chipwelder
AVForums Grandmaster
OK here's the story... i have a firewire audio interface
It requires the now defunct fw connection, or the Expresscard slot 54mm for my expresscard Firewire converter thingy... Texas instruments or Via are preferred chipsets... Which is almost gone too...
Now I could try and find an old stock laptop, or I could build a small formfactor pc... I very much like the stealth.com stuff but black sam they be pricey... no fan no nothing if i could build that sorta thing it would be great. http://www.stealth.com/littlepc.htm
I don't like forking out lots of money for repairs in laptops and actually not being able to repair stuff myself... so unless I get a really cheap compatible laptop... it aint gonna happen... And besides in two years time i sit in the same spot...
I would use it solely for audio recording and perhaps playing back via the audio-interface maybe running speaker workshop or one of those virtual oscilloscope thingies... Also a choice of windows XP or 7 would be great...
Performance... I probably won't do HUGE muvver recordings, more likely field type recording in a recital hall or at home... Hell it'll probably be a while before I venture out of the house with it... 4 mics should be it... no low latency monitoring - although it would be nice to have... I just hate having to fire up the desktop after hours... it is not pleasant and it is noisy and there's too much work on it.
This is what the manufacturer sez... however I am sure it is the MINIMUM regardless...
http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/saffire_pro_14/system_requirements/
So I'm old fashioned I know but 2GHz and up in a C2D type processor would be nice - it would be nice if one could just upgrade to Core i3/i5/7 if needs be...
Motherboards are pricey once you get to mini-itx and core iX type processors, AMD 350's dual core 1.6GHz... are better - but that is probably not much faster than Atom D525 / 425 and is probably not enough, although I'd really like it to be...
So the first question is what Form factor should I get...
I've looked over here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_form_factor
mini-itx, micro-atx and mini-dtx seems very nice, but what would give you reasonable options for decent processors and expansion slot... fanless cases would be really nice, especially if I could just plonk a big old heatsink onto the processor.
Is there a form factor that is still compact, is possible to do fan-less and bit less pricey... am happy with just the expansion slot for firewire adapter thingy...
It requires the now defunct fw connection, or the Expresscard slot 54mm for my expresscard Firewire converter thingy... Texas instruments or Via are preferred chipsets... Which is almost gone too...
Now I could try and find an old stock laptop, or I could build a small formfactor pc... I very much like the stealth.com stuff but black sam they be pricey... no fan no nothing if i could build that sorta thing it would be great. http://www.stealth.com/littlepc.htm
I don't like forking out lots of money for repairs in laptops and actually not being able to repair stuff myself... so unless I get a really cheap compatible laptop... it aint gonna happen... And besides in two years time i sit in the same spot...
I would use it solely for audio recording and perhaps playing back via the audio-interface maybe running speaker workshop or one of those virtual oscilloscope thingies... Also a choice of windows XP or 7 would be great...
Performance... I probably won't do HUGE muvver recordings, more likely field type recording in a recital hall or at home... Hell it'll probably be a while before I venture out of the house with it... 4 mics should be it... no low latency monitoring - although it would be nice to have... I just hate having to fire up the desktop after hours... it is not pleasant and it is noisy and there's too much work on it.
This is what the manufacturer sez... however I am sure it is the MINIMUM regardless...
http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/saffire_pro_14/system_requirements/
So I'm old fashioned I know but 2GHz and up in a C2D type processor would be nice - it would be nice if one could just upgrade to Core i3/i5/7 if needs be...
Motherboards are pricey once you get to mini-itx and core iX type processors, AMD 350's dual core 1.6GHz... are better - but that is probably not much faster than Atom D525 / 425 and is probably not enough, although I'd really like it to be...
So the first question is what Form factor should I get...
I've looked over here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_form_factor
mini-itx, micro-atx and mini-dtx seems very nice, but what would give you reasonable options for decent processors and expansion slot... fanless cases would be really nice, especially if I could just plonk a big old heatsink onto the processor.
Is there a form factor that is still compact, is possible to do fan-less and bit less pricey... am happy with just the expansion slot for firewire adapter thingy...
