help needed in picking new Pc for recording

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Walter Tore

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Hi All: I am in need of buying a new computer for recording and have no idea where to start. First let me state I know nothing of computers internal jargon. I was born way before they came into household use and really am not interested in them other than for recording, internet forums, and email. So, please try and break things down to simple terms for me if you can. I have been recording on a basic store bought PC for the past 4-1/2 years. I am running 2- UAD cards (PCI slots), delta 1010 soundcard, samplitude recording software. I am having problems lately with the system crashing while recording .

Intel(R)
Celeron(R) CPU2.40GHz
504MB of ram

My friend told me the computer is way overworked and it is time for a new one. He builds his own computers and can build one for me. He is not versed in what a recording computer needs are. So if you can suggest some things I can forward them to him.

here is a link to my stuff in case listening helps with deciding which way to go.
SoundClick artist: Walter Tore's Spontobeat - Spontaneously created music


Here is what I do recording wise-I don't run any games on the computer and have no desire. I am looking for one that will meet my needs and they will not be expanding, so the minimum would be best. I record 4-6 tracks live to samplitude and mix them to cd. I am a real 1 man band and aim to capture the live sound. Currently the UAD cards have the Neve 1081 eq, Plate reverb, LA2A, 1176, and the other stock plugins that come with the UAD -1 Card. I use 2 PCI slots for the UA cards and one for the Delta 1010 Card.

Is there any way I can have a new computer built and use PCI slots to keep the cards, or do I need to sell them and upgrade to the PCIe slots? I see sweetwater sells computers. Are they any good for the $ or would I be better of with my friend building one? Thanks in advance! Walter
 
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Hey Walter,

I just built a new system myself with the 3 PCI slots in mind for my UAD cards.

I went with an ASUS P5Q mobo it has 3 PCI slots, 2 PCIe x1 and 1 PCIe x16 for graphics ...so there would be room for your 2 UADs, your Delta 1010 and you could fit two shiney new UAD-2 cards in the empty PCIe slots if you wanted :eek:

I went with the intel Q6600 quad @ 2.4GHz

the P5Q board takes DDR2 memory (4 slots)..up to PC8500 that will give you a 1066MHz FSB

Go with 2 hard drives ... one for operating system, another for audio recording. I chose the Western Digital Caviar drives based on reliability, noise and price.

For graphics I went with the GeForce EN7300 SILENT that has Dsub and DVI outputs to run my two 21" monitors in dual screen mode.

Some may say with what's on the market right now this would be a poor man's setup but let me tell you... I'm a cubase 4 user with a Yamaha N12 integrated mixer and my old machine was a PIV 3.0HT with 2GB PC3200. This Q6600 with 4GB PC8500 lets me take the cubase ASIO down to 64 samples and 1.3ms latency :cool:

I've had some of my biggest projects running on it, and where I was maxing out my resources and having pops and clicks with the ASIO set at 512 samples I'm playing back the same project with the ASIO set at 128 and I'm only using 15% - 20% on the CPU. It's unbelievable.

I should add that I reused my Antec 19" rackmount case and 600W PSU and my DVDRW drives, but even if I had to rebuy that lot this was a LOT of computer for very little money.
 
All solid recommendations from Lemon. If you have a friend willing to help you build your PC, that is the way to go! As for the parts recommended above, you can go up or down depending on budget but I personally don't spend over $300 on any single component because that is where the bang-for-buck starts to diminish. Here are some more general tips I think are important to have in a recording PC (assuming it is in the same room that you work in) if you can swing it:

- Throw out all the stock fans that come with the case and CPU and get as quiet ones as you can. There are even huge scary looking fanless heatsinks for CPUs.
- Try to get a case that will support 120mm fans. They can move more air spinning slower which can mean less noise.
- Variable fan speed controllers are nice to have. I will sometimes turn off the case fans while tracking and then ramp them up to full when finished to push out any heat buildup.
- Large hard drives are great but the more platters (discs) they have inside, the louder they can become. When selecting a hard drive, check reviews to see if they are noisy or quiet.
- I like to use a fanless video card so I can run at higher resolutions. Nothing special (I am using a $50 card), but onboard video doesn't do too well at 1600x1200.

For performance:
- Definitely get a multi core processor. Intel seems to be leading the performance war right now in certain price tiers so have your friend check benchmarking sites for the best deal.
- Shoot for 2GB of DDR2 RAM minimum. Ram is so cheap right now though you can go much higher without breaking the bank.
- Use XP with the Windows Classic theme to free up even more RAM. Have your friend disable any Windows Services that aren't being used.

Hope that helps!

Edit: Oh yeah. The one good thing the Sweetwater builds have going for them is the acoustic treatment on the case itself (which you could do yourself if ambitious) but you don't get a whole lot for the money imo.
 
thanks so much for all that info Lemon Tree and ilantis-studio. This morning I lost 1.5 hours of recording and figured the time has arrived for a new computer. I am going to forward this thread to my friend cause it all is chinese to me :) I like the idea of the PCI slots for the UAD cards. Walter
 
+1 to everything ilantis says about fans, etc.
It doesn't cost much to really make a PC run virtually silently, and if you're building it from scratch you may as well incorporate this now rather than having to go back later and rectify it.

Like Lemontree, I also have an Asus board with a Q6600 (I run mine at 3ghz though :)).
I really like the Asus boards, but I'd recommend looking carefully at what features you actually need. I went for the 'Premium' version of one of their boards with Wi-Fi and everything built-in, but now most of it is disabled in the BIOS. They really come with a load of unnecessary stuff built-in which can pose a problem if you're trying to optimise a system for audio. Just something to consider.

You can probably reuse quite a lot of stuff from your old computer (optical drives, peripherals, etc) which may not cost a lot, but it all adds up to quite a nice saving which means you can splash out a bit more on the all-important basic components.

Your knowledgable friend should be able to help you further though :)
Good luck! Hope the build goes well.
 
Cases
Go for Antec (non gaming cases) Sonata, P180 etc are all designed for quiet computing. Stock fans aren't bad if you want to go non stock I like Silenx. they're less well known than scythe but they move a lot of air and so you can run them really slow and still get good airflow (Sub 800 rpm in my p180 case)

Mother board
I like Gigabyte. I've built close to 30 systems with gigabyte Mobos in the last 18 months and they seem to be really solid, great components and really good QA. They are also generally using texas instruments FW chipsets which give broadest compatability with audio outboard gear

HDD
WD (caviar or Velociraptor depending on track count requiremnets) or Seagate are personal preferences. On my own system I'm using hard raided intel solid state drives but I'm guessing most folks don't want to spend over $1500 just on the drives

Power
Higher end Antec or seasonincs or Corsair, all solid quiet performers

CPU
Gotta be intel right now. Price over performance they kill anything by AMD even rated at the same speeds.
I7s are really nice if you need a lot of processing power (ie lots of simultaneous vsts running on lots of tracke) but you do need more expensive DDR 3 Ram
Q6600 is a really nice budget quad (and is easy to over clock.)
anything Q9450 or higher is a good performance chip and ant of these chips can use the now cheap DDR 2 RAM

RAM
I prefer Crucial or Supertalent RAM. quality is always consistently good. You need to watch their standard voltages though as they do make a lot for the over clocker market and some sticks need non standard voltages to boot.

CPU Coolers
Still can't beat a Zalman 9700 or 9500 to my mind. Shift enough heat for a gaming rig but reasonbly quiet and not ridiculously expensive.

GPU
go as low tech as possible. DAW doesn't need high end (HOT AND NOISY) GPUs, you can even get away with 18 month or older tech and even passive cooled (No fans on the card) which keeps noise down further I persnally like nvidea chips but for a DAW, really who cares.
 
I can also vouch for Antec cases. I got a P150 (baby brother of the P180, also known as the 'Solo') and its served me well. Built like a tank at a fairly reasonable price - huge contrast to the cheap case I used for my sister's PC which would've been sturdier if it had been made out of paper :D!
 
Gotta throw some love at Bristol now, he/she uses exactly the same brands as myself...and I have been really happy with them. I always buy Crucial, Antec, and Silenx. Spot on about Intel too...I am an AMD fanboy but I bought an Intel processor for my recent recording PC upgrade and couldn't be happier.

Also, my recording PC may be in a Norco RPC-800 (no longer made) rack case but my personal PC is in an Antec Sonata which is so well designed I will probably only replace it when some futuristic new form factor comes along and forces me to retire it. :D Totally worth the $100.
 
Just my two cents as I'm trying to get a new DAW up and running.

Whatever PC you choose make sure it's compatible with your existing and/or new interface cards/boxes. By compatible I mean really dig down into forums on the manufacturers site, FAQs, this forum, application notes, etc. From my experience the posted compatibility (OS, RAM, Firewire, etc) is just the tip of the iceburg. For example, some manufacturers of interfaces only support certain chipsets for Mother board, Firewire, and Video. So, your stock or even add-on components may not be compatible. I beleive each manufacturer will be different in terms of compatibility. In my case, I just had to buy a new firewire card since my stock host wasn't compatible with the chip set in my interface. This was a nuance that I missed but in any case just delays me getting the DAW up and running.

Again just my $.02
 
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