Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • Advice for adding a PC Slave

    I'm thinking about adding a PC slave to my studio to host Appassionata I&II, the Special Edition and a few other download instruments. Currently I use everything on a Macpro but I'm running up against some polyphony issues and I like the idea of separating all of my VSL libs onto another machine.  The last time that I really worked with a PC was a Giga slave that I had a while back thats now obsolete so I can't say I'm really in the loop when it comes to Windows machines.

    Right now my template loads about 60 instruments over 3 VE2 instances with around 6 GB of RAM total.  Before I go through all the tedious research I'd like to know what sort of price I'd be looking at to build a slave that could handle all of that.  Anyone have a ballpark figure?


  • I basically did the same thing about two months ago. I had no clue when it comes to using a PC but found the process to be very simple. Recieved excellent advice on the forum as well.
    Basically I bought an off the shelf Synergy from DVillage...12Gig ram and two 350Gig drives. The thing runs very very quiet. Total cost was about 1500 sterling but I already had XP64 so that's not including the OS. I'm sure you can do it much cheaper (and much more expensive) but the Synergy seems good value considering it fits into my rack and doesn't make any noise.
    This will all seem like exceptional value once VEPro arrives... my macbookpro will probably be asked to work another three years!

  • Thanks for the advice zen.  I was really hoping to spend somewhere in the $1000 US range but it doesn't make any sense to build something that could be obsolete in a year or cumbersome to upgrade.

    Anyone know what I could expect for around $1000 if I'm willing to get my hands dirty and build a system myself?


  • let's start the other way around ... go to dell's website and check out some i7 system - this one is USD 999.-

    Genuine Windows VistaĀ® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
    IntelĀ® Coreā„¢ i7-920 Processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz)
    2 Yr Ltd Warranty, On-site Service, and HW Warranty Supt
    McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 15-months
    6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
    640GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
    Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
    ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB
    Dell USB Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
    Dell Premium Laser Mouse
    AdobeĀ® AcrobatĀ® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
    now trade searching the net and getting hands dirty against more memory, 2 or 3 instead 1 harddisk, better grafic, more powerful CPU ... you choose the options
    hth, christian

    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • Thanks for the help cm.  I'll take a look at some of those Dell machines.  Just so I'm clear on some of the broad strokes, for a dedicated vienna machine that needs to run 3 or 4 VE instances with high polyphony than I really should be looking at an i7 with 8 or 12 GB RAM and 2 dedicated sample drives?


  • Do your research carefully. Some boards reduce the speed of the memory, if you fill all the slots. Personally if your current template is 6GB, I'd think about bumping your memory up to 12GB, to give you plenty of headroom for expansion.

    DG


  •  all i7 and XEON nehalem processors reduce memory bus speed to 1066 if more than 1 memory module is installed per channel - so only 3 x 4 GB would run at 1333 on an i7 board holding 12 GB RAM

     

    john, for running the special edition with some addons one sample drive should be sufficient, running the super package is not.

    12 GB is always a good idea if you'r planning to arrange for full orchestra, though 6 would take you at least somewhere - example: loading every single sample from the special edition (full library) takes ~ 3.8 GB memory

     

    christian


    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • How much will the speed of the RAM affect performance, is it primarily just load times or will it have a large affect on polyphony?

    I had planned on running the SE on one drive and Appassionata I & II, Epic Horns, Fanfare Trumpets, Trombones and Sopranos on the other.  Assuming that I don't add any more than maybe SE+ and a few other download instruments you don't think I should spread the libraries out over two drives?


  •  basically both - but whereas the loading times would be recogmizable i doubt you would ever reach the poliphony bringing the 1066 memory to its limits ... harddisks would start to groan far before ...

     

    without knowing your arrangements i'd assume for SE + appassIi+II (plus a few download libs) one drive would be sufficient.

    however: you should not record to this drive then ....

    christian


    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • After a fair amount of research I've come up with these preliminary specs:

    i7 920

    Asus P6T

    2 Kingston 6GB (3x2) 1066 Triple Channel kits

    2 250GB WD Caviar 7200 SATA drives

    Corsair 750W PSU

    Asus HD 4350 PCI Express 2.0 x16 video card

    Sony Optiarc 24x SATA CD/DVD drive

    Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Case

    Vista Home Premium 64

    I know some of this is kinda overkill for the libraries I have now but I'd like a decent amount of future-proofing for when my templates and libraries expand if the price gap isn't too big.  Any more advice or warnings would be greatly appreciated.


  •  i'd change the second harddrive to a 750 GB model .... price difference compared to more GB isn't significant ...

    750 W is indeed overkill .... 550 W would be enough even for adding a third disk later

    christian


    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • Will do, thanks again cm.


  • btw: try to get and install the public release candidate of Windows 7 (64bit) and purchase a license when it arrives in autumn - it is so much smoother than VISTA SP1 - drivers from VISTA SP1 work all well so far.

    christian

     

    edit: ATI has already windows 7 drivers btw


    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • Great thread guys.

    On the Windows 7 RC; If I understand this well;

    - it is free to download now

    - it will work fine (at this moment) when using an ATI VGA card

    - and VE3 works within this new win7 environment?

    Thanks!!


  • whereas i had to face serious problems with the initial version of VISTA (both, 32 and 64 bit) and many issues have been ironed out with SP1 (ServicePack 1) the start actually with the beta and even more with the Release Candidate was overall smooth.

     

    also i didn't find any (somehow current) software to be not running well (even cubase 4 on W7 64bit), VI, VE, MIR, Imperial ... all run well.

    christian


    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  •  Super, thanks CM!