Recommended desktop PC

[Aequitas123]

Hello fellow Abletonians,

I'm looking to upgrade my 5 year old PC for something that can much better handle Ableton 7 and all the wicked new Plugins i've recently acquired.

Could someone possibly provide some recommendations as to Processor, RAM, Sound Card... etc...

Much appreciated.


PS. please do not recommend a mac

[kaffein]

Price range for the whole build?

[Aequitas123]

$500 - 800 Canadian would be optimal.

[kaffein]

Here is my system...

CPU Intel e6750 $189 (US)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115029

MOBO Asus p5n-E SLI $115 (US)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131142

RAM mushkin Model 996533 $57 (US) (Just have to change the command rate to 2T in the bios, stable as fuck)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820146673

Audio I/O Presonus Firebox $300 (US)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6829999005

Quiet Case w/ Decent Stable PSU Antec Sonta II $110 (US)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129155

Pick a video card for your needs, don't need anything amazing if you're not gaming.

[RibbedSauce]

PS. please do not recommend a mac

ok i promise but i wont help you when your pc dies over and over again

dont worry too much about the internal sound of a PC because your best getting an interface

get as much processor and as much ram as you can for your money (even if it means buying one with low ram and fitting new ram yourself)

also i know "all" new pcs comes with vista, make sure you downgrade to XP, it will make a huge difference

have you got a knowledge of fitting stuff into pcs?

if so my advice is buy one that has good gfx card and good processor, forget about ram and hard drive for now

then buy seperately as much ram as you can fit (check before what your motherboard can hold) and buy some nice big hard drives to go inside it

if you dont have much knowledge of fitting stuff then you can always buy it all and take it to a small independant shop for fitting

[pip]

kaffein's system is pretty spot-on to what i'd recommend.

For video card, I'd suggest getting one with passive cooling (no fan!) to cut down on noise. The crappy fans on most video cards make more noise than all the other fans in the case, which is obviously bad for a computer dedicated to audio

I'm an nVidia whore, so I suggest the:
MSI NX7300LE-TD256EH GeForce 7300LE 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card [or something similar]
...Which is a cool $32 US on newegg right now. It's cheap, it's silent, it's not going to cause audio stutter issues by hogging bus bandwidth, it has dual monitor and svideo-out, and it'll still give you some basic 3D support if you ever need it. ATI cards would be fine too, but I hate them

I usually get the Seagate barracuda hard drives, you can snag a 500-gig for about $110 US. They're quiet, reliable, and plenty fast enough for multitrack recording.

....and above all else: Stay away from Vista. XP FTW.

[Aequitas123]

Thanks guys,

I do have a pretty solid knowledge of hardware installation. Are you all recommending an external sound card then? Why is that?

I was looking at the M-Audio PCI sound card (http://www.m-audio.ca/products/en_ca/Re ... -main.html)

I already have an M-Audio FastTrack Pro. Would that work as my soundcard then? It only has 2 inputs and i run a mic, organ, bass, and then 2 midi controllers into ableton, so the FastTrack is not enough.



PS: RibbedSauce - My PC is over 5 years old and hasn't died once. You just have to know how to run it properly!

[pip]

My last audio card was an M-Audio Delta410. The downside to an internal soundcard, in theory, is that having the DAC/ADC's inside the computer case makes it more prone to noise and interference. The other benefits of going external include easier cable management and the ability to take it along with a laptop.

Internal/External still boils down to a personal preference. I'd avoid the m-audio cards though. Don't get me wrong, I use and LOVE m-audio midi controllers, but their audio cards don't sound the best.

I switched to a Mackie Onyx Satellite -- $200 US. Lower latency, better sound, built in headphone amps, 1/4" inputs and outputs, kickass preamps, and i can hook it up to the laptop easily.

If you want to stick with PCI, check out the EMU 1212m. $150 US and it's got amazing sound for the price. (Plus tons of plugins!)

[edit]: I forgot to mention, you can further upgrade the 1212m by attaching a $250 Behringer ADA8000 and give it another 8-ins and 8-outs with preamps. Excessive, yes. But very possible.

[Aequitas123]

How is it the E-MU PCIs sound better than the M-Audios? Just curious.

Is there a list somewhere on this forum of recommended PCIs?