Sound cards.
 

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
om...

You are being pedantic. Its still ram if its flash memory as its random
access. OK Fram stick, if you prefer.


Pretty much all semiconductor memory, except for FIFOs and shift
registers, is random access, including ROM, EPROM, EEPROM etc as well as
FLASH. The term "RAM", however, has tended to be resaved for reserved for
volatile memory.


Delete the words "resaved for" above. That's what happens when I don't
proof-read!

David.

Sound cards.
 

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:33:54 +0000, Keith G
wrote:

The biggest problem with the bigger machines (I
have one of those also - built it myself) is the bloody fan noise! I do
believe one machine my son built a while back had no less than 7 of 'em
on the go - including two on the graphics card, IIRC!!

Perhaps he's a gamer? Those high-performance graphics cards can take
a lot of cooling!

My current music PC is in an inexpensive Antec case with a single
variable-speed fan. I don't need graphics powerful enough to require
an extra fan. I paid a little extra for a power supply with big, slow
fans. It can be done!


I know, but even 'quiet' fans can be too noisy when you try to record
anywhere near them with a mic!

Sound cards.
 

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:48:30 +0000, Keith G
wrote:

My current music PC is in an inexpensive Antec case with a single
variable-speed fan. I don't need graphics powerful enough to require
an extra fan. I paid a little extra for a power supply with big, slow
fans. It can be done!


I know, but even 'quiet' fans can be too noisy when you try to record
anywhere near them with a mic!

Oh, sure. A spinning hard drive is too noisy if there's a mic on top
of it. So is a tape deck :-) But, in real life, it's quite easy to
get a computer quiet enough so that a moderate length mic lead makes
the problem insignificant.

Sound cards.
 

David Looser wrote:
"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
om...

You are being pedantic. Its still ram if its flash memory as its random
access. OK Fram stick, if you prefer.


Pretty much all semiconductor memory, except for FIFOs and shift registers,
is random access, including ROM, EPROM, EEPROM etc as well as FLASH. The
term "RAM", however, has tended to be reserved for volatile memory.


Indeed.

--
Bill Coombes

Sound cards.
 

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:47:17 +0000, bcoombes bcoombes@orangedotnet
wrote:

You were actually paging on a system new enough to run Vista?
Halo 2 starts most levels with a cut scene..it's coded so that the whole of this
scene has to be loaded into memory before it runs..with Vista's overheads and
the cut scene about 1.5 gigs [off the top of my head] is needed so with only 1
gig there will be lots of paging. [reducing the cut scene to a series of
stuttery jerks]..kind of like Arny really...Anyway in theory [if M$'s propaganda
was to be believed] ReadyBoost should have stopped this..but it didn't.

Oh, you're a gamer. Right. Different world, different requirements.

Yeah my main machine has so many fans and hard drives that I suspect most
'sound' people would be horrified. Notwithstanding that my sound card's analogue
outputs are very quiet and the machine's fans are large and make a 'rushing'
sound, as opposed the very irritating whine of small fans.

--
Bill Coombes

Sound cards.
 

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:48:30 +0000, Keith G
wrote:

My current music PC is in an inexpensive Antec case with a single
variable-speed fan. I don't need graphics powerful enough to require
an extra fan. I paid a little extra for a power supply with big, slow
fans. It can be done!

I know, but even 'quiet' fans can be too noisy when you try to record
anywhere near them with a mic!

Oh, sure. A spinning hard drive is too noisy if there's a mic on top
of it. So is a tape deck :-) But, in real life, it's quite easy to
get a computer quiet enough so that a moderate length mic lead makes
the problem insignificant.


Yes but I don't need the hassles and you don't save money building your
own these days - a mini PC is a quick and certain solution.

The trouble is even silent SSDs won't help - everything causes so much
heat there's will always be the cooling fans and even those big, slow
ones don't quite disappear into the woodwork!

What do they say? - Computers are doing more to accelerate global
warming than the world's automobile manufacturing industries?

Bring back valves, I say....

Sound cards.
 

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:28:36 +0000, Keith G
wrote:

Yes but I don't need the hassles and you don't save money building your
own these days - a mini PC is a quick and certain solution.

For anything except a DAW I'd agree. But I still build my own for
that application.

This may change. I've just ordered in a mid-range Dell for a client.
(He was going to buy at PC World. After standing for 20 minutes
waiting for service he stormed out. But that's another story.)

Before he gets it, I'm going to load Cubase etc. and give it a
workout. And look inside to suss the expandability options.

Sound cards.
 

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:28:36 +0000, Keith G
wrote:

Yes but I don't need the hassles and you don't save money building your
own these days - a mini PC is a quick and certain solution.

For anything except a DAW I'd agree. But I still build my own for
that application.

This may change. I've just ordered in a mid-range Dell for a client.
(He was going to buy at PC World. After standing for 20 minutes
waiting for service he stormed out. But that's another story.)



My recent experiences with even firms like Dabs and Laptops Direct will
have me thinking very hard before I'll venture far from Amazon or John
Lewis these days!

Today a nifty little 320 Gig Iomega USB hard drive arrived from Amazon
on only the second day having been ordered with the 3 - 5 days free
postage...!!

(Bargain at £44.97 I thought?)



Before he gets it, I'm going to load Cubase etc. and give it a
workout. And look inside to suss the expandability options.


OK, I would be interested to know how that goes...??

Sound cards.
 

On 14/01/2010 13:55, Laurence Payne wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:28:36 +0000, Keith
wrote:

Yes but I don't need the hassles and you don't save money building your
own these days - a mini PC is a quick and certain solution.

For anything except a DAW I'd agree. But I still build my own for
that application.


Why not a DAW? Just add a USB DAC/soundcard whatever?

Sound cards.
 

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:35:37 GMT, Rob
wrote:

For anything except a DAW I'd agree. But I still build my own for
that application.


Why not a DAW? Just add a USB DAC/soundcard whatever?

Spoken, I suspect, by someone who doesn't use a DAW to any great
extent? Or someone who is very lucky :-)