Buying new puter TOMORROW. Need opinions on components, A.S.A.P.

SOUND DIAGNOSIS

SOUND DIAGNOSIS

New member
Components being considered:

Dimension 8400 Pentium® 4 Processor 530 with HT Technology (3GHz, 800 FSB)



Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (2x512M)

Video Card 128MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon™ X300 SE

Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)

CD ROM/DVD ROM
Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + FREE UPGRADE! 48x CD-RW Drive
(Should I get a DVD burner for 30 bucks more??...if so, why?)

Enough juice? Thanks in advance! ---Lee
 
who makes the memory modules?

can you or your friend build one? that would be your better/cheaper bet.
 
Having children is like being pecked to death by chickens?? That's a little harsh, don't you think?

Okay, on to the topic at hand.

Looks to me like you have had your head turned by the Dell marketing team.

The HT (Hyperthreading) is just pure no calories fluff. That 800hmz FSB is actually just a quad pumped 200mhz FSB, not a true 800mhz.

I have found the Athlon processors to be a much better bang for the buck.

Nothing wrong with a gig of RAM, though 512K will be more than you will most likely use.

I would, personally, bump up to WinXP Pro, but that is, essentially, a religious position.

Whatever video you get, make sure that it is a dual display card. Having two monitors is FANTASTIC. As far as monitors, I would suggest at least 19", LCD if affordable.

Instead of one HUGE HDD (and 160 is, to my old timer's perception, HUGE) I would suggest, as would most people here I suspect, that you get two HDD, one for you apps, one for your creative efforts. 80GB should be fine for the apps (heck, 40GB would be fine, but the 80 is only five bucks more, so why bother??). A 120 should be fine for the music.

The only virtue of the DVD-RW drive is that it holds lots more... a good reason to get one if you want to back up you HDD, which you should do.

Personally, the best advice I can give is to back off and calm down. You're jazzed about buying a hot PC, but a custom box may give you more bang for
the buck, and more money in your hot little hand for, say, a great mic or preamp.
 
JMarcomb said:
who makes the memory modules?

can you or your friend build one? that would be your better/cheaper bet.
Click to expand...


Unable to get info on this, being that Dell ain't into the audio thang....but I trust the quality..and most importantly, the sound quality and storage ability of what I have recorded in the past in a slightly older system. Me or my friend? I have no friends. And I hate everybody. :mad: :eek: :D :rolleyes: Thanks, J. ----Lee
 
wheelema said:
Having children is like being pecked to death by chickens?? That's a little harsh, don't you think?

Okay, on to the topic at hand.

Looks to me like you have had your head turned by the Dell marketing team.

The HT (Hyperthreading) is just pure no calories fluff. That 800hmz FSB is actually just a quad pumped 200mhz FSB, not a true 800mhz.

I have found the Athlon processors to be a much better bang for the buck.

Nothing wrong with a gig of RAM, though 512K will be more than you will most likely use.

I would, personally, bump up to WinXP Pro, but that is, essentially, a religious position.

Whatever video you get, make sure that it is a dual display card. Having two monitors is FANTASTIC. As far as monitors, I would suggest at least 19", LCD if affordable.

Instead of one HUGE HDD (and 160 is, to my old timer's perception, HUGE) I would suggest, as would most people here I suspect, that you get two HDD, one for you apps, one for your creative efforts. 80GB should be fine for the apps (heck, 40GB would be fine, but the 80 is only five bucks more, so why bother??). A 120 should be fine for the music.

The only virtue of the DVD-RW drive is that it holds lots more... a good reason to get one if you want to back up you HDD, which you should do.

Personally, the best advice I can give is to back off and calm down. You're jazzed about buying a hot PC, but a custom box may give you more bang for
the buck, and more money in your hot little hand for, say, a great mic or preamp.
Click to expand...


Interesting and apparently learned advice, sir! I will take note of many points. I AM getting a 19 inch digital Flatsy, and the DVD writable aspect in archiving is important. This unit has this thing called RAID, which I did some reading on and seemed like it might be of use to me at some time in the future. Trouble is, I am going to use this puter for the Internet as well, so I have to make the compromise of going the Dell route...or am I being nieve??

PS...XP PRO is a religious thang??? ROFL!! :D
 
wheelema said:
Having children is like being pecked to death by chickens?? That's a little harsh, don't you think?

Okay, on to the topic at hand.

Looks to me like you have had your head turned by the Dell marketing team.

The HT (Hyperthreading) is just pure no calories fluff. That 800hmz FSB is actually just a quad pumped 200mhz FSB, not a true 800mhz.

I have found the Athlon processors to be a much better bang for the buck.

Nothing wrong with a gig of RAM, though 512K will be more than you will most likely use.

I would, personally, bump up to WinXP Pro, but that is, essentially, a religious position.

Whatever video you get, make sure that it is a dual display card. Having two monitors is FANTASTIC. As far as monitors, I would suggest at least 19", LCD if affordable.

Instead of one HUGE HDD (and 160 is, to my old timer's perception, HUGE) I would suggest, as would most people here I suspect, that you get two HDD, one for you apps, one for your creative efforts. 80GB should be fine for the apps (heck, 40GB would be fine, but the 80 is only five bucks more, so why bother??). A 120 should be fine for the music.

The only virtue of the DVD-RW drive is that it holds lots more... a good reason to get one if you want to back up you HDD, which you should do.

Personally, the best advice I can give is to back off and calm down. You're jazzed about buying a hot PC, but a custom box may give you more bang for
the buck, and more money in your hot little hand for, say, a great mic or preamp.
Click to expand...


Interesting and apparently learned advice, sir! I will take note of many points. I AM getting a 19 inch digital Flatsy, and the DVD writable aspect in archiving is important. This unit has this thing called RAID, which I did some reading on and seemed like it might be of use to me at some time in the future. Trouble is, I am going to use this puter for the Internet as well, so I have to make the compromise of going the Dell route...or am I being nieve??


XP PRO is a religious thang??? ROFL!! :D
 
If you take the time and do a lot of research, you can put together a computer for less and it will work better. Unfortunately you have to put it together yourself, and that can be a nightmare for some people.

I see nothing truly bad about your initial Dell purchase. It's certainly a powerful system. I would not recommend anything smaller than 40 Gb though. And 1 Gig of memory isn't going to hurt you. Sure, you may not need it now. But, it's sure a pain to upgrade later. If you have the money, spend it now. Same thoughts on a DVD burner. Might as well, it's only $30 more. And you'll have that capability if you need it.

Four years ago I bought the equivalent system from Dell. Screaming edge technology, and I paid for it. But until just recently, I never wanted for anything more, and it worked great. It's not the perfect box, and it will never satisfy a gaming/ DAW purist, but it certainly gets the job done. For a non-technical person, Dell/HP computers are the way to go IMO.

Oh yeah, RAID 0 is pretty useless for the average user. RAID 1 is making a copy of your first HD on a second HD. Great if you want to make sure you don't lose a lot of data if your HD goes bad. But, you need two disks to do it. And if you buy two 80 Gig drives, you only get 80 Gigs total disk space.
 
Dethska said:
If you take the time and do a lot of research, you can put together a computer for less and it will work better. Unfortunately you have to put it together yourself, and that can be a nightmare for some people.

I see nothing truly bad about your initial Dell purchase. It's certainly a powerful system. I would not recommend anything smaller than 40 Gb though. And 1 Gig of memory isn't going to hurt you. Sure, you may not need it now. But, it's sure a pain to upgrade later. If you have the money, spend it now. Same thoughts on a DVD burner. Might as well, it's only $30 more. And you'll have that capability if you need it.

Four years ago I bought the equivalent system from Dell. Screaming edge technology, and I paid for it. But until just recently, I never wanted for anything more, and it worked great. It's not the perfect box, and it will never satisfy a gaming/ DAW purist, but it certainly gets the job done. For a non-technical person, Dell/HP computers are the way to go IMO.
Click to expand...

Dethska
Swollen Member
Click to expand...

WHOA NELLY! :eek: :eek: :eek:


That nightmare that you just mentioned in your post? That was this past weekend, in which I restored the OS (Win 95 and 98 upgrade) in my 5 year Dell old puter. I still ain't finished....and WON'T... and decided that a P2 333 mz just aint going to cut it for my kid, or the wife. So they will get the Dell P4 2.4 ghz with the 18 inch digital monitor and 120 gig hard drive. Spoiled, eh?? I am NOT a DAW purist as well, and probably never will be. But I'ze know'z what I'ze been hearing the past 47 years, and it sounds right. Thanks for chiming in, man. LEE
 
from an comp engr - raid - makes me laugh.....
RAID ON THE WALLET.....
IF you want fancy get a dual amd opteron system, some folks claim
crazy track numbers like 150.
but if you want to be sensible athlons are cheap and powerfull.
2 drives, 512 ram blah blah blah....
if your real smart youll buy a used duron system for 100 bucks and put a fast 8mb cacheing drive in it which daws like.
then save your pennies for the coming 8 ghz wars.
 
Dell 8400

I have the exact same Dell. It's wonderful, and they are the #1 computer company in the world for over a decade, for good reason.

I elected to not get a DVD burner, but that's preference thing. I figured if we ever get to the point of using DVD for music, then I will go buy one at Best Buy in the future, for less money then. But for now, not necessary for me.

What music software do you intend to run?

I'm running Sonar and it runs great on my 8400 with identical specs as the one you are ordering.

Oh, just as a side note, this Dell 8400 opens up so easily on hinges, and no need for a screwdriver for anything! Really smart design. Not even for HD's, CD or DVD Drives or PCI cards. There's a lever you just flip, slide in your PCI card, then put the lever down again as it snaps into place. REALLY FAST!
 
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SOUND DIAGNOSIS said:
Components being considered:

Dimension 8400 Pentium® 4 Processor 530 with HT Technology (3GHz, 800 FSB)



Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (2x512M)

Video Card 128MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon™ X300 SE

Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Click to expand...


The specs are good enough to run a good amount of tracks on most software, but I have to agree with the idea of making your own computer.

Not only would you save money, but you can make better for less. Dell charges way too much for a computer that performs marginally in audio applications.

Consider things like dual processing (AMD seems to be a favorite around the office here), dual hard drives and beefed up registered memory.


I'll explain why...

If you want to run pro-tools or something like it (just assuming), you can have one processor handling the actual recording of sound while the other can handle the applications seperately. So what you have is smooth sailing all the way through. Low latency, quick and easy.

The same with harddrives. One is good, because you can partition (seperate into several pieces) your drive for different projects, but it won't be two physical drives when writing massive amounts of information. So another harddrive can help reduce latency. A gig these days goes for about a dollar.

All that for half the price of the dell, which might be a great computer, just not for audio (in my opinion).

Just my two cents.
 
SOUND DIAGNOSIS said:
...This unit has this thing called RAID, which I did some reading on and seemed like it might be of use to me at some time in the future. Trouble is, I am going to use this puter for the Internet as well, so I have to make the compromise of going the Dell route...or am I being nieve??

PS...XP PRO is a religious thang??? ROFL!! :D
Click to expand...
Okay,

WinXP Pro is required if you are going to have two or more PCs talking to each other and you want to minimize problems. If you have children, I HIGHLY recommend XP Pro. Of course, judging by your 'pecked to death by chicken' byline, perhaps you don't have to worry.

RAID (redundent array of independent/inexpensive (pick one) disks) serves two purposes...
  • Fail Safe (mirrored... RAID 0)
  • Speed (stripped... RAID 1)

You need two or more HDD. You can't do both RAID 0 and RAID 1 on the same HDD.

If you are going to be on the Internet with this thing than you can pretty much be sure it is going to be f**ked up at some point. I would recommend that you keep you DAW off the internet and use another box that you wouldn't mind having trashed to surf with. Connect them with a peer-to-peer network (not TOO hard) and make extensive use of restore points on your internet PC.

Luck.
 
minfifa . i'm just making the point that more powerfull systems will eventually come and because of that people shouldnt buy into the current marketing
too much and blow the cash now and then not have any money when the good stuff arrives. which happened to some friends of mine who blew a pile when the p3 first came out, but now the money they have they need for other things like kids education for example.
actually its doubtfull that moores law of computing will hold because (and im an engr by training with an engineering physics major) both intel and amd have some severe engineering challenges facing them as they try and move
system speeds upwards to keep the cash rolling in.
probably the sweet spot right now is - if your going to build yourself -
athlon xp's including mbd are what ? 120 bucks ? then you wait for the next big speed bump ups (initially at high prices - then price drops).
make sense ?
i remain confident that moores law of computing will hit a roadblock.
certainly from my uni background - 10 ghz is it baby.
 
you think that is when moore's law will fail, at 10 ghz?? i could see that... but man that would be a fast computer...

i get what you are saying thhough. For the systme i just ordered, i could get an AMD 64 3200 for 300 bucks or get a 3500 for 650 bucks.... i am happy to stay one step behind cutting edge to save myself a crazy markup.
 
your smart minofifa. good prices. yup 10 ghz or even before. mainly because
components dont like heat (build up with more and more transistors on the
processor). lets revisit this in a few years. i bet i'm right.
might see 8 ghz around 2009 if we are lucky. in the interim the marketing guys will be milking the market from 3ghz up.
watch your cash ! and save like a devil for the good stuff.
 
Pricing

You gotta be kidding? Prices too high?

My goodness, man, what decade are you living in? I just got a 3.0 GHz Intel chip with 1 Gig of RAM, with many more bells and whisltes for $1,240, DELIVERED!

The last desktop computer I bought before this one was in Ferbruary of 1999 when I bought a P3 500 Mhtz chip with 256 MB RAM loaded to the hilt, (trying to compare apples with apples), and it cost me $3,800.

There has never been a better time to buy a computer than now.

Also, and I have been in business, and in the business of using computers since the late 1980's, and have correctly advised people to buy as much as they can afford, and then some extra. The costs of upgrading at a later time are seldom worth it.

Buy a computer that screams, add RAM or HD laters, when you need, and make your computer last a good 4 years or more.

If you do as was suggested by somebody, to buy behind the development curve, then the computer you just shelled out a few hundred dollars for is not only already starting to need upgrading, but will become obsolete even faster.

The only time you can ethically recommend a $400 computer is if it's not going to be used for anything more than normal uses (i.e. MS Office applications).

My opinion, too.
 
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Toddskins said:
The only time you can ethically recommend a $400 computer is if it's not going to be used for anything more than normal uses (i.e. MS Office applications).
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:lol:

I just build my sister a P4 w/HT, 2.4Ghz, with 512 megs of DDR400 Corsair Ram, an 80 gig Maxtor HD, a Plextor CD-RW, with a 400 watt power supply, case, and spec-matched MSI motherboard (865).

The price?

$506.and some change.

Thats not too far off.

(plus $80 for a 19 monitor)
 
...staying a step behind the technology is the best bang for your buck.

I just bought a DELL 4600, 2.8GHz HT 1M cache, 512M dual channel Ram,80G 7200rpm HD, CD...free 2nd day shipping ....$379 shipped! ..ordered Friday and received it Tuesday. I'm going to add a second 7200rpm HD from my old computer... and now I can upgrade my audio card and software with cash to spare...24bit recording ..here I come

mcmd
 
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