Advice for a computer used strictly for recording.

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jabernathy17

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I'm looking to buy a new computer and want to get some advice before i purchase. I want to use it strictly for recording purposes and was wandering if anyone had any suggestions. if you could post the link or shot me any advice it would greatly be appreciated. Also if anyone has tips on studio set-ups and other good gear to purchase that would also be appreciated.

thanks for your time
Jamie:)



you can also reach me at

jabernathy17@hotmail.com
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jamie.abernathy@yahoo.com
 
just a few suggestions...

ok, im not an expert but ill share the few bits of advice i have. im assuming you are fairly new to digital recording, if not then please forgive me:
1. find out what kind of software you are interested in (if you are just starting out it may be best to buy something cheap to get you started, pro tools isn't difficult but can be daunting at first).
2. once you know what kind of software you wan't look up the specs it needs to be ran properly, u can find this on most websites and the box, if you aren't familiar with computer language and don't understand how many rams, gigs, etc then take a spec sheet to best buy and they will be happy to help you find the right pc. In my opinion the best pc is not the way to go, get something that will properly run the software and give you enough room to record songs and store plug-ins, then u can spend the rest of your money on goodies!!
3. make sure you have all of the proper cables and connectors for your setup.
4. good monitors, these are crucial if you wan't to make something with decent quality.
5. Plug ins, downloadable software that you can use for various editing, mixing, and recording effects... unfortunately these are fairly pricey.

just a few of my opinions from trial and error getting my own setup going, again if ur way past this then plz disregard my info.

i run protools mpowered 7 on a dell inspiron e1505.
 
For a strictly recording only PC, your better off building one. A fresh OS install and no other loaded junk to mess with it.
 
buckkillr8 said:
For a strictly recording only PC, your better off building one. A fresh OS install and no other loaded junk to mess with it.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to say, however, don't build one unless you know what you're doing.

You're going to want a firewire port, a lot of RAM, a nice processor, and a huge hard drive.

If you've got a budget of around a thousand five hundred bucks for just the computer, you are in luck. I saw a computer the other day in the best buy ad for like 750 with 6 gigs of RAM, a 640gb hard drive, and a quad core processor. If I had the cash I'd pick that baby up as well as a firewire card/ interface, some monitors, and windows XP.

Also, if you're building one, Micro Center frequently has energy efficient, 1tb hard drives on sale for $99. Or, you could pick up the one I mentioned above, get the hard drive and install it as D, and then you'd never have to delete anything. :P
 
Yeah, my recording pc still works pretty well considering it is out of date by todays tandards. I've gotten away with using only 2 gigs of ram,and a Pentium D (of one the first dual core processors) and a firewire card on Windows XP. it works for me and it would be good if you are on a tight budget (but I'd still shoot for something a little better). you can get 2 gigs of ram now in 1gb sticks for about 50 bucks total (canadian funds for me) and a pentium D for about 100 on ebay. You'll still need the appropriate motherboard, but this is just an example.
 
Some additional input

First I want to say that I am far from an expert and I'm very much still a newbie. I'm a long time reader of the Forums, but just registered to be able to post.

That being said - I just want to put in a plug. After researching and reading forever - back in May of '08 I decided I was going to set up a home studio and get a dedicated machine for recording.

Obviously it depends on the software you are going to use and what platform it runs on. I decided I wanted Pro Tools LE - which will run on PC or Mac. I would really liked to have a Mac, but there were no dealers close to me and if I would happen to need any support it would be a pain. I did have the basic knowledge for building my own PC - and what I didn't know I had friends that were dedicated network hw/sw engineers by trade that had lots of PC experience to help me. But they didn't have the "recording" PC knowledge to give me full confidence that I would really know what was going on.

After lots of searching I got in contact with Jim Roseberry at Purrrfect Audio (a.k.a. StudioCat). Jim was awesome from the get go. Not only did he talk to me for weeks before I decided to part with the funds to build - but he also had me send all of my new software to him and he loaded everything, registered everything, took care of all kinds of details so when my DAW showed up in the box I had little to do but plug it in and start playing around.

Here is what I got:

Custom Pro Studio DAW:
• Antec Sonata-III
• Q6600 (running a 3GHz)
• Freezer 7 Pro
• Abit P35 chipset motherboard
• 4GB Corsair DDR2/800 (two 2GB sticks)
• 250GB Seagate SATA-II HD (7200RPM/16MB cache)
• 500GB Seagate SATA-II HD (7200RPM/32MB cache)
• 500GB Seagate SATA-II HD (7200RPM/32MB cache)
• x1550 Pro (512MB – dual head)
• 20x Lite-on DVD/RW w/Lightscribe
• Windows XP Home

I don't know what Jim's prices are now - but when I bought this machine it was around $1,600. Is that pricey for what you could build yourself??? Maybe so, but for the service I got and the fact that I didn't have to do the build etc. it was well worth it and if I were buying a PC again it is exactly what I would do again.

Hope that info is helpful.


Fiddler69
 
I recently built a PC from scratch strictly for running pro tools and its peripherals... First and foremost, research whatever recording platform you are planning on using... For instance, some would say "buy a quadcore processor!" which I heard from a few when I was building my PC 6 months back. It sounded great in theory... Until I stumbled upon the information that Pro tools has yet to design its software to utilize a quadcore processor in the Windows format... These are big money saving things to know! The way i did it was, research the softwares suggested requirements, and double or even triple it! It may cost a few dollars more, but it will be well worth it when an update for your software comes out in 2 years and your computer can handle the new version with ease.
 
Another thing to do is design your computer around easy upgradability.

I got the right motherboard that can go up to the top of the line Intel dual cores out at the moment, but I purchased the lowest end Pentium D at the time, which works then (and still works now), also leave a lot of room for extra RAM as well.
 
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