Let me start over here, build my comp for $900

  • Thread starter Thread starter shackrock
  • Start date Start date
S

shackrock

New member
alright, I'm looking for a more powerful comp to handle the number of effects i'm using while mixing/mastering/recording...

I think I got a $900(ish..the less the better of course..ha!) budget for it.
Already have the following:
-Aardvark Direct Pro Q10
-Network Card (not nessecary, but if it comes with it, ok)
-IEEE card
-120 (72000rpm)gig HD (although I would like another one, maybe a 60gig 72000rpm)
-Saphire Radeon 9200 Atlantis (video card)


I'm thinkin I'd like an AMD 64...but I mean I really don't know. A buddy of mine could put this all together for me (like if I ordered parts from newegg.com or something)...but I also like the idea of a company building the basics of it at least.
I also need a lot of suggestions on quiet fans, cases, etc. etc.

Thanks guys. ha.
 
Sometimes you can find better deals buying a Motherboard, Processor and memory at the same time. Check with Newegg. They may have some good barebones deals, you know, with case, and powersuppy...etc.

If your buddy knows more than you do, it would be helpful if he looked at what your buying, and gave his input, since he is going to help put it together. The AMD may give you a bit more zip for the money, over Intel. Just check for some deals. You might also do some looking at the dealers that have stuff put together, just to see what they are selling for.
Ed
 
Unless your buddy has successfully built several computers already, you'll be ahead getting a nice PC already built. The parts you already have will enable you to start using it as a DAW right off the bat, because you'll use the hard drive as your audio drive.

It's fun to make your own, and you learn a lot, but you can get quite a nice built PC, with OS, for a few hundred bucks. Add your HD, Aardvark, optimize the system, and you're good to go. You can spend the same money trying to build your own and have no guarantee that it's going to work well...
 
I would also check out ZipZoomFly.com (A.k.a. Google Gear). I'm building a new computer and I'm buying my parts from them. Free 2nd day shipping on all the items I'm buying. I'm taking my old computer and I'm going to use that for recording. I would pick up a lot of ram though, it's pretty cheap for some decent pc3200, get a gig or 2 of that with some dual channel action and a pretty fast processor you should have plenty of computing power.
 
Check what your buying and compare it with a built PC like DELL or GATEWAY. Most likely you can not put a pc together cheaper than them. Most people say they can. Thats only if you buy no name brands, cheap or unknown brands parts. If you have the cash then its good to build one.
 
You may not be able to beat the price of the pre-built from Dell, etc..., but you get a much more up-grade friendly PC when you build your own. I've built about 5 now that all work great, and all have room to grow. One of the most important buys for your new PC is the motherboard, as far as upgradeability is concerned. Buy ones that will support future processors, the fastest current DDR, and have 8X AGP Video Slots (Which is pretty much all of them now) I have used newegg.com for all of my computer parts needs. Their selection is huge, and their customer service cannot be beaten. I've had to return a hard drive once that I ordered from there that just happened to be DOA (it happens, not their fault). And the process was very simple.
 
I was looking at dell, they have rediculously awesome deals...the only problem is I can NEVER find out what is actually in hte things (brand names, real tech specs, what motherboard/chipsets are on the machines...). Anyone know how to find that on systems from their webpage?

I'm really worried that the Q10 won't work with whatever motherboard they are gonna be giving me (I know many VIA chipsets crap out when it comes to the Q10 - my current one does every so often!) haha.

So yeah, I'm just not sure, I suppose. I'll keep looking into it, if you guys know some websites with crazy deals or sometyhing, go ahead and link it up brohams.
 
www.tigerdirect.com, also try www.pricewatch.com . pricewatch is a list of sites that are registered with them with their low prices. Be aware that most of their lowest prices are cheap brands. Yea brand PCs dont have much room to expand. I know most dells pc have only 2 pci slots avaliable. I would recomend a workstation. They are built a little better that regulare home pcs. Longer life spand more pci slots more drive bays. These are made to handle more work load than a regular home desktop. Their designed for better ventalation. Dell, HP, and Gateway have a wokstation model. They are a little more expencive though.
 
shackrock said:
I was looking at dell, they have rediculously awesome deals...the only problem is I can NEVER find out what is actually in hte things (brand names, real tech specs, what motherboard/chipsets are on the machines...). Anyone know how to find that on systems from their webpage?
Click to expand...
Always a problem when buying pre-built PCs. I think this goes for Dell and probably Gateway, I know it does for Compaq, but their motherboards and chipsets are proprietary. Also when you buy computers from companies like this, you will not get your OS on a disc, it will be pre-installed with lots of other garbage they want you to use, like AOL or MSN, useless crap that will hog system resources. Instead of getting a Win XP cd you'll get a recovery cd which will just bring the computer back to factory defaults (it's pretty useless in my opinion, a friend of mine's parent's have a Sony VIAO that is a crap load of virus' and they used the system recovery disk and it didn't do squat, gg no firewall DSL). The good thing about getting a Dell though is they do have pretty good tech support and you can usually get replacement parts if for some reason they fail. A guy I know works for the WSU Admin building and always buys Dell laptops and raves about them.

From personal experience I would build your own, you can customize it to your needs cheaper. My new rig is going to be mainly for Gaming so I'm buying quite a few top of the line parts. The internet makes it easy for any old shmuck to build a computer (for good or for worse)
 
yeah, kinda drives me crazy...
what do you guys think of this? -

# USB: Build-in USB 2.0 Ports
# CAS: Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ01 Workstation Aluminum Case 420 WATT [+36] (BLACK COLOR)
# CPU: (939-pin) AMD™ ATHLON™64 3200+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology [+50]
# CD: NONE [-32]
# CDRW: (Special Price) Samsung TS-H522B 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER [+69] (BEIGE COLOR)
# FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 6in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (SILVER COLOR [+0])
# FAN: AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
# FLOPPY: 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE (BEIGE COLOR)
# HDD: 80GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 HARD DRIVE
# HALFLIFE2: Free "Half-Life 2 Bronze" Download Coupon [+0]
# KEYBOARD: Logitech Deluxe 104 PS/2 Keyboard [+1] (BLACK COLOR)
# MOUSE: PS2 INTERNET MOUSE W/ WHEEL (Special!!! BEIGE COLOR MICROSOFT USB INTELLIMOUSE)
# MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Chipset SATA Raid PCI-E w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
# MEMORY: 512 MB (256MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY [+0] (Kingston Hyper-X High Performance Memory w/ Heat Spreader [+56])
# MONITOR: Amptron 723 17" TFT LCD MONITOR (2TONE - BLK/SIL) [+245]
# NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
# OS: NONE - FORMAT HARD DRIVE ONLY
# PRINTER: Epson Stylus CX4600 All-In-One Multifunction-Printer Free After Rebate ($129 - $79 - $30 - $20 Mail-in-Rebate = Free) [+129]
# POWERSUPPLY: [$30 Mail-In-Rebate NOW !!!] ULTRA X-Connect 500W ATX PS w/2 80mm Fans - Black SKU: ULT31554 [+79]
# RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
# SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY PLUS ONE-YEAR ONSITE SERVICE
# SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO (comes with it, oh well! ha!)
# SPEAKERS: NONE [-5]
# VIDEO: NONE [-64]
# _PRICE: (+1213)

but it's really $1025 after savings...and note that this is INCLUDING a 17" LCD monitor.

Mainly I'm wondering:
a - how's the mobo, anyoneknow how compatable with the Q10 off the top of their heads?
b - is it worth it to get RAID and another 80gig HD for another 70 bucks? (I really don't know what the advantages to RAID are.....and what the difference between RAID-0 and RAID-1 is...but I know I can get 2 80 gig serial ATA drives with RAID for anothe 70).
c - anything else yall notice?
 
pick up a monitor from a best buy near you...they should have some $100 monitors..i bought one and it works great. its cheap and you pay the tax vs. the shipping on it. so with that being said....heres assuming $110 for your monitor plus tax. and heres the rest. $683.03 with shipping included for the the following items

case w/psu
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-156-132&depa=1
cdrom
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-940&depa=1
2 512mb of kingston memory
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-424&depa=1
asus mobo with gig lan
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-510&depa=1
athlon 64 3200 939 retail (comes with the fan)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-502&depa=1
xp home sp2
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=37-102-151&DEPA=6
2 thermaltake blue eye fans....your case comes with a couple already
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-114&depa=1
artic thermal compound to go on the processor instead of the paste thats on there
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-100-007&depa=1
keyboard..generic
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=23-131-114&depa=1
mouse is optical and generic also
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=26-129-004&depa=1

$793.03 with everything
 
hmm..good point. But still alot of those parts are either not as good or not quite what i was lookin for - see here:
*the kingston memory claims to be 64bit on the other machine, as well as 400mhz instead of pc3200 DDR.
*don't even need XP (alreday got it from school..yes! haha) - so there's some more money off the price right?
*that ASUS has a VIA chipset (VIA was sketchy with a majority of Q10s, so they reccommended anything but - at least as far as I can remember, sadly there is no AARDVARK website anymore/nor company so I can't verify it. but I'd like to stay away from VIA, which is why I picked that Nforce4
*dvd+-/r/rw and cd-r/rw (dvd DUAL layer) burner.
*500W power supply, vs. a 420 - since the Q10 asks for phantom power through the card/computer's psu - i figured I'd play it safe, right?

And I think that would bring the price up closer to 1000 with those changes, basically. right?

additionally, I could also probably get a LCD monitor from circuit city, i used to work there and they may still give me a discount.


oh yeah, and shipping is free with the system anyway! ha.
 
RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. A RAID system is a group of drives which together act as a single storage system. RAID is the acronym for redundant array of independent disks or redundant array of inexpensive disks. RAID is a performance enhancing method of storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks. RAID can also be defined as a method of providing data redundancy, improved performance and/or quick data recoverability from disk crashes, by spreading or duplicating data across multiple disk drives. There are many classifications of RAID. Commonly used RAID types include RAID 0 (Data Striping), RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring) and RAID 5 (Striping with Distributed Parity). RAID Disk Arrays are collections of storage disks with a controller(s) to manage the storage of data on the disks. The array is a disk subsystem that appears as a single, large, fast disk drive, even though it is in fact composed of many drives configured in an array.
 
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........the msi neo http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-487&depa=1 can change out with a $50 price difference...whatever the memory claims to be..its still gonna run at pc3200. thats as fast as the motherboard will go. the case w/ 500 psu http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-162-004&depa=1

personally i dont like the case

the cdrom http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-151-064&depa=1

price jumps another $30 or so. out of curiosity....it seems that you're building a computer around a dead soundcard...i know your soundcard isnt physically dead but the company is. why not sell q10 for what you can get for it and get a delta 1010 or laya? atleast their companies can develop updates
 
ok leaving the monitor up to you and changing out the motherboard, cdrom and case, also keeping the memory since the the mobo cant run 64 bit memory...$620.91 with shipping.
 
hmmm.....ok so i'll reconsider i suppose..haha...

but, as for the Q10 vs. delta1010/laya...
I JUST bought the Q10, really it had to be a week before anyone realized that AARDVARK the company had just disappeared (and for some reason, we all still know nothing about them...oi..ha!).

But I like it alot. It comes with decent preamps, and it only cost me $400. I was also looking at the MOTU but I couldn't afford another $400.

The reason I'm getting a new compute rnow instead of other stuff is becasue my pops said he wants a new computer, so I convinced him to take my old one - and split the new one with me! ha.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top