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John Jeffers
buyin' a studio
Joined: 07 Jun 2003
Posts: 819
Location: Denver, CO
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 Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:44 pm Post subject: Re: New Computer Help |
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| £§«û‰ wrote: | rosewill PSU?  might as well get the HP from best buy at that point, I'd consider it an upgrade!
Rosewill PSUs have this tendency to fail/smoke in a not so pleasant manner, taking the PC they're attached with them.
That graphics card is also the kind with the 40-60 mm fan on it.. which means it will whir, audibly, and piss you off to no end, which is not ideal for an audio PC. small fans are the most obnoxious, especially cheap ones tacked onto graphics cards.
that also doesn't include all the other parts.
I sent you a long PM with a list of quality parts and the reasons I chose them, from the past thirteen years of experience I have building, destroying and modifying PCs. It will run quieter than ANY of that best buy shit, run cooler(northbridge, PSU, hard drive, mosfets near CPU, all covered, not just the CPU), it will run more efficiently, the stuff that doesn't need active cooling(like the cheap graphics card) will have passive cooling. |
I'm not trying to pick on £§«û‰ here. In fact, I like seeing his name come up because his posts are usually helpful and entertaining. I only quoted this one because it's indicative of what I'm about to bring up.
First, my history... I've been a Windows systems/network admin for 15 years, climbed the corporate ladder as far as I cared to go and I'm slowly trying to work my way out. I understand Windows and computer hardware really well. I've built plenty of my own PC's in the past. Had fun and frustrations doing it, learned a lot, and helped out plenty of friends and family with their own PC problems.
Having said that...man, I'm just done with Windows and the PC world. All this esoterica that you have to learn about which part to buy, what's compatible, what's not, noise, cooling, overclocking, all that stuff...I'm just done with it. The horrible mistake called "Vista" just confirmed things for me. Moving to Mac was the best thing I've ever done in terms of MAKING MUSIC instead of PLAYING WITH COMPUTERS. The Mac thing about "it just works" is actually true most of the time. Not always, but often enough that it makes a difference for me.
Are Macs more expensive? Sure, a little. I think if you compare configurations on an equal playing field, they're not quite as expensive as it might seem. Try building an 8-core Xeon machine from PC parts with specs equal to the Mac Pro and see if you can get it much below $2800 (the cost of the least expensive Mac Pro). Don't forget to include buying Windows in that, because the OS is included with a Mac.
The reason they're perceived as being expensive, I think, is that there really are no low-end models that make sense for musicians and audio engineers. You can't buy a decent Mac for $800 like you can with a PC. I'll totally agree that this is a big gaping hole in Apple's product line. I'd love to see them release a less expensive, easily upgradable tower. Something in the iMac price range (or a little cheaper) would be really great.
The other cost you should consider is what your time is worth! If you have more time than money and don't mind digging in to the esoterica I talked about, then a Windows PC may very well make more sense for you. For me, I'd rather pay a little more for the "it just works" experience I've gotten with Macs for the past two years.
Anyway, no disrespect intended to anyone posting in this thread. PC's will absolutely work well once you figure them out, and if that's the road you want to travel down, best of luck! I just wanted to put it out there that going to a Mac could possibly save you some trouble down the road. |
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rwc
resurrected
Joined: 09 Sep 2007
Posts: 2303
Location: Bed Stuy, Brooklyn
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:13 am Post subject: Re: New Computer Help |
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You're right.
with a mac pro, it doesn't matter what kind of cooling the graphics card has, because it still makes less noise, for more money, for less power, than my PC! 
sorry, I had to..
I do see your point completely, though. With where vista is going, I do indeed want to pick up a macbook myself.. and finish the taudry affair I am having with logic, by marrying her. 
I also see the point in recording people being nerds. Anyone here want to go through an 8088 to see why there is crosstalk on the busses? ANALOG IS NOT FOOLPROOF! I laugh my cock off reading "man, this is so not easy like a 4 track, I just want to get going and the computer is keeping me down." try fighting an A800 with failing power supplies, until 5:30 in the morning, six hours before the next session comes in..
If my time were worth anything decent, I would so not be recording. The amount of time I've thrown into this to get good enough that people want to pay me enough that I can pay rent, is ridiculous, compared to the amount of time I could have spent learning how to do anything else. There are people in their 50s still spending huge amounts of time trying to understand simple concepts, after 30 years of recording. I don't mind the extra time I spend on computer stuff, but that is part of the "lifetime pursuit" thing for me.
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Real friends stab you in the front.
Oscar Wilde
Failed audio engineer & pro studio tech turned affordable modern gizmo repairman and failtech for various 30th st Manhattan studios.
Last edited by rwc on Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:20 am; edited 1 time in total |
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calaverasgrandes
moves faders with mind
Joined: 26 Jul 2007
Posts: 2686
Location: Oakland
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:18 am Post subject: Re: New Computer Help |
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| John Jeffers wrote: |
First, my history... I've been a Windows systems/network admin for 15 years,
...man, I'm just done with Windows and the PC world. All this esoterica that you have to learn about which part to buy, what's compatible, what's not, noise, cooling, overclocking, all that stuff...I'm just done with it. The horrible mistake called "Vista" just confirmed things for me. Moving to Mac was the best thing I've ever done in terms of MAKING MUSIC instead of PLAYING WITH COMPUTERS. |
I think the former (working as a windows admin) has a little to do with the latter.(moving to mac).
Why am I accusing you of this? Because I feel this way all the time!
I am fairly satisfied with my Sonar windows/amd box. But I am dreading the next upgrade. It seems that windows stuff is all geared towards the cubicle dwellers....or gamers. Mac stuff seems like its all geared towards hipsters and/or creative types. I'm not totally digging OS x in some ways. But I agree that the Mac pro tower is one of the best deals on a workstation out there. Just do your own hard drive and ram upgrades.
That said it seems that apple is a little capricious with its upgrade path. They always change up the platform when its getting just about time to upgrade. Thus obsoleting all your nubus/pci/adb stuff. this happens on the PC side too, but man, they throw you to the wolves on the mac side.
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visible cow
gimme a little kick & snare
Joined: 19 Mar 2007
Posts: 89
Location: Oakland
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:56 am Post subject: Re: New Computer Help |
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I use a macbook and a home-built pc desktop. I knew nothing about computers but sucked it up and learned quite a bit....actually I pretty much figured out my system here at TOMB (thanks guys). My budget was also $800.
If you're using a pc and have pc software I'd definitely avoid switching to mac right now......especially with your budget.... but definitely avoid Vista.
Figuring out how to build a pc is not difficult and you'll then know how to fix it if something breaks.
I read as much of the posts as I could, so forgive me if I'm rehashing some advice here. Good luck! |
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