Buying a Desk (And Computer)

DanLights

DanLights

Santa Hat Forever
Jul 28, 2008
7,114
8
38
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Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
www.danlightsaudio.com
I'm putting the desk as the main point of this thread cause it's what I really need help with as I have no idea how/where/for how much to get a good (decent? useable?) desk for a desktop computer that includes somehow a place to put the monitors, and some extra space for future purchases such as interfaces/preamps etc.? Any ideas are accepted, websites where I could buy from (Europe), common stores etc. as I have really no idea what to be looking at, so I appreciate the help!

And about the computer, well the problem is so far it has to be a normal "commercial" level computer because I need the help of the normal pc stores that give you the ability to pay it in 10 months as I don't have the cash to pay for one in full right now, so I'm looking at normal computers which for starters don't have a firewire input but I reckon that's not really a problem right? I can buy one separately yeah? But I'm trying to get a good enough processor that can handle the usual amp sims, live sample replacement, vsti's etc. so what kind of processors would you recommend that could handle mixing without having to freeze shit all the time? Or any other tips are always appreciated.

I do realize there are a few threads on buying computers for mixing but this is more about the desk, and I can't seem to find any helpful info around here (that isn't from 2007)
 
Any of the new PC's should have built in Firewire as it's pretty common these days. But, as you said, if it doesn't you can always buy a PCI Firewire card and install it yourself. I would definitely try to find, at minimum, a dual-core processor and, assuming you will be running 64-bit OS, at least 4GB of RAM. This should be no problem nowadays with the ever improving technology. Ideally, you would like a quad core processor like the newer Intel i5s or i7s. I have a quad-core i5, myself, with 8GB of RAM and very rarely do I ever have to freeze tracks. Usually increasing the buffer of my Saffire while mixing does the trick.
 
that desk from Thomann looks perfect, and it does have space for the monitors. I might end up getting that one if making my own turns out too difficult

Anchor, if you can dig up the files I would appreciate it, to see if I could actually do it, I'm pretty retarded with manual work but it can't be too hard can it?
 
DanLights said:
that desk from Thomann looks perfect, and it does have space for the monitors. I might end up getting that one if making my own turns out too difficult

Anchor, if you can dig up the files I would appreciate it, to see if I could actually do it, I'm pretty retarded with manual work but it can't be too hard can it?
Click to expand...

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/stud...und-construction-studio-desk-clone-build.html

There you go dude :)
Original plans are both there as download links under "File 1" and "File 2"

Me and a friend were going to build it but turns out its too big for my room. Doesnt seem too hard if you can get someone who knows a bit about wood construction etc

About £150 worth of materials
 
How much are you looking to spend on a system?

Do you have one curently that you could upgrade? A sandy bridge cpu, mobo, and 4 gb of ram shouldnt set you back much and won't need a huge psu. The 'h' chipsets support onboard graphics too so you could simply add hdd/gfx/new psu/more ram later.
 
I bought my i7 3.0Ghz, 512mo video (guys upgraded it to a 1Go videocard for free when i had to return it once cause of a PSU/videocard failure), 6GoRAM, 500Go HD, for like 7 or 800 dollars.
It didn't have a firewire port, but a PCIe firewire card is damn cheap.

It's a commercial one of course, PackardBell iextreme, which means it's impossible to tweak too much. But for the price, can't beat it at least here. As usual, the only drawback, but it's a big one, is that the motherboard sucks and is impossible to access in the BIOS, and you can't even flash it without risk cause they have hidden everywhere its exact model reference, i just know the brand.

BUT it works great, I just have a driver issue causing me BSOD that re unharmful, so far I don't put it on the PC itself but more the hwole setup I have. The first failure was a component pb but with the warranty, they changed it, and it's 100% fine.

I've made my mind than even if I have a problem someday, I'd just have to upgrade with a new motherboard/RAM/CPU package. Excepted the failure (that was solved easily) it's a damn good price for such a computer.

Otherwise, yeah, upgrade with just a pack if you can. It's so worth it.
 
I bought my desk at your typical office supply store, just one of those corner desks that usually come with shelves and shit on top but I didn't buy the top shelf extension, just the flat section. Then I grabbed some monitor stands for cheap and a $20 Ikea bedside table that holds my rack gear perfectly. Honestly I think I'm a lot happier with this than I would be with an all-in-one desk... I have tooons of space for bowls of oatmeal, Coke Zero cans, Anthrax CDs, Fisherman's friend packages, splash cymbals, dead batteries, etc. as you can see from the pic :lol:

desksetup.jpg
 
So I bought a desk, due to economical restraints I had to go really cheap and ended up getting one for 70 Euros in a big supermarket/department store near my house, actually small enough to fit in the studio leaving plenty of space for people/gear, and big enough to hold all I need, I might buy one of those Ikea bedside tables whenever I need the extra space for rack stuff later on. Now this week I'm gonna buy the computer, again on a limited budget and also limited to local computer shops that have the advantage of paying in 10 installments with no interest.

So I went this morning to a couple shops, one of them being where I have already bought two laptops cause it's more or less the cheapest place and it has a decent variety, and within my budget the best I can afford is an i3 with 4Gb ram which I suppose is a huge improvement from my few years old 1gb ram laptop. I wish I could shoot for quad and such but it's not possible right now, I hope this will suffice, cause I'm in the middle of recording and mixing my band's album and we have quadtracked rhythms plus lots of extra melody/lead guitars that sometimes total up to 8 diferent guitar tracks a song, it's already a nightmare with just the guitars going on, I can't imagine mixing the whole thing on 1gb of Ram in a Pentium M 1.73 Ghz

My options in the shop I mentioned are:

There's this i3 which seems perfect and at a very good price (399 Euros), BUT it has no firewire card (none of them has, I don't get people who say it's pretty common cause it isn't) and according to the guy at the store it has no available slots for customizing cause it's one of those small ones. I don't need the firewire right now, but I plan on buying a Saffire soon and the usb version seems to be crap according to the interwebs, and honestly I'm really convinced a Saffire is the best for my price range/use.

There's also another one which I can't remember anymore (fuck me), an Acer, the processor is an Athlon something which the guy mentioned is like the equivalent of a dual core but I really don´t know about those things, which is a bigger one and does have the space to install firewire, problem is it´s not an i3 so I don´t know how bad that can be for me in the long run (it is 4Gb ram though). this one is a bit more expensive but still reachable.

Any ideas guys?
 
Scott Horner said:
Any of the new PC's should have built in Firewire as it's pretty common these days. I would definitely try to find, at minimum, a dual-core processor and, assuming you will be running 64-bit OS, at least 4GB of RAM. This should be no problem nowadays with the ever improving technology. Ideally, you would like a quad core processor like the newer Intel i5s or i7s. I have a quad-core i5, myself, with 8GB of RAM and very rarely do I ever have to freeze tracks. Usually increasing the buffer of my Saffire while mixing does the trick.
Click to expand...

Hes 100% correct..
Im in the same boat...Look at these.. Im either gonna grab one of these or im just gonna build mine..Its cheaper but the only warranty is your own haha heres a few links

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7073918&Sku=H24-1457

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=19567&CatId=4928

these are just ideas..Pretty much anything you buy will carry minimum requirements already..Programs seem to be designed around the industry of computers and technology.. :Spin:
 
doclegion said:
I use firewire to usb works great
Click to expand...

Really? Interesting, I guess in theory it shouldn't really work, cause however they do the conversion it just can't be better than usb right? How do you do it, with an adapter/cable thingy?

OneDaySky said:
I'm actually biulding my own desk. Ill post some pics on Monday when I should have it finished
Click to expand...

Cool, please post when you do!
 
assemble your own pc dude. saves money, it's even fun.

but if you go with a prebuilt, and there's no firewire port just make sure there's a spare pci slot on the motherboard and you can stick your own in.
 
PC-city A Coruña outlet right now. There was an AMD Phenom II X6 1055T in their website not long ago for really cheap. Should cover all your needs.
 
DanLights said:
Really? Interesting, I guess in theory it shouldn't really work, cause however they do the conversion it just can't be better than usb right? How do you do it, with an adapter/cable thingy?
Click to expand...

Wow i did not know that my computer had a firewire i seriously thought it was firewire to usb.. Shows what i know.. Man what would we do without you??.. You so smart man cheers :Spin:
 
El_Gato said:
PC-city A Coruña outlet right now. There was an AMD Phenom II X6 1055T in their website not long ago for really cheap. Should cover all your needs.
Click to expand...

That was probably when they were moving their store to the new mall? Cause they already closed up the old one. I did go to the new one among all the shops I went to, but I didn't see any "outlet" section, I'll have to check, thanks! I don't know about processors so I was looking for intel (i3) but is that one more or less like an equivalent? What other processor could I be looking for that would be equal to an i3?
 
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