DJ Machine

[invisibleninja06]

Might have the opportunity to build a computer for doing DJ'ing and im wondering if i go with a low end amd athlon x2 setup or go with an ion. Looked at sound cards and it seems the xonar stx seems to be the best for the job. Will the ions atom and graphics be up to the task of running virtual dj 6.06 without much hiccups is my biggest question. If the ion board can do it then itd be awesome, have a nice sff and be very portable. Any advice, comments, or suggestions would be taken with a big welcome.

 

[invisibleninja06]

hmm, im now realizing the xonar take additional power with means ion boards that use ac adaptors will not work and now im wondering what case, i want something relatively small

update:

heres a list of things tell me what you think

ASUS Xonar Essence STX PCI-E1 SPDIF Sound Card 124DB SNR W/ Headphone AMP

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

In Stock 35724 $229.99 $229.99

Thermaltake Element Q MINI-ITX Case Black 1X5.25 1X3.5 1X3.5INT Front USB Audio with 200W PSU

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

In Stock 45041 $74.99 $74.99

Zotac IONITX-G-E MINI-ITX Atom N330 MCP7A-ION DDR2 PCI-E16 SATA RAID GBLAN Audio Video Motherboard

Usually ships in 2-3 business days.

In Stock 46918 $179.99 $179.99

Add NCIX EXTENDED SERVICE PLAN What's this?

G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-2GBPK PC2-8000 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

In Stock 27466 $54.99 $54.99

Samsung SH-S223C 22X DVD Writer SATA Black OEM

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

In Stock 46792 $29.89 $29.89

Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB Dual Proc 3.5IN SATA Hard Drive OEM 5YR Mfg Warranty

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

In Stock 34286 $75.22 $75.22

 

[mayhem]

Ive built a few DJ systems in the past but i would never reommend a Ion for one of thouse.

You still need raw power for the effects and cross faiding and mixing ect ect. Good stable ram is your most important thing to get rite. You dont need tight timeings or any thing like that just stabelty is of upmost importance.

I would recommend going for a gigabyte MB for stablity over all and then a medium rage chip and decent ram. Allso be carefull what OS you chouse as some as Vista is a defo NO NO , XP is good but out dated and windows 7 i havent tried with DJ gear.

Allso dont Over load you OS with crap keep it clean as you dont what it dyesing out on you mid session becuase of a infection of over hyped crap software that you loaded causing a BSOD mid session ...

Allso a descent long lasting hard drive and if your going to raid it make shure you have it mirrored. Again if you mid session and a HD fails you need to be able to get up and running asap. If you not going to raid then just make shure you have a second hard drive ath all your songs on and a 3rd wich is a back up OS incase you first Hd should fail. Dont partition HDs to save money esp if you using in Live situactions.

I cannot remember what sound cards we used in the past but they did cost a arm and a leg and were the most expensive part of the system . If i remember corectly they chose the sound card and it was in the region of a Few grand and had more connections than you could shake a stick at.

 

[invisibleninja06]

thx, so i should go with either a x2 or x3 athlon in a gigabyte microatx am3 board (ddr2 is becoming rather expensive). Well then i should go with two low size hard drives in raid, maybe like 2 500gb wd's which should cost only 100$. I have no clue about high end pro sound cards but for consumer level i think the xonar will work, its probably overkill if anything but i think my bud might need the powered headphone amp. Thanks alot for the raid idea, didnt think of that. For OS i was hoping at getting virtual dj to work in wine but it doesn't. My mates bar already has a dj system its just outdated, proned to issues but i need to get a look at it. If its using a consumer level card and the jacks are all the same will then the xonar should work fine, also will see the os. I'd rather not have to buy the os for the system to keep the cost a bit lower, if the old system has xp that should do fine, like i said this system will be 90% of the time in the bar so its only purpose will be VDJ. To let you know though i have windows 7 pro and ultimate and they both run the VDJ trial easily. Im hoping to make the system portable so that my mate can bring it to his home and put his songs on it this way saving him setup at the actual bar.

 

[mayhem]

best advise is if this is in a bar leave it in a bar. dont go using it all over the place. if you what to add songs get a external hard drive. The reason is that some thing like this is a work tool not a gimmic wich sounds bad but when doing busness its allways best to leave it were it belongs. you dont what to move some thing like this arround a lot.

virtual DJ is quite good esp at sequancing in songs. If it works with windows 7 and you not networking then chuck on a cheap version of windows 7. Its worth it. Forget linux and messing arround keep it simple.

The simplest tools are the best and for some thing like a DJ / Bar juke box wich i do have a whole load of exp at, the less rubbish on it the better. Allso make shure you are running virus protector on it and anti spyware and lock out USB for normal users and have a second admin account for enabling USB / DVD drive. this will keep the system in presitne condiction. Allso if you thinking of doing Vids from it you might what to enable tracking of the songs to download album cover ect ect but only allows this again for the second admin account.

you dont what to be rebuilding this things once you have 5000+ songs on it if it goes wrong. If you after juke box software as well let me know.

Allso another thing you could look into is remote admin of the system. this would be far better and that way you could make the box up and then hide it someware with a remote terminal to access the info and gubbings of the system. again this will make the main box you build a work horse. You could build a Ion based Dumb terminal so that you could remote in for changing stuff and at least if any one mession up the dumb terminal it aint going to mess up the main system. . Or just build a £50 pc to remote acecss you need nothing fancy ...

Just things for you to consider.

 

[invisibleninja06]

hmmm the remote terminal thing seems a bit too much but i do like the idea of having two accounts and what not. Some things for me think about. Next Saturday ill be at the bar so i can get a better look.

 

[mayhem]

the last juke box system i built was this one wich was built into a wall with amps and speekers that were allso built into the wall. its a very simple system and what counted more was the fact it was based on a atom system and was on windows 7.

than black smoked glass with a touch layer that was eletcric static sensative. over the top. Very simpley made took about 2 days to produce it and then it was placed in a caverty of a wall and mounted.

total codt for the pc was aboput £350 and then £200 for the touch screen system and glass and then speakers and amp were about £560

 

[xenunx]

I built a small 300$ pc for my Numark NS7 to run doesnt take much just 2gb of ram and a good dual core cpu