Need advice on desktop for DAW

[Jase]

Hi I'm new to this forum, glad I found it, plenty of knowlegeable folks here. I am looking to get my first computer for music production, I plan to run a sequencing program with a few softsynths and other plugins,maybe a couple of tracks of external source recording(vocals, rack synth). Right now best buy has an Emachines model t4892 for $499,please let me know if this will work.

I can add 256mb PNY ram(pc2700)for $49,total of 512mb. Will 400mhz FSB be fast enough?Also I heard that integrated graphics is a bad thing, does that mean the motherboard is inferior or can I just get an AGP card and disable the shared graphics and be okay? thanks

here are the specs:

Processor Brand Intel® Pentium® 4 processor

Processor Speed 2.8GHz

System Bus 400MHz

Cache Memory 512KB L2

System Memory (RAM) 256MB

System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 2.0GB

Type of Memory (RAM) PC2700 DDR SDRAM

Hard Drive Type Ultra DMA EIDE

Hard Drive Size 80.0GB

Video Memory 64MB DDR (shared)

Graphics Intel® Extreme Graphics 3D

MPEG Yes

Audio AC '97

Speakers Yes

Modem 56 Kbps* ITU V.92 *Capable of receiving 56 Kbps downloads. However, current regulations limit download speed to 53 Kbps.

Network Card Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

CD-ROM Drive No

Maximum CD-ROM Drive Speed No CD-ROM drive

CD-RW Drive Yes

CD-RW Drive Speeds 48x24x48

DVD-ROM Drive No

Removable Storage None

Diskette Drive No

Diskette Drive Type No diskette drive

Total Expansion Bays 4 (3.5"), 2 (5.25")

Available Expansion Bays 2 (3.5"), 1 (5.25")

Total Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 1 AGP

Available Expansion Slots 2 PCI, 1 AGP

USB Ports 5 USB 2.0 (4 back, 1 in media reader)

Parallel Ports 1

IEEE 1394 Ports 0

Serial Ports 1

Game Ports 0

 

[ds21]

I was just said to my friend yesterday "it's amazing what $500 will get you", I was taking about his new camcorder, but the same with computers, the biggest drawback I see is the motherboard, one of the first thing I look for is expandability, with only 2 PCI slots available and no firewire, you could always upgrade the MB later, but you might want to look at what it would cost to build your own.

But it is fast enough (add more memory, yes).

 

[Jase]

is there a way to get firewire like a USB adapter ot something? Does the integrated video make it an inferior motherboard?

 

[ds21]

is there a way to get firewire like a USB adapter ot something? Does the integrated video make it an inferior motherboard?

You can get a pci firewire card, and I'm not saying you'll even need it, but it's nice to have built-in. I'm not sure about the onboard video and interference, but it will most likly take away form some performance. But like I said for future expandabilty, I'm getting into music to music-to-video/film, and for some stuff I use a PCI video capture card (I also use it as my own tivo), I've got a PCI wireless card, plus I've got my audio card which I'm getting another for 16 inputs that's 2 more PCI's, but a lot of stuff you can get good performance with usb or firewire, so you could bet by, but like I said you could always upgrade your motherboard later for around $100 you can get a decent one.