Building a pc for music creation

[mr v]

Now then guys,

seems quite a few of you on here know what you're doing when it comes to computers. i have a bit of knowledge, but nowt particularly bangin.

 

been wanting to build my own pc for a while, the primary use would be music shit, but also be using the web and some other basic apps.

 

basically, what do i need?! and for something of an alrite standard, how much should i be saying is my estimate for expenditure, i was hoping about 700ish, i'm not bothered about having flat screen moniters and fancy keyboards and cases

 

what sound cards should i be looking out for?

realise a big hard drive would also be very nessecary as well, but as to how much ram and shit i'd need to keep everything powered i'm a bit clueless.

 

sorry if this is a bit open, any help whatsoever would be appreciated.

peace!

[Steve]

I would go with something like this: -

 

1GB RAM

200GB Hard drive (x2 - One for backups)

DVD/CD combo drive

 

M-Audio make some decent sound cards. You could get one that has a breakout box so all the connections and controls are on the front of the case. Unless you play games the graphics card is pretty much irrelevant. Any reasonably new processor will do too. The AMD 64Bit chips are powerful and well priced and should last a while before you need to upgrade. Also make sure you get a good quality power supply. As you're not too bothered about a fancy monitor, you should easily be able to build a good PC for £700.

[Steelio]

Also try to get a 7200 rpm hardrive and make sure your processor has a decent sized cache, also ive heard DDR ram is better, Someone else will probably know why.

[Steve]

DDR means double data rate. Basically it means the RAM can transfer data twice as fast as the older SDRAM.

 

My PC is an old P3-800 with 640MB of old SDRAM and I use it to make music and multitracked mixes. You don't need to go too mad on the specs really.

[mr v]

one thing i love about dv, fookin quick replies!

 

nice one guys, this is useful shit, can anyone recommend some sites so i can start to check out prices and shit?

 

motherboards, everything gets plugged into this and makes it go? well certain things, such as ram and hardrive and whatever only run on a certain type of motherboard?

[Steve]

Try these: -

 

http://www.ebuyer.com

http://www.dabs.com

 

Everything plugs into the motherboard. Along with that you need a processor, heatsink and fan (which will often come with the processor), power supply, hard drive, CD/DVD drive, RAM, graphics card, sound card and a case.

 

The motherboard will have a socket that's designed for a certain type of processor. Make sure you buy a processor that's designed to fit into the board. Most computers use DDR RAM, but some boards take the new DDR-2 RAM. Again, make sure you buy the correct type for your board. Everything else is pretty straightforward. I would start by looking at the processor as that's the "brain" if you like. Find a good one that suits your price and then find a motherboard to match. Then you can pick out the other components to suit.

[mr v]

so if i say my budgets around 600-700,

how much should i be prepared to spend on each individual item,

the soundcard being the exception.

[Steve]

It's hard to say really man. You can get a CD/DVD combo drive for £30-£40. A 200GB hard drive is gonna set you back about £70. 1GB RAM is probably gonna be about £70 too. Processors range from around £25 up to several hundred depending on what you want. You can pick up something decent for around £120. Have a browse on the sites I mentioned and see what you can find. Post up some of your choices on here and people will help you out.

[mr v]

do i want an ide harddrive? which are reputable manufacters (sp?) for all this different bits? this is so confusing!

i'm not gonna have the money until near chrimbo, but thought i may as well find out what i'm gonna need and shit.

 

is using a generic brand allright?

 

how about getting a dell and just wangin a nice soundcard in it?

Edited September 13, 2005 by mr v

[Max]

Skip on the dell. IDE drives are good, but SCSI drives are better. Mator and Western Digital are reputable drive brands. Asus makes good motherboards. Definitely get an AMD64 chip instead of an Intel one. Kingston is a reputable company for RAM.

[Steve]

*Maxtor. Typical of a person named Max to spell that wrong. I use lots of L00b.

[Deft]

Have you any idea what amount of I/O you will need for the soundcard? Do you need portability (i.e. PCI vs. Firewire/USB)?

[mr v]

i have no idea what I/O is, but yes i am going to definitely need a lot

 

not too bothered about portability, this just gonna be me bedroom pc/music station

 

edit: is that input/output?

in which case i'd say decks, couple of mics, geetars. on output just planning on running it all through me hifi until i manage to wang some monitors. as i get more into it i'll probably be getting more shit, so like to be leaving some leg room.

Edited September 14, 2005 by mr v

[dextrous]

I sound like a broken record but set up dual booting - one boot for music, another boot for web/games etc.

 

In theory if you regularly clean out your caches etc it shouldn't matter, but in practice for me, having a boot purely for music means that I can keep that partition ultra clear of the crap that slows everything down.

[Deft]

O.k. - well if you can afford it, the Emu1820M is the best bang for the buck for a PCI card. If you want to go up and get one of the best then look for a suitable RME card.

[$a!n+]

I would go with and Audigy that has the plugs in the front. Dual monitors. External hard drive, and a cheap four to six channel mixer. That would be the cheapest most effeciant in my book.

[Liam]

Look at getting one of the Intel mobile chips...

 

The latest hot shit on these is that they actually OUTPERFORM the equivalent P4's (yeah, I know, WTF?!?), and run at under 25W peak -meaning they kick out fuck-all heat. Asus do adaptors to slot them in a regular P4 mobo.

 

They cost a little bit more than the equivalent P4, but you won't need loads of fancy fans to keep it cool... in fact, a passive heatsink will do the job.

 

With one of these babies, you'll run fast AND silent. Having a silent tower is probabbly a more important quality in a studio PC than bleeding-edge performance.

 

That's my thoughts, anyway.

[mr v]

O.k. - well if you can afford it, the Emu1820M is the best bang for the buck for a PCI card. If you want to go up and get one of the best then look for a suitable RME card.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

pci? rme?

 

may as well try and learn all these terms, looks like i'm gonna be coming across them a fair bit.

 

i'd well bum it if you guys could like break down what these bits with crazy code names do and shit when you post about them, twould sortin me out.

[mynameismud]

Firstly make sure you get a decent case with enough ventilation (£30).

Then you'll want nothing less than a 480w silent psu (£80). SKT 939 motherboard (£100)

AMD64 3200 or better (£120)

1gb ddr400 or better (£100)

dvd dual layer dual format (£30)

200gb h/d sata (seagate barracuda or western digital)(£140)

80gb h/d ide (hitatchi, segate or western(£30)

ati radeon 9200 graphics card (£20)

fans (£5)

floppy drive (£5)

 

People forget how important it is to have a power supply unit (psu) that outputs a good constant supply without faultering. If you buy a cheap one then your really lookin for trouble.

 

Use the 80gb ide drive and dual (2x20gb 1x40gb)or triple (3x 20gb 1x20gb) boot it so that you have one bootable partition each for gaming, music & general abuse.

 

Once you've installed the operating system to all the partitions you can then get nortons ghost and create backups of each installation and store them on a partition on the sata drive. (3x5gb partitions, one partition for each partition backed up)

 

Dont forget to name each partition!!! and change the boot.ini so that you can select what partition you want to boot into whilst it's loading.

 

As for the sata partitions...map them out carefully so you dont get in a mess

 

f:mp3 (100gb)

g:new projects (30gb)

h:complete projects (30gb)

i:programs & downloads (20gb)

j:workfiles (5gb)

k:gamesbackup (5gb)

l:musicbackup (5gb)

m:generalbackup (5gb)

 

This is very similiar to the setup i run at the moment and i have to say, it's probably the best setup i have done. Anyhows, goodluck

[TopherEightyFive]

why would he need a good graphics card? i dont see any mention of gaming.

[Deft]

O.k. - well if you can afford it, the Emu1820M is the best bang for the buck for a PCI card. If you want to go up and get one of the best then look for a suitable RME card.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

pci? rme?

 

may as well try and learn all these terms, looks like i'm gonna be coming across them a fair bit.

 

i'd well bum it if you guys could like break down what these bits with crazy code names do and shit when you post about them, twould sortin me out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

PCI is the standard card slot for desktop PC's, whereas on laptops it is PCMCIA.

RME is simply a German soundcard manufacturer. Their sound cards are built like tanks, sound proper BO and have great drivers. They come with a high price tag though.

[Banano]

Most standard computers will be fine running audio apps - unless you plan to go all out with lots of virtual instruments and high end plugins you really don't need to worry too much. This being the forum that it is, I'm assuming that the majority of your work will be multitracking stuff from your tables in which case even a decidedly average (like steves) computer will be adequate.

 

A couple of words of warning though - avoid audigy/soundblaster cards like the fucking plague - even though they may be marketed as 'studio' cards they certainly are not and will give you shitty performance. You don't need to go overboard - RME and MOTU stuff is great, they'll give you no trouble whatsoever, in fact that's mostly why they are so popular amongst the semi-pro market - they just fucking work no matter what you throw at them.

 

if you're looking to record guitars as well as line level sources (your mixes) and mics - check out m-audio cards (some of which have been qualified to run pro-tools) or just buy an mbox for £269 which is a bloody good bargain by anyone's standards.

[mr v]

good lookin out guys,

yeeah it's gonna be multi tracking, ableton live and see where it goes from there.

 

with the dual boot, i'd really like to have it all running on the same boot, so i could just be chilling on msn, suddenly feel like a quick scratch or beat sesh and just do it without faffin.

what caches would i have to empty to keep it running sexy?