Building a workstation or buying a Dell

[dwfender]

So, I would like to build a workstation that can support most home audio recording. Running simply through an MBox I would like it to be capable of running several plugins and recording 4 tracks simultaneously. I am very new to Pro Tools and am unfamiliar with what hardware works well with audio recording. I run an IMac now and I get HW Buffer errors and lock ups constantly. That combined with the fact that I have to buy every plugin I'm gearing more towards windows based systems. I am trying to spend somewhere around 600 dollars, I'm on a budget, so my options are either build a unit or buy a Dell, seemingly. Just looking for some recommendations. I found some dells that "seem" like it would be a good fit for around that price range. 2.6 ghz processors, 4 gb of ram etc...Then i see computers for twice the price with 1.8 ghz and 2 gb of ram. Just looking for some direction. Sorry for being a newb. Thanks in advance guys.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by dwfender

So, I would like to build a workstation that can support most home audio recording. Running simply through an MBox I would like it to be capable of running several plugins and recording 4 tracks simultaneously. I am very new to Pro Tools and am unfamiliar with what hardware works well with audio recording. I run an IMac now and I get HW Buffer errors and lock ups constantly. That combined with the fact that I have to buy every plugin I'm gearing more towards windows based systems. I am trying to spend somewhere around 600 dollars, I'm on a budget, so my options are either build a unit or buy a Dell, seemingly. Just looking for some recommendations. I found some dells that "seem" like it would be a good fit for around that price range. 2.6 ghz processors, 4 gb of ram etc...Then i see computers for twice the price with 1.8 ghz and 2 gb of ram. Just looking for some direction. Sorry for being a newb. Thanks in advance guys.

If you can still find the parts, then you might be able to slap a Q6600 rig together for under $600 these days.

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=200560

...and you'll still have to "buy" your plug-ins on a PC based PT rig just the same.

Shane

[dwfender]

they sure do. Thats why I bought the one I did. Several people assured me it would be great for what I needed and within the first few days I realized it was a mistake.

So, most likely I would just like to buy something....

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i3-530 processor(4MB Cache, 2.93GHz) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 4 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 320GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD AND MICE Dell USB Entry Keyboard
MEDIA READER Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader
MODEM No Modem Option
MOUSE Dell USB Optical Mouse
Adobe Software Adobe® Reader 9.0
Inspiron 580S Inspiron 580S
Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

would something like this be a waste of time...

[albee1952]

The i3 is supposed to replace(eventually) the Celeron and I would not go that route for Pro Tools. Also, I see integrated graphics on there and that is often a deal breaker(although sometimes disabling it and adding a PCIe video card solves it. The motherboard and chipset might be incompatible and it still needs another hard drive for audio. If it were my money, I would pass and save some more to build an i7 or Q9550 system.

[dwfender]

Software & Services
PROCESSORS Intel® Core™ i7-920 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
MEMORY 3GB DDR3 Tri-Channel SDRAM at 1066MHz - 3 DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB edit
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your
KEYBOARD Dell Studio Consumer Multimedia Keyboard edit
MOUSE Dell Studio Optical Mouse edit
MODEM No Modem Option edit
WIRELESS Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card


what about something more along those lines? In all honesty, I would have no problem actually putting a pc together. My problem is, its been so long since I've built a computer from scratch determining what motherboard fits in what case, what processors go with what mother boards etc seems more intimidating than anything else right now.

[sw rec]

Dells are pretty decent general purpose computers but pretty much a crapshoot with Pro Tools. Build your own.
Looking at your previous post, and see the number one omission...you absolutely MUSt use a second, dedicated hard drive for recording, no matter which way you go on this.

But if you're gonna spend money, spend it in a place that yields positive results and build one. Another vote for ALBEE's post.

[dwfender]

so you're saying, have one hard drive with an OS installed as well as pro tools and plugins etc and record directly to a designated hard drive for audio,