Choosing a good value, new PC

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uncle sixer

uncle sixer

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I posted in the noob forum about getting a budget home studio up and running (here, if interested). Now that I have a little more idea about my hardware needs, I thought this forum would be a better place to ask about specific computers before I start spending money. I haven’t bought a windows machine in about 20 years, so I am trying to check and double-check because I am not as computer savvy as I would like.

I was looking at a 2-in-1 laptop because I like the versatility (and, I guess a little bit of "cool" factor). It is nice to leave the keyboard behind sometimes (I use a surface pro @ work). But for the price, I can get some better specs on a standard laptop. I have a Best Buy gift card, so that is where I am shopping. I have my eyes on

HP ENVY

Dell Inspiron

My plan is a Behringer UMC 404HD and I am leaning towards running REAPER. Aside from REAPER, I would be checking email, watching Youtube and Netflix and listening to Spotify. I am trying to keep this on a budget because this is all just for recreational use (I need something for email and movies besides my phone, so I just want to splurge a little and get something for multi-track recording).

Am I on the right track with the two computers I am looking at?
I have been told that the Dell has good enough specs that it makes it silly to consider the HP.
But I was also told the HP has a video card that has its own memory so it will let the system RAM and CPU work "better".
Dell has 10th gen i7 @1.3gigahertz, HP has 11th gen i7 Evo, can't find the speed on that one

What should I be looking for in terms of antivirus protection at home for a windows-based computer?

Thanks so much!
 
How many tracks and plugins are you planning on running? Those extra 4 gigs of RAM may come in handy. 1.3 ghz is kinda low, but it shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t have a high track count.
 
The HP has an i7 @2.8ghz. Big difference from the Dell @1.3ghz, but, I don't know how much of an impact the difference will have on performance. The 12Gb is nice. I think if you're recording mostly audio and not a lot of software based instruments, either one would be fine, i would think.
 
CrowsofFritz said:
How many tracks and plugins are you planning on running? Those extra 4 gigs of RAM may come in handy. 1.3 ghz is kinda low, but it shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t have a high track count.
Click to expand...

Tracks, maybe 8-12 usually, maybe more. I know that if they are available, I will use them (human nature, right?)

I don't know much about plugins yet, but I expect to use plugins for eq, compression, and reverb on tracks as needed.
 
uncle sixer said:
Tracks, maybe 8-12 usually, maybe more. I know that if they are available, I will use them (human nature, right?)

I don't know much about plugins yet, but I expect to use plugins for eq, compression, and reverb on tracks as needed.
Click to expand...

Okay then either should be fine given a low track count. You probably already know this, but don’t forget that you really only need one or two reverbs and you can bus your tracks to them through a send.
 
I've got a Lenovo with the I7-1065G7 and it runs Reaper just fine with 8-10 tracks with convolution reverbs, EQ, and compressors and only 8gb of Ram.

The clock speed is a bit of a red herring. Intel processors have a configurable TDP clock speed that the manufacturer can set. With the 1065, the highest base speed is 1.5gHz. With the 1165, the highest base speed is 2.8gHz. However bumping up the base speed increases power usage and heat, so it depends on how efficiently the computer maker has built the cooling pipes and fans. The HP specs don't say what they set the TDP speed at (1.2-2.8gHz is the permitted range from Intel).

Either one should be fine, but the nice thing with the HP is that it has Thunderbolt ports. If you ever want to upgrade from USB for the interface, that's the way to go. The downside is the display is only 13.3" but it does run higher resolution.
 
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That Dell is going to be deathly slow for video processing.... YMMV, but I've had 3 Dells fry up at home (motherboard issues) and the place I work went 100% away from Dell (we're talking about thousands of computers) after too many reliability issues.
 
Take a look at tiger direct. There are some refurbs with nice specs. I have never had an issue with refurbs. But I think you are going in the right direction. I like laptops with graphics cards vs. the integrated graphics, but if you are just doing audio, not really that big of an issue.

I would say, budget for monitors. The real estate really is worth it.
 
Video cards make little difference running audio programs because they're not written to take advantage of the on card processing, unlike something like Premiere or other video software. My cubase machine has 8Gb of memory and is not mega fast, and not clever at all. It does have fast drives - 7000+ rpm and of course the SSDs that remove the bottleneck the old one had. That would start to stutter when running lots of audio tracks, and I eased it by splitting my samples to a separate drive so the two could run separately.

Mine has AVG, the paid for version on it and it seems pretty good for my security. The on motherboard video is fine for running the two monitors it has.
 
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