Off Topic : Building a DJ computer

[Ed ONeill]

Guys

I know this is a bit off topic but out of all the websites that I use I figured I would ask the experts.

So this is where you guys come in .....here is the situation I am a Professional DJ and I am expanding my business to include video DJing. I priced out premade systems out and they seem rather high .

I will be using this program www.virtualdj.com .. it is one of the best DJ programs on the market .

They recomend using

CPU : 3000
video card : Geforce 6600 or better


I am thinking of this case http://www.servercase.com/miva/miva...tegory_Code=2UE

For Motherboards I prefer AMD over Intel.

BTW They also recommend 2000+ lumens and it seeems most DJs are using the optoma brand

Could anyone give me any input about building my system .

This is what are definites so far:

2U or 3U case
AMD MB with nvidia chipset
6600gt or better video card

Thanks in advance
Ed

[JoyMonkey]

I'd go with the 3U case; it's bulkier but you can fit full-size PCI cards without the need for a riser.
What's your total budget for the PC?

Back in Ireland I used to do live visuals for some DJs in a small local club; I think I was using a 1000 lumen projector, but I was always set-up really close to the screen and the club was usually pitch black. I was really broke back then so I just used Winamp, some of my own video edits, avs patterns and a webcam with an standard desktop PC. It ended up really nice, but every now and then Winamp would crash and the crowd would be left looking at a Windows desktop 

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I've got a buddy back in Michigan who's a DJ, and he does his sets with a Video DJ chick. I'll hit him up with some questions and get back to you.

I tried calling you dude, you must be busy busy busy. Good luck with the house, though.

I'll post back as soon as I hear from him.


mrC

[Ed ONeill]

Dave ..I know you made quite a few efforts and I dropped the ball on that one ...If you can call your friend that would be awesome

Paul... any input you can throw at me would be great

[quarterback]

Do you look like this gelled-hair, soul-patched, 5-o'clock shadowed, silver-ring-wearing, tough-guy, Ed?   

And are you So Powerful... and yet so easy? 

[JoyMonkey]

I haven't looked at anything like this in a long time, so I'm not sure if I'd be much help.
One thing to consider is how you're going to control everything; a mouse can be really annoying to use in some environemnts so I'd get used to using a trackball if I was you. Also; if the Virtual DJ software supports midi hardware you could use something like a PhatBoy to control fades/volume levels- they make life much easier.

As for the PC; a lot of people will tell you to stay clear of nVidias chipsets, but I've been using my nForce2 based computer at home for a few years now and it's really reliably. I wouldn't recommend using an onboard nForce audio chipset though; it can be painfull to set up and sucks up too much cpu power- if I'm playing an MP3 it will sometimes cut out if I'm doing something cpu intensive in the foreground. You don't really need any huge audio effects or multichannel sound (I'm guessing here), so I'd just get a decent soundcard that uses it's own mpu rather than sap your PC's cpu power.

Edit: Looks like the PhatBoy turned belly-up over the last few years, here's something that looks even better for DJing.

[JoyMonkey]

Do you look like this gelled-hair, soul-patched, 5-o'clock shadowed, silver-ring-wearing, tough-guy, Ed?   

And are you So Powerful... and yet so easy? 

Don't be retarded, thats not a real person; that a virtual dj.

[Ed ONeill]

Paul

I will be using a controller made by another Dj software company which can be mapped to be used with virual dj...it looks similar to a dual disc cd player controller if you've ever seen one

As far as a sound card ..I will be using an M-audio.

The program requires 3.0 + GHz and they also recommend at least 1 gig of ram

Someone told me to use a nvidia card and match it up with a board that has a nvidia chipset something like this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1638024&CatId=0

Can you elaborate on your statement about not using the nvidia chipest a bit more

Thanks
Ed

[SOAPboy]

Ed, ill grab that trial and run it on a few machines.. first my gaming rig then my GFs machine she uses.. ill try to get back to you on performance tonight at some point..

EDIT: played with it a little on my main rig.. honestly, i see no reason for a 6600 videocard.. theres nothing there for it to render.. You could easily scrape by with a radeon 9XXX card and have no performance issues..

Far as CPU goes, im really thinking 2100xp athlon would cut it just fine.. ill screw with it more later on the 1.3 athlon i have here, but if my thoughts are right, you should be ok with a low end  64 bit athlon.. Now, if you had a bunch of tracks going, a TON of effects filters, and someone running a mic at the same time, the 2100xp wouldnt cut it i dont think.. but a lower end 64bit would be just dandy

[Harry Potter]

A mate of mine (a DJ of 18 years) just got himself that program and he reckons it's quite good.

[SOAPboy]

A mate of mine (a DJ of 18 years) just got himself that program and he reckons it's quite good.

id agree with him.. Other than the track speed, its a great program.. loving it already..

[Ed ONeill]

Ed, ill grab that trial and run it on a few machines.. first my gaming rig then my GFs machine she uses.. ill try to get back to you on performance tonight at some point..

EDIT: played with it a little on my main rig.. honestly, i see no reason for a 6600 videocard.. theres nothing there for it to render.. You could easily scrape by with a radeon 9XXX card and have no performance issues..

Far as CPU goes, im really thinking 2100xp athlon would cut it just fine.. ill screw with it more later on the 1.3 athlon i have here, but if my thoughts are right, you should be ok with a low end  64 bit athlon.. Now, if you had a bunch of tracks going, a TON of effects filters, and someone running a mic at the same time, the 2100xp wouldnt cut it i dont think.. but a lower end 64bit would be just dandy

Thanks for the input ...

But did you try any video on it ...the manufacturer suggests at least 3.0GHZ cpu for smooth video and the guys on the boards over there on virtuals site say you need at least a 6600gt video card if you are going to use nvidia if you want to useati they recomend a  radeon 9800?

Here is a quote
The minimum requirement in order to operate smooth hardware-accelerated video is:
- Radeon 8500 for ATI
or
- GeForce FX5200 for nvidia

(choosing between ATI and nVidia is only a matter of personal taste. Both have pros and cons).

Of course these are only minimum reqs, and a better (but more expensive) card like a geforce 6600 GT ot an ati x600, both with hardware mpeg2 decompression, would let vdj run even safer.
A lower (and cheaper) card might work too, but will need a higher CPU if you use full quality dvd files.
Very old cards (like rage mobility) will not even let you use hardware accelerated mode, but you can still use the software mode.

And don't worry, with proper codecs installed, VDJ really doesn't consume many cpu power for the video after all

so guys give me an idea on what motherboard video card options I should be looking into

Thanks
Ed

[SOAPboy]

Ed, ill grab that trial and run it on a few machines.. first my gaming rig then my GFs machine she uses.. ill try to get back to you on performance tonight at some point..

EDIT: played with it a little on my main rig.. honestly, i see no reason for a 6600 videocard.. theres nothing there for it to render.. You could easily scrape by with a radeon 9XXX card and have no performance issues..

Far as CPU goes, im really thinking 2100xp athlon would cut it just fine.. ill screw with it more later on the 1.3 athlon i have here, but if my thoughts are right, you should be ok with a low end  64 bit athlon.. Now, if you had a bunch of tracks going, a TON of effects filters, and someone running a mic at the same time, the 2100xp wouldnt cut it i dont think.. but a lower end 64bit would be just dandy

Thanks for the input ...

But did you try any video on it ...the manufacturer suggests at least 3.0GHZ cpu for smooth video and the guys on the boards over there on virtuals site say you need at least a 6600gt video card if you are going to use nvidia if you want to useati they recomend a  radeon 9800?

Here is a quote
The minimum requirement in order to operate smooth hardware-accelerated video is:
- Radeon 8500 for ATI
or
- GeForce FX5200 for nvidia

(choosing between ATI and nVidia is only a matter of personal taste. Both have pros and cons).

Of course these are only minimum reqs, and a better (but more expensive) card like a geforce 6600 GT ot an ati x600, both with hardware mpeg2 decompression, would let vdj run even safer.
A lower (and cheaper) card might work too, but will need a higher CPU if you use full quality dvd files.
Very old cards (like rage mobility) will not even let you use hardware accelerated mode, but you can still use the software mode.

And don't worry, with proper codecs installed, VDJ really doesn't consume many cpu power for the video after all

so guys give me an idea on what motherboard video card options I should be looking into

Thanks
Ed

No video as of yet.. been working.. ill try to tinker with it more in the next few days..

[Ed ONeill]

SOAPboy....Thanks

Ok so what do you guys think about a motherboard I really want to get this done soon

Thanks
Ed

[SOAPboy]

SOAPboy....Thanks

Ok so what do you guys think about a motherboard I really want to get this done soon

Thanks
Ed

if your going AMD64.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128268

Cheap, decent chipset, and good brand.. Also, its not overkill for what your doing

[JoyMonkey]

If I was building a good all-round super-puter right now and money wasn't too much of an object, I'd go with

DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR $174 (good review from TomsHardware, also available refurbished for $124)
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ $296 (lower end X2, still almost $300!!!)
Corsair XMS 2Gb DDR400 $142 after rebate (pair of 1Gb's running in dual channel mode)
Ati Radeon X850 XT 256mb $173 (good score on TomsHardware's VGA Charts)
2x WD Raptor 36.7GB $216 (set up in a RAID 0 array, if you need more storage you could add a standard SATA drive)

Hmmm.... it all still ends up at a seemingly crazy amount of money. Maybe I went a little overkill there 

[JoyMonkey]

Some more reasonable alternatives to the above:
ASUS A8N5X $85 (good all-rounder at a pretty sweet price)
Athlon 64 3200+ $152 (compared to the X2, much slower at encoding video but much the same bang for buck)
Radeon X700 256mb $104 (according to 3DMark05 scores, this is almost half as powerful as the X850- but it's still twice as powerful as my Radeon 9800Pro, which I love, and less than 1/2 what I paid for it)
Seagate Baracuda 250gb SATA150  $91 (as good as you'll get without going into a two hard-drive raid setup)

[electricd]

I might recommend going with a RAID 1 regardless of the cost.  Its better in performance, and better yet you have protection if a drive fails (your stuff is not lost) and you won't go to white noise if it happens during a show!  Believe it or not, this has actually happened to me.....

[JoyMonkey]

I might recommend going with a RAID 1 regardless of the cost.  Its better in performance, and better yet you have protection if a drive fails (your stuff is not lost) and you won't go to white noise if it happens during a show!  Believe it or not, this has actually happened to me.....

Good point.
You could use two of these in RAID 1 and still have 80Gb to work with for $112


Edit: Looking at all this new gear makes me want to build myself a better super-puter. Damn you Ed! Damn yoooo! 

[Ed ONeill]

I might recommend going with a RAID 1 regardless of the cost.  Its better in performance, and better yet you have protection if a drive fails (your stuff is not lost) and you won't go to white noise if it happens during a show!  Believe it or not, this has actually happened to me.....

'


So you are a DJ ...what software do you use?

Paul ...can you PM me your phone number so I can talk with you over the phone ?

Thanks
Ed

[grumble]

It sounds like you know what software you want to go with but I thought I'd throw this out there anyway. I've used Traktor DJ Studio quite a few times and I really dig it. Just make sure you have a sound card with good Asio drivers and you're good to go.

The only thing better than traktor is traktor with the final scratch interface.
http://www.stantondj.com/v2/fs/spt_fs2_video.asp

It consists of a unit that connects an actual dj mixer and turntables to your computer and uses special records with embedded time code to control mp3 or other computer audio. It's pretty cool.

In my experience, the computer doesn't have to be ridiculously powerful. It is important that it be portable and look halfway decent though.

[Ed ONeill]

Grumble,

Thanks for the input ...but traktor doesn't do what I need

Traktor ...doesn't do video karaoke and lights ...Virtual Dj does it all for $150

Thanks
Ed

[electricd]

I might recommend going with a RAID 1 regardless of the cost.  Its better in performance, and better yet you have protection if a drive fails (your stuff is not lost) and you won't go to white noise if it happens during a show!  Believe it or not, this has actually happened to me.....

'


So you are a DJ ...what software do you use?

Paul ...can you PM me your phone number so I can talk with you over the phone ?

Thanks
Ed

I use Traktor....I don't do anything with video...yet!