Buying a new PC need HELP musicians!!!
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Forum Name: Tech Talk
Forum Description: Discuss musical instruments, equipment, hi-fi, speakers, vinyl, gadgets,etc.
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27370
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Topic: Buying a new PC need HELP musicians!!!
Posted By: The Lost Chord
Subject: Buying a new PC need HELP musicians!!!
Date Posted: August 16 2006 at 10:55
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I have a midi controller, M-Tron, Arturia, m-audio software of all sorts. I currently use an audiophile 2496 sound card or something, but it has ASIO drivers so it works with the M-Audio Keystation 61
I am getting a new Dell.
I was wondering if anyone here can recommend the cheapest Dell system strictly for school and music, Microsoft Word, Excell, Powerpoint and a beautiful sound card and speakers, graphics card doesnt even matter!
Should be too much right?
I just need to be able to play a bunch of software programs on it with my keyboard, and be able top write essays lol. -------------  "Only the sun knew why"
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Replies:
Posted By: NutterAlert
Date Posted: August 16 2006 at 10:58
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Make sure you get a fire extinguisher with your Dell..latest Dell accessory.
------------- Proud to be an un-banned member since 2005 |
Posted By: A'swepe
Date Posted: August 17 2006 at 11:23
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Load it down with RAM, get the biggest Hard Drive they sell. Buy an extra Hard Drive (from newegg.com) for the sucker. Put all your music applications on the second drive & all the Windows crap on the main drive. Avoid shared video memory - bad stuff! Make sure it has a couple of extra expansion slots. A fast processor is important, but it doesn't have to the be the fastest thing on the planet. Lots of USB ports might be important also. I have 4 internal Hard Drives & 2 external USB Hard Drives on my system. External USB is great for backing up your music files.
Bottom line on PCs: Get a system that will do what you want it to do, at a price you are willing to pay. Don't skimp. You will probably live with it for 2 or 3 years, maybe longer. My current system was built in March of 04 & still going strong even though its no longer close to top of the line. ------------- David - Never doubt in the dark that which you believe to be true in the light. http://www.myspace.com/aardvarktxusa - Instrumental rock http://www.soundclick.com/aardvarktxusa |
Posted By: The Lost Chord
Date Posted: August 17 2006 at 17:22
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A Swepe what do you mean by "load it down" with RAM.
If you could throw some specs at me itd be a great help!
Take this for what I will be doing:
1.I assume I will need no more than 500 GB of storge space, my music library is at about 200 GB and the software program havnt taken up nearly 100 GB yet.
2. RAM and Memory I am very unfirmiliar with, but I know this current PC is at 2.8 GhZ and 1.00 GB RAM and it works great with my Keystation and M-Tron stuff.
I just don't want to waste extra cash, you know, I want to have what this PC has without thee xtra money I sepnt on gaming stuff. ------------- "Only the sun knew why"
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Posted By: goose
Date Posted: August 17 2006 at 19:00
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If you don't want to waste money, don't buy MS Office and instead download OpenOffice.org for free (from www.openoffice.org , unsurprisingly). If you're doing serious audio work I'd definitely recommend 1GB of RAM as an absolute minimum, and as for USB ports, make sure that if it has more than two or three ports, it also has more than one controller, elsewise there's no real advantage to the extra ports that you wouldn't gain with a simple plug in hub. If you have a 200GB music library and something approaching 100GB of software, you will certainly need over 500GB of space, for backups..! Not backing up is absolutely and categorically a false economy! I have around 500GB of space in a few drives and I'm still looking at buying another 250GB for backup - raw pro audio can take up a lot of space, and you should always keep any drives you're using for audio work at least 20% free to boost performance and to avoid fragmentation.
So, to sum up: at least 1GB of RAM (probably 2) 600+ GB of space, if you want to feel safe! External is fine ideally 2 USB controllers (also called hosts, I think) - also look into Firewire Processer speeds I'm not too familiar with - I doubt you'll need more than what you've got on that other PC though. |
Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: August 20 2006 at 17:26
whatever you get make sure it has an extended warranty! my main computer just died on me and you guessed it...i forgot to renew the guarantee and PC World won't even look at it. My mates in IT reckon the M board's gone so they might find one for me ( ). Using my trusty lap top at the moment...always have back-up!!!
-------------  Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Posted By: Jay440
Date Posted: August 21 2006 at 01:48
I thought that all Applications/Programs had to be on the same drive as the operating system. Could I really run Apps off of a separate H.D.? |
A'swepe wrote:Posted By: cobb
Date Posted: August 21 2006 at 04:21
| ^Yes. Just change the default location when installing. |
Posted By: KoS
Date Posted: August 21 2006 at 04:28
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I would have gotten a new apple computer
. a dual core one
you can run windows & mac OS
since a lot of multimedia software uses mac OS
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Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: August 21 2006 at 08:12
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If you're just going to run standard Office apps and play music on it (to listen to), then you really don't need much grunt.
I still have a 486 with 32Mb RAM and an SB AWE 32 running Windows 98 and Office 97 that is perfectly adequate for Word, light Excel use, Internet surfing and music playback. You don't need anything bigger than a 500Mhz processor - in fact, even that is overkill really. The only reason you'd need a lot of RAM is if you plan on running Windows XP, which will eat as much RAM as you want to throw at it - 256Mb being a bare minimum. The only reason you'd want a faster processor is if you're doing intensive stuff like gaming, recording and manipulating audio - then you'd want the fastest processor you can get. A Dual-Core processor, or even a Dual/Dual Core processor setup with 4Gb RAM is good - but you can never render those samples fast enough or process too many simultaneous effects. Plus, for audio work, you want the fastest disk subsystem you can lay your hands on - Serial Attached SCSI is top, but SATA II or even III are more than adequate. You will also run out of disk space - that is a given, so the bigger the better, and using a separate disk - or even better, a separate array of disks for your data is a good way to keep it away from your software and make it more easily retrievable when disaster strikes (don't ever think it might not). Don't put the apps on the same drive as the data - put it on the system drive. If you have to re-install the O/S, you'll have to re-install the apps too, so there's just no point. Finally, if it's on the Internet, ANTI-VIRUS!!! This stuff is the studio's enemy, as it gobbles processor time - so do all your music work offline and with A/V disabled, but enable it BEFORE going online. ------------- The important thing is not to stop questioning. |
Posted By: The Lost Chord
Date Posted: August 21 2006 at 10:35
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I bought an external hard drive, 500GB a while ago, and was told I can just bring this to school!
This does away with my need for alot of Gigs on the new one Im buying, id say I need 100GB internal MAX. Will this cut down the price significantly?
Anyways, Im calling Dell today, guess Im going to just have to ask the guy to deck out the Ram and speed and all, I dont want to take any risks, and get a great speakers and sound card! ------------- "Only the sun knew why"
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Posted By: The Lost Chord
Date Posted: August 21 2006 at 11:41
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Here is what I got: Dell Pentium dual core D processor 2.8Ghz 1 GB Ram Radeon x300 something graphics card (he said its the best radeon they have or something?) x-Fi sound card (top of the line) surround sound speakers for x-Fi model, with subwoofer 17" flat screen monitor keyboard optical Mouse 160 GB Internal Hard Drive Think thats it $1050 Hows that? ------------- "Only the sun knew why"
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Posted By: KoS
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 14:00
| You got a good deal |