What Computer can I buy now in the UK for Live 8

[forcemajeure72]

What Computer can I buy now in the UK for Live 8 that would give me no problems and have enough Memory, CPU power etc to deal with any type of song/set up when using ableton. I am not looking for the best deal, I am looking to buy whatever PC/Mac is the best. Cheers

[bE-MUsed]

My machine -
CPU: Intel i5 750 2.79Ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55-US3L
Ram: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 6950 3gb
Sound: E-MU 1820
OS: Vista 64bit

Minus the graphics card it cost me less than £500 and I have never had any CPU load or latency issues with Live 8.

If money isn't an issue then something like -
CPU: intel i7-2600 3.4Ghz
Motherboard:Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z Intel Z68 Socket 1155 DDR3
Ram:16gb DDR3 1600Mhz
Graphics: Your choice depending on your usage.
Sound: Any RME/ESI/M-Audio PCI interface would do the job nicely
OS: Windows 7 64bit

That would cost you £1200ish but you would have a future compatible pc that could easily laugh at the highest of Live's demands and wipe the floor with most macs.

I don't own any apple products (nor do I plan to) so I can't comment on the exact hardware specs in the most recent macs but you will pay more for it than you would if you built a pc from parts.

Edit: Check places like Aria, Dabs and Micro Direct for pc parts and Dolphin Music for your audio hardware.

[forcemajeure72]

Your 2nd suggestion sounds interesting. Would I have to put it together myself and what would you recommend for the areas you left blank as I wouldn't have a clue?

[ollyb303]

MacBook Pro latest/highest spec model. If money's no object, it's a no brainer.

[bE-MUsed]

Yes you would have to assemble it yourself but it's very easy to find instructions online and/or take it to any local computer shop and pay a small fee to have them assemble it for you if you felt safer doing it that way.

As far as graphics are concerned it depends if you plan to use software like Photoshop or 3d studio max or even to play games/watch movies if it wasn't a dedicated music pc. something like an Nvidia GTX 460 or the card I have Radeon HD 6950 would easily satisfy those needs (though the Nvidia isn't quite as good as mine).

For choice of PCI audio interface it depends on your usage, will you be plugging in multiple MIDI devices or instruments or do you just want high quality audio playback and/or a master mixer outside of Live?

Things like power supplys, cases, hard disks and dvd drives don't really matter too much since there is a huge range available and it comes down to your needs (size/cooling/speed etc.) but any computer shop could recommend compatible ones that would be suitable and reasonably priced.

After Olly suggested the Macbook Pro I had a look on their site to see the specs and as a portable music solution it would be a good choice (though I would favour a top end Lenovo Thinkpad for laptop choice) but if you want a desktop then something like my suggestion would out perform it in every sense and you would have a wider range of audio interfaces available to you (due to the internal PCI card instead of just an external audio dock).

Macbook Pro 17" model -
CPU: Intel i7 2.2Ghz
Motherboard: Not stated
RAM: 4-8GB 1333Mhz
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1gb
Sound: Not stated
OS: OSX Lion

Edit: Starting price for the 17" = £2099

If you want a pre-built and mobile workstation it would be a good choice but for the same price you could get a far superior desktop, all comes down to how you plan on using it.