MUSIC P.C. SPECS?? (UPDATED)

[John Vella]

OK I know there has been a thread like this in the past....

But I am wondering if the standards have gone up once again for a music PC...

(I know how quick computers go obsolete)

Can someone who really knows PCs well list an updated spec please? :D

I've almost saved enough money to FINALLY get the f*ck off this Pentium 2 and start learning how to use some new programs.....

What are the best specs for a PC (including soundcard) to run CUBASE SX, SOUNDFORGE & ACID and in the future some outboard gear??

I wanna take this list to some computer places and see how much its gonna cost...

Thanks guys. :wink:

-JOHNNY

[Patrick]

Johnny,

Try looking on Dancetech. It's a really useful resource site for all things to do with dance music (production, playback, studio kit, PA equip etc). They've got a good forum and FAQs about PCs etc here :
http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/index.cfm

In fact, if you email your above questions to the dancetech team, they'll probably send you a really good spec back within a day or two. I've used them for help and advice on PA equipment in the past and found them really helpful. They put me in touch with some companies I probably wouldn't have found by myself.

Good luck,
Patrick.

[Adverse]

at least 256 ddr ram (i'd vote for 512). i'm sure any pentium 3 will handle what you've listed man. get a delta soundcard or maybe and echo gina.

if you take some time to tweak the shit out windows you should have plenty of memory bandwidth and plenty of cpu bandwidth.

personally i have 256 ddr andi fnd xp to hog it all.

[sinner]

I keep messing up this post and having everything i rite get erased. so Im doing the really really fast version now

Get an AMD Athlon XP Processor. They are fairly inexpensive and quite quick.
Get a motherboard with as little onboard as possible. Network card is ok, and even the crappy onboard sound is fine ( it can be disabled ) , but anything else isnt worth it because it may end up conflicting with other gear.

Get at least 512 MB DDR RAM. If you cant afford more than 512 MB ( about $129 bucks) then buy just 1 512 MB DIMM so you can upgrade later if you run into problems. You can never have too much memory.


Get 2 disk drives. ATA-100 or ATA-133. Size doesnt matter too much, but youll want at least 60 gigs each . Put one drive on each IDE controller. One drive for windows and software, one drive for data.

Sound Card : M-Audio Delta series. they have 4x4 6x6 and 10x10 models. I would stay away from USB and Firewire, especially on a desktop PC.

Case and Powersupplies: THe case itself doesnt matter much, but the power supply and the case fans do. Get Something like the Vantec Stealth power supply and case fans ( the case fans are only 21 dBA ) to cut down the white noise your computer generates. Its hard to make completely silent, but good quiet fans help ALOT

Video Card : doesnt matter really.

I have prices for everything local here in Toronto, but the M-audio cards. Its really not that expensive. I priced out everything I just mentioned minus the sound card for 1200 bucks CDN . The sound card is going to bump that up quite a bit though.

Give me a buzz on icq and Ill show you what and where I was getting everthing from


Mike

[MARKEG]

just 1 thing sinner. hope you don't mind me saying. i personally think the video card is very important - you'll find that sites like cubase etc have always said the video card is essential. slow screen redraws means bad performance - especially with cubase. the matrox g450 is a great one - as it gives you two screens!!!! i find this absolutely essential now.

[sinner]

Yeah I use the Matrox G450 on my machine, and I couldnt be happier with it.

You cant throw in a 10 dollar video card from 6 years ago, but most of the on the shelf cards now adays can handle anything you might need.

The expensive video cards on a PC, usually have really good 3D performance, which wouldnt be needed for something like cubase.

And Matrox dual display cards are quite cheap thankfully.

[detfella]

whats the preffered cpu when working with SX, AMD or Intel?

also what do people think is a good cpu speed for audio work?

[DJZeMig_L]

Intel.. SX recognises it uppon the first time u run it... but it should make a huge difference really!

Soundcard.. if u don't need loads of in out .. GET RME 9632 .. it's fuc*ing cheap for it's pro quality!!!!

1 Gb ram is a must for audio in todays world! ;)


Video... go with Mark, he know's the score!!


DIsable the ethernet port it messes with some usb audio/ midi devices at times!

Z

[Basil Rush]

I had trouble with some sound cards and AMD chipsets. Currently recommend ASUS P4 series motherboards and an Intel P4 chip. But that was last year, been using Mac's since and haven't looked but the Asus motherboard was the best of the bunch.

Standard clock speeds help sometimes.

[DJZeMig_L]

Very true indeed! And most offen overlooked prob.
Most "serious" Sound Card manufacturers will let u know of any compatability issues with they're products from theire web page or appon an email 2 the customer support! ;)

Z

[Barely Human]

Id deffinately go for a p4. If you can afford it, get the 3.06 or above, becuase it has a virtual cpu that can come in handy for freeing up system resorces. Id recomend at least 512 DDR, but personally id get 1024 DDR, and match the speed to the cpu's FSB. Whack this all on a asus motherboard with an m-audio sound card and a decent nvidea gfx card. Get 2 fast hdd's, and if your using the pc for anything other than music, partition the first one and have 2 windows on it,(1 for music, 1 for everything else)

[detfella]

Thanks for the tips guys. Interestingly the Athlons appear to come out top on bench mark tests using cubase sx.

http://www.fivetowers.moar.net/cubasetest_results.php?order=performance

[detfella]

also worth a check:

http://service.steinberg.net/knowledge_pro.nsf/show/cpu_performance_tests_2003_11_18