The Mother of All "Which Computer Should I Buy" threads

[altitude909]

have you even seen the P180? like i said, rack back then was probably better than regular case. but lately they've been poping out with rediculous designs for case and it's REALLY good... just a thought, go check out the P180 or the stacker. those are very favorable among high end computers.

Um, looks like its a nice case and all but the whole reason I got a rack case was because it mounts on a rack. I have no use for a tower

 

[Reilley]

""The computer's resources are used not in recording, but in mixing and in the use of effects; that's usually where an anemic rig will stumble. ""

""If you don't plan on doing a lot of tracks with tons of plugins and virtual instruments and things, you can get away with a "big box" computer. For your average user, they'll be fine. 8 tracks with simple plugs, you're good to go.""


I'll be recording one or two tracks at a time. However, virtual instruments and midi are in the picture, and I should think that 8 to 16 tracks would be the range
I'm in.

 

[tarnationsauce2]

Which rack case did you have? And aside from the noise, why is it "easier to work on"?

I don't remember what case I had. It was 3u tall and weighed a TON. It was originally a server. I bought it from a computer surplus store.

I guess the reason it was so much harder to work on was how heavy it was. And I had to remove the top of it to work on it. That of course required unplugging everything, and pulling it from the rack. I never thought of how much of a PITA it was until I bought and used the P180. Originally I got the P180 because I wanted liquid cooling and that is much harder to do in a rack case.

I have the P180, passively liquid cooled, fanless PSU, fanless Vid card. Only fan is a 120mm fan in the hard drive tunnel. It is really quiet within the case (not mounted on outside wall like most fans are). The whole PC is hard to hear.