DAW as only home computer?

A

AV-Boy

New member
…or can one machine do it all?

Currently have a Micron 300mhz PII w/192mb RAM, 8gb HD and a noisy, Creative AWE64 sound card. It’s running Win 98 and an assortment of applications – Eudora mail, Internet Explorer, PhotoShop, Word, Sound Forge XP etc. Lately it’s giving me lots of trouble – running very slow & crashing often, even during the simplest tasks. Norton System Doctor is indicating 100% CPU usage at all times – even when I quit every application… but mostly I’m just tired of this 3.5 year old PC and ready for something new.

I’m thinking of building or buying a DAW machine and using this machine as the only PC in the house for all of our (wife & I) computing needs. My budget is less than $1000 including soundcard & software, but maybe I can recycle some of my existing system (17” monitor, speakers, Sony CD-RW CRX100E, CD-ROM & floppy drives, 56k modem). My primary goal with audio is to transfer LPs and cassettes to CD, but I might also like to mess about with recording guitars, vocals, etc. again if possible.

Can one machine do it all? If you’ve got all the stuff your average home user needs (modem, e-mail, browser, antivirus, a few games, word processing and (in our case) PhotoShop), can the same system function well as an audio workstation? Will antivirus or other applications cause problems with recording apps?

My wife understands that the current computer is old and dying – I’m hoping the replacement will give me some DAW capabilities. If you think it will work, help me spend my money :-) – what kind of machine, soundcard, OS, etc. would you recommend with my sub $1000 budget?

Thanks for your help-
 
you can use one computer for music and home/office stuff..though, for serious music recording you will want to turn off all background applications ...you will need a good solid mainboard.....as far as OS..i still haven't tried windows XP...though i will eventually get it....
 
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Here's a tip if you're planning to go this route. Get XP.

AND:

Check your msconfig "start-up" tab frequently to make sure you haven't got stuff starting up that you didn't authorize.

These SW vendors just get carried away sometimes. :(

I have just such a platform. A DAW that I use for "almost" everything else. I kept the old dog, a PII450, but it's just not as good a platform to even surf the web. That surprised me. I've still kept MS Office off of here. Just chicken I guess! Buk gaaaaak!!!
 
C'mon AV boy, haven't you figured this stuff out yet? You get the new comp for the DAW and the wife gets the old junker for browsing the cooking and sewing sites.

BTW, it will work fine for both. Don't install antivirus software though because that can wreak havoc. My P3 750 is so overloaded with crap I can't believe it works as well it does.
 
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. Norton System Doctor is indicating 100% CPU usage at all times – even when I quit every application…

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MAAN! Never have Norton running all the time. Norton ANYTHING does more phuckking up than it fixes. It's resource hungry (probably taking up half your clock cycles) and it conflicts with everything. Norton hasn't had a good product since it's first Anti-virus program. My suggestion: Get a new machine but only use norton OFF THE CD IF NEEDED. I sometimes wonder if they make their products the way they do just to keep themselves in business.
 
Skru Norton. Definitely get XP. you can set up 2 or more users (say:Audio, and Web-Business-Game Profiles). XP puts each user's programs into protected memory, so if you happen to leave (Your Fav DAW here) to run to the bathroom, and the wife comes in wanting to check the to see if there are new recipes in her E-mail, she can simply switch users (leaving your programs up and running), and check her mail. Then when you get back, you can simply log back onto your name, and you are right back where you left off. Note: XP does not exhibit the video display and memory "Issues" created buy this type of "Suspended State", that we saw in the Win9X/ME versions of windows. I have left a 16 track Logic project running in the background, while I went out and mowed, and my wife surfed. This is not an excuse not to save often though. Always save before you get up from your computer. Oh lastly, no more "One program dies, They all die " routine, we saw with any other version of windows. This is the the protected memories job, to protect any programs running from the effects of a possible crash somewhere else in the system.
 
I have one system...

AMD Athlon XP1900+
(NC Silverado HS/F)
Soyo Dragon+ Mobo
Noblesse Case
Enermax 350W Whisper Quiet PSU
512MB Kingston PC2100
64MB Abit Siluro GeForce4 Ti4200
Maxtor D740X 40GB 7200RPM
Pioneer 16X DVD
AOpen 24x10x40x CD-RW
MS Intellimouse Optical
Delta 44 24/96 Sound Card
Altek Lansing Spk.
Windows XP Pro

This computer cost me less than a Grand (and that was back in Dec.) and serves for the following purposes:

24 hour web server for WATYF.com
24 hour Unreal Game server.
Personal FTP server.
DAW running n-Track.
Personal use (i.e. posting on this forum all day.. :D)

As long as you get a stable mobo (I recommend the Soyo) and Win XP you should be able to have a very nice "all-in-one" for less than $1000. I recommend most of the stuff in my set-up.. The Maxtor D740X line of drives is great. The Soyo (as mentioned) rocks.. the latest Athlon XP goes for chump change, so there's no reason not to get the newest one out there. I like the Delta 44 a lot, but the choice of sound card is subject to your needs. All the other stuff is mostly incidental. (unless you burn a lot of CD's, in which case I recommend Yamaha or Plextor)

WATYF
 
Oh yeah... I agree aboot Norton. Get rid of that resource hog. Have some freeware anti-virus tool handy (like AVG or Avast) and run it every once in a while... (but don't use the "Live Monitoring" option) Overall, just keep a tight reign on your installs... no third party crap applications/trial-software garbage. And if your systray starts to get clogged up, use RegCleaner to get rid of any start-up applications that you don't want running. (you can also use it to remove traces of instrusive applications like AOL and RealPlayer)

WATYF
 
Thanks everyone - I appreciate the information. #1 on my list is to bag Norton System Works...

I've been lurking a bit lately, and have read a bit about the Tubedude special. Harvey, if you see this thread I'd like to know more. Are you running XP, etc.? What do you think about installing a modem and other non DAW applications?

And as for the Mrs... not a single foofy cooking site in her bookmarks; in fact, she's currently rebuilding a 1960's Vespa scooter. We're both photographers, so I'm hoping the improved horsepower of a DAW will also kick ass when it comes to PhotoShop.
 
Today I was running Cubase with a ton of waves plugins going. I was running an 8 track (16bit 44.1khz) song that is 21 minutes long. My XP1900+ w/ 512MB Ram (on Abit KG7), was running at 65-70%, and without stopping the audio, I took a screenshot, opened Photoshop 6.0, Pasted the pic, applied 3 Flaming Plear Plugins, and 2 Dreamsuite plugins. Saved the file, Opened up both Ulead Photo Impact 4.2 and Corel Photopaint 9 for additional effects, and finally saved it to the desktop, and logged onto the internet to upload the pic to my buddy. The Only program I closed throughout this process was Photoshop before signing on to the internet. Not once did I have an audio dropout. If you ask me, you can't get much better than that. Thanx to XP!!!

Oh and Photoshop 6, as well as the likes of Lightwave 7, Adobe Premiere 6 and After Effects 5, all kick major butt. Even Bryce 5, one of the slowest rendering programs out there, seems speedy. Used to be you could go mow the lawn, do the laundry, make supper, only to come back and see rendering progress at like 50%. Now it's like you've got 5 minutes to go the bathroom and grab a snack, and your back to designing new scenes.

My AMD k6-2 500mhz is getting dusted off though. Can't wait to start utilizing VST SystemLink.
 
Thanks Atterion - it's starting to sound promising. Now, I need to either develop the courage to build my own or find someone who'll do it for me...
 
Well, I uninstalled Norton System Works and cleaned up the msconfig "start-up" tab -- and everything's now back to normal! Guess I'll have to start working on another reason why I need to upgrade the computer and add a good soundcard... RATS!
 
WAIT A MINUTE AV BOY! You don't need another reason for a new DAW! You're gonna get one because you want one! You're the man of your house, the king of your castle and if you want a new DAW there'll be a new DAW there elPronto! You don't need her permission. What are you a man or a mink? Hell, get two! one for the DAW and one for Photoshop. And just to show her you're a nice guy, upgrade hers for her. Buy her some more RAM and a new CDRW +DVD drive. That's the way I do it at my house! (Isn't that right dear? Dear...?)
 
Yeah.. and you two could have a chat aboot which type of couch is the most comfortable to sleep on...

that way us bachelors will have something for "future reference"

:p

WATYF
 
Some say nothing changes when you get married. But I did notice when searching for new furniture recently, I tended to test out the couches a little longer than I used too. AV-boy, are those Stouffers dinners, or store brand. I really like stouffers, but I blow all my cash (That I hide from wife of course), on Music stuff, so store brand it is for me. Basically I'll do some musical collaborations with anybody willing to shell out a Stouffers dinner to me. Any takers???
 
Hmmm...TastyBites or...ProTools HD??? Well I figure If I splurge on the tasty bites, that'll only push me back 1 week on buying ProTools. That ain't too bad I guess. I just hope they still make Macs when I buy my PT HD on August 10th, 2042. According to their website it will ONLY cost me $150,000+. I never was a minimalist.
 
I wouldn't call $2.29 USD "splurging" on dinner.

But then that's what separates Amerikans from the lower third of humanity.

And then you have to add the Basmati tax: at least $0.40.

Plus the brewski: damn I must be one of those super-rich types.
 
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