PC Options

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flapmaggot
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PC Options

Post by flapmaggot » Sun Apr 05, 2015 1:10 pm

Have any of you had great luck with a store bought PC being used in a professional setting where you make a little bit of money? Let me clarify, instead of buying a custom PC from our audio specialty folks (sweetwater etc...) at twice the cost, would you now buy, for example, an ASUS I7 16GB Quad Core at tiger direct or a DELL unit for your recording business given that you can now get a powerful unit for under a grand? Way too busy to build one!

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Post by kslight » Sun Apr 05, 2015 1:55 pm

If I had to buy a PC, I would build my own, because most off the shelf PCs are a POS. I would not trust a store bought sub $1000 model in a professional setting, I've seen dozens fail at my day job due to vendor cheaping out on critical components. The time you spend piecing together a quality DIY system that works is > the time wasted swapping out the cheap dead power supply in 3-6 months, the motherboard and RAM in 9, the video card in 12, the hard drive in 15, etc...

IMHO

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Post by flapmaggot » Sun Apr 05, 2015 2:04 pm

I hear ya loud and clear kslight. Since I hadn't purchased a PC in years given my creation station is still going strong - (but a tad limited), I didn't know if the developments within the consumer PC world are strong enough to buy off the shelf.

Is there a reference for those who want to build an audio based bare bones system?

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Post by kslight » Sun Apr 05, 2015 2:13 pm

Not that I'm aware of. I know I'd personally stick to Intel CPUs, probably Gigabyte motherboard/video, Corsair modular power, corsair memory, Seagate drives...the top level stuff in each category, no bs. Last time I bought a computer though I decided to switch to a Mac Pro, because I'm tired of Windows.

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Post by E-money » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:51 am

Spend $1000-$1500 on the best laptop you can get and don't look back.

- more quiet than a tower
- built in battery backup for power losses
- portable
- small footprint
- enough power to handle hundreds of tracks and hundreds of plugins.

Spend 2 grand and you can get 2 nice laptops that you keep mirrored in case of a hardware/software issue.
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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Mon Apr 06, 2015 3:18 pm

I hope this doesn't sound naive, but I recently put together my first honest-to-gawd gaming rig (read: high powered PC). I did it, mostly, by going on Newegg.com and searching for the major components and sorting by "Best Rating." Usually, in the top 5 rated motherboards, or whatever, there's one that's a bit or a lot cheaper than the others, but still has 100 reviews and a 4.9 star rating, or similar. Of course, I picked my architecture and processor first. I went i7 with an x97 motherboard. It didn't take much time at all to figure out the parts. And putting them together was actually kinda fun.

I had some semi-random crashing when I tried a very mild overclock, but I finally got it sorted out with a BIOS update and getting the drivers right. I didn't give that stuff a lot of thought at first. And I wouldn't recommend overclocking an audio PC for stability and noise reasons. Unless you're going for ungodly track/plugin count, I guess.

HTH.
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Re: PC Options

Post by Andrew707 » Mon Apr 06, 2015 6:50 pm

flapmaggot wrote:Have any of you had great luck with a store bought PC being used in a professional setting where you make a little bit of money? Let me clarify, instead of buying a custom PC from our audio specialty folks (sweetwater etc...) at twice the cost, would you now buy, for example, an ASUS I7 16GB Quad Core at tiger direct or a DELL unit for your recording business given that you can now get a powerful unit for under a grand? Way too busy to build one!
FWIW -

I work with Lenovo PC's at my day job in the Gaming industry and wouldn't hesitate to use one as a studio PC in a pro situation. We have them running 24/7, in some pretty nasty environments and they've proven to be reliable workhorses, running years on end, without issue.

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Post by flapmaggot » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:36 pm

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm looking at pc audio labs but haven't ruled out anything yet.

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Post by flapmaggot » Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:38 pm

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm looking at pc audio labs but haven't ruled out anything yet.

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Drone
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Re: PC Options

Post by Drone » Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:27 am

Andrew707 wrote: FWIW -

I work with Lenovo PC's at my day job in the Gaming industry and wouldn't hesitate to use one as a studio PC in a pro situation. We have them running 24/7, in some pretty nasty environments and they've proven to be reliable workhorses, running years on end, without issue.
My studio PC is a Lenovo, and I will make the following observations.

1. A lot depends on your audio interface and what it uses, I used a USB interface with the Lenovo and it was not good, I had issues, but I now have one that is a PCI card and it's been fine.

2. As mentioned above I use a PCI interface a 1010-LT, and it's been fine with one small issue. If I attempt to use the built in mic preamps, by changing the jumpers on the card, the system will crash repeatedly, no idea why, extra noise maybe, but as long as I keep the whole card at +4dBu it all seems to work groovy.

So my suggestion would be, know your interface, if it's USB or Firewire make sure you get a mobo with a good USB/Firewire chipset, I know Andy Hong's geer geeking in the Tape-Op mag touches on what are good chipsets to have, seek :?
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

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Re: PC Options

Post by Andrew707 » Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:02 am

Drone wrote:
Andrew707 wrote: FWIW -

I work with Lenovo PC's at my day job in the Gaming industry and wouldn't hesitate to use one as a studio PC in a pro situation. We have them running 24/7, in some pretty nasty environments and they've proven to be reliable workhorses, running years on end, without issue.
My studio PC is a Lenovo, and I will make the following observations.

1. A lot depends on your audio interface and what it uses, I used a USB interface with the Lenovo and it was not good, I had issues, but I now have one that is a PCI card and it's been fine.

2. As mentioned above I use a PCI interface a 1010-LT, and it's been fine with one small issue. If I attempt to use the built in mic preamps, by changing the jumpers on the card, the system will crash repeatedly, no idea why, extra noise maybe, but as long as I keep the whole card at +4dBu it all seems to work groovy.

So my suggestion would be, know your interface, if it's USB or Firewire make sure you get a mobo with a good USB/Firewire chipset, I know Andy Hong's geer geeking in the Tape-Op mag touches on what are good chipsets to have, seek :?
If you don't mind me asking:

-What usb interface were you using and
-what were the problems you were experiencing with it? Also,
-what is your power supply wattage and other PC specs?

Thanks

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Drone
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Post by Drone » Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:31 am

Tascam US something maybe 1622

I forget, it looked like it as working, but the whole recording was no good, so I imagine dropouts or clocking issues.

Absolutely no idea, it works for whatever it is doing now.
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

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Studiodawg
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Post by Studiodawg » Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:23 pm

Scott and company build pro stuff...http://www.adkproaudio.com/

flapmaggot
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Post by flapmaggot » Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:09 am

I am also noticing that PCs are now being made without PCI slots. I see PCIe, but not PCI. My RME Multiface is PCI. Though I can change it out to a PCIe, it would cost another $500 for an new card. PC Audio Labs and Sweetwater do build units with PCI.
Last edited by flapmaggot on Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Drone
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Post by Drone » Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:15 am

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Expr ... B0024CV3SA

Never tried one, so I can't comment on it's use for the job.
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

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