Post your WORKING system here!

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:48 pm

If you have a stable system with good performance please post it in here with all the details. This will serve the following purposes:

A: People who want to buy or build a system can use this thread to see what computer and hardware combinations work, and what kind of performance they can expect to get from it.

B: People who are having problems can use this thread to see if they can pinpoint what is causing their trouble.

C: It will be useful for Ableton to see how well Live performs on user's systems.

Please stay ON TOPIC. If your system is giving you trouble, post here:
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 795section.

This is what you should post:

1: Version of Live, Operating system.

2: Laptop/Desktop? Make and model.

3: All internal peripherals you added. (RAM upgrades, drives) make, model, firmware & driver versions.
- If you built your PC yourself please list all the parts that you used here, make/model, and firmware/BIOS/driver versions.

4: All external peripherals (external soundcards, MIDI contollers), how they are connected (USB/FireWire) firmware & driver version if you know.

5: (optional) Anything you did to your system that solved a problem you were having!
Example: You were having audio glitches, the videocard & audiocard were sharing the same interrupt, you moved the audiocard to another PCI slot and now it runs fine. Please mention it, as this is the kind information that might help other people to solve their problems!

6: Performance % with AdamJay's Live performance tests,

7: (optional) anything you did to improve performance/stability such as overclocking, disabling hardware in the BIOS, not having it connected to the Internet.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:03 am

I'll go first:

1: Live 5.0.3 Windows XP SP1

2: Desktop Self-built PC

3: CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+
Motherboard ABIT KV8PRO Third Eye (Socket 754) BIOS v2.2
IDE Hard Disks 2x Western Digital WD800 80GB connected to primary IDE channel
ASUS CRW 4824A CD-RW drive & LG DVD-ROM drive GDR 8162 B
Connected to secondary IDE channel.
PCI Soundcard M-Audio Delta 44 driver v5.1.0.01 in bottom (last) slot.
NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX4000 AGP 8x BIOS 4.18.20.38.E6

4: Peripherals: BCF2000 acting as controller (Mackie Cubase emulation) & MIDI interface. Firmware v1.10 USB driver v1.1.1.1

5: First it had an old AGP4x videocard and was crashing randomly.
Replaced it with newer AGP 8x card, which solved the problem.

6: 29% Live 5 performance test. Turbo mode does 27% but CPU gets too hot. Disabled onboard sound in BIOS. Not connected to Internet. Really stable, cheap.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:23 am

1: Live 5.0.3 Windows XP SP1
2: IBM thinkpad r40
3: replaced stock ram with a whopping 512 stick from kingston
4: Motu 828mk1(fw, latest drivers), behringer bcr2000(usb), 2x TriggerFinger(usb), ext. seagate drive in noname usb2 box, second tft.
5: Heavy audio glitching fixed by turning off the built-in wireless internet on my machine.
6: I think it was 28%...
7: See 5. Also, when extra-super-duper amounts of cpu overhead is needed (read: gigging) turning off my second monitor gives a bit of breathing space as well.

D K · Post by **D K** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:48 am

live version 5.0.3

mac 12" 1.5g powebook

osx 10.4.4 1.25gig ram

edirol fa101 firewire soundcard, (2) behringer bcr2000 (chained via midi, connected to computer via 1 usb), behringer fcb1010(midi cable to edirol fa 101), midi out from edirol to edirolmidi/usb converter, to 17"g4 powerbook running video triggered by ableton midi clips. external instrument(bass)run through edirol , using live as an fx processor.

never connected to internet while using ableton, dashboard disabled.
alot of clips loaded to ram. i render midi instrument clips to audio clips for performance.
i streamline all tunes to no more than 8 audio tracks, 1 troughput(for bass)
and 1 midi clip track (for video)and 8 aux/fx returns.
i have buttons assigned to fx so they are turned off when not in use.
i run at 16bit 44.1 or 48k alot to conserve cpu.
at least 512 buffer for fx
at least 192 buffer for audio card
rendering vsti clips can get rid of random pops and clicks at low buffer settings.

will post test results later

no crashes*yet*

doug

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:40 am

computer specs in sig.

5.0.3
motu828mkII
seagate drive in wiebetech FW 800 enclosure
korg microkontrol (and assorted other controllers, but microkontrol or motu828 serve as mdid interface)

this is my only computer, so i do all of my normal computer stuff on it, games, internet etc... (etc is code for porn)

of course when using live i don't run any other apps and even turn off the airport for a tiny cpu boost.

haven't done AJ's performance test, i'm sure it would be pretty depressing.

.lm.

udp · Post by **udp** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:40 am

1. Live 5.0.3. OS X.4.4
2. B/W G3 upgraded to G4.
3. 1gig Ram, I ripped out the zip drive and stock CD-ROM and installed a DVD-ROM, installed a Maxtor 80G HD to replace the stock 6G HD on the ATA Bus. I installed a USB2 card. Installed and SATA controller which has a 320G Western Digital and a 300G Seagate. Finally I upgraded to Radeon 9000 128MB video card.
4. I have a TAscam US-122, a M-audio Oxygen 8, a Plextor USB2 DVD-RW, 2 USB printers and a 120G Maxtor HD in an old USB2 CDRW Case. All Drivers are latest available.
5. I used to have a 1ghz G4 chip in. It restricted the bus system speed to 67Mhz. This created a problem with the SATA controller. I replaced the 1Ghz chip with an old 500Mhz chip I had and whammo! It works beautifully. I freeze or render tracks with lots of effects.
6. I haven't tried Adamjays test, I have the feeling I couldn't.
This is the only computer in the house so everyone uses it for everything.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:51 am

This is 100% pointless.

If you're having a bug....

Post the steps to reproduce it and your system in the bugs forum.

There is no way to gain any information from this kind of thread, unless it's
related to a specific problem/bug with detailed steps on how to reproduce.
Only then is system information any use to the coders.

-Ben

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:34 pm

Hey Ben.

I wasn't thinking so much about the coders, more about us the users. It struck me that a lot of the time users refer to their system as either great or s***, depending on when it works or not, and I thought it would be more interesting to get a detailed list.

I also thought the working systems thread would be good reference for people buying a computer.

Brittney Sparse · Post by **Brittney Sparse** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:41 pm

G4 LAptop.

1.54GHZ / 1.5GB RAM

OSX 10.3.9

Works fine.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:43 pm

Hey Brittney, that's a bit um, Sparse?

Do you have a bit more details for us, audio interface, drivers, other hardware connected, how much performance you get? Cheers.

Brittney Sparse · Post by **Brittney Sparse** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:50 pm

djsynchro wrote:Hey Brittney, that's a bit um, Sparse?
Do you have a bit more details for us, audio interface, drivers, other hardware connected, how much performance you get? Cheers.

Sorry>

I wrote it up either early this AM or last nigth. i forgot which.

Ok, lemme see. I am running a pretty basic setup here for now. No hardware, and only an Oxygen 8. SO, yes. Quite sparse!

I generally get around 40% or so. Sometimes I run a bit higher, into the 60's. When I'm really feeling it I get into the 80's or so, but then everything goes to hell. Much as I love Mode and Audio Damage, they tend to make the CPUometer peak out pretty bad. I tend to run just about 8 tracks or so, mostly for economy's sake. And who needs more than 8 tracks?

When I get back my full setup, I will be running a MoTU 828mkii. Some external synths, but I think that's irrelevant under the current setup.

Q&A · Post by **Q&A** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:12 pm

Here is my K7T266 Pro2 MainBoard Specs:

CPU

-Suppports Socket A (Socket-462) for AMD/Athlon XP/Duron processor.
-Supports 800MHz up to 1800+ MHz processor
*******************************
My Computer/System Properties says:

Computer.
AMD Athlon(tm) Xp 1600+
1.40 GHz
512 MB of RAM
*************************

Chipset

-VIA VT8366A chipset (522 BGA)
*FSB @200/266MHz
*AGP 4X and PCI Advanced high performance memory controller.
-VIA VT8233 chipset (376 BGA)

Clock Generator

100/133MHz clocks are supported.

Main Memory

-Supports six memory banks ising three 184-pin DDR DIMMs
-Supports a maximum memory size up to 3GB
-Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM

On Board IDE

-An IDE controller on the VIA VT8233 chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA 33/66/100 operations modes
-Can connect up to 4 IDE devices

Q&A · Post by **Q&A** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:15 pm

I dont let my music computer touch the internet. That way there is minimal software running at startup.

Live works really smoothly for me and it is soooo much fun

bragi0 · Post by **bragi0** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:14 am

1: Live 5.0.3, Windows XP SP2 + all critical patches to current

2: Laptop, ACER/Ferrari 4005

3: Vendor default firmware, all settings conservative defaults. 2GB of RAM.

4: M-Audio Firewire 410 (for DJing through a mixer using all four channels), M-Audio Mobile PRE USB (for a quick/cheap hookup when i'm doing everything internal to Live)

5: I was having a lot of stability problems in general. I put the BIOS back to conservative settings, and then split the hard drive into two copies of XP that can't see eachother. One is purely for Live, it only has Live, my backup software (Acronis TrueImage). Nothing else.

6: <unknown>

7: See 5, I also changed from using the built-in XP FhG mp3 DirectShow filter to the MAD/MPG123 filter to fix the trailing blank in VBR files, as well as give a performance and quality boost.

Nokatus · Post by **Nokatus** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:15 am

MrYellow wrote:This is 100% pointless.
If you're having a bug....
Post the steps to reproduce it and your system in the bugs forum.

This is 100% on point

It's about sharing information on real-world setups which are tried and tested to work with Live day in day out. This way, someone planning on purchasing a setup can be confident in getting something that really works.

I'm in a hurry, so I'm not going to be awesomely specific. In any case, see my beta info below; this system works just as it should and I'm very happy with it. It's a standard T40 machine which has worked all along, both in its standard and upgraded form. I have upgraded it with a larger hard drive and RAM, a 2nd internal hard drive in the side bay, and a changed processor (from the standard Banias into a Dothan). Because of the processor change, I have flashed both the ThinkPad BIOS and the Embedded Controller software to their newest versions. Works 100% with Live 5.0.3.