DAW PC

iquinn

Anyone ever bought one of those 'Music' PC systems, like Carillon, or DV's Synergy etc?
Thinking of getting something and looking around at various options.

I've thought about the DIY route, but I'd prefer just to be able to get something off the shelf.

any experience, recommendations for a good, stable, quiet PC?


(not interested in a mac, have one)

SeanHurley

I have a Carillion AC-1 from around when they first came out (possibly 2003-ish maybe??).

Not a bad machine at all, still running for me at the minute although I have since switched to mac a few years ago.

It is quiet as well.

I would prefer a lower spec mac over a higher spec pc anyday tho, that is just my personal opinion as an owner of both pc and mac DAWs

DamagedTrax

ive a synergy i7 and it smokes!

iquinn

SeanHurley wrote: »

I have a Carillion AC-1 from around when they first came out (possibly 2003-ish maybe??).

Not a bad machine at all, still running for me at the minute although I have since switched to mac a few years ago.

It is quiet as well.

I would prefer a lower spec mac over a higher spec pc anyday tho, that is just my personal opinion as an owner of both pc and mac DAWs

I need a dedicated workstation to run some windows only apps, I could try bootcamp etc on a mac, but a well set up PC is just as stable in my experience.
As long as when I switch it on, it's quiet and the apps work, I don't really care what badge is on the case.

I am looking at mac/windows options, but some mixed reports so far.

any experience with windows on a mac?

SeanHurley

iquinn wrote: »

I need a dedicated workstation to run some windows only apps, I could try bootcamp etc on a mac, but a well set up PC is just as stable in my experience.
As long as when I switch it on, it's quiet and the apps work, I don't really care what badge is on the case.

I am looking at mac/windows options, but some mixed reports so far.

any experience with windows on a mac?

I have no experience with windows on a mac I'm afraid. Might be worth checking that avenue first tho before shelling out for an audio pc.

JG009

You can put together a custom PC quite cheap these days. It will allow you more freedom to over clock etc.

Chloroplast

I looked at all options and ended up building my own,, biggest mistake ever, especially if your buying the parts from Komplett.

the Carillon brands seemed good to me at the time, but way to expensive and seemed too "pro" for my bedroom.

all in all i would highly recommend just getting one off the shelf from pc world or something like that, just make sure its a high spec, then when you get it home you can tweak it, get rid of a load of unwanted programs and softs and tweak it to be more efficient, this is better than building you own because :

when komplett sends you parts , half of the components will be corrupt, broke ,damaged on delivery, in which the trauma starts,where your taking bits out and buying new bits, and waiting endlessly for refunds and new parts, while your waiting you cant run it, so its sitting there gathering dust.

aswell, its so easy to pick wrong components when buying the kit list, unless you know exactly what your doing, and many say its a simple to put the pc together, well yeah maybe after doing a few, but if its your first build then i suggest paying someone to build it for you.

so you see if you buy the off the shelf pc, and something is up, just bring the whole thing back to em, and they may even just give you a new one straight away.

another reason to buy off the shelf, is specs,

people seem to have this notion that you need insane amounts of ram, and massive builds for good performance, this is where it all gets to be bollox, 2 gb of ram and a quad core processor is plenty.and there is certainly no need to overclock. there's producers out there still making making tunes on pentium 3`s with 512mb ram....

JG009

Chloroplast wrote: »

I looked at all options and ended up building my own,, biggest mistake ever, especially if your buying the parts from Komplett.

the Carillon brands seemed good to me at the time, but way to expensive and seemed too "pro" for my bedroom.

all in all i would highly recommend just getting one off the shelf from pc world or something like that, just make sure its a high spec, then when you get it home you can tweak it, get rid of a load of unwanted programs and softs and tweak it to be more efficient, this is better than building you own because :

when komplett sends you parts , half of the components will be corrupt, broke ,damaged on delivery, in which the trauma starts,where your taking bits out and buying new bits, and waiting endlessly for refunds and new parts, while your waiting you cant run it, so its sitting there gathering dust.

aswell, its so easy to pick wrong components when buying the kit list, unless you know exactly what your doing, and many say its a simple to put the pc together, well yeah maybe after doing a few, but if its your first build then i suggest paying someone to build it for you.

so you see if you buy the off the shelf pc, and something is up, just bring the whole thing back to em, and they may even just give you a new one straight away.

another reason to buy off the shelf, is specs,

people seem to have this notion that you need insane amounts of ram, and massive builds for good performance, this is where it all gets to be bollox, 2 gb of ram and a quad core processor is plenty.and there is certainly no need to overclock. there's producers out there still making making tunes on pentium 3`s with 512mb ram....

I suppose a first time build might be a much, I was assuming he would have as much experience as others. Yeah you might have a point about that part. I would still stand by the custom made ones though. Both for price and the freedom of expansion etc. I have saved a fortune in the past. Take for example the intel q6600, thats 2.4ghz standard, you can OC it 3.4ghz or more on certain boards.

PMI

Both great machines and would definately like one as a VST sample host but still do all real work ON A MAC :D:rolleyes::pac:

iquinn

Thanks for the replies.
A friend recommended a German place doing custom daw pc's, checking that out.
Will either go with one of dv's synergy or the german crowd.

progsound

Chloroplast wrote: »

2 gb of ram and a quad core processor is plenty.and there is certainly no need to overclock. there's producers out there still making making tunes on pentium 3`s with 512mb ram....

I dunno man, but my machine is barley coping with my projects with 4 gigs of ram and quadcore it really depends on what your doing im using a lot of virtual inst, drums, piano, throw in a few good few soft synths, amp sims, 100 or so tracks and all the plugins and you soon have meltdown i cant imagine what pentium 3 and 512 ram would be like.

If i was upgrading now id be looking at 6-8 gigs ram, oc i7 quad core, good power supply and windows 7 which would be standard enough by todays standards anyway

PMI

and a 64 bit OS

booooonzo

had a carillon from way back too and wasnt overly impressed with the quietness 'for the money'.
custom built my own Intel Q6600 from Komplett about 2 years ago and its still fairly smokin.

IF you have the time browse the relevant boards for the software your using and copy the most popular/stable systems being used.
Can't go too wrong that way.

Oh ya I have an I7 MacBook Pro and while its great the 2year old Q6600 is still faster (although not a fair comparison) .

Chloroplast

progsound wrote: »

I dunno man, but my machine is barley coping with my projects with 4 gigs of ram and quadcore it really depends on what your doing im using a lot of virtual inst, drums, piano, throw in a few good few soft synths, amp sims, 100 or so tracks and all the plugins and you soon have meltdown i cant imagine what pentium 3 and 512 ram would be like.

If i was upgrading now id be looking at 6-8 gigs ram, oc i7 quad core, good power supply and windows 7 which would be standard enough by todays standards anyway

yeah, your dead right actually, i wasn't thinking straight,i was thinking on a practical/budget type level, ,lol. as in, getting a decent system within a good budget,that still does the job, which would leave some cash for a soundcard/AI and some midi control.

if one has the cash , by all means get a beast. although myself ive still to this day sucessfully managed to stay on windows xp. no win 7 with 64 bit plugs here. is there still only a handfull of developers out there that have 64bit compatibility or has the 64bit plugin thing totally standard now ?