Home › Forums › Breakaway Audio Enhancer › "New" System Questions
- This topic has 10 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 6 months ago by timmywa.
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May 20, 2009 at 6:10 pm #347timmywaParticipant
I was able to get a PC from my company’s surplus for $5. It’s a Dell Workstation. P4 2.4ghz 1 GB Rambus ECC with a 36gb SCSI drive. I might be able to get another 36gb scsi drive… then I can RAID it. For now, let’s assume not.
I’m replacing my current system that’s a P4 1.7ghz with 768MB PC-133 RAM and regular IDE hard drives.
While not directly related to Breakaway, I wonder what the best configuration would be.
I can just slap Windows XP Pro SP3 on it and basically mirror my current configuration.
OR…
I can put Server 2003 or 2008 on it.I don’t have any more than 1gb of the ram as it’s RAMBUS so that’s where it sits as of now.
Would the stability be better on a server OS vs XP on this machine? Or is it lacking a bit on total RAM?
I would be running Breakaway Live and ZaraRadio with EdCast standalone.
I welcome and encourage your thoughts and suggestions!
May 21, 2009 at 10:46 am #4777Dr.JMemberMy recommendation would be WinXP SP2 (SP3 doesn’t add anything beneficial, just bloat). Just my thoughts.
May 21, 2009 at 2:13 pm #4778LeifKeymasterI’m quite happy with XP SP3 myself — but I was quite happy with SP2 as well back when.
I personally don’t see any benefit in running Windows 2003 on an audio machine. It should work, but XP SP3 is probably easier to deal with. Server 2008 = Vista. Both those are strongly disrecommended (is that a word?) for audio!
///Leif
May 21, 2009 at 4:29 pm #4779timmywaParticipantCool input, folks! Thanks. I did end up putting xp sp3 on it. Now to figure out why the CPU-id reported 2.4ghz Processor is only running at 1.79ghz….. Fun Fun!
May 22, 2009 at 3:14 am #4780LeifKeymasterProbably a bios setting?
Then again, if it’s a Dell, there likely IS no bios setting for FSB speed.. Interesting problem indeed. 🙂
///Leif
May 22, 2009 at 3:19 am #4781timmywaParticipantYeah, i scowered the manuals and online forums. I think they may have mis-matched the processor with the motherboard… Who knows. So in setting up a dedicated winxp box for strictly BAL Zara Edcast & shoutcast… what extra services and startup programs can I set to disabled or manual and not compromise system stability? I turn off indexing, i turn off zeroconfig as there’s no wireless. there are a few others I set manual or disable entirely like desktop themes, etc…
I guess my main question is how slim can I get XP to run??
Thanks again!
May 22, 2009 at 12:12 pm #4782Conor HylandMemberHi Timmy,
Great decision putting Windows XP on it!
I have tested Breakaway Live / Broadcast on 3 machines using both Windows XP SP2 and Windows XP SP3 and they work like a dream – flawlessly on all… 😀However for me, not the case with Vista (Server 2008 is based on Vista, as Leif explained)!
I could never get it to pass flawless audio on the machine I tested it on (Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.8Ghz Processor).
Some poorly designed drivers in Vista created massive latency issues for me!
I ran DPC Latency Checker on Vista and basically I had to disable any hardware in Device Manager that wasn’t needed to run the PC at a minimum including networking, wireless, DVD etc!
Even still I had clicks and pops and latency issues! 🙄So for me Vista lasted a total of about 3 hrs passing audio with clicks and pops and latency issues, until I had more than enough of it and went back to XP with beautiful flawless audio! 😀
quote :I guess my main question is how slim can I get XP to run??Start off by not putting any unnecessary Dell software on it like Dell Quickset etc…
There are lots of other things you can turn off and configure in XP that you don’t really need to run and will make your fresh copy run even faster for you!
Google has lots of info on this if you do a search! 🙂Conor
May 22, 2009 at 1:22 pm #4783timmywaParticipantThanks, Conor for the info. I’ve heard that you can even run XP without explorer.exe. I can’t imagine how you would be able to navigate/start/stop programs without that interface.
I’ve gotten myself into trouble by disabling too many services. I really am not fluent in any Linux OSs so that’s not really an option. I also think that Breakaway won’t run on it.
I would like to hear from the seasoned vets here on how to trim the fat on a fresh windows xp install. The only other item I would be running is free AVG for anti-virus. Yes, I need to have networking on this system as I would be streaming from this system.
Thanks again.
May 27, 2009 at 6:24 pm #4784timmywaParticipantJust wondering how slim someone can run XP? what services can I disable? What non-essential programs or whatever can I eliminate without compromising stability?
May 27, 2009 at 8:08 pm #4785AuBadgeMemberI run XP SP3 with 3 of the 4 gig of ram XP32 can see. I use SAM Broadcaster v4.36 and BA Live as well as a system clock synchronizing utility, and have disabled the "nice pretty things" functions in XP; I’ve done nothing special. The machine and system were pristine when purchased, and purchased only to run my station on. My CPU peaks at ~14% during crossfades, PAL script runs, etc, and stays right around 7% the rest of the time. I run nothing else on the machine, but I could easily do so if needed. No stability issues at all.
May 27, 2009 at 8:27 pm #4786timmywaParticipantThanks, Aubadge!
I appreciate your input.
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