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Quetzalcoatl
Posts: 4
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 Posted - Sun Jul 06, 2003 12:54 pm
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Hi everyone, my first post here, and I need help with building my own PC system.
This PC system will be primarily used for audio work. A variety of audio work, and I just want to get the foundation, the system right before I look into microphones, speakers and other instruments.
I have virtually built the following, and I would like opinions on whether this would make a decently spec'd entry-level PC for music recording and production:
Processor
Intel P4 2.66GHz 533MHz System Bus
Case
ATX 300W Midi Tower + Fan (AMD/P4)
Motherboard
Asus P4G8XD E7205 Motherboard
RAM
512MB 333MHz DDR RAM
Hard Drive
Maxtor 120GB DiamondMax Plus9
CD Writer
52x/24x/52x
DVD Writer
Sony DRU500
Graphic Card
128MB DDR GeForce FX5600 Ultra
Audio Card
M Audio Delta 44 (already bought)
Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Price quoted for this DIY system: just under £1000/ $1,666
My budget is £1000 / $1,666
I know that some people might change the audio card depending on the type of recording that I intend to, but, generally speaking, are these specs a good foundation for a music production PC.
Thanks very much, in anticipation of your expert advice 
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JayP
Posts: 8
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Posted - Sun Jul 06, 2003 7:40 pm
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Looks good to me! You might consider adding an additional hard drive as Cool Edit Pro will give you a speed advantage from a second HD.
Get a 7200 rpm with 8mb or better buffer and you should be smokin!
Jay:D
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Emmett
Location: USA
Posts: 59
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Posted - Sun Jul 06, 2003 9:12 pm
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MORE RAM!!! If you are doing music production, get more RAM. If you plan on using real-time effects, get more RAM. RAM is cheap, get more. You might consider getting some more RAM. Have you thought about the possibility of more RAM? :D
I also think the AMD Athlon handles audio a little better, but that is just my personal preference. Hope that helps.
More RAM.
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Emmett
KPNT, St. Louis, MO |
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post78
Location: USA
Posts: 2887
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:20 am
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I think that 512MB are plenty. I haven't yet run into memory problems with my stick of Crucial (which I suggest, BTW). Here are the two problems I can see:
That PSU seems a bit small to me. It might be enough, but you're running a very powerful machine, there. I'm not sure if the Delta has it's own PSU, but if it doesn't than it's certainly running off of the computer PSU, which means you definitely could use something stronger. I'd get a case without the PSU and pick up either and Enermax (personal recommendation) or Antec. Get at least 350W (I run a 465W) and be sure to get a quiet model.
Finally, that video card seems like a bit much. You can likely save a lot of money by getting something more conservative. I have a 32MB Matrox G550. It's a great 2D, dual head card.
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Answer = 1. Probably.
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AMSG
Location: Sweden
Posts: 594
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 3:40 am
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| Quetzalcoatl wrote: |
but, generally speaking, are these specs a good foundation for a music production PC.
Thanks very much, in anticipation of your expert advice |
No these specs aren't a good foundation. If you already had bought everything, I would do you a favor by buying it all, for..let's say...100$ I would even pay for the shipping costs:clown: :P
No serious, this looks very good. I wish I had one like that, hehe.
But as post said, the videocard might be a bit too much if you intend to use this computer only for music recording and production. Buy a cheaper, less flashy one, and that way you'll have some more money over. Which you can spend on a microphone, plug-ins,...
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Quetzalcoatl
Posts: 4
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 6:14 am
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Was that more RAM? Oh yes I agree, more RAM. I wanted 1GB or 2GB RAM. I was surprised to discover that the build-your-own-PC thingie here: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/PCs.html (click the see-thru pc on the right) only has a maximum of 512MB RAM. I am willing to go a bit cheaper on the graphics card, but I do a lot of graphics and video work too. I'll look into RAM prices. I have bought my RAM from Crucial before, they're very good. But have you seen the price for 2GB stick of RAM? Something like £170/$280!
What else, oh, the Pentium Vs Athalon thing. Well after some research and looking at various benchmarks, the winner is not so conclusive. One fares better than the other one at certain times and in certain situations. I conclude that Pentium 4 is more expensive and only a little bit faster overall, and that's why technical people are buying the AMD. Personally I like the prestige of being able to say my processor is an Intel, even if it doesn't mean that much to the techies.
I'm going to phone the above mentioned shop and ask if I could have more RAM worked into the thing .. may have to go a little cheaper on the graphics card and plump for 2.(something less) GB processor.
I'll let you guys know how it went,
Thanks for your help!
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:46 am
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I agree with post78 about the power supply. Get a 500W one, which will run well within its capabilities rather than giving the 300W one quite a bit of work to do. The harder they work, the more likely they are to fail.
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Quetzalcoatl
Posts: 4
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 9:24 am
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There were no 500W in the options on that site Steve. This is my first build-your-own, and I think I haven't done too bad. I decided to choose a cheaper GEForce graphics card, and get 2 sticks x 512MB RAM . All within my budget, and I should be taking delivery next week.
Thanks again for all the advice!
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arela
Location: Norway
Posts: 5
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 12:31 pm
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300-350w powersuply is probably enough, because when recording/playback you will need only 1 HD and maybe a cd / dvd play/burn-er at one time (12v from powersuply)
If you intend to use it for music, dont use more PCI's than nessesary.
Go for a silent one.
Also go for a graphic card without fan (fan noise is anoying)
RAM RAM RAM. I buildt mine with 512MB a couple of months ago, and i want more!
I have a P4 2,4 mHz, but i really didnt need a fast processor, since
my creamware cards has dsp processors.
I also uses S-ATA disc (they aint much faster, but i had to try it:D)
I run 27 wavefiles in CE and SX without problem (and probably more).
When buying fans , look at noise (better with 2 * 12 db fans than 1 * 30db
good luck:)
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:30 pm
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| Quetzalcoatl wrote: |
There were no 500W in the options on that site Steve. This is my first build-your-own, and I think I haven't done too bad. I decided to choose a cheaper GEForce graphics card, and get 2 sticks x 512MB RAM . All within my budget, and I should be taking delivery next week.
Thanks again for all the advice! |
It's not the end of the world. And when you find out that the existing one has rather a noisy inaccessible fan, you can always retrofit a bigger, quieter power supply. Arela is probably right - if you are only using one HD you will get away with it - but it's not an ideal approach, because you will be getting closer to the operational limits than you think. Don't be too complacent about it, is all.
Recently we had to replace a 300W PSU in a brand-new RAID system because the switch-on surge tripped the supply out - if you did a manually-sequenced start it was okay, but trust it? You must be joking! And that was in an ASUS-based machine with a slightly smaller, consuming less power, processor with nothing much else in the machine, because it was a network server - one cheap video card, one NIC.
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zemlin
Location: USA
Posts: 1156
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Posted - Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:34 pm
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I recently moved my DAW into an ANTEC Sonata case. 120mm case fans mounted on rubber isolators (actually they only include 1 fan - you have to supply the second) - a 380W True Power PSU, grommet mounted hard drives on 4 slide-out trays - very handy!
It isn't decorated with GITD martian eyes or anything - simple, attractive, glossy black exterior.
I put in a little extra effort to further quiet the unit - a zalman heatsink on the CPU and fanmates on the fans to tweak the speeds to as low as possible, some dynamat on the large panels.
The box is very quiet considering 4 disks and 5 fans and runs much cooler than my previous cheapo case.
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GothicV
Location: Canada
Posts: 28
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Posted - Tue Jul 08, 2003 3:29 pm
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Some suggestions for you:
-your video card
Get an AGP video card if possible. The more stuff you have in PCI slots, the more they have to share bandwidth and power on the PCI bus. I recently had problems running my digi001 and radeon 7500 simultaneously. PCI graphincs cards are HOGS when it comes to this. Luckily, I removed it and discovered (much to my surprise) that I had an integrated SiS650 graphics card, which is better than the radeon anyway. Lets me have better graphics on operation flashpoint and such.
-your hard drive
I suggest, instead of one 120gb harddrive, you get one small fast (7200-10000rpm) one (like 12-20gb) for your OS and software, and then another, larger harddrive of at least 7200rpm for your audio and video recordings. The reasoning is: reading your software on one drive while writing to another is easier on the computer than doing both simultaneously on one drive.
-if you can only get 512mb ram, make sure you just get one 512mb stick. Email and request that specifically, instead of 2 256mb sticks. That will leave you a slot open to add in another stick later, should you decide you need it.
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Quetzalcoatl
Posts: 4
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Posted - Thu Jul 17, 2003 2:14 pm
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Just to let you guys know that my new PC arrived today, and I did get an additional 512MB RAM stick, so I start this system with 1GB RAM . You're right about the noisy fan .. I wonder if I'll get away with it, or maybe I'll have to entertain one of the solutions above.
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