[64studio-users] any hardware recommendations ?

[Susan Dridi]

Daniel James wrote:
> Hi Robert,
> 
>> I'd like to try out 64studio, but I haven't yet bought a 64 bit machine
>> for the purpose.
> 
> That's not strictly necessary, we do have a 32-bit version available 
> which will run on most older PCs. Of course the performance won't be as 
> good for CPU and memory intensive tasks, but you can try the distro out. 
> Our 2.0 pre release version for 32-bit PC's is here:
> 
> http://cdd.64studio.com/releases/64studio/64studio_2.0-rc2_i386.iso
> 
> You'll need access to a DVD burner, as the image is around 800MB. If you 
> don't have access to a DVD burner, please try our 1.0 release from the 
> website.
> 
>> For the easiest, most open configuration what would you choose for a
>> motherboard, chipset, graphics card, sound board, etc ? Ideally it
>> should be quiet...without fans if possible.
> 
> The low-energy version of the Athlon 64X2 3800+ CPU is a good starting 
> point for a quiet desktop system. The rest of the parts depend on the 
> kind of applications you want to run. I personally like the fanless 
> Matrox cards like the G550 for their crispy 2D, but the 3D acceleration 
> wouldn't be good enough for a Blender artist, for example. Audio cards 
> vary greatly in price, according to the number and quality of I/O 
> channels and any A/D conversion you require.
> 
>> Is there possibly an OEM doing a good job configuring it ? 
> 
> We don't yet have an official OEM partner for desktop systems, but I can 
> make enquiries with some of our contacts in the USA if you're interested 
> in having a bespoke system built.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Daniel

Hi All,

I built a new machine this spring, and put 64 Studio on it, of course. 
My old machine was fast, but it sounded like a jet aircraft taking off. 
My new one is whisper quiet, I don't realize it's on most of the time.

AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 + cpu
Gigabyte S-Series Socket AM2 mobo, with firewire, PCI and PCI express 
and USB 2.
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard (which I am replacing with a Firepod 
very soon, I'll write when I've done it.)
nVidia PCI Express video card (just a cheapy, I couldn't find a Matrox, 
didn't really need 3D but this is a 3D card)
2 GB Corsair DDR2 PC3200 667 RAM
Seagate 100 GB IDE hard drive
Seagate 300 GB 3Gb/s SATA hard drive
Seagate 750 GB 3Gb/s SATA hard drive
2 SATA DVD/CD drives
A floppy drive
Antec Solo case
Corsair HX520W modular power supply
Thermaltake Silent 939K8 cpu cooler with heatpipes
S-Flex SFF21E rear case fan

I went mainly SATA because the thinner cables meant better airflow. The 
hard drives are suspended in bungee cords, which came with the case and 
the case has some kind of sound dampening coating inside. The cpu cooler 
has a fan, so I have three fans in my machine, including the power 
supply fan. Hmmm, maybe there's a tiny fan on my video card, I don't 
remember. Some of the components were recommended on a "quiet computing" 
website, but a knowledgeable guy at Micro Center recommended the cpu 
cooler over what I was originally going to buy. Even with three fans and 
all those hard drives, I can barely hear this machine, and I've always 
been protective of my hearing. I understand that Seagate hard drives are 
known for being quiet. Oh, yeah, and it's fast:-) I think I'm set for a 
while:-)

Well, hope that this might have been of some help to someone.

Take care,

-Susan