need a PC for a home-recording studio - need some advice

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Santuzzo

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Hello everyone,
I'm a new member, someone on a musicians forum referred me to this site to get some advice on a PC.


I decided to get a new PC for audio recording, since my old PC is about 8 years old .....
I don't know much about PC's, so bear with me, I need some advice on what to get.
From what I have been told so far, I'd be better off having a PC built for me, so that's what I wanna do.

I don't know how much budget I can spend on this, but I don't want to be too cheap, I really want a good, powerful and fast PC.

What parts should I get? What motherboard, processor, hard-drives, etc.?
What do I need to look out for?

I have looked at some sites on the internet, and found something interesting.
I'm located in the Netherlands, and I checked out a site of a store that is building PCs.

I know close to nothing about PC specs so I hope you guys can give me some advice on these particular PCs I have been looking at:

1st option:

Advanced Power Ninja



2nd option:

Advanced Power Devastator


So far many people have told me that the first option would already be a very, very fast and powerful PC, and more than enough.

Any advice/opinions/suggestions ware highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Lars
 
I really don't know squat about music recording BUT I have a friend that does for his band and I built the PC he uses, He purchased a box or a 4channel mixer of some kind (he want's a better one) but the PC just records the audio and powerful is nice but not overly necessary from what he was telling me, The one thing you might want to look for is a good sound card, Most of the ones out there have a on board sound card and they work but a high end sound card will give you a much higher quality recording (someone who knows more which sound cards to get I'm sure will respond) To be honest you will save a LOT of money or have a much better PC if you did build it your self and this site will guide you in the right direction on how to do it, There have been a few threads recently of people who know nothing about computers wanting to buy a prebuilt and decided to build with the help of this site (There are some VERY helpful people on this site) So take a read around and see what some others are doing and you just might enjoy building one. It does get addicting when you build you dream system for sometimes half of what you would buy it for as prebuilt. I'll try to get a hold of my friend and find out a little more on the equipment for using the pc for recording and when I get a hold of him I'll post back OK.

Dauntae
 
I'd suggest a nice audio interface edirol fa-66, presonus firebox, focusrite saffire. If you want more I/O you ca get the firepod or pro versions. Or another solution is to just grab a mixer and that'll take care of your soundcard and will make it alot easier to mess w/ recording levels. I used a q6600 for audio, its a great processor at a great price. I did alot of rendering wavs and using tons of VST's and it literally ate threw everything. Are you going to use any cpu intensive software like VST's? 4gb of ddr2 should be plenty for you. If its strictly for audio production a cheap graphics card and board is good enough. I'm just being very general but you don't have to spend a ton to get an audio powerhouse.

Q6600
P35,P45
4GB ram
hd 2600XT (I pick this card for a reason which I can not explain here why. Let's just say it will come in handy if you ever decide to run two different OS)
Firewire Mixer Mackie - Onyx 1220
 
I really don't know squat about music recording BUT I have a friend that does for his band and I built the PC he uses, He purchased a box or a 4channel mixer of some kind (he want's a better one) but the PC just records the audio and powerful is nice but not overly necessary from what he was telling me, The one thing you might want to look for is a good sound card, Most of the ones out there have a on board sound card and they work but a high end sound card will give you a much higher quality recording (someone who knows more which sound cards to get I'm sure will respond) To be honest you will save a LOT of money or have a much better PC if you did build it your self and this site will guide you in the right direction on how to do it, There have been a few threads recently of people who know nothing about computers wanting to buy a prebuilt and decided to build with the help of this site (There are some VERY helpful people on this site) So take a read around and see what some others are doing and you just might enjoy building one. It does get addicting when you build you dream system for sometimes half of what you would buy it for as prebuilt. I'll try to get a hold of my friend and find out a little more on the equipment for using the pc for recording and when I get a hold of him I'll post back OK.

Dauntae

Thanks !
Yes, I will definitely get a good soundcard, actually I will get an external audio interface that's connected by either USB or Firewire.


I'd suggest a nice audio interface edirol fa-66, presonus firebox, focusrite saffire. If you want more I/O you ca get the firepod or pro versions. Or another solution is to just grab a mixer and that'll take care of your soundcard and will make it alot easier to mess w/ recording levels. I used a q6600 for audio, its a great processor at a great price. I did alot of rendering wavs and using tons of VST's and it literally ate threw everything. Are you going to use any cpu intensive software like VST's? 4gb of ddr2 should be plenty for you. If its strictly for audio production a cheap graphics card and board is good enough. I'm just being very general but you don't have to spend a ton to get an audio powerhouse.

Q6600
P35,P45
4GB ram
hd 2600XT (I pick this card for a reason which I can not explain here why. Let's just say it will come in handy if you ever decide to run two different OS)
Firewire Mixer Mackie - Onyx 1220

Thanks !
I will be definitely using VST's.


I found another interesintg site of a store that build PCs especially for music:

Pepperbox by Musikcomputer.de

What do you guys think of those PC's?
I think, maybe the third option looks interesting.

I know the site is in German, but I'm sure you will understand the specs of the PCs.

Thanks, again!
 
build it yourself. It will be cheaper. If you want a yorkfield a q9550, asus p5q-e,4gb 1066 corsair dominators, microsoft ergonomic keyboard(very comfortable for those long sessions)
 
Which motherboard is better: Asus P5Q-E or Asus P5Q PRO?

They seem to cost about the same, I don't know which motherboard to get?

Can you guys help me?

I was gonna get a PC with an MSI motherboard :MSI P6NGM-L
But it seems to me to be too cheap for a good PC?!

Any thoughts?
 
I've never had any experience w/ MSI boards so I can't say how good/bad they are. I would grab the asus p5q pro out of all of those. If you don't want to spend that much then just get the asus p5ql pro instead. Not a great selection of boards. Are you overclocking at all?
 
I've never had any experience w/ MSI boards so I can't say how good/bad they are. I would grab the asus p5q pro out of all of those. If you don't want to spend that much then just get the asus p5ql pro instead. Not a great selection of boards. Are you overclocking at all?

Thanks!
Well, to be honest, I don't even really know how to overclock.

If none of those motherbaords would be really good. What would you recommend me to get? The Asus P5Q-E? Or is there any other motherboard that would be a better choice for what I need?
I do want to have Firewire on it and the option for wireless internet.
Do I also need to look for the amount of available PCI slots?
 
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