Two techy PC questions....

Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
So I don't currently record on PC... but the old AW4416 is going to die soon and in order to avoid Win 8, I'm thinking now's the time to buy a PC just for recording. I'm talking PC here, not Mac, BTW. I use Reaper on my laptop to do drum tracks and export them back into the AW, so I'm familiar with how that works and don't want to change.

I have a cousin who works for one of the major PC manufacturers and gets serious staff discounts, so I've been looking at the specs of his company's stock machines. They seem roughly to be either work or play configured. For a few reasons, the "work" ones seem to be better for audio, from what I'm seeing... they don't include fantabulous Beats International sound cards and flashing lights... etc.

I also have very little interest in modding a PC unless I absolultely have to, outside of adding RAM. Note that I can't change the specs on the machines I'm looking at, I have to buy the box as is.

Question 1
On the top two of this particular range (of four machines), the processor switches from Intel Core-i7-3770 to Intel Xeon E3-1245v2. Are there reasons I wouldn't go Xeon? I know jack about processors, really.

Question 2
The top machine in the range has a 128GD SSD NCQ + 1 TB 7200 rpm SATA. I get that SSDs are super fast etc. but don't really understand how having this additional drive comes into play with audio... do you put your OS on it? Your programs? Samples? How would I use it? The other three in this range just have the single 1 TB hard drive.


The top model also has 16GB memory and the other three have 8, so I'm leaning towards it, especially considering the pricing available to me, but don't really understand the ramifications of such a decision.

Any info useful... I've had a bit of a search with Mr Google, but not turned up anything useful as yet.

Cheers
 
Q1 Don't think it matters much either way. Both will provide high performance. The Xeon is geared toward the enterprise workstation or server market. If I had to choose between the two, I'd probably just go on price.

Q2 Typical use for SSD would be to hold the operating system and software. With sufficient space, you could definitely house a sample library. SSD is quick, in part because it eliminates the physical movement of disk heads. Used in the way described, you get a more responsive system.

RAM is cheap and 64 bit hardware and OS supports huge memory spaces. 16gig is great. Not sure how Win 7 operates, but Linux dynamically uses spare ram as cache memory for the disks. So memory is never wasted.

If you do have options, check what the power supply is - power rating and brand. For critical use, I think it is worthwhile spending more and getting a reputable PSU.

Anyway, that's my 2 bob.

Paul
 
For teh kind of stuff you're doing, you don't need any high end processing for audio. Even for consumer-level video, you can squeeze a great deal out of an average PC these days.

I agree with Paul, let your wallet dictate your choice.

An I7 is great. A fair amount of ram (8GB is plenty) and a 1TB drive.
 
Note also, from a different post here, that if you have 16G RAM, then you will need to run W7 Home Premium or Professional.
 
Thanks guys... the top machine runs W7 Pro, so no issues there with the memory... I may as well just buy the biggest with the Xeon and SSD, it's literally half price and down at what I was thinking I'd have to pay for a far lesser machine..

Honestly, having forked out almost $5K for the AW4416 ten years ago, spending $1500 on a PC, $300 on an interface and getting a second big-arse monitor for $300 doesn't phase me in the slightest... everything seems so cheap these days. I just want to avoid Win8 so probably best to go now, as I don't have much desire to mod anything, apart from the OS..

I get what you mean about videos Chilli... my i3/4GB laptop struggles but can do them, this will be soooo much better...
 
Armistice said:
Thanks guys... the top machine runs W7 Pro, so no issues there with the memory... I may as well just buy the biggest with the Xeon and SSD, it's literally half price and down at what I was thinking I'd have to pay for a far lesser machine..

Honestly, having forked out almost $5K for the AW4416 ten years ago, spending $1500 on a PC, $300 on an interface and getting a second big-arse monitor for $300 doesn't phase me in the slightest... everything seems so cheap these days. I just want to avoid Win8 so probably best to go now, as I don't have much desire to mod anything, apart from the OS..

I get what you mean about videos Chilli... my i3/4GB laptop struggles but can do them, this will be soooo much better...
Click to expand...



You may want to include a portable 1+TB drive for backing up files or to physically take your files to somewhere else.
 
moresound said:
You may want to include a portable 1+TB drive for backing up files or to physically take your files to somewhere else.
Click to expand...

Mate I'll have external drives all over the joint! Already do... just have to find a better way of labelling the suckers...
 
I don't expect Windows 8 to take over Windows 7. I'm not even sure why they really branded it as 8, as it's not really a continuation of 7. It's more aimed towards the portable and touch screen markets, which have been going up and up in popularity the last couple of years. Windows 7 will still be around for a good few years yet. Especially for those in professional environments, like audio and video work, as opposed to just something you can use to look at your facebook. =P
 
Yeah, I agree.... it's just that as soon as it's available, it becomes the default install on new PCs, and I really don't want to spend time mucking around with it, learning how to use it, learning how to disable all the shit that they'll load up on it, worrying about driver and application compatibility etc. etc. etc. for a PC that's going to only be used to do audio and video and nothing else. It is the social media aspect of Win8 that made me think, best get this done now! The road to a lean Win7 machine for recording is well documented.

I don't mind "surface level" mucking around with configuration things in Windows but I'm not the type who builds his own PC or adds stuff to it.

Anyway, it's ordered now and will arrive next week some time. Next, the interface question... :D
 
RWhite said:
More importantly you need to run a 64 bit version of Windows 7 to access any memory beyond 4 gigs.
Click to expand...

Yep, got it, it will run Win 7 Professional 64.

It's a Hewlett Packard off-the-shelf box, so I was never worried about whether the bits would all play nice with each other.
 
I run XP because it has the drivers for my peripherals and is quite stable. I was licky to get a box with it installed. Took some searching though.
I also use a bog standard ACER box.
Both work a treat with audio after the standard Optimizing tweaks for audio which took about 10 minutes to do. The only real "tweak" would be a replacement fan as the noise will eventually bother you.
Mond you I haven't done that yet m'self - though I should.
I'm pretty certain there're optimise 7 for audio posts somewhere on HR . If not there're plenty of other sites.
External HDrives are good, though not as reliable as I expected, (had an Astone die & currently a Samsung Story Station is give write fail messages). I don't run from one though - just back up to it as I'm a Luddite.
I did have a great set up with 256 RAM, a 30 gig HDD and an INCA card running cakewalk Pro Audio 9.3 but that comp died of old age eventually. I could & did process and mix a 19 track project - all audio - no midi - in there with no real probs except time to render.
 
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