Dell XPS and Ableton

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:38 am

Hi all,
Im moving ony from my home laptop and getting a workstation for production. Due to limit amount of cash, Im a bit limited. Im getting an old Gen3 Dell XPS (no im not buying). IT has a 3.4ghz P4 and 2GB of RAM. Excellent graphix card, and over all a beast of a machine when it was released.

Im running Live 6 and im going to purchase the NRV10 Firewire mixer from M-aduio.

LINK

With alll your experience, would this be an OK setup?

thanks!

amigo · Post by **amigo** » Fri May 25, 2007 2:38 pm

I reckon it will do nicely. However, Dell XPS machines are primarily gaming machines and I am wondering if the OS is tweaked for gaming. How this affects working with audio specifically I do not know but it's something to consider should you experience any issues.

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Fri May 25, 2007 2:42 pm

amigo wrote:I reckon it will do nicely. However, Dell XPS machines are primarily gaming machines and I am wondering if the OS is tweaked for gaming. How this affects working with audio specifically I do not know but it's something to consider should you experience any issues.

nah, the gaming focus of the XPS shouldn't be much of an issue. I run Live on an XPS laptop with no issues.

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:01 pm

Yeah im gona just instill XP, its not tweaked for gaming or anything.

thanks guys!

jonesonyou · Post by **jonesonyou** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:08 pm

DO you have any Midi controllers planned in your setup for Live? Just wondering what else you planned on using?

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:16 pm

Yeah i have a padKontrol and an M-audio keyboard.
I'll use the padkontrol for triggering clips on session veiw, but i dont know what to do with the keyboard. I may get a nordlead rack and route the keyboard to it.

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Fri May 25, 2007 5:41 pm

One thing to keep in mind is that high quality graphics cards (like the ones in XPS machines) create a lot more heat, which requires more cooling. That can affect how quiet your machine is. That may be important if your machine is within the same room that you are doing audio recording.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Fri May 25, 2007 5:47 pm

That dell should do just fine - I used my P4 for about 3 years, and I could easily run 50+ tracks of audio with plugs on it. Just get two fast hard drives and run all your audio off a seperate drive, and tweak the OS to XPMusic.net standards, and you'll do fine.

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:18 pm

i never really had problems with overheating, and the xps' are normaly very well cooled.
thanks feyshay!

and nebulae, that XPMusic.net is an advertising site

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:23 pm

funky shit wrote:i never really had problems with overheating, and the xps' are normaly very well cooled.
thanks feyshay!

and nebulae, that XPMusic.net is an advertising site

Here ya go:
http://www.musicxp.net/

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:24 pm

sorry bro
http://www.musicxp.net/

JDSampo · Post by **JDSampo** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:24 pm

Try

http://www.musicxp.net

Some very good advice on that site.

--JD

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:32 pm

funky shit wrote:i never really had problems with overheating, and the xps' are normaly very well cooled.
thanks feyshay!

and nebulae, that XPMusic.net is an advertising site

You're missing my point, funky. I'm talking about fan noise. The cooling is adequate. I have an XPS 600 and think it is a great computer. However, if I'm doing recording of quiet vocals or acoustic instruments, I can make out the fan noise in the recording. I've considered getting an isolation box, but am yet to be convinced that I will hear the fan hum in a whole mix.

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:33 pm

wow, 3 nearly-identical posts in 2 minutes. We must really like that site

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:58 pm

thanks guys!

yeah man Im may be moving house in a while and if so Im gettin a sound proof studio with an isolation room!
this will do for now though

EDIT: "thanks gays" whoops