Please help me pick out a PC (newbie, well sorta)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve L.
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Steve L.

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I have been recording for the last month or so on my laptop using USB and n-tracks.

I am planning to get a decent desktop soon (mainly to record with) and was wondering what I should look out for.

I know I need lots of ram but I'm not really sure how much I need in numbers. Also I'm not sure what type of PC to get Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway etc...are they pretty much equal for recording purposes? I will be buying a good soundcard or possibly sticking with USB - or both ;)

Any help would be great...
 
I would suggest going with a generic computer. That way you’re not dealing with a bunch of programs you don’t need. It’s also easier to upgrade generic computers. If you must go with name brand, I would suggest Dell. The company has grown a lot since I last looked at them, but three years ago their computers were much less proprietary than other name brands. Get as much ram as you can afford. I would start with 512 or more (also look at the system requirements of the programs you’ll be using). And I would suggest going with a SCSI hard drive. These will be much faster than the standard IDE drives. If you do go with IDE look into setting up two drives with a RAID 0 array. As far as OS, I need to upgrade myself and I’m having trouble picking between WIN 2000 and XP, so if anyone has a take on the pros and cons of these OS’s I’d like to hear it.
 
Gentlemen, start your engines!

DAWs fall into two major camps. IBM compats and Macs. This post will not address Macs.

IBM Compats fall into two major camps. Roll your own (RYO) and Factory. Pros and cons:
  • RYO can be built by a local shop or by yourself. Look to Multiwave or NewEgg for parts.
  • RYO gets the best components. You choose the video adapter, the HDD, the motherboard, the memory, the monitor, keyboard, mouse, yadda, yadda, yadda.
  • RYO is much easier to fix and upgrade.
  • Factory provides better hand-holding, but consider, hand-holding must be paid for. A Dell box for $400 may appear to be a hell of a deal, but consider all that $400 has to buy. How good do you think the hardware is going to be??
  • Factory bundles a bunch of SHIT onto their PCs... I am going to have to reformat my wife's Dell just to get a clean install.
  • Factory are always proprietary in some way. Though I do not know this in my personal experience I have been told that Dells use a non-standard powersupply that will fry any normal motherboard you slap in there. This is, in my opinion, an unethical method to lock you into one manufacturer and insure a future profit stream. Factory has a vested interest in keeping you tethered, whereas RYO manufactureres have a vested interest in keeping their products compatible with everyone else.
I consider it well worth your time and money to learn how to roll your own.
 
Build your own, or get someone to build one for you. It's the only way you will get what you want.

Video Card - Well, unless you want to play demanding games you won't need a fantastic card. An AGP card with 64mb memory will do fine. However if I was building my computer again I would get a card that can do dual monitors.

RAM - Get as much as you can afford, and the quickest too (400Mhz is about it). 512MB is considered the minimum for audio nowadays

Hard Disk - It's nice to have 2 of these. One for the operating system and program files and the other for your audio files. 40gb will do fine for the os drive, get as big as you can for the audio disk. Also make sure it's pretty quick.

Processor - Well, you can go Intel or AMD. I use an Athon-XP which works fine for me, others prefer pentium 4s. If the software you're using supports hyper-threading go with a P4 that supports it. Go for speed here, the more the better. Hyperthreading P4s start at 3gHz. You also need to check the front bus speed because intel make some of their processors in 533mHz and 800mHz FBS. Whatever you do DO NOT use celerons or durons.

Motherboard - What's the point in getting all these super quick components if your board can't support it. So make sure the board supports the processor and ram speed, DDR2? ram, whatever the quickest ATA speed is etc. You can also get boards with built in soundcards which is nice because it will keep windows away from your recording card.

The thing I hate most about my computer is the noise! I mean there's 4 fans in there. You can buy power supplies, CPU coolers and video cards without fans, and I wish I had. It's like starting up a vacuum cleaner each time I use my computer.

Sorry if this is a bit of a rant, but.... yeah....
 
I'll take somewhat the opposing view. I have seven Dell PCs and have had nothing but good luck with them. They have proven to be low cost quality gear with good support. I wouldn't change a thing.

However, it does depend somewhat on what your recording goals are. Just about any PC can handle recording of a few tracks and the mixdown process. Recording many tracks at a time is another story.

The original references was to USB, which is not always the best approach for multi-track recording. Knowing more about Steve L goals for tracks and use would make it easier to recommend a system.

Ed
 
I just like knowing exactly what I've got under the hood. I also like saving money. Those advanceddesignky.com look alright. I'd pick one of their computers, buy the parts and build it myself.
 
It is always kind of fun to do this sort of exercise, to see how much computer is available now.

The cost of this system is $1,402 wholesale. You'd most likely pay 25% to 40% more retail.

It starts with a Thermatake case. The case has FIVE fans that can be dialed up or down from the fan controller on the front of the case. Thermaltake cases look rather too radical for my taste, but they are known to be cool and quiet. The power supply is a 420 watt, also by Thermaltake.

The motherboard is an ASUS (my fav) P4P800 SE with a Intel P4 3.2GHz/800Mhz FSB processor and a gigabyte of DDR400 RAM (two sticks). It has SATA raid, gigabyte LAN, etc..

The application drive is a 80 gig 7,200rpm 8mb cache Ultra-IDE drive and the music drive is a 74 gig 10,000rpm 8mb cache SATA drive.

The system uses a DVD rewritable drive that can cut both DVD-R and CD-R.

The video adapter is an ASUS GeForce FX-5200 with 128mb of RAM, and dual display support.

The Microsoft keyboard and mouse are both wireless, the mouse is optical.

The OS is Windows XP Professional.

Now if I can just get a job so I could buy this!!!
 
I recently built a new PC, mostly for gaming, but also for music recording & mixing. I had GREAT success with Newegg.com, which also has posts from other users and what parts they used to build their PC. Great site, great prices, amazing service.

I ended up build a pretty hot rig for about $1200, but this included cannibalizing a few parts from an old PC.

I ended up with an Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz, 1 Gig RAM, 180Gb hard drive, Asus P4P800 MB, ATI Radeon 9800 videocard AIW, SB Audigy 2, Sony DVD RW, Lite-On CD-RW, Win XP Pro-- ALL WITHOUT PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE JUNK on my hard drive.

NOTE: The Hyperthreaded Intel processors actually start BELOW 3Ghz, contrary to above post. Mine is HT at 2.8Ghz, and I believe there are 2.6Ghz HT processors.

The advantage of build-your-own is that you control what goes on and in your PC. I would certainly buy a Dell, but I would reformat the HD and reinstall to my liking.

Go to Newegg.com, no regrets there.
 
Was curious about the latest Dell prices. I checked it out and was pretty surprised.

You can get a P4, 3.0 GHz, 256mb RAM, 80gb disk, AND a 15-inch flat panel monitor for only $1019. It has "hyperthreading" technology (which the latest SONAR makes use of) and is supposedly dual monitor-ready. E-value code: 6V414-830XPSU.

Even better: upping the RAM to 512mb is only an extra $50 and adding a second 40gb hard drive is only another $70. So I'm looking at an $1139 complete package (sans speakers and CD burner which I already have).

They even have "no interest till April 2005" so you don't even have to come up with the bulk of the cash until next year -- no extra cost.

I know that you can build your own system for probably much less than this, but I don't think building your own system is for everyone. It's definitely not for me.

Anyone think this is not a good deal?

Oh, *supposedly* the price will go up $100 after tonight. And the flat-panel deal expires tomorrow. Dunno if I believe that or not.

Also. Yeah, I would totally wipe the HD and get rid of all the garbage.
 
kevinb9n said:
Was curious about the latest Dell prices. I checked it out and was pretty surprised.

You can get a P4, 3.0 GHz, 256mb RAM, 80gb disk, AND a 15-inch flat panel monitor for only $1019. It has "hyperthreading" technology (which the latest SONAR makes use of) and is supposedly dual monitor-ready. E-value code: 6V414-830XPSU.

Even better: upping the RAM to 512mb is only an extra $50 and adding a second 40gb hard drive is only another $70. So I'm looking at an $1139 complete package (sans speakers and CD burner which I already have).

They even have "no interest till April 2005" so you don't even have to come up with the bulk of the cash until next year -- no extra cost.

I know that you can build your own system for probably much less than this, but I don't think building your own system is for everyone. It's definitely not for me.

Anyone think this is not a good deal?

Oh, *supposedly* the price will go up $100 after tonight. And the flat-panel deal expires tomorrow. Dunno if I believe that or not.

Also. Yeah, I would totally wipe the HD and get rid of all the garbage.
Click to expand...

$1019 and you don't even get a 17" display???

That's a rip-off man...

You can put a system together yourself that will put that one to shame and still have money left over for a 17" or 18" flat panel!

If you know how to plug things into other things, you can build your own computer.
 
I think you missed the part where I said that building your own PC is not for everyone.

I'm glad it's easy for you and has helped you save money. I'm really happy for you. Personally, I prefer to spend extra money over spending all the time and energy it would take to make all the right buying decisions for all the individual parts. And I don't think I'm alone in that.

Now does anyone think this is a "rip-off" for a computer that actually comes put together?
 
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I don't think there is any chance one could build a PC like that and have $ left over for an 18" flat panel display. The cost for an 18" flat panel starts at about $700.

I always go with Dell, and have never had a problem. I have not looked lately, but the best deals at Dell are usually in the small business area.

I bought a 2.4 GHz Dell with 256mb RAM, 80gb disk, CD burner a few months ago for $350 (no monitor).

Ed
 
I'd agree with Ed. Although I was able to build a high-end PC fairly cheaply, Dell still offers the most price- and value-competitive PC. If I wasn't an anal-control-freak-geek, I'd buy a Dell (and have before)...
 
Ed Dixon said:
The cost for an 18" flat panel starts at about $700.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you haven't been out shopping lately...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...26531&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01013

That still leaves around $600 for your system which is more than enough for a decent Athlon based setup.

Pentium systems are overpriced to say the least.

Dell's customer support satisfaction has been on the decline for the last couple of months. They are running into problems.
 
brzilian said:
Dell's customer support satisfaction has been on the decline for the last couple of months. They are running into problems.
Click to expand...

I have seven Dells, and the're the most solid PCs I have owned to date. I have no complaints about their quality or service.

Then there is the question of time and effort. Some (kevinb9n mentioned this himself) just don't want to roll their own. Others see time as $, which has the effect of raising the effective cost of a home built.

Ed
 
Building computers isn't as scary as it sounds either. You can get advice from people about what parts to buy, or buy parts similar to what you would get in that Dell (or whatever) you were looking at. Suprisingly most parts and wires will only fit where they are supposed to go anyway. However, you can have a fun time getting the thing to run once you've put it together, so I guess this is still not for everyone.

Some people service their own car, others pay a mechanic to do it. No different, as long as you end up with a result you are happy with.
 
Ed Dixon said:
I have seven Dells, and the're the most solid PCs I have owned to date. I have no complaints about their quality or service.
Click to expand...

Try "were" the most solid PC's...

I used to do systems integration 5 years ago right about the time Dell started designing proprietary cases and using non standard configurations. I probably integrated over 100 Dells into interactive kiosks. There were just as many DOA's as any other company we were sourcing computers from (Compaq, IBM). Fact of the matter Dell PC's aren't anything special.

Micheal Dell himself admitted in this month's issue of Business 2.0 that the only way they can keep up with the competition is to design and build/maufacture systems and certain components (hardware included) themselves. Problem is that's nothing new. Compaq was already doing that 10 years ago. Look where Compaq is now - they were in trouble and got bought out by HP!

Truth of the matter is any pre-assembled system that makes use of proprietarty components is not as upgradeable as a system you put together yourself. Sure you're paying more for someone else to do it, but also aknowedge you're wasting your money on something that has a shorter lifespan as well.

What is really sad is that users here in the forum most likely have higher demands when it comes to performance. Dell along with other big box manufactuers make systems that are nothing impressive performance wise compared to a do-it-youself system unless you fork over $2000-$3000 on their top of the line crap.
 
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