Help Me Choose a BareBones DESKTOP for Recording.

B

braincoil

New member
Hello. It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but the Grasshopper has come back to the Dojo for some informative advice. I know guys can help me out here.


My computer right now, is…Slow and crappy. It’s locking up, skipping, adding noises, just can’t keep up.


What are the Minimum Specs for a DESKTOP to handle recording?

And what would be more or less Ideal specs?

Keep in mind Price IS a Concern. I was thinking about buying one of those Barebones Kits from Tiger Direct. What do you guys think about those kits?

I am using a Tascam US-1800 audio interface, DAW is Cubase 32-bit (but I might upgrade) and the MOST I will be tracking at a single time would be 8 Mics / Tracks. But probably most of the time 5 or 6 tracks. Not too many plug ins ect. Pretty Basic.

Any Help?
 
I'll be the first to throw my 2 cents in and say recording doesn't take a lot of computing horsepower. If your computer is slow you might look at the cause before spending money on a new one. I did okay with a Pentium4 and 2 gigs of ram for a long time. I only upgraded so I can do video editing (which might be a good resaon for anyone to upgrade nowadays).

For recording 5 - 8 simultaneous tracks, the hard drive you're recording onto might be your bottleneck. Here is an article on PC optimization that might be beneficial. It is about Vista, but the concepts work across all OS's:

SweetCare Service & Support | Sweetwater.com

hth,
 
Be better off telling us what you already have. That way, we'd be a step forward to be able to tell you where things might be going wrong for you.
 
What did you have before, do you plan to use a lot of soft synths and virtual instruments?

How many tracks and plugs would make up your most intense mix, roughly speaking?


Before I upgraded, I ran a core2duo E6600 with 4gb ram. It was a pretty solid machine that kept up with fairly heavy sessions.

It was rare that I pushed it as far as it could go, but I upgraded to be safe and for gaming too.

If you're not going to be running huge sessions, that might be a good budget benchmark for you.
I definitely wouldn't want to go any lower, although I'm sure many guys are still running p4.
 
It's a eMachines T5020.
eMachines T5020 - P4 519 3.06 GHz - Desktops - CNET Archive

32bit, Windows XP, "Intel Pentium 4 519 / 3.06 GHz" (which is hard to believe considering how slow it is for recording), 1 Gig RAM, the Hard drive has been replaced so I don't know what the RPM is rated at, but I am assuming slow.


I can probably sell this one for a little bit, and that would give me a good jumpstart on buying a GOOD barebones kit, which can be had for around $300 - $350.

And no, I am not going to use too many plug-ins or virtual instruments. And probably a recording project is going to have around 20 tracks total. So...
 
Last edited:
braincoil said:
It's a eMachines T5020.
eMachines T5020 - P4 519 3.06 GHz - Desktops - CNET Archive

32bit, Windows XP, "Intel Pentium 4 519 / 3.06 GHz" (which is hard to believe considering how slow it is for recording), 1 Gig RAM, the Hard drive has been replaced so I don't know what the RPM is rated at, but I am assuming slow.


I can probably sell this one for a little bit, and that would give me a good jumpstart on buying a GOOD barebones kit, which can be had for around $300 - $350.

And no, I am not going to use too many plug-ins or virtual instruments. And probably a recording project is going to have around 20 tracks total. So...
Click to expand...

Weird. Similar to the family computer we have. It's a terrible machine. =P
Yeah, definitely upgrade completely. You're really not going to get much for that kinda money though.
Are those 20 tracks going to be all audio, all software or a mix of both?
You should be able to tell what hard drive you have, but I'm guessing it's IDE anyways. All new computers use SATA now.

For that kinda money, though, as I say, you really won't get much. You're looking at something old and most likely second hand. Still using 32bit XP Something you'll move on from before you realise it. I'd suggest saving your pennies until you have at least around 5 times as much. That should get you something decent that you could use for a few years.
 
If you aren't going for seriously intensive sessions, I'd recommend a full reinstall of windows and taking some time to optimise the system.

Ok, you might decide you need an upgrade in the long run, but who knows, you might be surprised.

For very little money, you could throw in 4gb 400mhz (if it has 4 slots) and a pci sata card with a new hdd.

I reckon you'd see the difference.
 
Get rid of everything that is not recording related, games, internet, office, virus protection (not needed if you are not on the net), windows updates, only install the recording software.

It's amazing how much quicker the computer becomes. My studio PC actually starts up in under 20 seconds ready to use, my internet office computer takes over 2 mins to be ready.

Alan.
 
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