P4 E 3.4Ghz with ASUS P5AD2 for DAW PC?

[Deleted member 978]

I'm planning on build a new PC based on the Intel P4 E (Prescott) 3.4Ghz in combination with an ASUS P5AD2 Deluxe motherboard and Kingston DDR2 533Mhz (PC-4200) 1GB (two 512). This PC is dedicated to Audio processing and will be my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I have Cakewalk's Sonar 4 Producer Edition and Project 5 that is my primary source of music creation software. The sound car is an EMU 1212m. I do a lot of work with DXi and VSTi virtual instruments and was wondering if this chip/motherboard/memory combination is good? I don't plan to overclock and I do plan to run a very quiet case possibly with some sound deadening material in the case.

$700 is about the most I want to spend on CPU, motherboard, and 1GB of memory.

Is the P4 E 3.4Ghz up to the task?

Thanks, Rob.

 

[ChipDeath]

It'll be up to the task, but you'll want a third-party CPU cooler - the boxed Prescott ones make a lot of noise, because they have a lot of heat to deal with.

The Northwood P4 chips run considerably cooler, and their stock coolers are quite quiet, so you may consider one of those instead.

I personally would get an A64 system, but I play a lot of games and the A64 is better for gaming, and it isn't as far behind the P4 in encoding tasks as the P4 is behind the A64 for gaming (if you follow me... ). It might be a good option for you because of heat/noise issues, although I have no idea how loud the Stock A64 Fans are, but I'd wager they're quieter than the Scotty versions.

Of course going with either Northwood or A64 would mean DDR (not DDR2) and normal PCI Vs. PCI-Express.

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