Need a computer for recording

octoruss

octoruss

New member
Hola fellow recording amigos, yer friendly Octoruss here.

You know, for years I have been a proud owner of a Roland 1680, which I have loved dearly. But now I'm in the process of moving to Hong Kong from the US, and can't decide what recording equipment to take with me. A friend suggested that I make the jump to PC-based recording, and that's starting to make a lot of sense to me.

My question for you would be as follows:
1) Can I run a simple version of ProTools or Cakewalk on a laptop? Or would a desktop be inherently better?
2) What would be the suggested hardware requirements for any PC? Would a 120GB HD suffice to do normal PC applications, plus be able to record and store song files?

Thanks for any advice you can give on this.
 
The HD size depends on how much recording you do. If you get a desktop, also remember to think about how your going to ship it. Ever see your luggage being THROWN onto the conveyer belt at the airport?

A good laptop should be fine for normal recording and stuff. You will need a firewire sound interface or something of the sort then.
 
The only reason I would not recommend a laptop is, your input interface.
Plus, upgrading your laptop gets expensive not to mention painful.
If you know nothing about computers I recommend you get your computer from an outfit like Gateway, Dell, Mac, etc. I know I've mentioned refurbished Dells in this forum before, and people will start rolling their eyes.
But (I swear I don't work for Dell, I don't make money from Dell, I'm not even sure I could advocate for them), Dell refurbished computers give you a full system for low cost, one year warranty (unless you want to pay for more) and all you have to do is break the box open and use it.
Granted if you want a Audio card, you'll have to put that in yourself. I would recommend any M-Audio card (especially the Delta 44 which I own).
Some people will recommend you build your own, the latest and greatest right now. My theory is basically this.
1. How much time do you want to spend working on the computer as suppose to using your computer?
2. How much knowledge of computers do you have, and is it going to become your work horse (meaning, will you e-mail, post on this forum, pay your bills, etc)?
3. How much money are you going or want to spend ($400, $800, $1,200) and how long do you plan on keeping your computer for?
4. No matter what computer you buy or build it will be old in 5 years. The computer industry is not like the Audio industry where you can still use microphones or mixer from twenty or thirty years ago. My 5 years old computer is a dog compare to my year old computer, and if I want to upgrade its memory, it costs me more than just buying a new computer.
(Trust me this last one is true even for rack mounted servers that you pay hundred of thousand of dollars for).

My recommendation if you like working on stuff other than recording, then build your own. If you don't then buy a refurbish (I don't care from who) from IBM, Gateway, Dell, or Mac. One outfit which I've had experience and it has not been good was HP. HP now owns Compaq (another outfit which I would not recommend).

Just a FYI. I currently work with Dell computers at home, and at work. I've worked with Gateways, Compaq (Wouldn't recommended to my enemies), IBM (their okay, but I wouldn't go with them either), and SUN computers in a professional basis.
I have never worked with MAC, but aside from the regular issues (finding software for them, and that they are expensive) I've never heard a Mac user complain.
HP where okay when Radio Shack sold them, now I would only use them as paperweights.

I work for the Department of Defense and I do not make money from Dell, IBM, Compaq, Mac, SUN, Gateway or any other outfit. I do know people who work at INTEL, Microsoft, and HP. Just want to give you a little background as to where my opinion is comming from.
 
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This system will be plenty fast. Just add monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Putting a system together is actually a lot easier than it appears.


ANTEC Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply, Model "SONATA"
Item# N82E16811129127
$99.99

NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black, Model ND-3500A BK, OEM
Item# N82E16827152032
$62.99

Hitachi 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model HDS722516VLSA80 Part# 13G0254, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822145051
$97.00

Crucial 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - OEM
Item# N82E16820146532
$67.89

CHAINTECH nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 Athlon 64 CPU, Model "VNF3-250" -RETAIL
$76.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail
Item# N82E16819103486
$150.00

Product total: $553.87
 
i would take whattaguys config (maybe with a beefier power supply)
over a dell anytime.
although to be fair i DO KNOW many folks happy with dell.
 
Dells, IMO, are mass-produced crap, that are often proprietary. Waste of money.

Besides, that $550 computer can clean the clock of the cheap Dell. It's not a fair comparison. The "recommended" computer for $540 is a Celeron 2.4Ghz, with onboard video, a 40gig HD, and a DVD-ROM (not writeable). Yikes.

For better comparison, I just built a Sempron 2400+ system for $200 (case, motherboard, RAM, processor; already had the HD and optical). Add a 160gig HD ($85) and a DVD-R/W ($64) and Windows XP Home ($80) = $429.

Better yet; skip Windows and do the Planet CCRMA FC1 Linux solution, and get all the software legitimately free.
 
Dracon said:
Just a FYI. I currently work with Dell computers at home, and at work. I've worked with Gateways, Compaq (Wouldn't recommended to my enemies), IBM (their okay, but I wouldn't go with them either), and SUN computers in a professional basis.
I have never worked with MAC, but aside from the regular issues (finding software for them, and that they are expensive) I've never heard a Mac user complain.
HP where okay when Radio Shack sold them, now I would only use them as paperweights.

I work for the Department of Defense and I do not make money from Dell, IBM, Compaq, Mac, SUN, Gateway or any other outfit. I do know people who work at INTEL, Microsoft, and HP. Just want to give you a little background as to where my opinion is comming from.
Click to expand...

It's curious that you say all this, because being in IT for awhile now, Dell is the worst when it comes to support for servers, and HP is by far the best. IBM laptops are awesome, and their support is without equal. Stuff is there next day for both HP and IBM, and their policies for warranties are awesome.

Of course, we're private sector, not government, so your mileage may vary. Maybe Dell gives all the good stuff to the government, and sells their crap to private businesses. :D
 
polaris. if you could post your track/plug in counts with the sempron and general performance i would be thankfull, as i'm trying to help some friends who cant afford amd 64 and are looking at sempron. the sempron is quite new and thus stats are difficult to come by. i know it will do 40 tracks but would like your feedback. thanks.
 
Manning! You're back! I thought maybe the mofos drove you off... should have known better. Vacation? Somewhere warm, with gentle breezes and string bikinis I hope.

How do you think the Sempron compares to the Athlon XP in terms of performance? In terms of price? From what I've seen the Athlon XP is a little more expensive (not much). I wonder what that buys, if anything, in performance?
 
Polaris20 said:
It's curious that you say all this, because being in IT for awhile now, Dell is the worst when it comes to support for servers, and HP is by far the best. IBM laptops are awesome, and their support is without equal. Stuff is there next day for both HP and IBM, and their policies for warranties are awesome.
Click to expand...
I don't know about IBM laptops, or HP laptops for that matter. I didn't say that IBM had a bad rep, I would personally not go with IBM (my choice). Now that being said, I work with the goverment and my company also uses Dell. However, with over 10,000 employees in my company and with plenty of computers bought by the goverment I've never had a problem with Dell's service. I can't speak for you or your company.
I've had keyboard and mice delivered the next day, and had video cards delivered the same day I called in the problem for my workstations. As for my servers, when I've encountered problems (like a bad fan), Dell support has sent me fans, and everything else I could think of the next day.
I've had experience in dealing with HP but that was over three years ago, and I know that the company has been under new management the last couple of years, as well as Compaq. Driver issue, hardware issues and everyone I worked with at the test bed hated the Compaq computers.
Perhaps if you work in IT and are having problems with Dell then, you need to go with an other outfit. I can tell you that anything you will buy today Dell, IBM, Compaq, HP, Gateway, MAC are all mass produced.
Even the motherboard you buy at your local mom and pop store is mass produced. Otherwise you would be buying Joe's nobody motherboard. All the components for all of you computers are mass produced overseas, and shipped to the U.S.
I own a Dell at home, and had 0 (Zero) issues since I've owned it.
As for work, yeah we get a Gold membership support or something to call, so we probably get better treatment than say Joe shmoe company with 10 Dells.
However, I've never had a bad experience with Dell, that's only me and my experience. I'm hardly the black hole of IT Guru that know it all. :rolleyes:
 
wheelama. happy new year to you. and to everyone else.
to answer your question on the sempron. this is my "gut reaction".
i think its a sleeper that gradually people will come to realise is a high value powerfull processor. if amd keep the pricing aggressive i think youll see it end up in a lot of laptops and daw's once more real world multitracking stats are known. paired with high speed drives or even 10k drives and good memory i think one would have a great low cost daw. in my area some "white box" builders are puffing out sempron systems starting UNDER 300 bucks cdn which is an amazing price. the amd 64's are sure nice...but imho you could get a heck of a lot done with a sempron as well.
remember the processor is but one part of the overall pc architecture.
very fast drives and good memory have a significant impact.
i wouldnt be surprised if some people start reporting 60 tracks maybe more with a sempron. but we shall see.
btw - i was just enjpying christmas with my family. thanks. also
i was rather sad as one of my dear relatives lost her husband at a young age. needless to say she and the rest of us are devastated.
have a good new years. peace.
 
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