Rack Mount Audio Box

[Oldie]

A friend of mine wants to put together a box he can keep in his rack, and I've been looking over some specs for him, and I'd like to get your opinions. While I think I'm pretty decent at gaming pc's, not much in the way of rack mounted audio pc's. Here's what I came up with considering the 1200-1400 budget range for hardware, what do you think?

Abit IC7 in an Antec 3U Rack Case
3.0 Ghz Prescott
1GB Corsair 3200C2
Audigy 2zs Platinum
Maxtor DX 10 200GB HD
76GB Raptor
some video card I have laying around (prob. a 9600)
Some DVD burner I have laying around (prob. a NEC 16X DL)

I would like to know if there's a better audio option (yes I'm sure there is). He's going to be doing a lot of live recording, and wants to be able to edit on the road. He already knows the software he wants. I'm planning on using a nice quiet HSF, do you think the noise level of the case would cause any interference on the recording? I would guess no, but hey who knows? Also if there's a better recommendation on the case, it would be appreciated. My total research time on the case was about 20 minutes, so I'm not sure if I saw them all.....

Oh, and I promise I'll post pics when complete.

Thanks

 

[FLECOM]

EMU0404? EMU1212? how many channels does he want? how much does he want to blow on the card? needs more info

 

[ivandal2]

If its an audio rig mainly with a budget of $1200-1400 I'd look at a 2500 barton rig w/ a delta1010. I have the delta and absolutly love it. excellent midi i/o, supports 5.1 surround if wanted, has plenty of ins and outs for most home studios, etc.

Figure on around $500-600 for the delta, then grab a cheap 6u case and throw in a barton 2500 and the 9600 you have and a gig of ram and your pretty much sitting pretty.

 

[esr2]

I built the same sort of system a few years ago. your choice of the creative card for pro recording does scare me a bit. i've been using the Echo Gina for years and love it (of course i record to a DA-38, and then take audio off the DA-38 into my 3u box through the Gina)... currently i'm also using Adobe Aduition and find it very simple as well.

Do definately go with the quietest fan possible. I'm using the old Zalman with the blue shroud which points the exhausted air right out of the case. Also, if you use the removable hard drive racks (i'm running two at current) be sure to be able to turn those fans off, or find some with quality passive cooling, as those little fans are very annoying - when mixing... and I would imagine even more troublesome as white noise if recording directly to the PC.

Also see if you can grab antec's passively cooled HSF.

My rig, rather ancient, stands as follows, and has resulted in four CDs thus far:

cheap ass case from newegg
Intel P4 1.6 ghz
Zalman HSF (25 -c at lowest setting and average load)
1GB PC133 (eww)
80GB WD system Drive
8.5 GB and 30 GB removable drive (which can be turned off or removed when not being used)
Lite-on 52x CDR
Lite-on 4x DVD-R
generic video
Echo Gina

and that's about it.

oh... and do factor in an LCD if he'll be editing on the road... he'll need to see his app some how.

here's how it all turned out:

-esr

 

[mustang_steve]

for what it's worth, if he has a removable lid up top with no mixer up there, you can mount an LCD up there....or just save up for a while and get a 1U console (15" lCD + keyboard + touchpad) unit....those are pretty bank though, but they are pretty swank.