PC for multimedia/music making

Mat_Lock

Well that's when I would definitely decide to build my own. I did and spent near on £900 for it. Mine:

i5 3570k (although I would prefer 3770k with HyperThreading)
16gb (2x8gb) 1600mhz RAM
SSD for OS & Apps
1gb HDD for samples/audio
700w PSU
Dedicated external sound card
7770 GPU (i wanted some game time between making music)
silent fans all round

Mat_Lock

hubb wrote: »

Ok, so the Operating system will be around £80 and I want Windows 7, not 8. Do you think AMD is better than Intel's i5 or 7 for what I want to do ?

Intels are always going to be better in these kinds of situations but they cost more.

The i7s are the best as they are quadcore and hyperthreading which is ideal in labour intensive situations such as lightroom, photoshop, video and audio editing.

To be honest you're going to get budget parts for under £500 really. As said in my previous post I spent £900 and it runs Cubase 5 very well with lots of head room but then I haven't quite built a masterpiece of music in the time I have had it so not sure how many channels realistically I would get in my DAW before it gets too much.

hubb

I have Cubase SX3 on my custom built 2004 old PC. It does all I want BUT the PC is now unstable and Cubase crashes a lot. I could re-install Windows XP on it and start from scratch. I know you can't run Cubase SX3 on Windows 7.

Mat_Lock

Format and reinstall will always be a quick fix. However reinstalling all those apps and programs again will soon slow it down again. I was using an old AMD XP 4400+ with 2gb RAM PC for years, was able to open Cubase 5 and Ableton but it was painful. Save up and upgrade trust me, the difference between 2004 and 2013 is phenomenal, especially with an SSD drive.

hubb

How much would you say I need to spend on an all in one machine that can do all I need for a few years ?

I have just had this quote back from Dino PC: Should I go for it ?


QTY SKU Description Price
1 geth3470 Mass Effect i5 3470 499.00
C ustomizations:
C PU: NEW! Intel C ore i5 3570 (2093) £17.90
C PU C ooler: Xigmatek Loki SDS963 (3015) £17.99
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (11014)
Motherboard: NEW! Asus P8B75-M LX (4154) £7.40
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1333mhz (2x8GB) (5052) £54.90
Hard Drive: 500GB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s (6027) Included
Additional Storage: 2TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s (6029) £71.09
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA (7003) Included
Graphics card: NEW! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 1GB (8086) Included
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio (10001) Included
C ase: Xigmatek Asgard (17024) Included
PSU: NEW! 450W C orsair VS (18045) Included
Warranty: 3 Year SureC are Warranty (sc-1) Included
Total: £668.28

Mat_Lock

Personally I have never heard of Dino PC so can't say if they'll be any good. Some of those extras seem overpriced. You can get a 3tb drive for £89 these days. An SSD will be better for OS and Apps and get a HDD for storage.

450w PSU is way underpowered for the i5's and the 16gb of memory, you can get decent branded 1600mhz memory for that price too.

hubb

Mat_Lock wrote: »

Personally I have never heard of Dino PC so can't say if they'll be any good. Some of those extras seem overpriced. You can get a 3tb drive for £89 these days. An SSD will be better for OS and Apps and get a HDD for storage.

450w PSU is way underpowered for the i5's and the 16gb of memory, you can get decent branded 1600mhz memory for that price too.

Oh no, I don't think I will ever get this machine

hubb

What about this ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIBOX-BLADE-8-INTEL-i5-IVY-BRIDGE-USB3-HDMI-SMART-OFFICE-PC-COMPUTER-/190741235858?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2c69104892

PC's seem very cheap on Ebay.

Mat_Lock

Will use a cheap motherboard, even cheaper PSU and a nasty plastic case, cheap ram too. There's a reason they're cheap and it will probably go pop after 6 months.

If you seriously want a Lightroom/DAW capable PC you will need to spend money

hubb

zaax wrote: »

For serious music and film editing £400 is nowhere near enough.
Your going to need to know what you are doing and the knowledge to build your own. Something like this

http://www.pcworld.com/article/200082/Building_Your_Own_PC_DIY_how_to.html

Waaaaaaaaaaaay over the top and expensive. No need. Best get a Mac if that's the case.