Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room
Please help me build my new computer, DC!
Carol Haynes:
I did say that earlier on ...
I know you want a nice computer but if your aren't panning to game with it why go for such a high spec? In many ways high spec computers are a waste of money (unless you have very specific requirements). The trouble is you spend a fortune and a month later the whole thing is old hat and you could have paid half the price.
Think of it like this: if you are a rally driver who needs a high spec car for racing spend a fortune. If you want a nice car to get from A to B then buy something sensible but with some nice touches that give you pleasure - there is absolutely no point in buying an F1 car to go to the supermarket!
If you want a nice computer I would suggest buying something much more basic but actually focus on the things that make a real difference to your experience when using it. Here is what I would suggest:
* A good middle of the road motherboard - tried and tested so you know it is reliable. Anything higher spec will simply cost more for no gain.
* A graphics card to support the monitors you want to use (in your case you want 2 x DVI interfaces which probably means spending a little more but a $200 card is going to be wasted as you are never going to see what $130 worth actually does!
* Onboard 7.1 surround sound these days is fine unless you are a real audiophile - in which case you will need to spend a lot to make sure the whole rig runs silently.
* A keyboard that is good to use. Maybe a wireless one would be nice - but do you really plan to sit on the otherside of the room to use it? If you are planning to use your PC as a media centre then perhaps you will but I bet 99% of the time a keyboard with a wire would be no hardship and you will have a lot more choice. Ditto mice.
If you want to send money then focus on the monitors you have to look at all day and the input/output devices that you have to work with. Perhaps spend a little more on quiet running (have you consider water cooling). These are things that will make a huge difference day to day.
Carol Haynes:
Re. audio applications and CPU usage ...
A better and cheaper solutions is to buy two OEM copies of Windows and install them as dual boot. That way you can have a DAW setup that is totally uncontaminated by any other software. You can disable all non-essential services such as networking etc. and strip down Windows to its rock bottom minimum configuration and only install you DAW apps in that version of Windows (you can download patches and updates in your parallel booting system). Also have a separate har disk fo your DAW data. That way every clock tick you can make available will be there for your audio processing.
Similarly if you want a video workstation.
Buying an overspec system and then plonking all of your software into it will not solve the problem with audio apps chewing up all available CPU - you will just end up with the same problems you had before - an underpowered system because of unnecessary clutter.
Basically the way professionals do this sort of stuff is to buy a Mac and dedicate it to 'studio' work. There is no reason why you can't do it with Windows too (and a separately booting partition would do that) but most people in the business would argue that a dedicated Mac is the best solution and the one favoured by many studios.
Being radical how about going for a Mac for you audio work and dual booting into a Windows partition for other things?
40hz:
A better and cheaper solutions is to buy two OEM copies of Windows and install them as dual boot. That way you can have a DAW setup that is totally uncontaminated by any other software. You can disable all non-essential services such as networking etc. and strip down Windows to its rock bottom minimum configuration and only install you DAW apps in that version of Windows (you can download patches and updates in your parallel booting system). Also have a separate har disk fo your DAW data. That way every clock tick you can make available will be there for your audio processing.
Similarly if you want a video workstation.
-Carol Haynes (December 28, 2008, 09:02 AM)
--- End quote ---
Agreed.
But I prefer to do it with one copy of Windows on swappable hard drives. Because I'm running the same copy of Windows on the same machine, I'm still in compliance with the EULA, even though Windows is loaded on two separate HDs.
My main machine (where I did spend some money for 3D work) has six or seven HDs configured for all sorts of things - including different OSs. (Why struggle with Linux on a hand-me-down clunker when you can have it running on your 'Top Gear' rig after a quick disk swap?)
I do a clean install of windows, and then install the related service packs, updates, hardware drivers, etc. Then I activate it online , and create a drive image file of the installation.
A copy of that image gets installed on a second hard drive, which then gets stripped down as much as possible for my music apps. This also gets imaged so I have my "Music-Minimal" OS separately available if I need to reinstall it.
Windows also never gets further MS updates on this drive unless a music app needs it. Since I won't be using networking (except if a music app should require online activation) I'm virtually immune to security risks.
In many ways high spec computers are a waste of money (unless you have very specific requirements).
--- End quote ---
Also agree.
I tend to think of my PCs as purpose-built appliances these days. I just look for the least expensive and complex configuration that gets something done. As a result, I have several inexpensive machines I've built, kludged together, or was given, merrily doing all sorts of little jobs for me. "Small, cheap, and out of control!" as the saying goes.
In the future I'll be looking to build inexpensive machines with even smaller footprints, and lower power consumption. 8)
Carol Haynes:
Actually I am not sure you would need to buy two licenses for Windows to run a dual boot system. As you say you are running only one copy of Windows at a time on the same hardware so you should be covered by the EULA anyway. It isn't as if you have multple VMs running concurrently.
superboyac:
Am I the only one who looks at the first post and thinks this machine is complete overkill for superboyac's needs? Seems to me like everyone is building their own dream computer vicariously for superboyac instead of helping him buy what suits his purposes
-Deozaan (December 28, 2008, 02:41 AM)
--- End quote ---
Ha! Thanks Deozaan for your concern. But everyone's right, I am mostly to blame for the cost so far. I have definitely been asking for it. I know I don't "need" most of this stuff. At the end of all this, I am going to go through a fat-trimming, cost-cutting phase where I truly decide if I want to buy these parts or not.
On the other hand, if you look closely, it's not like I've chosen things that are a huge waste of money. Like 40hz said, a lot of this stuff is the right choice when you look at it from a bang-for-the-buck perspective. That being said, the truth still may be that I don't need half of whatever is banged for the buck, but I'll decide that definitely later on. And if I really wanted to be budget-conscious about it, how much could I really save? Let's think about it:
I'm not skimping on any of the audio equipment or the hard drive, no way. That's $560 right there. That's already approaching the cost of many budget Dell desktops that people get. The graphics card is definitely a luxury for me, but again, with 2xDVI, how much will I save, $100? That's no big deal. I can cut out $300 if I don't get two monitors. My case is also quite a luxury, so a normal case would easily be $100 cheaper. The Mobo/CPU combo is about $400, but I don't like skimping there knowing I'll use this thing for years and years.
All things said, I could probably easily cut out $500 of stuff right now. But $500 is really no big deal in the grand perspective. I can afford it...really. I'm not rich or anything, but I know I spend a lot of time with my computer and I make a good living. It's really not a big deal. More importantly, I don't think I'm being careless with the parts...just a tad on the premium quality side. It's an impressive computer, no doubt, but it's not just eye candy...it will be a workhorse, and I'll be thankful when it's 2015 and still going strong.
Also, even on my last computer which I didn't spend nearly this much attention to, and I'm using it over 7 years later, it wasn't all that cheap. First of all, I had to add a whole bunch of hardware to it as it went along, and I wouldn't be surprised if over the course of the 7 years if I spend over $2000 on it. Actually, I'm pretty sure I did. I had to replace an IBM DeathStar. Then I bought two more hard drives for backup purposes to ensure nothing like that ever happened again. I bought the pro soundcard. My PSU died, and took my graphics card with it, so I had to replace those. I bought a DVD burner. A couple of hard disk trays and a cooler unit. A new monitor the same time the PSU died (don't know if they were related). So there you go...easily $2000. I'm just doing it all up front now.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version