P4 and Pulsar

MeloManiac · Post by **MeloManiac** » Wed Aug 29, 2001 2:45 am

Hi!

I am thinking about upgrading my P3 667 Mhz on ASUS CUSL-2 soon as P4 prices are dropping significantly. I want a system where I can run a lot more realtime DX/VST plugins in Cubase than I can at the moment and I hope a solution with a 1.4Ghz+ P4 and some fast memory option is the solution. So I was wondering... since VIA are the only ones, as far as I know, soon to release a P4 board which supports DDR ram instead of RAMBUS, how this board will fare with Pulsar - if it is the same chipset basically, just adapted for P4, or if it solves the PCI problem. Anyone knows?

Air_PoLLo · Post by **Air_PoLLo** » Wed Aug 29, 2001 6:09 am

have you checked out the new G4's ?

Worth a look

http://www.apple.com

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed Aug 29, 2001 8:11 am

Avoid a VIA still if you can. If you're buying a P4, don't even CONSIDER anything below 1.7gHz (anything less and it gets spanked hard by an Athlon 1.4Ghz for much cheaper). In fact, the only Socket 478 chips (the new socket form) are 1.9gHz, and 2.0gHz, and they're still expensive. i845 which is P4 with SDRam, is out, but I'm not that impressed by its performance.

Athlon seems like the thing to buy if money matters right now, it'll out perform all but the newest (and most expensive) P4s.

InfiniteVortex has a few new machines coming in the next few weeks...

_________________
<a href=http://infinitevortex.com>Infinite Vortex Audio</a>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2001-08-29 09:12 ]</font>

Stubbe · Post by **Stubbe** » Wed Aug 29, 2001 9:48 am

The prices for P4's has just been slashed considerably, so it's a matter of time before some of these pricecuts trickles down to us.

Check this link : http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=999037082

Since you (Melomaniac) live in Denmark, I suggest you keep an eye on http://www.edbpriser.dk/ (choose hardware -> processorer) to follow the progress.

Personally, I'll wait and see what the future brings in the form of nForce stuff or similar. Until then I probably won't gut my trusty BX440 mobo

Cheers
Stubbe

Mo · Post by Mo » Sat Sep 01, 2001 6:09 am

On 2001-08-29 10:48, Stubbe wrote:
Personally, I'll wait and see what the future brings in the form of nForce stuff or similar. Until then I probably won't gut my trusty BX440 mobo

exactly, i´m impressed by that chipset, which remained such a long time on the market... i have two boards with it, and won´t drop them (i could upgrade them with coppermines, but intel keeps the p3 prices up

untill they die out). i just fear intel won´t make it to get things work for them again. the ddr-support for the p4 will come too late, and amd won´t sleep, too.
i have decided: i´ll try a socketA-board next time, don´t know if it will replace the p3b as pulsar-board, but i´ll definetively change to the amd side. bx is cool, but truely spoken it´s kind of out-dated. intel made a step forward with its hub-link, but if they think to just doubling the bandwidth will remove the bottleneck and prepares the new computers for tomorrows (and also already todays) applications, they fail.
ok, they don´t think so, and their reaction to amd´s hyper transport was impressing - but only on paper, there is nothing available in near future. that kills reputation.
so people will stick with other high-performance solutions, as soon as they´re available.
one already is (sis735), and i´ll try it

just waiting in order to get a newer board revision and to have more money for a phatter palomino

have fun

madmod · Post by **madmod** » Sun Sep 02, 2001 11:10 pm

Save your money

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Sun Sep 02, 2001 11:28 pm

If you are considering a new machine why not leave the old one as a pulsar "head".
Build a mad fast new system for native effects and multitracking, get a hammerfall or something and connect them together with ADAT lightpipe. The pulsar UI will never speed up much with a new computer because it changes when things happen in the pulsar, and thet is always relayed through the PCI bus which is a lot slower than the usual memory/graphics subsystem that most programs use.

I have my Pulsar/scope and OASYS on seperate computers and the synergy is great!

although i have never run out of tracks or anything like that the most i run are about 32 or so, the only time i feel i need a faster machine is "render to new track" or encoding an mp3, or something like that.

As for the p4 i would wait till the new .13 version comes out, and the AMD palomino @ 1.5ghz+, the N-Force, and a few other goodies ..this is not like the usual "wait for" there are some very interesting things happening "soon" and we will probably have the usual dissapointments and suprises from unexpected quarters (VIA might release a chipsert *after* they fix the bugs)

cheers
DeFex

Mo · Post by Mo » Thu Sep 06, 2001 8:09 am

On 2001-09-03 00:28, defex wrote:
If you are considering a new machine why not leave the old one as a pulsar "head".
Build a mad fast new system for native effects and multitracking, get a hammerfall or something and connect them together with ADAT lightpipe.

i considered this, but i can´t afford it right now :/
simply a board with a duron is way cheaper.
but i think, i´ll spend even less money, and (don´t scream) buy an ordinary ghz-celery, as it get´s down to my budget

(i´m a just a poor student...

), and next year i plan to get me a complete new system (when all the new ddr-platforms and chipsets are well validated for the use with pulsar).
i like the idea of <i>not</i> having two (or more) pc´s running at the same time in the same room (big headache...), and i plan to maintain this

The pulsar UI will never speed up much with a new computer because it changes when things happen in the pulsar, and thet is always relayed through the PCI bus which is a lot slower than the usual memory/graphics subsystem that most programs use.

already covered in the 3.0 update, coming this month

they´ve rewritten some things.

As for the p4 i would wait till the new .13 version comes out, and the AMD palomino @ 1.5ghz+, the N-Force, and a few other goodies ..this is not like the usual "wait for" there are some very interesting things happening "soon" and we will probably have the usual dissapointments and suprises from unexpected quarters (VIA might release a chipsert *after* they fix the bugs)

yes, i know... normally i simply buy the things when i need them. but this time is different. i don´t really need a new system (a p2 400 on bx with enough ram is all fine for just pulsar and cakewalk9), but noone can deny the increased speed of developement, and 'modern' systems are way more performant, compared to my old workhorse... and more performance is more comfort... and lazy and unpatient people like me love comfort

i´ll get me a celeron for my bx, and wait, till i have to decide between athlon4 palomino (on nForce? dual on amd762?) and pentium4 northwood (on which chipset?) next year...

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Sep 07, 2001 1:28 pm

nForce... although the VIA KT266A's performance is quite impressive, I'm still a little wary of VIA after losing so many hours of my life beta testing their previous chipsets... But check it out anyway:
http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1528

Mo · Post by Mo » Sat Sep 08, 2001 2:25 am

anandtech´s kt266a-review? have read it already, thanks anyway

if i buy a via-chip mobo, i could also get an intel-chip mobo - north-/southbridge bandwidth stays the same (266mb/s), but i trust intel more about bus arbitration and such things. so the kt266a is no real issue to me.
SiS735 would have been, but as long as nearly all other mobo manufacturer will go for the kt266a, i´d rather get me now a celeron and wait for the nForce.
btw, do you have new information about the progress in their 'dolby'-trouble? i´ve read they have both, technical and license problems? how long do we have to wait for some reference boards?