New Computer Help

jvkeboxHERO · Post by **jvkeboxHERO** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:03 am

hey guys. first post. woo hoo.

Long Time reader of the mag, it just dawned on my to come to the website.

anyway, i used to have a Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop. Its broken. Regardless, I have Pro Tools and an Mbox 2 with all the plug-ins. I need a computer to run all that stuff. I would not be playing video games, or even go on the internet, or do anything other than recording (and a bit of word processing)

Im looking to spend no more than $800 on a PC. Thats all I got. I cant get a Mac (dont have the money), and I dont need a monitor, or a keyboard or mouse. I have a few old towers, that have fans and power supplys and cd-rw drives.

I dont know anything about computers really. If anyone could help me out, just maybe some basic stuff I would need. Not top of the line ($) but some stuff that would work well, if that makes sense. Since I bought this Pro Tools bundle like, two or three years ago, I am thinking anything that was "top of the line" back then, is not right now, so that might help you guys out.

Like I said I ddont know anything about computers, so if anyone does, I would greatly appreciate some help. ANY help would be appreciated. Thanks.

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:19 am

Save 200 more dollars, go to www.gainsaver.com and buy a refurbished power mac desktop. I'm a recently switched to apple customer and I can't believe I spent all those years on a PC.

Jay Reynolds · Post by **Jay Reynolds** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:01 am

jvkeboxHERO wrote: I dont know anything about computers really. If anyone could help me out, just maybe some basic stuff I would need. Not top of the line ($) but some stuff that would work well, if that makes sense. Since I bought this Pro Tools bundle like, two or three years ago, I am thinking anything that was "top of the line" back then, is not right now, so that might help you guys out.

+1 for going Mac. If you want to really do audio on a PC, you are going to have to build it yourself. If internet forums are the only resource you have for learn how to do a build, you are going to experience a lot of frustration.
What version of pro-tools are you running? You will need to make sure that it is compatible with intel macs if you are getting into one of those. If the refurb you are looking at is an earlier, PPC mac, you'll be fine with an MBox2.
If you seriously just need something to stick on the other end of your MBox and nothing else (you aren't going to get into anything that will need a PCI card), I'd look at a Mac Mini. You may have to get an adapters for your keyboard, mouse, and montior. And I'd make sure there's at least 1 gig of ram under the hood.

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:07 am

+2 for Mac, especially because you said this:

jvkeboxHERO wrote:I dont know anything about computers really.

If you're not already familiar with PCs then you'll have an easier time with Macs.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:45 pm

your other option would be to lurk around some forums (cakewalk forums has some good advice on PC builds) and get some idea of what is a good candidiate for a DAW. You can easily build a servicable PC for less than $800. Especially if you already have the externals (mon-kbd-mse).
Older power supplies are less than ideal. Most of them are in the 300w range and have weak 12v rails. You would want to invest in a 500w or so power supply from Enermax, Antec. PC power and cooling, Seasonic or maybe Corasir or OCZ. Asus and Gigabyte make good DAW motherboards. Or rather gamer motherboards which can be repurposed as DAWs.
Dont spend more than $50-75 on video. High frame buffer and large fans dont do anything positive for your audio. Get some Corsair or kingston "value" ram. Seagate barracudas have done me well. Try getting one drive for your system and apps, the 1 or 2 drives for audio. I like to have 2 drives running in raid 1 so I have some basic fault tolerance, in one of the drives takes a poop I still have my audio. Newegg.com, zipzoomfly.com are good places to buy stuff.

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:32 pm

In these days of multicore processors, do we still need to avoid prebuilt systems like the plague? I've been toying with the idea of updating my rig with a dell 530 system. With 3gb 800mhz ram and an intel core 2 quad and dual display capable video card would run around $600 with their coupons.

Jay Reynolds · Post by **Jay Reynolds** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:42 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:your other option would be to lurk around some forums (cakewalk forums has some good advice on PC builds) and get some idea of what is a good candidiate for a DAW. You can easily build a servicable PC for less than $800. Especially if you already have the externals (mon-kbd-mse).
Older power supplies are less than ideal. Most of them are in the 300w range and have weak 12v rails. You would want to invest in a 500w or so power supply from Enermax, Antec. PC power and cooling, Seasonic or maybe Corasir or OCZ. Asus and Gigabyte make good DAW motherboards. Or rather gamer motherboards which can be repurposed as DAWs.
Dont spend more than $50-75 on video. High frame buffer and large fans dont do anything positive for your audio. Get some Corsair or kingston "value" ram. Seagate barracudas have done me well. Try getting one drive for your system and apps, the 1 or 2 drives for audio. I like to have 2 drives running in raid 1 so I have some basic fault tolerance, in one of the drives takes a poop I still have my audio. Newegg.com, zipzoomfly.com are good places to buy stuff.

Make sure your components are ok with Digi:
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?nav ... 00&eid=173
And I'd like to have a decent amount of ram on my video card.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:48 pm

superaction80 wrote: Make sure your components are ok with Digi:
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?nav ... 00&eid=173
And I'd like to have a decent amount of ram on my video card.

most entry level video cards have plenty enough ram for displaying tracks.
The 256mb-512mb ones are absolute overkill, and ram chips do generate heat. As do the higher perfromance video cards. I always gor fro a 64mb or so fanless card. Some Matrox cards are good, they are not gamer oriented, but workstation oriented. Lower performance radeons are good. just dont install the whole bloody catalyst control center. If you arent doing 3d shootem-ups than 32-664mb is plenty to display a couple of 1600x1200 screens.
If anything the crappy redraws have less to do with your card and more to do with where you wave image folder is. Dont have it on the same drive as your audio. Put it on a 3rd drive if you can. (not sure if you have this option in PT actually)

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:18 pm

Whatever you do, don't get windows vista. Steaming pile of shit and I say that from experience.

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:55 am

ctmsound wrote:Whatever you do, don't get windows vista. Steaming pile of shit and I say that from experience.

My experience is similar. For me, it's not that it crashes a lot or anything like that. But the UI changes from WinXP are stupid IMO, UAC is friggin' annoying, XP works really well at this point, and Vista offers no great reason to upgrade. By the way, this is coming from a long-time Windows supporter with 12 years experience as a systems/network admin. I gave Vista several chances before I decided that I didn't like it. But I run mostly Macs now, so I care far less about how badly Microsoft screwed up with Vista.

On my one remaining Windows machine (and my virtual machines running on my Macs), I'm going to stick with XP for as long as I can--unless Microsoft makes the next Windows worth using.

Alex Netick · Post by **Alex Netick** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:20 am

Yeah - vista sucks in a big way. I just got a sony vaio laptop. All the specs were good - dual-core cpu, 2 gigs of ram, blah blah - but half of the shit I tried to load on it didn't work. I have to say, though, I wouldn't get a mac either. I bought a mac a couple of months ago, but returned it after a couple of days. Even with the restocking fee, I was happy to get rid of it. But that's just me.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:24 am

XP Pro SP3 is what i have on two of my five boxes and the remaining ones run Win2K SP4.

Vista is a total clusterfuck.

TheForgotten · Post by **TheForgotten** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:13 am

If you do decide on a PC...
This fella comes highly recommended:
http://studiocat.com

His name is Jim.

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:20 am

http://liquiddaw.com/

Local guy in my town. Know a few people who use his computers and they are extremely happy.

jvkeboxHERO · Post by **jvkeboxHERO** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:07 pm

when i said i dont know about computers, i meant i know how to use them, just not whats in them

im pretty sure i can one of my friends build it if i gave them the parts, but they dont know what parts to get. for example, if 2gb of ram is more than good enough, im not gonna get 4gbs, bc i dont need it. I dont need top of the line equipment, but i dont want borderline either, somewhere in the middle.

thanks to calverasgrandes for the info. ill look into all that stuff. btw would you recommened amd over intel? gigabyte motherboards come for both.

and im definitely definitely not going mac. i cant save anymore money

if there are any pc users out there who are happy with what they got and know whats under the hood, let me know so i can look that stuff up too.

btw if i end up selling my PT, how is cubase?

Message Board

New Computer Help

New Computer Help

Re: New Computer Help

Re: New Computer Help

in case you stick with PC

Re: in case you stick with PC

Re: in case you stick with PC

Who is online