stupid questions...

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chetbango

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I have done a search, and although it helped me alot, I still have a couple of questions...


First off, I'm planning a new machine, in the 1500 to 2000 range, not including monitor or speakers. I can build my own, as I have in the past, or if the price is reasonable, I could by an assembled one. I want a good gaming machine, so I plan on spending +/-300 bucks for the vid card alone.

Here is where I could use some help from some experts (y'all). I am interested in the new machine being a very simple type of home recording box. Like record a guitar track, and then adding a vocal and maybe another guitar track, maybe a drum/bass track. I don't forsee needing to record more than one or two lines at the same time. I am mostly concerned in ease of use over pro quality sound.
I have a crappy peavy 4 line PA, good quality guitars and amps, Sure SM58/57 mics.
I am obviosly a novice when it comes to recording, I have some limited experience on a TASCAM 4 track I used 5+ years ago, otherwise I have done little lately.
Can I build an adequate machine in this price range? I imagine I'll need a mixer eventually, but is there a sound card that I could plug straight into with either the mics, guitar or even through the PA's line out?
From doing the search I learned that 2 HD's are the way to go, should I get a RAID controller too?
I also learned the the sound blaster audigy ex is crap...so what sound card would you guys recommend? Would one with simple inputs paired with a mixer be better than one with a ton of inputs?

If anyone wants to take the time, I would be grateful to hear a "spec" for a machine in this price range ie MB, chip, RAM, soundcard, vid card, HD's, CD-RW's, RAID?, and any other devices that you may think would help. (like a mixer)

I have been searching for the answers, but the posts I have found are from people seemingly more interested in a much more powerful recording machine than I would likely use, so please forgive me if you feel like the answers I need are out there already. I am having a hard time separating hype from reality on many other websites.

Thanks again for your time.
 
any reasonably fast computer (>1.5ghz or so) will do fine as a small DAW. but definitely load up on RAM.

the advantage a soundcard with multiple inputs over a mixer with a stereo soundcard is that (for example) you could mic a drum kit with 6 mics, each to its own input, and compress/gate/eq each track separately, after the fact. but you will always need a preamp for each mic you use, whether it's part of a mixer or not.

on the other hand, if you only want/need to input two channels at a time, you could do very well with a good preamp and an M-Audio Audiophile soundcard, and save yourself a few hundred dollars.
 
ASUS mobo
Intel P4 2gig or higher
512mb Ram or higher {crucial, micron}
WD, Maxtor or Seagate drives 60gig or higher
Nvidia AGP graphics card or higher
No need for RAID

You can get an audiophile with a mixer or pre-amp box
Or a delta 1010LT

www.m-audio.com
 
Thank you for your input...How does this look? I would replace the soundcard...

BOARD: [533 MHZ FSB + HT READY] ASUS P4T533-C i850E CHIP 4X AGP MAIN BOARD W/USB 2.0 + 10/100 LAN (+ 74)
CARD_MEDIA: [SILVER] INTERNAL 6-IN-1 FLASH MEDIA READER/WRITER (+ 29)
CAS: [SILVER] CASE-A268, MID-TOWER + 350 WATT POWER .... [AS SHOWN]
CD: [SILVER] 16X DVD-ROM - SONY (+ 54)
CDRW: [SILVER] 48x16x48 CD-RW DRIVE (+ 19)
CPU: [533MHZ FSB] INTEL(TM) PENTIUM-4 2.40 GHZ (+ 699)
FAN: CERTIFIED CPU FAN, HEATSINK & 2 EXTRA CASE FANS (+ 9)
FDD: MITSUMI 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE
HDD: WESTERN DIGITAL 80 GB 7200 RPM ULTRA ATA-100 8MB CACHE BUFFER (+ 33)
HDD2: WESTERN DIGITAL 80 GB 7200 RPM ULTRA ATA-100 8MB CACHE BUFFER (+ 125)
IEEE1394: IEEE 1394 FIRE WIRE PCI CARD + CABLE + SOFTWARE (+ 39)
MEMORY: 512 MB RAMBUS PC1066 MEMORY [2-256MB] (+ 179)
OS: [NEW] MS WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL EDITION (+ 139)
POWER: UPGRADE TO 420 WATT POWER SUPPLY (+ 29)
RUSH: NO; SHIP OUT IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
SOUND: CREATIVE LAB SOUND BLASTER LIVE VALUE 5.1 (+ 35)
Subtotal: 1769.00
TEMP: [WHITE] THERMAL TEMPERATURE LCD DISPLAY WITH 3X FAN CONTROLLER (+ 19)
USB: STANDARD 2 USB PORTS + 2 EXTRA USB PORTS CONNECTOR (+ 9)
VIDEO: ** 8X AGP ** ATI RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB DDR W/ DVI + TV OUT 8X AGP VIDEO (+ 282)
 
Does the board support DDR Ram ? If so I would go with DDR
I would definately upgrade the power supply to 420 or 450
If you get a audiophile or 1010 or other, you can skip the SB.
The DVD-CD drive is a little on the slow side.
The WD's 80gig with 8mb buffer ?? EXCELLENT
 
if you'll be using mics nearby, i'd try to make the computer as quiet as possible. 3 "certified" fans for $9 could be adding some serious noise. also look to get a quiet power supply, like an Enermax Whisper.
 
Is 400mhz DDR better than 1086mhz RAMBUS?
I can upgrade to a Enermax EG465p for 90bucks and I could lose the fans.
 
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that's an excellent PSU.

i wasn't suggesting you lose the fans entirely ... i was just pointing out that a $3 fan probably won't be very quiet. it's very painless to get "top-notch" fans, as they're only $10 or so. a CPU fan and one case fan should be plenty, unless you're overclocking or you live in a sauna.
 
AMD

I think , looking into the AMD athlon line as opposed too P4's will save you a fair chunk of change, and perform just as well. I don't have anything that is top of the line, but so far my machine kicks ass in a lot of departments, including price.

(you probably dont want to hear this)

its an athlon xp 1800...A7N8X Deluxe mobo (has all kinds of onboard stuff, so you can use tit for a variety of functions) only 512 mb RAM...DDR tho.

There is also a 350 power supply. Enermax whisper. a thermalright heatsink and panaflo fan. It is still noisy, but not horribly noisy. In building the new machine (its jsut two weeks old) I had hoped for more improvement in this area, but i think realistically to record, its gotta be in another room or an ISO box. My old crappy compaq doesnt make much more noise than the new machine.

So far I have been able to run any application without problems. I should note that I am running XP pro, which i believe solved a huge amount of stability issues I was having in 98. As another side note running my delta 66 soundcard alongside the onboard has not been a problem.

I rack up a lot more kills in delta force now
:D .
The plan was never to use this machine for anything but recording, things change.

The biggest advantage with the athlon is price, so you can afford that expensive vid card, as well maybe some nice monitors.

Anyhow Im done ranting, best of luck on your new machine.
 
what brand of cdrw are you getting? 20 bucks sounds reeeeally cheap. And 16x for dvd isn't slow, 48x16x48 is a wee bit behind the top of the line, but not that bad. You can get a Lite-On CDRW drive thats 48x24x48 for 38 bucks and a DVD rom for 23...maybe even less nowadays. But if you're looking to drop 2000 just on the cpu you could get all kinds of goods. You might want to check out www.accessmicro.com and look at their complete systems. You can customize everything and they do an assembly/burn-in for 15 bucks! Thats well worth it to not have to hook all the stuff up when it comes to you in boxes.
dlv

p.s. - I wouldn't order the moniter from an online store, the shipping just isn't worth it. Just go down to a computer shop/retail store and buy one.
 
Just priced a system over there that will come out to about 2000.

P4 2.8ghz
Epox EP4G-4A MB (533FSB...DDR...etc)
1gb DDR RAm
Radeon 9700 pro
floppy, keyboard, mouse (optical)
Case w/ 400w power supply (you can look at their other cases)
WD 180gb HD w/ 8mb buffer
SB Audigy2 Platinum (this is for games right :P)
56k fax/modem
WinXP Pro

The CDRW and DVD-Rom drive I would get from another site..preferably wherever you find them cheapest. If you have issues with the cases then you can order it elsewhere as well, then just put the assembled mb/Mem/processor in it. You can purchase the card reader seperately if you want, but most digital camera's/video camera's will connect directly to your PC via USB as well. It might be more convenient to have the card reader, however.

Anyways..all the above after shipping will cost you probably about 1760, plus the cdrw and dvd +shipping for it will probably be about 1840.
 
Muskgrave, thanks for the input. Many of the prices next to the items on my list represent additional cost to a built system, not the entire price of a component, but the additional price to upgrade over the "stock" piece. This system was spec'ed on ibuypower.com. The total cost would be 1985, and they would build it.

I have a question. As I understand it, DDR memory is cheaper than RAMBUS and runs at 400mhz. RAMBUS runs at 1066mhz. Isn't RAMBUS better?

I tweaked a few thing on a new spec as follows:
two 80GB, 7200rpm, 8mb cache Western Digital hard drives,
2.4ghz, ASUS MB
512k of 1066mhz RAMBUS memory (DDR memory would be cheaper) should I go with DDR?
Both a CD and DVD RW (pioneer) and a 16x48x16 DVD/CD player (sony). I figure for a hundred or so more, it is worth it to get DVD writing capabilities, they can store over 5x what a CD can)
Firewire and USB connections, also a built in card reader/writer
MB based sound card and network card (i would put a good music recording type of SC in it)
ATI RADEONN 9700
Case with 450w Enermax power supply

Total cost (plus shipping) $1985, $60 more if I want it shipped within 3 days.
 
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..a horse of a different color!

Well!
I didn't know you were going to be getting a DVD-R. That sounds like a good deal to me then. I would swap the RDRAM for 1gb DDR..you probably will pay about the same or maybe even save some money. I don't think the difference between the RDRAM and DDR is very signifigant. If I'm wrong rest assured someone will come along and tell you :). sounds like a good deal..i might have to go check that site out.

dlv
 
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