WHich computer should I use
Moderators: Aaronw, kendale, John Sayers
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Aaronw
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- Posts: 1771
- Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2003 3:06 am
- Location: Music City
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nicholaspaul
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 2:19 am
- Location: Calgary AB Canada
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I'm with you , Aaron. I'm not a Macophile to the point of being myopic, but my G4 Powerbook is a beautiful thing, inside and out. With OSX, I find that it just works. Less playing, more working. If I want to tinker, I lean over there -> and use my Ubuntu machine.
For stability and operability, I would always go with Macintosh. Oh, and the time you save on researching compatibilty issues is worth the extra cash (that is, if you are still under the dillusion that Macs cost more
)
Anyway, lets not start a PC vs Mac debate, its all horses for courses. That's my 2¢ worth....
Nick.
For stability and operability, I would always go with Macintosh. Oh, and the time you save on researching compatibilty issues is worth the extra cash (that is, if you are still under the dillusion that Macs cost more
)Anyway, lets not start a PC vs Mac debate, its all horses for courses. That's my 2¢ worth....
Nick.
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torrefaction
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 6:59 am
I'm new here, so if my posting etiquette for this forum is off, my apologies. But, I thought I'd post here, as I just did a fairly significant amount of research, and I think I came up with a pretty decent machine (Keep in mind, I haven't fully integrated everything yet. But Reaktor runs fantastic... it's fun kicking an instrument up to 100 voices in Unison. The cost in the end for the performance isn't even too bad (and there are places other people could cut costs. Unfortunately, I play games too I'll be mentioning the specific areas I think people can afford slack for a top end PC.
Processor- Athlon X2 4400+
At this time and date, this is *THE* processor for high end computing. It's one of the first in Athlon's new line of dual-core processor's. For you audiophiles who haven't been able to keep up with audio tech and computers, that's exactly what it sounds like. 2 Processors on one chip. This chip is a MONSTER. I personally went with the 4200+ (my budget got down to the line.) , but the 4400+ has a larger L2 Cache, which would give it a slight edge for audio work. It blows away the Intel dual core solution, hands down. It has the added edge of being 64-bit. This processor will last you quite a while. At the time of this writing, these chips haven't dropped in price too much. The 4200+ is $529, and the 4400+ pops in at $730. This will probably be the most expensive part of the computer, but trust me...don't slack on your processor. Multi-tasking smoothly will make the whole experience much less frustrating.
Motherboard - Nforce3 Chipset (Asus is always a good bet.) I would personally recommend the A8V Deluxe at this time. I should note that I took a gamble, and went with the Nforce4 chipset (A8N-SLI). This is a gamer's motherboard, but there were many varying reports. This mostly has to do with PCI Express possibly hogging bandwidth from the PCI Bus. I wanted SATA II (And SLI.) , so I rolled the dice. I haven't had any problems, whatsoever. But, it is worth noting that a problem could exist, so the safe bet for a DAW is the Asus A8V Deluxe. Fantastically stable for audio, and a strong featureset. Around $93.00 At the time of this writing
Memory - This is subjective. You want it to be dual channel (Buy 2 512 chips rather than a single GB chip). Make sure it's decently clocked, 2-3-3-6 should be acceptable. I went with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227031 .
As long as the manufacturer is known, and you don't buy the cheapest RAM you can find, you should be okay.
Hard Drive - Again, slightly subjective. Go with the best interface your motherboard supports. Serial ATA is ridiculously fast (The Asus A8V Deluxe supports Serial ATA). I went with this drive (Although you may want to look into the WD Raptor for faster seek times.) This drive won out for me. From what I gather, it's a quieter drive, and it's still blazingly fast. This is an SATA II drive, but will run on a SATA controller. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822144416
Case - From a DAW perspective, this is actually one of the most important pieces. Far and away the quietest case is the Antec P180. I haven't measured the noise levels yet...but it is QUIET. I barely even hear it running as it is now, and I haven't replaced the retail CPU fan (Loud.).
Sound Card - Ah. Here we go. I've done a lot of research, and personally, I think the Emu 1820M is the best bang for your buck for the PC. I mean, go with the RME Fireface or their DSP system with the Multiface if you have the cash, but the Emu 1820M will be fantastic as far as quality goes. You really can't go wrong with the Delta 1010L either, it just depends on your budget.
Power Supply - Important for sound too. If your room isn't too hot, go with the Antec Phantom. The 350W should be fine for just about any use, but if you plan on having a *ton* of peripherals, go with the 500W. Otherwise, check out silentpcreview.com for a good solution.
Video Card - Subjective, and just doesn't matter for DAW purposes. I bought an ATI X600 Pro for my system. I only say this because I'm about to give the cost of what I paid (not including sound card.)
Total cost of the system (For my parts - Sound card not included. People following the motherboard recommendations, purchasing later will most likely spend even less.)
$1166 before shipping.
This is an incredibly powerful computer, at a fairly low cost. This is better than what...well, 95% of studios use at this point. You get true SMP, (Symmetric Multi-processing) at a fairly low cost point.
Hope this helps someone at some point. I can guarantee all the parts I suggested will work fantastically. If you opt to go with the parts I went with you, your mileage may vary. Sometimes, when your on the cutting edge, you just may bleed.
I'll be mentioning the specific areas I think people can afford slack for a top end PC.Processor- Athlon X2 4400+
At this time and date, this is *THE* processor for high end computing. It's one of the first in Athlon's new line of dual-core processor's. For you audiophiles who haven't been able to keep up with audio tech and computers, that's exactly what it sounds like. 2 Processors on one chip. This chip is a MONSTER. I personally went with the 4200+ (my budget got down to the line.) , but the 4400+ has a larger L2 Cache, which would give it a slight edge for audio work. It blows away the Intel dual core solution, hands down. It has the added edge of being 64-bit. This processor will last you quite a while. At the time of this writing, these chips haven't dropped in price too much. The 4200+ is $529, and the 4400+ pops in at $730. This will probably be the most expensive part of the computer, but trust me...don't slack on your processor. Multi-tasking smoothly will make the whole experience much less frustrating.
Motherboard - Nforce3 Chipset (Asus is always a good bet.) I would personally recommend the A8V Deluxe at this time. I should note that I took a gamble, and went with the Nforce4 chipset (A8N-SLI). This is a gamer's motherboard, but there were many varying reports. This mostly has to do with PCI Express possibly hogging bandwidth from the PCI Bus. I wanted SATA II (And SLI.) , so I rolled the dice. I haven't had any problems, whatsoever. But, it is worth noting that a problem could exist, so the safe bet for a DAW is the Asus A8V Deluxe. Fantastically stable for audio, and a strong featureset. Around $93.00 At the time of this writing
Memory - This is subjective. You want it to be dual channel (Buy 2 512 chips rather than a single GB chip). Make sure it's decently clocked, 2-3-3-6 should be acceptable. I went with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227031 .
As long as the manufacturer is known, and you don't buy the cheapest RAM you can find, you should be okay.
Hard Drive - Again, slightly subjective. Go with the best interface your motherboard supports. Serial ATA is ridiculously fast (The Asus A8V Deluxe supports Serial ATA). I went with this drive (Although you may want to look into the WD Raptor for faster seek times.) This drive won out for me. From what I gather, it's a quieter drive, and it's still blazingly fast. This is an SATA II drive, but will run on a SATA controller. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822144416
Case - From a DAW perspective, this is actually one of the most important pieces. Far and away the quietest case is the Antec P180. I haven't measured the noise levels yet...but it is QUIET. I barely even hear it running as it is now, and I haven't replaced the retail CPU fan (Loud.).
Sound Card - Ah. Here we go. I've done a lot of research, and personally, I think the Emu 1820M is the best bang for your buck for the PC. I mean, go with the RME Fireface or their DSP system with the Multiface if you have the cash, but the Emu 1820M will be fantastic as far as quality goes. You really can't go wrong with the Delta 1010L either, it just depends on your budget.
Power Supply - Important for sound too. If your room isn't too hot, go with the Antec Phantom. The 350W should be fine for just about any use, but if you plan on having a *ton* of peripherals, go with the 500W. Otherwise, check out silentpcreview.com for a good solution.
Video Card - Subjective, and just doesn't matter for DAW purposes. I bought an ATI X600 Pro for my system. I only say this because I'm about to give the cost of what I paid (not including sound card.)
Total cost of the system (For my parts - Sound card not included. People following the motherboard recommendations, purchasing later will most likely spend even less.)
$1166 before shipping.
This is an incredibly powerful computer, at a fairly low cost. This is better than what...well, 95% of studios use at this point. You get true SMP, (Symmetric Multi-processing) at a fairly low cost point.
Hope this helps someone at some point. I can guarantee all the parts I suggested will work fantastically. If you opt to go with the parts I went with you, your mileage may vary. Sometimes, when your on the cutting edge, you just may bleed.
buy a mac G5 DUAL AND FLY-
Govinda
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2004 6:33 am
- Location: Gold Coast, Australia
YES YES YES
MAC DADDY!
not that im trying to convert anyone haha!
i got a dual 2.3 a few months back after switching from pc! i'm runnig logic pro 7 and i will never look back! im actually making music instead of fixing computer issues!
music is not about being a computer geek and fixing irq problems!
no thanks bill!
G
MAC DADDY!
not that im trying to convert anyone haha!
i got a dual 2.3 a few months back after switching from pc! i'm runnig logic pro 7 and i will never look back! im actually making music instead of fixing computer issues!
music is not about being a computer geek and fixing irq problems!
no thanks bill!
G
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Pennywizz6
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:21 am
- Location: Shakopee, MN, USA
Celeron is equivalent to about a higher P2 or a lower P3, high operating frequency, but the overall processing power is unmatched between the P4. The extra RAM REALLY speeds up things when running multiple programs and such. If its the same RAM you could possibly add ram to one or the other for more virtual memory.
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