Pc Based Daw For Under $700

[Polaris20]

Just for the sake of debate, as to whether Dell (or any OEM) is that great of a deal, when you look at machines suitable for a DAW:

Dell Dimension XPS, "built" on Dell.com
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz 800FSB
1 gig DDR400
(2) 120 gig SATA
48x CDRW
16X DVD-ROM
Radeon 9800
17" CRT
Windows XP Home

Total $2,312.00

Polaris M28* (I like the sound of that )
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz 800FSB
1 gig DDR400 (Crucial)
(2) 120 gig SATA (Seagate)
52x CDRW (Lite-On)
16X DVD-ROM (Lite-On)
Radeon 9800 Pro Ultimate (Sapphire)
17" CRT (NEC/Mitsubishi flatscreen)
Windows XP Home

Total $1,655.96

*Includes:
Logitech Optical Desktop
Antec Sonata case
Abit IS7 motherboard with Intel D865PE chipset

My system will be quieter, with the Sonata case, Seagate drives, and the Ultimate AGP, which has a heatsink instead of the fan.

That's also a legal copy of XP, no downloads or cracks here.

I think it's a good deal, unless the person buying it makes more than $657 an hour, in which case time is money

Sure, Dell (or HP, Compaq,etc.) have great $499 doorbuster deals and sometimes financing deals.

But IMO it's worth following the step by step instructions on TomsHardware.com and learning how to do it yourself.

To me, it's like the difference between fixing something around the house and calling someone to come fix it.

 

[Ed Dixon]

I'm assuming you mean "experts", not "expects". I have worked with many experts, and do not know one that would ever buy a pre-built computer.

If you can read, you can put together a computer.

Yes, experts was intended. The lack of a spell checker in boards is a problem for me.

Amoung other things, I do telephone tech support. We divide folks into three categories. Cat 1 are novices, cat 2 experienced users, and cat 3 experts. Half the calls are cat 1. Only about 10% are cat 3, the only foks capable of building a PC. The percent of those who have built is considerably less than 1% of callers.

Again, it's a personal preference. My reading of board folks in music forums is that most are either cat 1 or cat 3, with fewer cat 2 folks. Basically tinker types or player types. Tinker types (me) will take anything apart and don't heasitate to try. Player types don't even want to know how, they just want it to work. There are 7 in the band I play with. Two tinker types and 5 player types.

I buy PCs and then customize as needed by adding whatever parts are necessary for the intended task. What I build is music gear, floor pedals and rack accessories to improve the options I have when playing live. Most of these are things you can't buy, and that's where I spend my tinker time.

Ed