A good PC??

D!ve^Bomb!

What would be a good PC with regards to recording, mixing music etc.. I originally was gonna buy the new iMac with 1GB RAM and 250GB HD, but have been put slightly putt off by peoples varying opinions.. so if i were to go down the pc route, where should i start? HP, DELL(i'm not a fan), Toshiba etc??

The mac would have cost me 1800 so i wouldn't like to stray too far from that number..

Thanks

joePC

Build your own, If not get someone to built it for you,

You could get one extreme machine for €1800.

D!ve^Bomb!

where do i start if building my own, i can get the components and my brother could put it together for me, he's VAT registered aswell... anyone know any links to sites that sells componants?

and if i choose to buy the PC already made, which PC would ya's recommend?

Thanks again

RuggieBear

this i believe is what you are looking for....

D!ve^Bomb!

that great.. cheers;)

actually, i should have really posted there instead of here...

Feel free to move it Mod.. sorry

D!ve^Bomb!

actually, can someone tell me what components i need, i know the obvious like:

case
processor
motherboard,
ram,
hd.
Monitor
Keyboard + mouse

What kind of other stuff would i need?

RuggieBear

newband wrote:

actually, can someone tell me what components i need, i know the obvious like:

case
processor
motherboard,
ram,
hd.
Monitor
Keyboard + mouse

What kind of other stuff would i need?

operating system....tools to put it all together....check for hardware incompatibilities....cooling fans....gfx card...sound card.....optical drives....cables....

D!ve^Bomb!

cheers, i stuck this in computers to get a few more answers as well.. my brother has all the tools etc.. i would be asking him all this **** but he's away at the moment... bastard!!

GRAHAM2002

He must have some mates !!!

Ask them, most techies have mates into the same thing!!

thetourist

i have a computer based studio - it runs cubase, vegas video, wavelab mainly - plus a ton of plugins - i built it about a year ago and i spent a long time researching components - so i heres what i learned - but remember this is a year old

case - doesnt really matter as long as it's reasonably new as there was an old form factor which will not work for you - just a new one thats all - however there are a few things - first - if you need the pc to be quiet then you might be able to steal a march here but i dont know of any padded boxes - you never know though - so investigate if you want - second - is the power supply built in or not - if it isnt youlll need one - if it is you need to make sure it's powerful enough - third you need a bigish box ideally because you may need extra space for hard drives etc - last i would go for one with usb access on the front - you can also go mad with lights and portholes if youre into that kind of thing !!!!

power supply - this is a bit of a black art - i would research what is needed and sort of multiply it by 1.5 to be safe and give yourself a bit of room - get a quiet one for music if you can - it's pretty important even if you're not recording in the room where your pc is - it's still prob in your listening environment

motherboard - this is where you should spend the most ammout of time researching - i use an asus p4s8x (i think it is ) - it's a good board if you want to use it is a platform - it only takes P4 chip up to 3G though and maybe you want to go higher -
if you're making a dedicated audio pc ( which i would advise ) then you wont need stuff like bluetooth / lan etc - but if you need this stuff get it - SATA harddrive support is great for music because it's so fast - my board supports this but it was the trickiest bit to set up so beware
you should make sure the usb is 2 not 1 and i would def include a firewire port
- if it doesnt have a paralell port then you mightnt get a cubase dongle to work etc

cpu - i got a 2.4 G pentium P4 - i wouldnt mind an athlon either i'd say - i think the pentium may be a little more stable but ????
with that speed there's plenty for most audio - i ran about 60 tracks on vegas recently with plugins before it started to cave - no real need to fork out a packet for the top of the range i think - i would go for a 3G i think if it were now

memory - there are lots of different types so buy the best you can that your motherboard reccomends - try to get a low cas rating if possible - people skim over memory but it's reallly pretty complicated so study it a bit - i have 512 mb but i really need 1G i think

hard drive - if you get a slow hard drive eg ata100 5400rpm it will ruin your system imo - get at least ata133 7200rpm or better still get sata or even scusi - get as much as you can - and you really need one for operating system and one for data - a small one will do for op sys and programs - say 20G or something - i have a 120 for music - but get as much as you can
partition it though - mine is split into five

sound card - buy anything that is not soundblaster - seriously - they are gamers cards - i have a delta1010 and they are fantastic - got it on ebay second hand for good price - peronally not keen on usb stuff though - read sound on sound for a good buy in your budget - obviously if you can afford a motu24 go for it

video card - i got an ati radeon card for 65 E that has two mon outs so i can have a wide desktop - really necessary for music - not expensive and is easy to do in windows

operating sys - either 2000 or xp i think is the way to go

you need a backup program and strategy - i have dvd burner and stomp bakup mypc

floppy monitor mouse keyboard etc - whatever your into - do get a floppy though - there only 20 quid and youll miss it !!!


at the time last year http://www.komplett.ie gave the best deals i could find ( and i searched !!! )


here are some links


http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/step/1/

http://www.geek.com/htbc/build/motherbu.htm

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Packard+Bell%2BPulsar&mfr=Packard+Bell&model=Pulsar+600&submit=Go

http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/

please do yourself a favour and build it yourself - anyone can do it ( my sister did !!! ) - give yourself a weekend - but do the research and study etc first so you know what youre doing - and dont be in a hurry - if you are you will screw it up - you need to know that you dont need the pc for a week or two i think

if you HAVE to buy an off the shelf you really have no other choice but a dell ( some of the others are slightly rip offs - no extra hard drive space - slow hard drives - no proper op sys disks etc etc ) - but you still need to research the components because they are home pc''s not audio pcs and theres a large difference

finally do this

http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php

good luck - ask me questions if you want

D!ve^Bomb!

thats fantastic, thanks!!

i keep changing my mind!!! i start reading up on building my own but it becomes rather overwhelming and i decide to get it ready made.. i was actually looking at this(top one) which seems good but now i'm back at square one!! :rolleyes:

anyway, i wouldn't even have to build the damn thing, my brother can do all that, all i have to do is pick out what i want, but thats where my problem starts, i'm afraid of gettin stuff that aren't compatible with each other

what do you thing this will set me back, just for the base station? cos the pentium 4 3GHz is pretty pricy alone!

D!ve^Bomb!

jees, that pcmech link you gave me is ****in brilliant!! i have a day off today so i'll probably be at it all day!!

D!ve^Bomb!

ok here we go, this is what i have on my shopping list so far:

CASE:

Arctic Cooling Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 350W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-000-AR): see here

MOTHERBOARD:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe "Canterwood". see here

CPU:

Intel Pentium 4 "Northwood" 3.2GHz: see here

MEMORY:

Crucial 1GB DDR PC3200 CAS3.0 Dual Channel Kit: see here

GRAPHICS CARD:

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 7000 64MB: see here

DVD/CD

Plextor PX-712A 12x4x DVDRW ReWriter: see here

HARD DRIVE:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB SATA 8MB Cache: See here

I'm too sure on what soundcard to get, any ideas??

I've purposely left out everything else such as monitor, keboard/mouse operating system cos i dont really care about them at the moment!!

i just wanna get the base sorted!

Is there anything else i need, any kind of fans etc?? i'n pretty sure all the fans come with the case as well as the PSU..

am i missing anything?

this comes to a total of...... about £670 inc VAT and delivery.. about 970 euros.. is this a good price?

thetourist

it all seems overwhelming but its actually pretty difficult to go too far wrong as long as you do your research and take your time - i havent a clue about prices but i would guess 1500 - 2000 - you can build one cheaper but you may be lacking certain potentially important stuff

please remember this is only a guess based on year old info !!! - maybe 1200 would build a killer machine now ???

is the titan a kit which you assemble yourself ?? - it looks ok but 2 things - you will need a dvd burner for backups imo and also it looks like you are paying extra for a 6 chanell sound card which will probable end up disabled or worse - in the way !! as im sure youre buying a good specialist sound card - whatever you do dont get a gamers sound card ( good pro audio ones start at 250 euro i think )



there is a pc advertised in the sound on sound magazine called carillion ( do a google search ) which is a dedicated audio pc which may interest you


i wouldnt worry too much about compatibility

case - like i said get a new one - everything will fit ( as long as there's room - so a big one with lots of drive spaces and space for a big motherboard ) - all the screwholes are universal usually

motherboard - this is the heart of the system so it will determine everything else

cpu - all you have to do is to decide on what you want - say 3G P4 or whatever and get a cpu that fits it ( consider a fan though - i think you need a retail boxed kit - cant remember )

memory - this will be dictated by the motherboard - so just do a search on the motherboard site and buy what they reccomend - eg www.asus.com they have pages decicated to all the motherboards there

harddrive - these are pretty universal - just get a 3.5inch - everything else is unversal or up to you to choose eg rpms ata etc - UNLESS you're putting in an SATA in which case you need to do a bit of research and get the correct mobo

power supply - research it and just get one big enough thats all

anything else is either easy or unimportant



please do your own research and dont take my word for anything as like i said its a bit out of date - i am really only trying to point you in the right direction

you can also go into a good pc shop and get them to build a pc for you based on components you specify - they sould tell you if you were getting something wrong - but as long as you do what the mobo manufacturers say with reguard to cpu and memory and you put a big power supply in there it's actually pretty difficult to have compatibility issues

( however you may end up having to do a bit of fiddelling aroung moveing pci cards to various slots as there may be conflicts within that area - but i dont think you can avoid this in the purchasing stage )

oh yes - also komplett.ie do sell pc's in kit form - so you could start there if you wanted - but do a bit of research on the mobo within the kit so you know its the right kit for you