What CPU/Motherboard/Memory for music production ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gilwe
  • Start date Start date
G

gilwe

New member
I plan to buy a new computer.

I know there's a lot of stuff to pick from and I would like to get opinions of the prefered equipment for best performence with music software.

First, should I go with Intel or AMD processor - and why ?

Second, what type of memory will go best with the recommended CPU for fastest speed ?

And any specail features the motherboard should have and recommended brand / model ?


Thanks !
 
Welcome, gilwe!

From all I have read, the AMD Athlon is the best processorfor recording music, because it has the best floating points of any processor, for quickest response to your applications.

I would load up at least 200 megs or more of memory.

And make sure you have a nice sized hard drive, between 60-80 megs...Will save on alot of downtime dumping tracks.

And as far as an OS goes, I would go with Windows XP for best stability (Less crashing) of all Operating Systems.

Let us know what you end up buying, eh?

VI
 
I agree with VI..

I always like/use the AMD's because it time and time again kicks the crap out of Intel. Not to mention it costs less since your not paying all the marketing costs for Intel.
With your motherboard I'm not goin to recommend any specific brands so much, you'll have to mainly get what will support your processor, DDR ram, and AGP graphics. I would also make sure that it has and onboard NIC <network card>, since I'm sure you have, or will soon after get, broadband.
I would get a ram upgrade though, I think that 200mb would suit, but you wouldn't have to pay that much more for 512mb. Ram is cheap right now and you could prob pick some up for barley over $100. I noticed a considerable difference going from 256 to 512, you'll be enjoying it for a lot longer I can gaurantee. Did I say DDR ram? Think about the future.
Also as far as a video card, are you going to game or use it for video? If not I would look for a motherboard that has an onboard AGP Geforce chipset.
For audio the best priced hi fidelity seems to be the M-Audio Audiophile.
I agree with everything else from VI.. I would have to suggest a cd burner if it's in the budget too though!

Space
 
Well, this is gonna be some kind of upgrade to an onl computer -
so what is most important to me is to get the most effective CPU/mobo/memory combination. It is not the CPU speed or size of ram, it is knowing that running the best AMD on a "PC Partner" motherboard will not gets even 70% of it's power ....

So what I'm after actually is what motherboard will get the most of that AMD processor ... and secondly - is DDR the only memory type that goes with AMD ? or is there onther, faster, type of ram to use with it?
 
You need to pick out what kind of processor you want first, They make motherboards specifically for certain processors. I would get an AMD Athlon 1.33 at least. You can find a nice Soyo motherboard go with it. There's not as much to look for in motherboard specifics, I'm mean there are little changes that to most mean nothing.

DDR ram is the newer type of ram <Double Data Rate> and it is the NEW, FAST ram thats going to be/is the benchmark for fast ram. You might hear of RAMBUS ram but that's not going to be around to long, and it is expensive, and it overheats. Only other alternative is to go with like PC133 or 200 ram, but its slower than DDR and will be obsoleted in short time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top