Proposed rig for PC rec newbie

  • Thread starter Thread starter Progger
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Progger

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Alright, for a while now I've been recording on a Fostex VF-80 with a Behringer Eurorack 1204FX-Pro, which has been nice, but not robust enough. The simple embedded sys is hardly enough to compete with a GUI. So, I plan on finding a good deal on a used laptop on Ebay (Specs will probably be around P2 400MHz and under, 128MB ram, likely a 4GB hd, will upgrade to something bigger) to use with n-Track. The USB interface I plan on buying is the "MAudio MobilePre 2x2 16-Bit 48kHz USB Interface with Microphone Preamp." I have no need of features like phantom power on the USB interface, since I'm using an outboard mixer. My question is, will this rig be powerful enough? All I'm looking for here is something that will adaquately perform its function and be portable.
 
I'm no expert, but your idea for your cheap laptop is a bad one to me.
How long do you think that will last? Maybe a week, and then you'll want more memory and a bigger harddrive so you can record more tracks and more songs.

Save up and buy and new one, or buy a used one with 1.0GHz, 512MB RAM, and 40HDD.

My $0.02.

P.S. Nice avatar! :p
 
You know, I would buy a better machine, but the thing is I have no way of saving up money, since I have no job and spend too much time on homework (AP Euro's a bitch sometimes). n-Track's sys reqs are Pentium 160 and higher, and 32 mb. I figure I'm pretty safe with a lower-end machine, and some laptops on Ebay have 30-day warrantees. I know that I'll be getting at least a 20GB hd to replace the smaller one, I'm taking that into account. Thing is, how many tracks do you think a weak processor can handle? (If that's an issue at all. I have no experience with this.)

P.S. Thanks about my avatar. Where are you in CT? I'm southern Litchfield county. It totally sucks around here, what with all the hicks!
 
Do not buy a used laptop unless you have a big company (i.e. Dell) backing it for as long as you intend to keep it. Let me be crystal clear... if you intend to keep this for three years, have three years of insurance/warranty/whatever. During my tenure at Nestle we went through laptops like fire through dry grass. Displays failed the most, followed by hard drives, then keyboards. You cannot fix these things yourself.... without a warranty all you can do is throw them away. You are far far better getting a desktop. Cheap, powerful, and fixable.
 
Well, I do have a couple of old cases lying around that I could re-outfit for about as much as a used laptop. My only real concern with that is that a CRT monitor (of which I have some spares) would be difficult to fit in the area in which I record. I could always find a way to make it work, though. Question: I'll be moving around with my computer a lot, so can a desktop handle frequent moves?
 
I would suggest a micro-atx motherboard (this is an example... a Shuttle MN31N motherboard (incl. SVGA adapter on the board and FireWire) with an AMD XP 2700+ 333Mhz FSB processor, and 1GB of DDR333 RAM costs $338. This fits into a tiny case that is very portable. Don't worry about the hard drives unless you are world class Klutz.
 
If you get the MobilePre definitely use those preamps instead of the Behringer Preamps. I did a comparison last night between my M-Audio pres and the Behringer pres and there is no comparison.

I did quite a bit of audio work on a P-III 450Mhz using Pro Audio 9. It wasn't the fastest and I occasioanlly got dropouts after loading a lot of effects but got it done.

Laptops suck though. Especially used ones. They are expensive to repair if they can even be repaired. If you need cheap build a desktop. If you need a laptop make some money. Do not cheap out on a laptop.
 
i second the build a desktop idea. if you need it to be REALLY small, then you can buy one of the "lunchbox" computers at newegg.com.
 
Drummer4Life05 said:
I'm not sure how much you were planning on spending, but check out this eBay company:
http://www.stores.ebay.com/pcsupersitecom

You can find some PC's there with no monitor, which will save big bucks.
Click to expand...
Do NOT buy these PCs! They are cheap because they are obsolete. The processor is a Duron, the embedded video is only 3D AGP. You could build this box yourself for $40 less than the sale price, but you'd still have a box that wouldn't meet your needs and you would have to pawn off on a greater fool.

A 17" monitor adds $110+ (depending where you buy it). Not exactly big bucks.
 
Obsolete?

Please tell me what is obsolete in that package.

And I, personally, would rather pay the $40 bucks to have them assemble it for me.
 
Decide on your soundcard first. Some card don't like some motherboard chiopsets.
 
spankenstein said:
Decide on your soundcard first. Some card don't like some motherboard chiopsets.
Click to expand...


Can you provide more info. on this, please?
I'm intrested in that.
 
spankenstein said:
Decide on your soundcard first. Some card don't like some motherboard chiopsets.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much set on the m-audio MobilePre. Think this will work with an Athlon processor?
 
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