which PC for my GIGA setup?

[gsilbers]

in PC land (now living with new macintel land) the processor speed is confusing as there are dual core, quad cores, and most pc companies dont tell much about the clock speed and relly on lots of other specs to confuse me...yes, the world is against me )

 

i thought i was ok with 2ghz and 3gig of ram but all of this new computers confuse the hell out of me.

all i need is a PC to handle gigastudio with VSL 8-16 tracks of strings and 8 of brass.

there is also the issue of RAM limit for XP of 3gig of ram per application.

 

this question goes for poeple who have one computer for giga and its specs or which computer is good for giga and not go above $600. and PC should be cheap enought these days.

 

 

or if u have an exact make and model that works even better.

[John Butler]

I have two Giga slave PC's.

 

Gigastudio 3.2 will work with multi-core processors but will not use more than one core, so no performance advantage. A 3.0 ghz or greater single core Pentium IV will do the job.

 

Regarding RAM - Giga can use about 1.1 gig of RAM for sample pre-loading if your machine has 2gig installed. Any more ram will not add anything. Also, to be able to access the full gig of RAM, the windows registry must be adjusted. This is done from the Config program that comes with Gigastudio.

 

all i need is a PC to handle gigastudio with VSL 8-16 tracks of strings and 8 of brass.

 

That's impossible to determine. Put that same strings/brass requirement in the hands of 10 different composers and they will tax the system 10 different ways.

 

which computer is good for giga and not go above $600.

 

There is no such thing if you want Gigastudio to work well. You also haven't factored in a monitor or pro-level PCI sound card, which will cost at least $400 by itself. And avoid USB and Firewire interfaces of any brand for Gigastudio, as their performance is terrible.

 

You should probably consider buying a PC made by a company who makes Pro-audio DAW PC's as their specialty. But $600 is unrealistic, even if you build it yourself.

 

Also, go to www.learngigastudio.com and you can get further help.

 

Good luck!