Carillon Tower? or INTAaudio AMD 64 Workstation?

[dudeiferous]

Right, sorry to bother you lot again but Im in a slight quandry now as to which computer to get for my audio needs.


Basically Ive now narrowed my choice down to either

a) A Carillion Tower, (£599 model, scroll down page)-
http://www.carillondirect.com/clnweb...jsp?country=UK

or

b) An INTAaudio AMD 64 Workstation
http://www.inta-audio.co.uk/script/w...=AND&filtval=2


Now the Inta audio system seems a lot better value for money, it has a lot more hardware -(2 hard drives) and I have seen very positive write ups on it concerning its ultra quiet operation and power.

The aformentioned Carillon system at first glance seams a lot lower spec- less ram, only 1 hard drive, no mention of any acoustic treating, however it is a very well renowned make which some might say is more specialised towards audio than the Inta Audio, I have seen it mentioned in one review that the Inta is more a 'jack of all trades'. Then theres that cool service that allows carillon to 'hack into your computer' and fix anything that has 'gone wrong' or whatever. It also looks a lot sexier :lol:

One thing though, I heard the clock speed of the Inta Audio system is only 2.2GHZ but that it compares very favourably with the performance of top end pentium 4's as clock spped is less of an issue on AMD 64 processors. Is this true?

To give you a bit of info, I like making experimental, atmospheric music, so i like to use lots of VST plugins and effects. I also want to be recording lots of audio- (guitar and vocals)

Anyway...happy voting :lol:

[kamina]

The 2.2ghz A64 is faster then the 3ghz p4. With the A64's AMD changed their ratings so that they are actually generally faster then an equivalent P4.

[dudeiferous]

Well, I got the INTAaudio AMD 64 Workstation in the end. Ordered it yesterday.

Cheers for all the advice you lot have given me in previous threads

8)

[womoma]

How you gettin on with that?-


I was considering the same one myself..

[Oldhippy]

I too have been looking at one or two of Inta's systems.

The new dual AMD looks stunning but I am also looking at the SOS pro system.....

[fizz]

Well, dudeiferous ....


I can advise you that I bought my Inta-Audio system almost a year ago now - and the babe is still flying it.

In terms of power, it delivers much of what I had hoped for at the time of purchase. But, as ever, technology moves on apace and so does the software to run on the latest and greatest.

My unit is based around the now discontinued AMD 64 3400+ ( 754 pin cpu ), which, just in case you never knew, is not quite as capable as the 939 pin cpus, with their broader bandwidth and dual channel memories. I see that Inta are still doing the discontiued 754 pin cpus in some of their lower end systems, albeit the most powerful 754 pin being the AMD64 3700+. Inta have ventuired into 939 pin territory now, with both single and dual core cpus available.
What I will say to you is that the 939 pin cpus are the way to go, as they offer marginally better performance, clock for clock at the same speed than their 754 equivalents. Also, you have a better amount of future proofing with the 939 pins, as the dual-cores currently just slot into many an existing 939 pin board, which then require little more than a BIOS upgrade ( be careful, though, as I have heard that not all 939 board manufactures are making the upgrades available ).
Getting back to my little gem, the AMD64 3400+. This baby really has enabled me to run so much more in my songs. Being that my set-up is almost exclusively 'virtual', I mainly use many softsynths, soft samplers and plug-ins in them ... that meant that I needed a system that would enable me to run what I wanted without the unit grinding to halt. As an example, a typical song of mine will have the following running :
Eidrol Super Quartet, Sampletank 2 ( between three to eight instruments loaded ), Atmosphere, PlugSounds fretted, Hypersonic ( upto six instruments loaded on average ), Battery, NI Vapour, Absynth, FM7 and either Halion Strings ( never more than half loaded really ) or Albino. I would also then have a few real time effects plug ins loaded onto the various instrument channels in the SX mixer ( inccluding TC Reverb, various Waves and some of the Classic's reverb n delays ). here's the good bit, I rarely manage to take the cpu meter in any of my songs go above 60% - that leave a fair bit of headway for when it might be needed.
I will say to you that if you have ordered the Inta-Audio 3700+ unit do bare in mind that it is the older (754 pin ) AMD64 chip and it is now discontiued ( but that doesn't mean that it isn't a stonkingly fast chip, it most definately is ... remember mine is the slightly slower 3400+ chip and it is a real beast, as far as I'm concerned ). I would also strongly urge you to upgrade the memory from 1 gig to 2 gigs. I recently started to run out of ram ( heavy use of sampled soft synths), and I have deceided to take the plunge and buy to 1 gig sticks. Unfortunately, I have to discard the two 512 sticks, as the Mobo only has three ram slots and you must have matching pairs of memory. This is why I would ask you to get onto to Inta and ask them to install two 1 gig sticks ( £ 70 quid extra, but money well spent, trust me ), assuming that they still are building the unit for you and it hasn't left the building yet ?
As for stability, the unit is rock-solid ...the only problem I have had is with the chiop getting a loittle hotter than what is normal for the AMD64 ( I run at 55-60 c under load, whereas many units apparently run at around no more than 50c ). Inta have stated that they will sort the problem out once they have it back ( which will be soon ).
As regards Intel processor based systems ( carrillion ), I would advise against them. They run extremely hot and they do not deliver the same level of performance of the AMD chips. You can take any AMD64 setup of 2.0 ghz and above and they will positively trounce an Intel of between 3 ghz - 3.4 ghz. the Intel 3.6 ghz processors have performed well in certain music based units, but single chip AMD's really do rule the music computer roost. Intel have finally ditched their 'faster gigahertz is the way forward approach', as can now be seen from their new numbering system. This is as close as an admission you are ever gonna get from Intel that gighertz speed doesn't mean a faster cpu. AMD have shown this to be the case for a long time now and with the advent of the 64 bit chips this has only strengthened their hold on the speed and perfromance market. Now, with the AMD dual-cores, the floor is being wiped by AMD with Intel chips ( even the Intel dual core chips cannot match the raw performance of the AMD dualies ).
My next unit may possibly be based around the AMD dual-cores ( or possibly even quad-cores ....oh my, I'm positively salivating at the prospect of the power ). But, to be honest, I don;t see myself upgrading anytime soon, becase this good ol AMD64 3400+ ( 754 pin ) is still 'doing it' day after day for me ... and my needs do not exceed the units current capabilities, barr a slight upgrade on the ram front.
I hope all of this helps and reassures you. :lol: