platform is chosen.

Now for disk drives. I'm definitely going IDE, cuz SCSI is way too expensive, plus the difference these days isn't that great. I am thinking about a RAID array for speed. Maybe 2 40gig or 60gig drives? Another possibility was a small drive for just the OS and stuff like Office and all, and then a HUGE 2nd drive for audio/video files. Any suggestions?

As a final note, I'm not going to be building this right away, I'm just trying to get a general price estimate, and see what components I need to think about getting.

Thanks for reading my long post, and thanks for any help.

Pretty long post there.

Since you need a high-end audio card, I can't really recommend the Audigy. The Audigy can only record at 16-bit. In comparison, almost all high-end cards record at the full 24-bit.

I personally recommend the Delta series from M-Audio. My brother owns the Audiophile 2496 and he seems very happy with it. He runs a band which frequently sends out demo CDs to record companies. All his music is recorded and edited digitally.

Since you said you would be running Pro Tools, I highly recommend getting a Mac instead of a PC. Simply put, Pro Tools natively runs best on a Mac, however I would guess it runs decently on a PC as well. Since you are on a budget, using an IDE hard drive setup would be your best option.

If you have any more questions, just ask.

Well for starters I qwould go with the oem of the creative labs live with the live drive for plugging in your external instruments, I use the ports for plugging in my guiltar and keyboard. I was able to get mine for a decent price of 120.00 decent buy I thought anyhow. I use cakewalk guiltar studio for all my tools to better the sound of my songs..
As far as what type of hard drive setup,, I noticed you liked the ide over scsi,,honestly if you plan on multitasking with ide it can only understand one function at a time. I myself have a 18 gig scsi drive for all my programs and use an ide only for my storage...Having scsi enables you to be able to multitask without interfering with any other programs such as audio compression and or video compression. What I have been able to do is edit bit video files, while checking out the web and playing audio without any of my other programs bogging down in any way.
As far as a MB I kinda like the dual xp setups(my opinion) I am running a dual 1900xp in the windows 2k pro with 1024 mb of pc2100 crucial and the speeds are fantastic,,now a Mac would be great for doing such a task for what you want to do,,,but myself the amd platform is nice and cheap and with windows you have alot more options.
In fact let me show you what I am running and what I payed I thought I got a good buy....


tyan tiger s2466n cost me a whole 215.00
dual xp 1900 got your basic heatsink and fan with cpu for 135.00 each.
pc 2100 (crucial) 1024 for 175.00 for both (bought it when it was a tad bit cheaper than it is now).
19 gig ibm scsi ultra wide2 for 159.00
tekram scsi ultra wide for a whole 79.00 adaptec runs the same darn thing for 229.00....(people have there preferences on cards of course)

I guess for me this setup I will probably keep for a while I dont think I will upgrade any time soon,,but I seem to upgrade just to have it,,I am rather spoiled in that way. :>)..............

Anyhow these are what I would decide on,,just a note I was soooooo impressed with the tyan board and how well it performed for my needs I dont think I would ever buy anoter type of board..Being an Ex asus fan... Anyhow good luck on deciding on your new setup....




Seattlerain


psss. Thankyou for calling Earthlink tech support could I get your full email address please......

Look at KJY9's setup. It looks/is kickass!

His setup:

In bold are my opinions

Dual Athlon XP 2000+'s
Two SK-6's w/ (2) 7,000 rpm Deltas (Ummmm, these HSFs are definately NOT for you :))
Asus A7M266-D (Awesome dually mobo)
(1) 80 GB Maxtor
(2) 40GB Maxtors
160GB Total HD (Large drives are needed for large files:))
Promise ATA 133 PCI Controller
1 X 512Mb Corsair ECC Registered Ram (You want 2 sticks)
64Mb Radeon 8500 with Dual View (Or maybe a geforce 4 mx4600)
TDK 16X10X40 CDRW (You may want a plextor, or a faster burner)
Asus 50X CDRom (you may just want the DVD drive)
AOpen 16X Slot Loading DVD
Black Lian Li PC71 Aluminium Case (You don't necessarily need this case, but it does kick a LOT of ***!)
(6) 80mm Sunon Case Fans (You may want to change the fans)
Enermax 550W PSU

My Other System Opinons:
Sony Trinitron Multiscan E500 (21 inch)
Klipsch Promedia 5.1 THX surround sound speakers.
Creative Audigy Platinum EX
Windows 2k *The best OS*

This system would probably be your ideal system for graphics/audio editing!

Well, unfortunately, I just priced out what would be the cheapest G4 that would *almost* fit my needs. The base 800Mhz G4, no L3 cache, all the standard stuff (cdrw, dual head ati 7500, 2 firewire ports, 56K modem, gigabit ethernet) upgraded to 1gig SDRAM, and 80Gb hard drive, w/ no monitor, and no soundcard (as far as I can tell, I'm assuming it's onboard).

All that comes to $1999.00 and I still need to find the right soundcard, a monitor (though I have an old 15" mac monitor..but...ya know...) and pay for any taxes/shipping, plus pay full price for the software (I'm people who know people and can get audio software fairly cheap for windows :cool: )

I'm pretty sure I could build a win machine for less than that will run Pro Tools and the like decently, if not as fast as the mac.

Do you have any suggested retailers, online or not, that carry the M-Audio Delta series? If a major retailer (Compusa/bestbuy) carried them, that'd be great cuz I could try it out (hopefully) beforehand.

Also, any recommendation as to which would handle these types of programs better? I'm still leaning towards Intel (I have no favorites here, my gaming machine is an T-bird) because it seems like some of these higher end programs are geared more towards pentium (well, mac first, but then..). And is a gig of ram overkill? I'd probly go RDRam for the bandwidth...once again, any help is MUCH appreciated.

*edit* I typed this in response to Insey's post, the other above posts were posted while I typed it :)

bump

As much as I hate to say this, I would recommend going with Intel. Simply put, audio and video editing is memory intensive, and the benefits of RDRAM shine in this area. Also, the overclocking headroom you get with the new Northwood core can greatly increase your system performance for free.

I feel so dirty now...

And as for ordering the Delta sound card, I recommend you simply buy directly from M-Audio in order to gain full support from them incase there comes a time when you need it.