advice on a PC audio workstation?

[Dr. SNAFU]

I’ve been shopping around to find a good PC system to use as a home-recording studio, and I’m wondering if anybody has any advice. I don’t really want to give my cash to the corps like Dell or Gateway because I’ve heard they really skimp on parts quality.

Of the places I’ve checked out online, most seem severely over-priced. Does anybody know anything about Phlanet E*Media (www.phlanet.com)? They say they build computers specifically for digital audio and seem like they’ve got a pretty good price/feature balance.

Here’s the system I’m looking at (I like AMD over Intel):
- AMD Athlon XP 2800+ w/ 333MHz FSB
- nVidia nForce2 chipset
- 1GB PC3200 Kingston HyperX DDR400 RAM
- Western Digital 40GB System Hard @ 7200RPMs w/ 8MB buffer
- Seagate Cheetah 36GB SCSI Performance Drive @ 15,000 RPMs
- TerraTec DMX 6 Fire 6-in/6-out/MIDI sound card w/ breakout box
- 52x24x52x CD-RW drive / 16x DVD-ROM drive
- 1.44MB floppy
- 420 watt Pure Power Supply w/ Power Factor Correction
- ATX Mid-Tower case
- ATI Radeon 9000 Pro dual-display adapter
- Premium Heatsink/Fan cooling system (I don’t know what this is)
- plus all the usual features (modem, media keyboard/optical mouse, etc.)

Of what I’ve seen, I think these guys are offering the best deal – the above system has a price tag of $2,650 (but I don’t really know what to look for yet). If somebody could check it out for me (www.phlanet.com), I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

 

[37point5]

Seems like a good system. I'd ask them if you could replace the SCSI drive with an 80GB (or higher) 8MB 7200rpm Western Digital IDE drive, though. You're paying more for the SCSI, but getting less storage and not too much of a performance increase. I'd also see if I could swap out that Terratec with a Delta 66 or 1010. A DVD burner might be nice for that price, too.

Everything else is high-end. Expensive, though! Ever thought of building your own? You could probably do it for half the price if you shopped around for parts (googlegear.com and newegg.com have great prices on parts). It's incredibly easy to do, and there are tons of tutorials all over the net.

I guess the only benefit to buying a pre-made system is that if it breaks, you'll probably get some sort of tech support. You should make sure they have a long enough warranty period for this to be useful (like 3 years or so, 'cause most computer stuff doesn't break in the first year), and that their policy includes full part replacement. If they don't have any tech support/replacement policy, however, you'd be better off either building it yourself or going with Dell or something (since they do have decent tech support).

Good luck,
Ryan

 

[mocharock]

I agree build your own!!! More bang less buck!!!

If you go to a site like pricewatch.com really really look at who you are buying from. Be careful!!! By building it your self you get the knowledge of knowing what all your box will be able to handle. To me that is another huge plus. If you are not comfortable with doing it your self then I would see if you have a compter geek friend to help you.


If you are looking for an Off The Shelf System. I am sorry but I am really impressed with the Dells that I have in the office, but I can see where you are coming from as far as the specific specs that you are looking for. Look out for a refurbished system. I am sure that there is nothing wrong with them but personally I do not want to spend a lot of money on something that some one else broke.

 

[whattaguy]

You can definitely put a system like that together for under $2k at www.newegg.com. But you'll have to put it together yourself. Hardware's not difficult to learn. It's actually kind of fun IMO.