PC types - whats the average cost for a decent machine these days? -- also PC death content

Danny1969

For mobile recording I would just buy a cheap laptop, tracking 16 channels of audio is not taxing for even very old laptops. We still use Latitude XT's at 2020 which are gutless for anything else

For a good PC deal sign up to Spire.co.uk you can buy a PC ready built from them cheaper than you can buy the parts yourself 

PolarityMan

I have an old i3 laptop (about 6 yo) which can track audio but it struggles if i want to do something like play back quad tracked rhythm plus a track of lead and bass all going through amplitube while tracking drums.

Not a huge deal but if a laptop o ly came in at like 20% over the desktop it would be wirth it for the convenience.

Ipad for recording is a total no go as have already investes in audio interfaces.

In terms if i7 vs i5 im guessing for typical workloads a faster i5 us better than a slower i7? Im coming from an 8 core amd phenom which was pretty decent for its time.

PolarityMan

Oh another one. Anyone got experience in rackmount but still with consumer options like usb etc?

Bidley

PolarityMan said:

In terms if i7 vs i5 im guessing for typical workloads a faster i5 us better than a slower i7? Im coming from an 8 core amd phenom which was pretty decent for its time.

I believe an i7 will have hyperthreading, so will perform better in general than an i5. This won't be as noticeable in gaming, but Reaper might benefit from it. I'm running a PC with an i5 4670k @4.2ghz and I can run a fairly intensive Reaper and E:D and all that.

Graphics-wise if you wanted to squeeze a few quid you could get a GTX 970 second hand. The 10 series are better performers, but from a bang-for-buck perspective they're very expensive.

Of course Ryzen means AMD is now a genuine contender to Intel's throne, so that range is well worth looking at.

If you're willing to plump for used components you can save a lot of money. I would, personally, only look at getting brand new CPU/mobo though.

olafgarten

PolarityMan said:

Oh another one. Anyone got experience in rackmount but still with consumer options like usb etc?

I wouldn't recommend a rack, they tend to have lots of very small fans and are therefore very noisy, it would usually mean getting rid of the graphics card unless you want a huge rack. 

PolarityMan

Hmm only really thinking about it as my existing interfaces are in a rack but i could just live with my old lappy for tracking and bounce down tracks in advance.

Looking at @Myranda s rough costing im thinking im tending towards spending more on RAM to get 32gb and less on gfx. I dont game much and only really want to play a few specific recent titles so im happy to plump for lower settings.

I have a 'silent' case already but thinking ill replace that too as it is getting a little louder i think because the seals are getting less effective around the sound proofing and cos the case fan bearings are getting old. I know i could prob sort both of those out but wonder if uts worth the hassle. 

I costed up an example last night. Ill post it up later and see what people think.

Axe_meister

32GB may well be overkill. I have 16GB often running multiple VMs with linux/MacOS, have Visual Studio open, lots of tabs on a browser and some very very large spreadsheets and word documents. And I hardly ever approach the 16GB. But make sure you get 2X8GB, so you can upgrade later (assuming the motherboard as 4 slots rather than 2).
Ryzen could well be a contender, A ryzen 5 1500X, starts at 4 cores/8 threads and single threaded performance is on par with a broadwell based intel per core, so should perform roughly the same as an i7 5775.
The Ryzen 1600X has 6 cores 12 threads (250 odd quid) so will be a multithreading monster compared to the latest
I7-7700K at nearly £300 with only 4 cores/8 threads, but not quite so good at gaming, but will still give you fantastic frame rates.

PolarityMan

Last 2 machines have been AMD so def will consider them.

TwoSpellWizard

My stock response for these types of threads is to look at http://www.logicalincrements.com/

It's only useful if you're putting it together yourself mind, rather than buying a prebuilt, but it will give you basically the best PC you can build given a particular budget.

For your requirements I'd be looking at the 'superb' tier.

Strangefan

TTony said:

For mobile recording, maybe consider an iPad - there's an incredible range of functional and cheap apps.  You don't have to buy into the whole Apple world to use an iPad.


I was enjoying Tony's reply until I read this...... Just no lol, I pads are terrible for recording, yes maybe for one track of guitar but anything else it's a nightmare, you need an interface to record anything of reasonable quality  

PolarityMan

Ok so a few days late but here's my current machine:

PC Case: Quiet NZXT Hush Black

Case Fan: 2 x 120mm Quiet Fans

Case Fan Controller: Not Included

Power Supply: Xilence 580W 2 x PCI-E

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, 2.8GHz, 9MB Cache - Included

Heatsink & CPU Fan: Standard Heatsink & CPU Fan - Included

Motherboard: Asus M4N68T-M - Included

Memory: 4GB Crucial PC10600 1333MHz DDR3 - Included

PCI-E Graphics: nVidia GTS 250 512MB - req. PSU w. PCI-E

Sound Card: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio - Included

1st Hard Drive: 500GB SATA II - Included

Main Optical Drive: 22x Dual Layer DVD +/- Rewriter - Included

To this I have added a firewire card a 500Gb SSD and another 1Tb or so of spinning metal discs and added more RAM so its currently running at 16Gb. Audio is covered via a saffire pro 40 and a saffire claret 18i20 which will be moving to the new setup. Oh I also upgraded the mobo to a gigabyte 970A-DS3P.

What do you guys think of this?

PC Case Quiet Coolermaster Silencio Black (+£40.00)

Case Fan 2 x 850rpm Ultra Quiet Case Fan (+£20.00)

Case Fan Controller Not Included

Power Supply Quiet FSP 600W 2x PCI-E (+£50.00)

Processor Intel Core i5 7600K x4 Kaby Lake (3.80GHZ, 6MB Cache) (+£150.00)

Heatsink & CPU Fan Standard Heatsink & CPU Fan - Included

Heatsink Paste Standard Heatsink Paste - Included

Motherboard MSI B250M PRO-VDH, DDR4, 64GB, M-ATX (DVI-D, HDMI, VGA) - Included

Memory 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 LPX 2133 (+£160.00)

Graphics Card NVIDIA Geforce GT 1030 2GB (+£95.00)

Primary Hard Drive Silent 120GB Ultrafast Solid State Drive SATA III (+£10.00)

Secondary Hard Drive 2000GB SATA III (+£85.00)

Main Optical Drive 24x Dual Layer DVD +/- Rewriter - Included

Wired Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps - Included

USB Ports 2.0 2 Front + 4 Back Ports - Included

Back USB Ports 2 Back USB 3.0 Ports (+£25.00)

Sound Card Integrated 7.1 High Definition Channel Audio - Included

Comes in at £1074, Would be nice to trim down to a round £1k..any ideas where I might compromise slightly? Thats priced from the same guys I bought from last time.

PolarityMan

Btw when I used to be weel up on this stuff all the maufacturers had much easier to understand naming conventions (although the last time i was an "expert" at own builds I think cirrus was still a contender to intel and amd.

ThePrettyDamned

Could you save by going for an i5 6500 and 16gb ram? That would still be a good machine. 

With the money saved, try to get a pci-e ssd, which will make your system feel very snappy if you install the OS on it. 

It's been a while since I last looked at pc specs but things that add significant cost are graphics cards (I've got a gtx960 and I'm quite happy, it probably won't do the latest AAA stuff at full res but it'll probably play them), SSD (worth it). 

Also, it doesn't look like it's got WiFi. Do you need a wireless network? 

Bidley

You could probably find a cheaper case, and £20 for two cooling fans seems a bit steep. But then I suppose you need them to be super quiet...

The only thing I would suggest is a slightly cheaper i5, as suggested.

Do you have a link for the PSU? I'm trying to look it up but my Google skills are failing... You don't want to skimp on that regardless.

Bidley

Also if you need a WiFi adaptor I've got a PCI card sitting in a drawer doing nothing.

Snap

TwoSpellWizard said:

My stock response for these types of threads is to look at http://www.logicalincrements.com/

It's only useful if you're putting it together yourself mind, rather than buying a prebuilt, but it will give you basically the best PC you can build given a particular budget.

For your requirements I'd be looking at the 'superb' tier.

what an awesome site! Cheers for that, dead useful

PolarityMan

Bidley said:

You could probably find a cheaper case, and £20 for two cooling fans seems a bit steep. But then I suppose you need them to be super quiet...

The only thing I would suggest is a slightly cheaper i5, as suggested.

Do you have a link for the PSU? I'm trying to look it up but my Google skills are failing... You don't want to skimp on that regardless.

FSP make 3 current models and they all look a bit budget so might have to upgrade there. What I havent done yet is prced something similar from components and self building or reviewed what i could potentially re-use from my existing build if I were to do a self build.

stickyfiddle

TwoSpellWizard said:

My stock response for these types of threads is to look at http://www.logicalincrements.com/

It's only useful if you're putting it together yourself mind, rather than buying a prebuilt, but it will give you basically the best PC you can build given a particular budget.

For your requirements I'd be looking at the 'superb' tier.

Good idea that. Sort of the opposite of the Porsche configurator, where you start looking at entry-level Boxsters and after 30 minutes have a full-specced 911 Turbo because every little step seemed like a good idea and "only" added £800...  

Bidley

PolarityMan said:

Bidley said:

You could probably find a cheaper case, and £20 for two cooling fans seems a bit steep. But then I suppose you need them to be super quiet...

The only thing I would suggest is a slightly cheaper i5, as suggested.

Do you have a link for the PSU? I'm trying to look it up but my Google skills are failing... You don't want to skimp on that regardless.

FSP make 3 current models and they all look a bit budget so might have to upgrade there. What I havent done yet is prced something similar from components and self building or reviewed what i could potentially re-use from my existing build if I were to do a self build.

If you're on a really tight budget, you can get some decent stuff used. At the very least, settle on the sort of spec you want and shop around extensively. Check places like OCUK, Scan and Ebuyer etc.

PolarityMan

1k seems reasonable, its not a strict budget but i guess id prefer to optimize the spec within that otherwise id end up getting carried away