Review: Alienware OZMA 3100 Digital Audio Workstation

By mano
( 6-, 2004)

Summary: High performance computer (PC) optimized for audio applications (DAW)
Model: OZMA 3100 "custom" (see specs below)
Price: Vary with configuration. As shown in this review $3,570.
Company: Alienware

The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) I am reviewing today is the OZMA DAW 3100 from Alienware, in "saucer silver" color. These guys are big on customized configurations, and this one has a few options on top of the base model.

Here is a quick list of the main components of this DAW (full list of specs at the end of this article):

. Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor HT 3.2GHz (800MHz FSB 512KB Cache)
. Intel® S875WP1LX motherboard
. Memory: 2GB (DDR SDRAM PC-3200)
. Video card: ATI RADEON 9800 XT 256MB 8x AGP
. OS Hard Disk: 240GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA RAID 0 Array
. A/V Hard Disk: 240GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA - RAID 0
. Plextor 52x32x52x CD-RW (CD recorder)
. Plextor DVD±R/W (DVD recorder)
. M-Audio® Delta 66 Audio Interface
. 460 Watt Power Supply

The other PC in my studio is an older (I usually say "trusty"!) Pentium III 1 GHz with 512MB of RAM. I will most likely compare the two when I use software instruments, apply filter in Sound Forge, and record or play multiple audio tracks, etc. You know the drill: stuff us "music people" do all day long. The 1 GHz machine served me well over the years, and it is a good reference system to compare this brand new shiny Alienware DAW with a more "regular" computer many people out there probably still use and wonder if they should invest in a brand new top-of-the-line PC.

The OZMA ships with Project 5 and Ableton Live. Those are great applications to have, although I will not be using them in my review.

This baby has 2 super fast “ATA RAID 0” hard-drives, each boasting 250 GB of space. Basically the second drive is going to be dedicated to audio recording, as recommended by most software and hardware companies. That's plenty of space and speed - we will need this when streaming tons of audio tracks at once in a multitrack recording application like Cubase SX or SONAR, as well as when using software samplers which are often hard-disk based these days such as Giga Studio.

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