Firewire to SPDIF

Rabanni,

I always built my own computers (never was a Mac guy) but got tired of it and purchased a gateway 2 years ago. Went a bit overboard spending $5,000 (it is a screamer) but I do photography so wanted the fastest available (CPU, HD and RAM) so went for the fastest I could find. You don't need to get that crazy. I absolutely HATE HP and most other commercial brands - they think loading up your hard drive with (nonsense) software is good while it only kills your operating system (in speed, boot up, etc)performance. I went with Vista OS. Would probably go windows 7 today. I have had a few Dells and as long as they followed my specs when they were built, I have not had any issues. (I would have gotten a Dell instead of the Gateway but they insisted in selling me a Blu Ray drive, which I did not want--gotta have it my way). I have no experience with IBM. Key is specs, no OEM products, licensed operating system, fast Intel CPU (try to get the latest), I like 10,000 RPM hard drives (in a RAID array suits me) and good ram (CORSAIR, etc). I don't need a good sound card as I use firewire out, so I don't have a spec for that. (I did go with a top shelf graphics card, though, for the photograpy). I'm a little fussy with my puter so I may not be the guy to ask. I'm sure you can get something very suitable for PC audio without spending that much money, in fact, I know you can.

Thanks Cerrot, Noted your detailed reply and can you confirm
whether vista and windows 7 is same?

I think Vista is a huge improvement over the prior microsoft os. Must cleaner, faster and I have been using for 2 years and have never blue screened - meaning computer got stuck in an application, needed to be rebooted, etc. I have heard from my IT guys that 7 is much better than Vista, but I haven't played with it yet. I wouldn't think that for PC music, there wouldn't be much of a difference as both do not use the windows Kernal (a big no-no in PC audio), but do not know 7 first hand. Years ago I would be the 1st to install 7 but these days, just leave my PC alone as it runs great. I believe the new PC's come with OS 7 and I wouldn't have an issue with it.

Thanks Cerrot, Well noted your message. Here the WS7 is not
lounched and expected only on December 09. I will wait to
buy the laptop with these OS or will buy now with vista and i will do upgrade later to WS7 (presume it is possible).

I thing WS7 home version is enough to do for hirez download!!!

The planned release date for Windows 7 is October 22, 2009.

Many people are already using the preliminary "Release Candidate" version, and it has received overwhelmingly positive comments. Most notably, it runs well on computers that have less powerful hardware, while Vista requires high-powered hardware configurations to do its best.

The upgrade path from Vista to Windows 7 is somewhat confusing, and depends on which version of Vista you are upgrading from, and which version of W7 you are upgrading to. This article covers it pretty well. In particular, click to expand the second figure in the article. You'll see, for example, that upgrading from Vista Home Premium to W7 Home Premium can be done "in place" (keeping files, settings, and programs intact), while some other upgrade paths require a "custom install" which will require that you subsequently reinstall your programs, and restore data files from backups.

Regards,
-- Al