Older i7 pre-built PCs, advice needed

[caz]

Friendz,

I've always been someone that can rock at the lowest budget. Case in point, it's 2020 and my current studio PC is based around an HP Pavilion P6000 Desktop w/ a Phenom IIx4 2.8ghz + 8gb ram. I use this with RME's Fireface UCX. I came in to a wee bit o' cash ($350) that I'd love to use to purchase a new prebuilt budget PC that'd give me a wee bit more power.

I'm currently looking at these older i7 systems. I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and friendly words of advice:

HP Elite 8200 Mini-Tower Workstation - Core i7 2600 3.4GHZ 250GB SSD + 2TB HDD - 16GB RAM - WIFI - 1GB Video Card, Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K5TZMNA/?c ... _lig_dp_it

DELL 9020 SFF, Core i7-4770 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, DVDRW, Windows 10 Pro 64bit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G8NTYDB/?c ... _lig_dp_it

Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF High Performance Desktop Computer, Intel Core i7-4790 up to 4.0GHz, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q2GJ1WT/?c ... _lig_dp_it

A sincere thanks in advanced,
C.

P.S. I record mostly acoustic and amplified instruments -- up to 8 tracks at a time. Average project is 24bit/48k usually 24 to 30 tracks with 2 to 6 plugins on each.

[digitaldrummer]

if you are comparing to a 10 year old AMD phenom P920, even a modern day i3 may blow you away. something like this:

https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSal ... LVWMyMi%2b

(btw, the outlet systems get a 1 year warranty... Amazon is 90d)

which has an i3-8100 (8th gen), compared to that old AMD -- in fact, compare it here:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AM ... /326vs3103

not only do you get the speed difference of the cpu itself, you get faster memory speed (DDR3-1066 up to DDR4-2400) and a faster hard drive (usually - spring for a SSD if you can)...

btw, the Dell 9020 you had listed is a 4th gen i7 and probably won't impress... the HP is even older. So look for a 7th, 8th or 9th gen i-3 or i-5 and you should be rockin for sure.

[losthighway]

I just want to say that I've been running digital multitrack sessions on a HP, and two different Dells since I started. I dig the budget-minded PC workhorse vision and I commend your efforts. Also my last two cars were a Honda and a Toyota.

[digitaldrummer]

I use a Dell XPS 8920 with an i5-7400 (7th gen) and have no problems running Pro Tools 2019.12 Well, ok. not true. there are plenty of Pro Tools and Windows issues to contend with but I can navigate around them... and I can run a lot of plugins and as many tracks as I usually need. I was running some virtual instruments recently that may need more ram, but it never actually stopped working - just said I was running low. I only have 8GB so I may go to 16. or not.

[vvv]

Don' know about now, but ya used to have to wartch the Dells as some of theirs defaulted to non-duplex (izzat the term?) audio, what means ya can't record and monitor at the same time.

I Know that was a issue in the lat 00's - I've not looked at Dell since ...

[digitaldrummer]

Don' know about now, but ya used to have to wartch the Dells as some of theirs defaulted to non-duplex

I've not heard of that, but anybody using a real audio interface should not have an issue. If you try to use the built-in sound card on any PC I think you are asking for trouble... they are not really designed to do much more than play back your Youtube audio...

[Snarl 12/8]

I'm a fan of low budget barebones server towers for this. Look for the ones where the reviews rave about how quiet it is. You add a hard drive, maybe ram and your OS and you're good to go. The main benefit here is that you can buy any brand and install a vanilla OS without all the Dell/HP/Compaq bullshit thrown in. I got a lenovo recently that is dead silent compared to any other computer in the house.

Anyone remember those Dell 400SC's from 20 years ago? They rocked for studio machines.

[Snarl 12/8]

Don' know about now, but ya used to have to wartch the Dells as some of theirs defaulted to non-duplex

I've not heard of that, but anybody using a real audio interface should not have an issue. If you try to use the built-in sound card on any PC I think you are asking for trouble... they are not really designed to do much more than play back your Youtube audio...

Not this bad boy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjtazHdjIQ

[digitaldrummer]

I did have one of the Dell 400sc's and yeah, they were quiet and when on sale, very cheap... it was the same system (different name) as one of the high end workstations but without the expensive graphics card (which I did not need for a DAW).

and toobs... on the motherboard... I'm sure that makes it run faster and jump higher.

[kslight]

I feel like $350 is a lot of cheddar to work with, to me that would mean buying something used and decent and doing any necessary upgrades (ssd and memory especially, new fans or power supply maybe). I don’t know that I would buy any of these off amazon, instead i would see what I could find locally. Whether that means a commercial prebuilt system or something a gamer is throwing away after 6 months, or a used server (look at Avid’s Qualified systems for Pro tools list for model numbers to look for). It’s not hard to find a good shell to start with in the $100 range even.

[caz]

Friendzzzz! thanks so much for the advice and discussion. For a total of $355 I ended up buying the following:

HP Pavilion 590-p0056 with i5-8400, 16GB RAM (2x8gb), 1TB HDD (audio drive), and a 256gb m.2 SSD (OS drive)

Methinks I should be pretty good on my studio super computer mach 4 (or is it 5?). The last time I bought a whole new system was 2012! Every 8 years dropping $300-$400 ain't too bad.

Again, thanks for the discussion
C.