Yet another PC question

[gorath23]

First off, I have read all the recent threads on this, but I think my budget is a bit below those discussed.

I wouldn't mind some advice on putting together my budget DAW. I am constricted by A) a total lack of cash so this will be on finance and B) the need to buy it right away as my current computer has really given up.

My budget is £500 (including the Finance charge). I'm using the website http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ to build this to my own specs. The main question is regarding the ability to run VST's, how will this setup handle them? I only need to record 1/2 tracks simultaneously so the power is needed primarily for the mixing stage. The computer below comes in at £460 BUILT- not just the individual part costs.



Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™2 Duo E8300 (2 X 2.83GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache


Memory (RAM)

2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)


Motherboard

ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1


Operating System

WINDOWS® XP HOME SP2 (inc CD & Licence) (£49)


USB Options

8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD


Memory - 1st Hard Disk

160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)


1st CD/DVD Drive

20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM


Graphics Card

256MB RADEON HD 2400 PRO PCI Express + DVI

Case

Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB


Power Supply & Case Cooling

500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£22)


Processor Cooling

SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£15)


Firewire & Video Editing

3 PORT IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PCI CARD (£9) (Tempted to ask for a TI upgrade on this)

 

[Ermz]

The C2Ds are great CPUs which can hold up well if you are moderate in your plug-in usage. Anything reasonable that you throw at it, it will take quite gladly. However, if pure grunt is needed, you may want to hold out for Intel's new Nahalem microarchitecture. Preliminary benchmarks on test/crippled motherboards showed some astounding numbers that are leaving everything else in the dust. Just depends how long you can hold out for.

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

I'd definately try to het my RAM run at higher speed than 667 if that's possible with the motherboard. I used to have 2 GB @ 533, updated recently to 2 GB @ 800 and made a hell of a diffrence to me!
also 160 GB og HD will be full before you know it. I'd try to get and extra 320 or 400 in.
I also have the ATI radeon 2400 pro. be shure to get the correct drivers and don't instal the control center shit. i had some major problems (i repeat, MAJOR PROBLEMS) with the wrong drivers, that i got delivered with it btw... started of with frozen screen for a few seconds, happend 1 or 2 times a day, harware acceleration being shut down for strange reasons and ended with the whole system resetting randomly once every 2 hours or so. got the right drivers now and works absolutely fine so be aware of that.

good luck!

 

[gorath23]

OK thanks guys, I'll look into 800mhz Ram, I shouldn't have a problem with the graphics card, like I said this system is pre-built and tested for me.

EDIT: I already have a 250GB external HDD for all my audio files. My internal HDD has 60% free (80GB) so 160 should be fine.

 

[gorath23]

Hmm, I've just built a Q6600 Quad Core machine on the Dell website with 2GB 800mhz Ram and 160 GB HD for £280 exc VAT.... Not sure what to do.

 

[Joematthews]

The dells we've had in the past haven't been too bad. Just get rid of all the shitty software that comes on it, run a few audio tweaks on it and your good to go.

I would partition so you have a general purpose OS and a music making OS, so you don't have an antivirus program stealing your CPU power.

Joe

Oh yeah, and Core 2 FTW! untill nehalem cores come out.

 

[gorath23]

The dells we've had in the past haven't been too bad. Just get rid of all the shitty software that comes on it, run a few audio tweaks on it and your good to go.

I would partition so you have a general purpose OS and a music making OS, so you don't have an antivirus program stealing your CPU power.

Joe

Oh yeah, and Core 2 FTW! untill nehalem cores come out.

It will be dedicated solely to Music creation so apart from Reaper and Adobe for manuals it will be clean of anything else. Its part of the business range (Vostro 410) so it doesn't have much in the way of software/ unnecessary hardware. I'm just waiting for the bit where it says you have to bulk-buy or something.... I got nearly to the end of the Checkout procedure and it looked ok though. Fingers crossed for a steal!

 

[cobhc]

I'd say go for a Dell machine as well. You can pick up some amazing spec machines for dirt cheap. You might wanna check out www.hotukdeals.com and see if they have any Dells on there at the moment. They usually pick up on the cheap deals, especially if you ditch the 3 year warranty and go with the 1 year.

 

[cobhc]

Just built a Dell with a Quad core 2gb DDR2 800 and a 500gb HDD, and that's with a 512mb Radeon 3870 for £599 inc vat and delivery, with a nice 15% discount code that brings it down to £509.15.

Here's the main specs from Dells Website:-

PROCESSOR Intel® Processor Q6600 Quad Core™ (2.40GHz, 1066Mhz FSB, 8MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty
MONITOR Display Not Included
MEMORY 2048MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
HARD DRIVE Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA non Raid (7200 Rpm)
GRAPHICS CARD 512MB ATI® Radeon® 3870 Graphics card
OPTICAL DRIVE DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)

Only problem is you may or may not wanna ditch Vista off of it, and buy a copy of XP to put back on there.

 

[gorath23]

Dell give you the option of XP on the Business site for +£10, the larger HDD and Graphics card aside I constructed the same computer for £330 all in. I really can't see myself needing anything larger than 160GB + 250GB HDD's.

 

[Joematthews]

are you not paying VAT?

Pleaaaaaseeee get the bigger hard drive, sooooo worth the money because the junk really does pile up after a few years.

Dell bussiness PC's will still have bloatware on them, so be prepared to remove it.

Joe

 

[Joematthews]

Actually screw the bigger hard drive with the prices dell are asking... I just looked and they are crazy

Joe

 

[gorath23]

I'm not sure what you guys have on your hard drives but my old 80GB has served me well for over 4 years, and like I said it never even hit 50% full. This one won't be hooked up to the Web, used for gaming or any other bullshit, Reaper only! I ordered the Dell anyway, plus I got an extra 2 years warranty for £35, so all in a Quad Core machine for £369 ain't bad!. And yes that was with VAT. They are currently offering free delivery and £30 off that particular PC hence the price. Stoked, should be here in a week or so.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, I'm fine with an 80 gb system drive, my external drive has all my sessions/media

 

[Joematthews]

"I'm not sure what you guys have on your hard drives"

isn't it obvious?

PORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah, and music. you gotta love music.

Joe

 

[Metaltastic]

Hahaha, hence why I used the nicely ambiguous term "media"

 

[gorath23]

"I'm not sure what you guys have on your hard drives"

isn't it obvious?

PORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah, and music. you gotta love music.

Joe

Haha

On a different note, I was just thinking I was maybe a bit dumb getting the extra warranty as I'll be opening the box almost straight away to install a PCI Firewire Card. I'm pretty sure this will invalidate any warranty (the terms are a bit ambiguous). Anyone have experience of warranty/ repair work post modifications?

 

[Joematthews]

I think it will probably render your warranty worthless, but even if you hadn't put a firewire card in my past experiences have always been that dell can't be bothered to help. They do make good, neat systems, but customer services has never been their strong point. I guess if you run into problems you allways have people here and all over the internet to help you and I bet we will be twice as effective as the Dell technical surport.

Joe

 

[JBroll]

Fuck Dell. If you're not a total idiot you can build your own, and if you are a total idiot you can find a nerd to do it for you.

Jeff

 

[cobhc]

Fuck Dell. If you're not a total idiot you can build your own, and if you are a total idiot you can find a nerd to do it for you.

Jeff

Sometimes the Dell deals with the discount codes are very very hard to match, even using the cheapest components you can find, at least here in the UK anyway. I agree it's better to build one yourself, but I was providing a cheap, but powerful solution, without the need for building.