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ronniebee
12-09-2007, 05:01 AM
Hi Guys Heres an update from my pinnacle forum.

I Grew tired of struggling with my 8 year old Dell, so I decided to go BAREBONES, and build myself the ultimate system. I had already purchased a new camera, Panasonic SDR-200H 3CCD, USB 2.0 with a 30GB HD. Here's the system I built to go with it.

My new system THE QUEEN BEE
for [Multimedia] DVD Movie Studio / Sound Recording Studio / and a few Games

[*mm] means Installed by Magic Micro: www.magicmicro.com [Click on barebones]
[*egg] means purchased from Newegg
[*old] means transferred from Old System

BB-Case: APEVIA (ASPIRE) X-Cruiser Black w/Glass Window & 2 [120mm] and 3, [80*mm] computer controlled fans w/ sound/speed/temp front gauges.
10 Drive Bays, [4 x 5.25] & [2 x 3.5] External + [4 x 3.5] internal [*mm]

Motherboard - ASUS 775 P5Ne SLI Nvidia 650 CORE 2 Dual memory parallel processing slots 8GB capacity, [4GB SDR2 800mhz installed, [2GB per channel], Plus 2 16 Channel Pci-Express slots, a 1 channel PCI express slot, and 3 reg pci expansion slots. Accomodates 2 PATA UIDE and 4 SATA RAID drives.[*mm] Presently has 2 500GB WD Drives in 1-TB stripe configuration.

Power Supply - Powerworks 650W Titanium ex-quiet SLI [*mm]

CPU - Intel P4-QUAD-CORE Q6600 2.4GHZ 8MB 1066FSB, 64 bit Dual Processors, [2 cores per channel] w/Socket Fan.[*mm]

Ram - DDR2 Kit = 4GB PC6400/800mhz (4PC X 1GB) = 2 Dual Channels 2GB ea. [*mm]

Graphics Card - 1 EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB DDR3 PCI-Express SLI [*egg]
(I may buy another one of these for 2nd PCI express slot if needed.)

Hard Drives - 2 Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm 3.0GB tr SATA. [*egg]

Floppy Dr - 1, [144mb] 3˝ inch [*mm]

DVD RAM Drives - 3 LG 20X-w 40x-r DVD±R Super Multi DVD Burner Black ATAPI / E-IDE Model GSA-H55NK - OEM [2 internal and 1 External] [*old]. [Best I’ve found; does everything DVD and CD, Reads at 40X, and Burns/Re-Burns at 20X/18X, use CDs & DVDs like Floppies. Purchased From Newegg].
(Blu ray HD/DVD is avail @ $299.00 from Newegg). I will get into HD movies later.
[All optical drives Required Nero INCD to work in my old Dell, I have Nero full suite]. (Windows-XP64 can handle them on its own without INCD).

Operating System - Microsoft Windows XP PRO 64 bit + updates for 64bit machine. [Purchased from *mm]

Monitors - LG 22-inch Flatron LCD Monitor .2 MS response (from Old sys) also have
ACER 22-inch LCD flat screen Monitor .5 ms response (in for warranty repairs). [This will remain with the old Dell, which is now my wife's system.]

Sound RealTec 64bit HB Surround Sound with 5 configurable i/o Jacks. Each individual Jack can be software controlled to be whatever you want, input or output. [up to 96000 khrz - Sounds Awesome].

My present setup is:
[Rear-panel] 1-front pair, 2-Rear pair 3, sub-woofer.
[Front panel] 4-upper, line-in from mixer - 5-Lower line-out to mixer.
Powered by Altec Lansing 5.1 Surround Sound System

Mouse - MS Optical Trackball W/Wheel & Fwd/Back Internet switches.

Net Card - 1GB Lan built in to Mother Board [*mm]

Presently have Comcast High Speed Internet. @ up to 1000 bps via Linksys 4 port router. I probably will network to old system too.

Printers: 1. Epson R-200 for printing diskfaces and wrap covers, 2. Lexmark Z1300 for normal printing. [old]

System Cost
Bare Bones + all [*mm] Above ($967.00 + S&H $36.65) = $1003.65
New Egg 2 SATA Drives $208.00 Video Card $309.00 = $517.00
Total Cost for new components only = $1520.00

*Had to add a new Epson 350 Scanner for $119.00 bring cost up to $1639.00

Considering the difference in cost of a new DELL XPS (less monitor) with the same spec, this a very affordable price for me, and this system really kicks major A.

My Studio 11.1.1 Ultimate loves this system and runs faster than greased lightning; the 11.1.1 patch seems to have solved a lot of my problems. I spent about 4 hours editing my latest movie last weekend, and haven't had a problem yet. I will be sure an report it if I do.

Any questions, fire away, and I will try to answer them.

Ronnie Bee

PS: Although Magic Micro had a few bad reviews, they did an excellent job for me. All equipment used was O.E.M. and it was configured exactly the way I ask them to, I even called back for some re-config after purchase and there was no problem getting what I wanted. So I give them 5 stars from my experience.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronnie Bee: Studio 11.1.1 - ULTIMATE.
Equip: Pana PV-DV800 DV Tape Fwire; Pana SDR-H200 3CCD USB Camera. 30gb HDD
Cust Sys: ASUS/Nvidia, P5E SLI CPU 4.2 dual chan quad core, 1-TB HD Sata Raid, 4MB dual chan 800mhz DDR2 Mem. LG 22" mon .2 ms resp time.

The Wise Monkey
12-09-2007, 10:33 AM
Have you already bought the components? I have a few suggestions, but I'm not sure if its too late or not... XD

Jamie Nixx
12-09-2007, 12:15 PM
Don't think he has built it yet XD.

Ok firstly, DO NOT BUY A BAREBONES SYSTEM, build your own from scratch.

Btw that Barebones system sucks and it is way overpriced.

This setup is much better.....

Core 2 Quad 6600, $279.99
Gigabyte P35 Motherboard, $149.99
8800GT (NOT GTS) $289.99
2GB Corsair XMS2, $47.00
Corsair HX520w PSU, $129.99

This comes to $897.95 and will completely chew the comp you suggested up and then spit it out, all you need to do is add the case, harddrive, optical drives and OS, that shouldn't take you past $1100 depending on the OS you get.

DO NOT get XP Pro 64bit, it is possibly the worst OS ever released, it has NO drivers and lack of support, stick with a 32bit OS or get 64bit Vista instead.


This is a much better setup, completely new, much more upgradeable, better quality components and i have saved you $400.

And if you have already bought it, this is what you missed out on, soz XD.

ronniebee
12-09-2007, 08:58 PM
All that's left is to install the hard drives and video card and monitor, when it comes back from repairs. This video card will be plenty fast for multimedia, which is my main concern. Also I love Win XP Professional, and absolutely hate Vista so I am not about to switch yet.

I got great service from Magic Micro, and I'm in the process of making a movie I need to finish, so I didn't want to take the time to build from scratch. I ordered the basic system one week, and had it the next. when I get the rest of the componets installed this week, this system will work fine for me.

I really appreciate Rob's site here, because I'm still learning about RAID setups and such. I will use his book to help setup my BIOS and so forth.

Regards
Ronnie Bee

Jamie Nixx
12-10-2007, 03:48 AM
Anyone can have great service and still rip you off but as long as it serves you well for your needs......

I don't like Vista myself, i am a gamer so i use XP Pro as i get better FR, good luck with the 64bit OS because it really does well and truly suck, its a lot of trouble.

ronniebee
12-11-2007, 12:58 AM
Thanks Jamie,
I will keep you guys posted on my progress. Today I installed my 2 Sata 3.0/500gb Drives, and Tonight I will be porting over 2 of my LG Ram drives and my USB 2.0 front dashboard from the old system.:)

ronniebee
12-12-2007, 04:31 AM
Hey,
First boot went fine, Went through the bios and checked all my settings, Shoved the Asus Support disk into my optical drive, an made my Drivers floppy for my sata disk.

Now comes the problem: When I tried to install windows, Windows will not recognize my SATA hard drives. The bios says they're present in the system but for some reason Win-XP64 can't see them. So I disconnected The Queen Bee, to see if I can see anything inside the case. If that checks out, I'm off to check Rob's specs on setting up the hard drives. Oh yeah, I did load the SCSI drivers with the S option.

Sure hope I didn't get a bad drive from NewEgg; it will be a first if that's true.
Later, Ronnie Bee

ronniebee
12-12-2007, 10:32 PM
LOL::p
Yep, old Ronnie Bee forgot to plug 'em back-in.

I had to move the two SATA drives to the lower two bays, because the 8800 graphics card was so long I couldn't plug it in because the drives were in the way. I just forgot to plug the sata ribbon cable back in after I moved them.

Windows was much happier, now that it could read the drives. Thanks to Rob's good work, I managed to follow his tutorial on adding a 2nd drive to get the COMS settings, and to remember to hit F10 to configure the RAID settings.

Windows auto formatted the two 500GB drives in 2 hours and 15 min; It finished installing itself in about another 45 min. It hung up once, and I lost about 5 min before I powered off and on. Windows came back up and finished installing OK.

Now I can't get it to recognize my network connection, so I'm off to check Rob's tutorial on Networking. I'm back on the old machine Temporarily until I can get the Network configured in THE QUEEN BEE. One big disadvantage I'm experiencing is having to work with only one monitor. I will not be able to transfer My files until my other monitor comes back from warranty repair.

Almost happy camper; WOW this thing is fast.

Ronnie Bee

Jamie Nixx
12-13-2007, 03:34 AM
Glad its up and running :D .

ronniebee
12-13-2007, 02:35 PM
Fellas I had a few problems re-connecting to the internet, so I wanted to warn you about what went wrong. When I did my first boot, I installed part of the software on the ASUS Install Disk. What you have to do if you're on broadband is:

1. Re-insert your motherboard install disk after windows is installed to finish installing the drivers for the hardware. My ISP wouldn't recognize my on-board GB-LAN-CARD until I installed the driver for it.

2. Before connecting to the net, You have to reset your modem, and your router if you have one, so the ISP can pick up the new ip addresses in the New Computer.

3. You need to know your POP3 and SMPTE names when you re-setup your account. for instance mine were POP3.ATL and SMPTE.ATL, for the Atlanta branch of my ISP which is Comcast. I had to call the ISP to get all this good info, but if you do it right as above, your internet should pop right up.

Everything is really cooking now, It runs great; The temp meter on the front stays around 44c when I'm installing hot and heavy, and down around 38c when its idle. My air flow is pegged to the right, ((It should be, I got 5 Fans in this puppy (3) 80cm and (2) 120cm)), and with all that it runs much quieter than my old Dell. Its sitting off to the side now looking old and lonely, (sniff).

I'm very glad I let Magic Micro do the MB, Processor, Memory and front door fans and lights, There's a mess of wiring in there.

Thank for all the help from Rob's tutorials and you folks, I had a great first build, I'll pop in now and then to see if I can pass on the favor, and help someone else.

Ronnie Bee

ronniebee
12-19-2007, 04:31 AM
DO NOT get XP Pro 64bit, it is possibly the worst OS ever released, it has NO drivers and lack of support, stick with a 32bit OS or get 64bit Vista instead.


One final note on the drivers: I think the MFGS are now begining to catch up to the Windows XP64 OS. I found all my drivers I needed on the internet with my Driver Detective mod. Even the one for the USB MIDI device driver for my Yamaha Synth. I had to install it manually as per instructions from Yamaha, but it works fine now. The only driver I couldn't find was for my Canon 3200f scanner. That scanner is so old they are not developing new drivers for it, but they did have them for their newer scanners. I don't like the way the Canon scan software works, so I opted to buy an Epson V-350 superscan from Newegg for $119.00. It comes with drivers for XP64, so I'm just going to give the old scanner to my wife for the old Dell system I replaced.

The only other problem I have is the upper Microphone Jack on my Aptiva X Crusier is bad, so I will have to replace it with a new jack, but thats a minor glitch.

I love the way the jacks work on the realtek soundcard that came with the Asus MB. You can set the 5 jacks up to be any input or output you need via the Realtek software. I plan to use the 3 rear jacks for Front, Rear, and sub-woofer surround outputs, and the two front panel jacks as line-in and line-out jacks to my studio mixer for music production once I get the bad jack replaced, and I can do that myself.

Some of my music productions can be found at WWW.Soundclick.com/ronniebeesgigabyteband if you would like to check them out.

Ronnie Bee