Rate my Custom Recording PC

  • Thread starter Thread starter jason_m.
  • Start date Start date
J

jason_m.

New member
Intel Pentium 4 motherboard
Western Digital 300 gig hard drive - main system drive
Western Digital 300 gig hard drive - secondary drive
Sony CD writer
Wireless Cable/DSL high speed internet modem module
Audiophile sound card


Any suggestions and/or comments are welcome. This will be my first real recording setup and I want to do it right the first time.
I would like to experiment with as many recording programs and plug-ins as possible. So I'd like my system to allow me that freedom without any major incompatibility problems, or any problems at all for that matter. Let me know what you think!
Thanks
 
rate of ur studio

not bad... nice harddrives... get about 512 ram... if i were u i wouldnt have wasted money for 600 gigs of hard drive... not neccessary.... i run on 40...200 would be nice... i would have gotten 200 and got maybe hte delta 66 or 1010..my opinion...but that comp will work fine.. for a program to use... if ur a newb like me...go with cooledit pro.. download of kazaa or somethin... if ur better than use cakewalk... i heard it rocks... and pros use it too... good luck on ur studio.. my studio is lbc studios ..aim sn is L2B2C if u wanna chat..peace out
 
Hard to say without knowing the model & make of the motherboard...or how much and what kind of memory....or the processor ...or the power supply ..and how you're going to cool it...video card...etc.

Unless you have a lot of money to spend, I wouldn't go throwing it all at 300GB hard drives unless you plan on working with video. 60GB is still a very usable and affordable size for audio work.

lbcstudio: publically recommending that people steal software is frowned upon in this forum.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Dude, you must mean 30gb. Do 300gb hard drives even exist??

Definitely 512mb RAM
Good fast video card too. I think it's important for the rendering of the waves of the sound files. Otherwise, you sit, and sit, and sit...get my drift?

what else? everything else is pretty cool. you'll need software...I have Sonar 2.0 XL, Sound Forge 6, and couple other cheap programs. N-track is pretty good too and inexpensive.

kt
 
Re: rate of ur studio

lbcstudios said:
if i were u i wouldnt have wasted money for 600 gigs of hard drive... not neccessary....
Click to expand...
Oh really?? :rolleyes: Ever work with video??


lbcstudios said:
...go with cooledit pro.. download of kazaa or somethin...
Click to expand...
More great advice -- recommending people steal s/w.... :rolleyes:


Look, kid... if I were you I'd keep quiet until you get a feel for the community here - before you REALLY stick your foot in your mouth.... I *know* you're 15, and all of a sudden, you know everything there is to know.... but some of us have been 15 a lot longer than you have............
 
I won't even touch the Kazaa topic.

As far as the computer goes, Without actual model numbers, nobody here will be able to help you. There are specific issues with specific models of everything. A little more info and you'll get more useful responses.
 
I know one thing if you bulding a fresh computer, you dont want to stick Kazaa on their, it feels your computer up with so much spyware...

Ill go with cable instead of dsl, I hear many people have problems with dsl, I have the audiophile great card ;), If 300 gig hard drives exist then greeeeeeeeeeeeat choice hehe, I have a 80 gig hard drive works good for me.. Theres a 100gig hard drive out..might want to get that one ..
 
If those hdds are identical you could've gone RAID (basically two hard drives that act as one).

Also, I've seen harddrives up to 250gb in consumer PC's but they're still kind of uncommon (as far as I know), sure you don't mean two 30gb drives?
 
If you can afford it, put the internet thing in a different pc and use that one for surfing/office/gaming... don't do anything but audio on the DAW, you'll have greater benefit from that than from having the fastest, biggest pc in the world.

Also get yourself 1Gb of memory and TURN OF PAGING .... that was like the best thing I ever did.

Two 30Gb HDDs ... might consider a 30 for apps/windows and a bigger one for audio.


Oh yeah... you won't do it right from the first time. From now on you will be on a quest to have more, better, more expensive, higher, lower, deeper, warmer, more open, faster, easier, ...
:cool:


Herwig
 
If the pc is going to be in the same room as the microphone then you better take noise into consideration. You are better off with slightly lower performing but much quieter components so that you get a silent pc.

Eg get seagate barracuda IV or V harddrive instead of WD, a zalman cpu cooler and power supply. 1 large harddrive is quieter than 2 smaller ones and frankly all 7200rpm drives are more than fast enough for most home recordists needs so harddrive performance is not really an issue.

Lots of info at www.silentpcreview.com

Also consider a Echo Mia or MiaMidi. The measured sound quality is a little better than the Audiophile and it has balanced inputs and outputs. Echo has great driver support. Soundcard reviews can be found at www.sospubs.co.uk
 
blue bear idiot

ok here blue bear sound... 600 gigs....ever work with video??? well the last time i checked hte conversation was based on audio... and from what i read, this guy doesnt plan on doin video from wat i read... so 600 gigs is not needed... 100 would be more than enough... and maybe its not the best thing to do... dl software..my bad.... im doin it cause i dont make 30,000 grand a year at the age of 15, so for now i have to unless i want to buy the software and be stuck with one mic and and a soundblaster sound card....but ur right..if u got money.. buy it
 
Re: Re: rate of ur studio

Blue Bear Sound said:
but some of us have been 15 a lot longer than you have............
Click to expand...

ROFL

That rates right up there with "Dejavu all over again"

LMAO
 
Re: blue bear idiot

lbcstudios said:
ok here blue bear sound... 600 gigs....ever work with video??? well the last time i checked hte conversation was based on audio... and from what i read, this guy doesnt plan on doin video from wat i read... so 600 gigs is not needed... 100 would be more than enough... and maybe its not the best thing to do... dl software..my bad.... im doin it cause i dont make 30,000 grand a year at the age of 15, so for now i have to unless i want to buy the software and be stuck with one mic and and a soundblaster sound card....but ur right..if u got money.. buy it
Click to expand...

[rant]
Or you could just accept the fact that you can't afford the software in your current state and just don't get it. You know there are cheaper alternatives that would work out there?

I can't believe the pervasive mentality out there today that it is ok to steal something because you can't afford it. Go get a job or give up your pot or something. Or I know...how about maybe you don't record anything at all if you can't afford to buy what you need and work on your chops. That will pay better dividends down the road anyway.

This fucking moral relativism just fucking pisses me off.

If I were your Dad I'd be all over your ass about this kind of stuff. :mad:

[/rant]
 
And in our next episode...Jagular tells everyone what he really thinks.
 
KevinTran said:
And in our next episode...Jagular tells everyone what he really thinks.
Click to expand...

I considered the fact that the kid is only 15 and actually toned down what I really wanted to say ;) :D
 
Okay... Do you care to explain what the F is for? Or are you just being extremely immature?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your help everyone, I have alot more to think about now.
 
jason_m. said:
Intel Pentium 4 motherboard
Western Digital 300 gig hard drive - main system drive
Western Digital 300 gig hard drive - secondary drive
Sony CD writer
Wireless Cable/DSL high speed internet modem module
Audiophile sound card


Any suggestions and/or comments are welcome. This will be my first real recording setup and I want to do it right the first time.
I would like to experiment with as many recording programs and plug-ins as possible. So I'd like my system to allow me that freedom without any major incompatibility problems, or any problems at all for that matter. Let me know what you think!
Thanks
Click to expand...

If this is the first setup of yours, and you are not rich, there are a few things I would change.

First of all, Athlon instead of Pentium...because it is cheaper. There are arguments about which processor works best for aaudio, and most technical ones I have heard say go with Athlon, but really they are fairly close. But, Athlon is cheaper.

Secondly, I might tone down the 300 G harddrives. If they do exist, they are most certainly expensive, and I really do think, overkill for a first time setup. Unless of course you are recording at insane bitrates, in which the only thing to be able to tell a difference is a computer, not your ears. However, if you have the money why not, eventually I am sure you will be wanting more space, as are we all.

Thirdly, if it's pure audio, forget about the internet connection. Get a different computer specifically for internet fun.

512 mb RAM is pretty universally reccomended minimum from what I can see.

Everything else looks good. This is what I would do, not neccesarily what you should do :D. I think the choice for a soundcard is the best for a first time setup. From there eventually you will want to upgrade of course, but for now it is both cost and record efficient.

Most of what I would change is based purely on monetary reasoning. If you want to save some money in that setup, I'm sure you can. If it isn't a major concern for you however, I am sure that your setup listed will also work just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top