Upgrading computer to edit and encode audio

[Yar1182]

I got a musician friend that wants to upgrade his computer to encode and edit audio faster. Mostly he works with cool edit 2000, and the software that came with his Roland synthesizer/keyboard.

Presently he's running a Compaq (yeah I told him they suck), with a P3 1.2ghz, 512 MB pc 100 sdram, windows ME (yeah I told him ME sucks too), SB Live Platinum, and 2 7200 rpm 40gb hard drives.

When he makes or edits music it takes him like 10 minutes while the computer encodes it. I know the files are huge, but if we could shave a few minutes her or there that would be great.

My first instinct is to upgrade the motherboard (socket 370 so he can use the same cpu, and 256mb of RDRAM.)

I looked into setting up a SMP rig, but I don't believe cool edit 2000 or the Roland software is SMP enabled.

My second instinct is to beef up the processing power. Maybe a new mobo, Athlon xp, and 256mb DDR.

His budget is $250-$350 so it's not much to work with. Though if it were much more worth wild he'd spend a little more.

Any suggestions?

[storm2k]

definately either an athlon xp or p4 mobo and 512 mb of ddr (or rdram if he'll pay on a p4). he'll be real suprised how much faster it goes
.

[RobRich]

First up, bump the memory and change os to 2k/xp. Also monitor drive transfer rates with his current config, as a IDE RAID array might be another great upgrade.

A P3 1.2 GHz should fly through audio at a good clip. For comparison, I do video (much more intensive) editing and compression with an Athlon 1200.

Dumping the Compaq OS install (too much overhead!) and perhaps evaluting some new editing/compression software optimized for SSE should get him in business.

Robert Richmond

[Gomer]

@ newegg.com

AMD XP 1800+
$118

EPoX EP-8K7A (w/onboard sound, SDRAM/DDRRAM)
$70

512 Kingston DDR
$127


$315 total