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  3. Building a new slave machine

  • Building a new slave machine

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    Hey guys,

    I'm going to be building a new slave machine that will be running MIR as well as all of my virtual instruments.  I was wondering if I should go the single i7 route or go the dual Xeon route?  

    --Lee
  • N
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     It really depends on what you want to do, and what VSL collections you have.  If you do primarily small projects, and use the Special Editions either exclusively or primarily, a single i7 with 12 gigs of ram will generally be enough.  The new MOBO's will also accept the new 6 core chips, so there is at least some headroom in terms of the processor.  I am actually in the process of taking these steps, but I am working exclusively with the four SE libraries.

    OTOH, if you compose primarily large projects, and have an extensive collection of full libraries then it would probably be wise to go with a dual xeon system with 24 gigs of ram (with the option to eventually expand to 48 gigs).

    Again, it all depends on the nature of the projects that you will be, or anticipate, doing, along with budget considerations.

    One comment: whichever way you decide, whether 12 gigs or 24 gigs of ram,  IMO it is worth it to pay the premium up front and use three sticks of 4 gig ram to get to the 12 gigs rather than six 2 gig sticks.  If you use two gig sticks, and ever need to expand, you will have to start from scratch and pay for the 4 gig sticks anyway.  The voltage and timings of 2 gig and 4 gig ram sticks are different, so they cannot really be mixed.
  • P
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    Thanks for all of the information.  On the topic of project size, I am thinking of larger projects where I would have a full orchestral template loaded up with full libraries.

    --Lee
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    In that case, you would be better off going with dual xeon if at all possible.

    If you have not done so, you can download the MIR manual to gain a good advance look.
  • L
    L

    I'm still considering building another PC myself, if Apple doesn't hurry up with the next batch of Mac Pros.

    Here's a new MOBO that I just ran across that looks interesting. 

    http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=270-WS-W555-A1&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=Intel%205520%20Series%20Family

    It's the first dual 5600 series CPU board I've seen that has USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0. Unfortunately, it's a huge board and needs a custom case.
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     No clue about that particular board... but will comment that at least with the DAW builder I use (ADK) they generally stick with Gigabyte boards.  Other threads seem to indicate some success with Asus.  Of late, at least Scott of ADK has reported ongling problems with Intel's own boards.  At least in the threads I have looked at, Gigabyte and Asus seem to be used almost exclusively, but that does not exaclty represent a large data pool.