Last couple month when I rebooted my DAW it has difficult time to start up; it looks like motherboard is going and bias sometime during boot does not see hardware. Usually with 30 min and 10-60 automatic recursive attempts the machine boots and then works fine. I think the main reasons are that back in 2005 when I entered DAW world and built this box the silence was a key for me and I went for open box configuration where motherboard is exposed to dirt, dust, moisture and etc….. It was not too smart move but it was fast and convenient at that time.

I kind of slowly am considering rebuilding my DAW. I do not look to do anything different: it still will be basic Windows machine with optimized OS, Lynx 16, WaveLab and pretty much nothing else. I however, wonder about 2 things:

1)      What hardware is approved for DAW machines? (Motherboard, possessors, USB comptrollers, perhaps OS version etc… Is any credible site that explores the subject of DAW-minded hardware?

2)      I wonder if it possible nowadays to have different configuration of DAW. For instance to have all driver in some kind or array storage over network and to have DAW with only OS and recording drive.

3)      Buy vs. build.  This is interesting and I do not mind to buy. I however need my own configuration. I need at least 6 drivers in the box: OS, Recording/Transition, Opera, Concertos, Symphonic, and Chamber. The OS, Recording/Transition driver have to be locally but the rest might be distributed and to be 1-2T. The existing audiophiles ready to buy machines are not optimized for recording and editing. They have some kind of crappie play software most of the time and silent operation. Bothe subjects that I care less. They also cost a lot – something that I do not like.

Anyhow, I need to define a configuration for my next DAW machine. Perhaps I need to look what pro audio folks do with their machines, even those they mend for different purposes. Did anybody go over DAW designing recently? What are the most current tendencies? I do not look into it for 6 years, I am sure something new might be out there…

I have old PCI Lynx card. I think they do have a new version with PciE, it call Lynx AES16e:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/554850-REG/Lynx_Studio_Technology_AES16E_AES16e_PCI_Express.html

It still despite the PciE will not go to laptop….

Anyhow, I heard a lot of comments that MAC does very good DAW machine. Unfortunately I hate MAC, in fact I do not like Apple at all and my universe did not even shake when Steve Jobs died. As far as I concerned it was the death of the person why polluted people minds with digital compression of music. There is nothing else he did that I am informed or care.

Some people assured to me that old MAC 4 is a fantastic playback platform and it will blow anything out there. The same people assured me that if I do not play MAC 4 than I can’t hear 50% of music, if I know what I mean.

joaco wrote:

Ok i understood . there are some little enclosures that add pci or pciE port through Pcmcia or similar so one can have laptop and do pciE from outside , but there are not cheap , also there is a pci option to add , any way its not a cheap option , thtats the reason why i did not go for it , but it seems very good   Have a look at magma http://www.magma.com/ expansion ports , just to add in your horizon of options .  Joaquin .

oxric wrote:

This may be useful to you. http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/expresscard-34-to-pci-expansion-box-p29858.html This expansion is available on the company's website but also on ebay: http://www.ebay.de/itm/Exsys-EX-1025-ExpressCard-2-x-PCI-Slot-2-x-PCI-Express-Slot-Expansion-Box-/150677900054?pt=Controller&hash=item23151a4b16 It is certainly cheaper than Magma's offering above.

In response to my announcement that my DAW went “caput” I was expecting that people would bombard me with advise do not do PC anymore and try Mac. I was kind of semi-ready for it but… not one bombarded me. In fact a few Mac people I know were not available but I need to have my DAW back to operation sooner than 2 weeks vocation.

So, I desired to do with what I know PC only this time I would like to have my quiet DAW sitting right next to the rest of my equipment.  So, the hard drives with days would go to the external network arrays and the little PC will have only system drive and recording drives.

I was looking at many small and compact towers and was not too impressed. They do not host the sophisticated motherboards; they do not have a lot of option for bay expansion (my Links card) , they have strange cooling patters. Of course here are SOME mini PCs that have all of it and they are VERY promising but they come with over $1K price tag. Also, I have difficulties to agree with anything that I can touch and feel. I of cause do not mind to pay $1K or more for DAW but I need to be sure that it will be what I want but not another temporary solution.

Anyhow, looking thought the options I come across to a very interesting option: IBM ThinkCentre M57P machine. I always was a big fan of IBM machines and here was something that I found promising. The M57P machine is compact box, the size of a half VCR, if you ember them (SFF version,  IBL call them Small Form Factor: 3.9 x 12.5 x 13.4). It has old 2.33 GHz processor that does not do the crazy duo and quarto threading – something that I do not need for DAW and in fact would like does not have. It will run Windows XP – I am a bit afraid to for 64bit OC and it has 4G memory – enough for XP. It has shitty video and sound cards – perfect for what I need. It has a room for 2 hard drives: perfect – perfect OS and one Recording. It has one PCI slot and one E- PCI slots: perfect for Links and perks one USB extra controller. It has 6 USB, one eSATA and the rest standard things…. Oh, yes, and it is BLACK – the way how it MUST be. I like how it compacted and I it has one single fan, that can be dealt with. It has external PS (something that I LOVE to have for DAW) and it takes 45W to operate. Hey, I can get this box for $200 – can you beat it?

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/pdf/Lenovo_M57p_Datasheet.pdf

I played this morning with on my client side and I very much like it. So I will go for it. I do not know what will be sonic result from it but I do have very good feeling. As long it will take my Links card and be able to access my driver array it will be fine. I am bit concerns about noise but in the worst case I can put the fan assembly in basemen and run a culling pipe to my DAW…

I brought my dead DAW today to a guy next door who run a computer store:

http://www.alfacomputer.com/index.html

The guy detected that my super-duper PS does not stabilizes the main 3.2V and it had screwed up something on motherboard. The $65 later my DAW was flying just newborn. How wonderful it is!!!!

I have been lurking for a while as I am a Bidat owner without being able to help. I have been building computers for more than 20 years and I may be able to help. When you start building machines with lots of drives I think it would be better to build a RAID5 type machine. You’re read and write through put goes up plus you gain redundancy. You really don’t want to separate drives but run separate partitions. You need at least 5 drives to gain benefit. What you do is create an RAID5 RAID with 5 or 6 drives and partition the system separate from the data or more data partitions. All of this will give you a very fast machine. You will want a multi processor CPU. The down side is the heat and noise this machine will create. You will not want it in the same room as the listening room. If decide to go down this path I will be happy to help.