Please help diagnose my PC

bradb · 21st January 2009

Hi everyone.

Ive got a 002, running PTLE 8.

I'm using a PC with an ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard and a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle 2.0GHz Socket 754 Single-Core Processor running XP. I had been running 1GB of DDR 400 ram. I'm running sessions off a second internal drive, 7200 rpm 250 GB and its new and shouldn't be too fragmented.

I recently have been running some 88.2 sessions and trying to put a bunch of plugins here and there. The system has been running SUPER slow, so I figured some more RAM was in order. I bought 3 x 1GB DDR400 sticks to replace my 2x 512k DDR 400 sticks.

Long story short, my motherboard only has 3 RAM slots and when all sticks are double sided (mine are all doublesided) I have to derate the ram to DDR 200 for all 3 1gb sticks to work. I can run 2 sticks at DDR 400.

Question #1: So which do I choose for better protools performance? 3GB @ DDR 200 or 2GB @ DDR 400?

Currently, I'm running the 3GB @ DDR 200 and protools is still running slowly. I even get this message:

"You are running out of CPU power. Remove some RTAS plug-ins or increase the CPU Usage Limit in the Playback Engine Dialog. (-9128)"

I thought RAM would help with running more plugs, but now my CPU isn't beefy enough?
My H/W Playback buffer is set to 2048
I've max'ed out my CPU usage (85%)
DAE Playback buffer is level 4 (max)

Question #2: Do I need a new CPU?

thanks!

tech1 · 21st January 2009

1. 2 GB at 400 MHz.

2. Probably. CPU speed is the primary factor in plugin performance. If you drop some plugs, does it get better? If the answer is yes, then it's CPU upgrade time.

norbury brook · 21st January 2009

Yep, a single core 2 gig CPU is very low powered by todays standards.Do yourself a favour and build a q6600 based machine with 4 gigs of ram, it's old hat now the i7's are around so the MOBO/CPU and ram shouldn't cost that much.

Marcus

bradb · 21st January 2009

Ok, I guess what should I expect from a 3-year old machine.

Thanks for the input guys.

i'll auction off this 1gb stick and go with 2gb ram and plot my next steps.

tehlord · 21st January 2009

For reference I recently upgraded from an Athlon 64 3200 to and Athlon 64 X2 6000 and performance increased by 2-300%. I have 22 tracks running in my current project (3 audio the rest VST) with all sorts of compression, sidechaining and non optimized effects running and CPU is hitting about 30% max. Even with some ridiculously reverbed Nexus pads running!

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21st January 2009	#1
bradb Gear maniac Joined: Jan 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 274 Thread Starter	Please help diagnose my PC Hi everyone. Ive got a 002, running PTLE 8. I'm using a PC with an ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard and a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle 2.0GHz Socket 754 Single-Core Processor running XP. I had been running 1GB of DDR 400 ram. I'm running sessions off a second internal drive, 7200 rpm 250 GB and its new and shouldn't be too fragmented. I recently have been running some 88.2 sessions and trying to put a bunch of plugins here and there. The system has been running SUPER slow, so I figured some more RAM was in order. I bought 3 x 1GB DDR400 sticks to replace my 2x 512k DDR 400 sticks. Long story short, my motherboard only has 3 RAM slots and when all sticks are double sided (mine are all doublesided) I have to derate the ram to DDR 200 for all 3 1gb sticks to work. I can run 2 sticks at DDR 400. Question #1: So which do I choose for better protools performance? 3GB @ DDR 200 or 2GB @ DDR 400? Currently, I'm running the 3GB @ DDR 200 and protools is still running slowly. I even get this message: "You are running out of CPU power. Remove some RTAS plug-ins or increase the CPU Usage Limit in the Playback Engine Dialog. (-9128)" I thought RAM would help with running more plugs, but now my CPU isn't beefy enough? My H/W Playback buffer is set to 2048 I've max'ed out my CPU usage (85%) DAE Playback buffer is level 4 (max) Question #2: Do I need a new CPU? thanks!

21st January 2009	#2
tech1 Gear Head Joined: Jan 2009 Posts: 37	1. 2 GB at 400 MHz. 2. Probably. CPU speed is the primary factor in plugin performance. If you drop some plugs, does it get better? If the answer is yes, then it's CPU upgrade time. __________________ ~Matt Hollingsworth Lead PC Repair/Install Tech Sweetwater Service Department

21st January 2009	#3
norbury brook Lives for gear Joined: Jan 2009 Location: London Posts: 926	Yep, a single core 2 gig CPU is very low powered by todays standards.Do yourself a favour and build a q6600 based machine with 4 gigs of ram, it's old hat now the i7's are around so the MOBO/CPU and ram shouldn't cost that much. Marcus

21st January 2009	#5
tehlord Gear nut Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 136	For reference I recently upgraded from an Athlon 64 3200 to and Athlon 64 X2 6000 and performance increased by 2-300%. I have 22 tracks running in my current project (3 audio the rest VST) with all sorts of compression, sidechaining and non optimized effects running and CPU is hitting about 30% max. Even with some ridiculously reverbed Nexus pads running!