Does this look ok for a DAW ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MrChitlins
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MrChitlins

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Here's what I'm thinking of getting (maybe today, maybe not if y'all hammer it ;) ).
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Dell Dimension 4400 Series
Dimension® 4400 Series,Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.7 GHz

Price: $1,228.00

Date: Thursday, May 16, 2002 9:55:37 AM CDT
Dell Dimension 4400 Series: Dimension® 4400 Series,Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.7 GHz D4417W [220-5297]

Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM 512M [311-1325]

Keyboard: Dell ® Quietkey ® Keyboard QK [310-1582]

Monitors: 17 in (15.9 in viewable,.27dp) E771 Monitor E771 [320-0163]

Video Cards: 64MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 4X AGP Graphics Card with TV-Out 64NVMX [320-0164]

Hard Drive: FREE Upgrade! 40GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 40P [461-3695]

Floppy Drive: 3.5 in Floppy Drive 3 [340-1927]

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition WHXP [313-7222] [420-3079]

Mouse: MS IntelliMouse® IM [310-2757]

Network Card: 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC CNET [430-5353]

Modem: 56K PCI Data Fax Modem for Windows DFAX [313-0738]

CD or DVD Drive: FREE UPGRADE! 16x Max Variable DVD-Rom Drive 16DVDP [430-0310] [461-1632]

CD or DVD Burner for 2nd bay: 40x/10x/40x CD-RW Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator® 40CDRW2 [313-1131]

Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card CRUZ [313-5203]

Speakers: Harman Kardon HK-395 Speakers with Subwoofer HK395 [313-7284]

Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1Yr Ltd. Warranty- 1Yr At-Home Service + 1Yr Phone Support

NOTE: I'd add a 2nd 40gb HD and of course I'd want to get a sound card w/ at least 4 inputs.

I'd be using this *mostly* for 1-track-at-a-time recording at home using CoolEdit, But I'd like to be able to record 2-6 tracks at a time when friends come over to Jam.

Thanks !
 
you can get a better computer/daw much cheaper...P4's aren't that great in daw's...athlonXp would perform much better.
 
P4's aren't that great in daw's...athlonXp would perform much better.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily true. However, it would be true if it read: "athlon XP would perform much better for the money." Currently the fastest performing cpu you can buy is a P4, though it will inflict serious damage to your wallet.
 
It doesn't say what chipset is used on the motherboard. there are chipsets (especially those by VIA) that have issues with some higher end sound cards.

It doesn't say if the hard disk runs at 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm either. So it's probably a slower 5400 rpm disk.

64MB on an ok-but-not-great GeForce2 MX is overkill. That's money wasted. A 32 MB GeForce2 MX would run just as fast.

A no name monitor? Could be a source of headache when you spend a lot of time staring at it.

And you'd have to be absolutely sure that the motherboard uses a 478 pins socket for the cpu. If it is one with a 423 pins socket you won't be able to upgrade your cpu in the future.

Never trust an ad.


I swear by PCs that I'd build from parts that I've personally selected. I know that not everybody has the knowledge to do that wisely but a good friend or neighbour who has is often a better option than buying a complete PC.
 
I am gonna have to hammer it!

Stay away from this crap ASAP. Don't get me wrong...The Dell road is fine for standard office computing but believe me - for recording - this is not the way to go.

The time will come to upgrade, tweak, add this, add that and the Dell plan locks you into that box for forever.

Their machines are not built to normal standards: Their cases don't take the latest motherboards. Their power supplies don't have standard cabling...their fans suck etc etc...blah blah

You would be better off taking your $1200 and building something custom with good quality (Standard) parts. Start with an ASUS motherboard, get a Intel P4 Northwood chip, Corsair memory etc etc....there are tons of posts in here with great tips on what parts to choose.

If you are not comfortable building yourself - at least call a reputable dealer (preferable one with a background or interest in digital recording) and have them help you with the parts list. I built my first custom DAW about 6 months ago and besides learning a ton of great info - I have never had a better machine - ever.

Cheers,

Cuzin B
 
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2 and 2.4 GHz - Intel 845-D chipset with DDR memory support

7200 rpm HD
 
The Dells we have in our office all use ATX form factor motherboards and have been easy to upgrade (except for one mini ATX POS). Dell also has great customer service - if one of our computers breaks, they're here the next day fixing it.

That said, I build my own computers and if you feel you're up to it, you're gonna get the most bang for your buck that way (plus you get what you want and nothing you don't). Check out a few computer sites like HardOCP, AnandTech, and Tom's Hardware. Familiarize yourself with what's out there and what does what. Also, if you plan on building your own computer, I'd recommend shopping at Newegg - great prices and great customer service.
 
I use a one year old Dell Dimension at home. Nice family machine. It is not a DAW and never will be. The worst thing not yet mentioned about Dells or any other prebuilt for that matter is all the bullshit that you get preloaded. Resolution assistant, Moviemaker and a bunch of other junk that you do not want on a DAW. When you get into advanced tuning and tweaking, setting buffer sizes, partitioning and whatnot anything preloaded is gonna get in your way. Another thing that makes these machines unattractive is the lack of an OS disk. The operating system is usually on the hard drive in a bunch of .cab files. If you want to wipe the disk and start fresh the lack of an OS disk is a pain. There's probably a workaround but I am unaware of it.

Start from a clean slate. Install your own stuff yourself.

lou
 
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prices

Check out www.pricewatch.com for the lowest prices on
motherboards, CPUs and all of the other parts you will
need to build the PC. Its a great site that has saved me
lots of money.
 
elevate said:

Not necessarily true. However, it would be true if it read: "athlon XP would perform much better for the money." Currently the fastest performing cpu you can buy is a P4, though it will inflict serious damage to your wallet.
Click to expand...

Again, depends on what you mean by "fastest performing", but in regards to audio processing, the FPU is what counts, and the fastest FPU today is...the AMD XP 2100+ as these benches show
http://www.hardware.fr/art/lire/418/6
Beats the P4 2.4A Ghz hands down in mp3 encoding....
 
elevate said:

Not necessarily true. However, it would be true if it read: "athlon XP would perform much better for the money." Currently the fastest performing cpu you can buy is a P4, though it will inflict serious damage to your wallet.
Click to expand...

i'm just speaking from my experances...i used a athlonXp 1600+ and it handled more tracks than my partners 1.8gig P4..

MrChitlins said:


What/where ?

Thanks again !
Click to expand...

www.ubid.com
 
>Another thing that makes these machines unattractive is the lack of an OS disk.

I have to agree with the "Don't get a Dell for a DAW, dude" sentiment but all three of the Dell Machines I've owned came with the OS disk, albeit the first one was on floppy.... :)

The new 8200 series Dimensions have a pretty cool case but the main problem is as mentioned, all that crap they load onto your machine. And little things like a proprietary floppy drive (I know, so what) that only works in concert with the case.

Their monitors are pretty nice. I've seen both the trinitron and non-trinitron 19" CRTs and they are both still easy on the eyes 3-4 years later.

And their onsite service is very reliable.
 
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Beats the P4 2.4A Ghz hands down in mp3 encoding....
Click to expand...
You do realize that B revision P4's are out (533Mhz FSB)? Anyway, AnandTech came to a much different conclusion in this review. AnandTech also shows a 2.4B and 2.53 P4 beating the XP in 3D Studio MAX rendering, another FP intensive test. Those P4 results would be improved by using PC1066 RDRAM.
 
>Those P4 results would be improved by using PC1066 RDRAM.

Unfortunately that memory is still vaporware for the moment. And going back to the original premise of this thread (getting the best bang for the buck on a DAW) buying the latest and greatest is ALWAYS going to be counterproductive toward this end.
 
Hey drstawl,

I should clarify. I did get a disk with my Dell -BUT- it's for "reinstalling Windows ME on a Dell computer system." So is this the same as a store-bought OS? In other words if I wanted to add a HD and install windows on it could I with this disk? This is hypothetical only -who would want ME on a DAW?- I'm asking out of curiosity. I always assumed this disk was only for if you pooched your OS somehow. I figured they wouldn't let you install it on a second machine (or 2nd HD).

I second the vote on Dell monitors. Bought two 17" refurbs for $120 ea. Black. Very nice.

Thanx,

lou
 
Most brand name machines that I've worked on do have the OS on the recovery disk.

It's not the

setup <enter>

from a DOS prompt type of deal though. You usually boot off of the CD itself and it extracts itself, and runs the setup install, installs all the junk applications that it comes bundled with. Or its another executable on the disk that allows it to setup from a DOS prompt, provided you have the CD-ROM drivers installed. Often compressed in some format that only they can decompress, thus their proprietary setup.exe

Most times you can do a 'clean' (along with their apps) install with these recovery/emergency disks though.

It might freak out on a machine the disk wasn't intended for, never tried it.
 
Thanx Emeric, that sorta leans towards what I was thinking. I've never tried it either but I have my doubts that I could build a machine and then use my Dell OS on it. When I built my DAW I used 98SE. It was my copy, I paid for it. I know the Gates bunch disapprove of my using only one paid-for copy of Windows on two machines but I don't buy into the whole "license for use" argument. It's not like I'm building computers and selling them for a profit with the same OS copied over and over...I paid good money for that OS and I'll use it for myself however damn many times I please. (rant over) I don't think you can do that with "bundled" software.

lou
 
Hows this sound

AMD XP-2100(266) $689
256 MB PC2100 DDR
ECS K7S5A MB SIS 735 CHIP
2-USB-PORT / 4X AGP
40GB ATA100 HDD
64MB ATI RADEON 4X AGP
16X DVD / 3.5” FDD
16X10X40CDRW
56K V.92 F/MODEM
Built-in 3D WAVE Sound
NOVA SCREWS-LESS
CASE P4 300W POWER
KEYBOARD M/S &SPK
WINDOWS XP CD….. $89
19” .26 MONITOR $199
512MB PC-133 $139
 
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