[PD] BEST HARDWARE COMPONENTS FOR PD ON LINUX?

[Jonathan Stutters]

"i am about to build a machine for the sole purpose of running pd/gem/pidip
on a planetCCRMA system for starters and am unsure which components to get.
I would appreciate any advice regarding things like:

processors: intel or amd - pentuim or athlon, celron etc.?"

Doesn't make a great deal of difference, avoid Celeron though because of the
reduced floating point performance.

"is the difference between a 2.6mhz and 3mhz worth the extra 100 euros ?"

If you really don't need 100 euros for something else then go for it but on
a dedicated system 2.6 should be enough.

"which motherboard brand: gigabyte?"

Anything well known, I've had no trouble with 2 gigabyte boards, but I'd go
for Asus if it was me.

"graphics card - i'm thinking about an ati 9800 all in wonder pro? - is this
overkill? maybe a 9700 or 9600 would be just as good?"

The 9800's probably overkill, I'd stick with a 9700/9600 because the price
drops off significantly when you get away from bleeding edge.

"what type of harddrive - Seagate Baracuda look good?"

Seagate Barracuda is my drive of choice, quiet and decent performance.

"noise reduction systems / watercooled processors - good idea / bad idea?"

Getting a low noise power supply is probably a good idea, also plan the
internal layout of the case so you get decent airflow with minimal extra
fans.  If you can afford watercooling then it will let you cool a very high
performance system with sensible levels of noise but installation could be
tricky (bear in mind that you'll probably want to cool the graphics card as
well to benefit from low noise.

"prebuilt systems? bad idea? any exceptions?"

I build my own these days, the cost isn't much different to pre-built but
you get exactly what you want.  Pre-built systems for music are probably a
waste of money 'cause they'll be Windows based.

Hope that helps a bit,
Jonny
www.jeremah.co.uk
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