I need a new computer setup...

[85Dave]

I need a new computer...my old stock Dell is starting to slow down with all the new video and audio work im starting.

Ive been looking into desktops, mainly dell for my new computer.

I need a Dell with windows XP pro running software that is fast enough for video editing with Adobe premiere as well as something fast enough for audio work.

I have been really getting into audio recording now so I am going to get a new sound card...the M-Audio Delta 44 which has four inputs and four outputs in 1/4". The four ports for ins and outs are good but ill only be using two at a time from my mixer so if theres something better for the price please let me know. Thanks.

I need at least one 2.0 USB port for some of my gear.
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Another thing im looking for is software for audio recording. I'll be going in to the delta 44 so software must work with that.

Any suggestions?

I know little about computer hardware like this so I have no idea what to get.

The new Dell XPS computers look awesome with the fast processors but I just cant see spending $2,000 on any type of computer.

I'm looking to spend about $1,000 max for this buy/build

[mikegee]

in terms of a blazing fast computer, you do not need to spend a ton of money for a dual core computer, despite what you might think... i bought a dual core pc for $500. they are out there, just do a google search...

[85Dave]

thanks, ill look around

I'm not just looking to do audio recording...i just got that new Flight Simulator X and it needs a really fast computer...faster than my bros custom build computer

so I'm looking for a new computer for gaming as well

my current computer is just old and obsolete

[dagosto]

It is probably not the best idea to run high demand games on the same computer you do media on. There are a lot of settings that make games look better(particularly in the graphic domain) that should be set to low or even turned off when running media programs (eg ProTools, Cubase Sonar. . . etc). Lots of the tweaks to improve the media performance can be found here:

http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php

I suppose you could set up multiple users on the computer and have one tweaked for gaming and the other for media. However some of the tweaks are global (not specific to one user) which means either games or media programs will not be running totally optimized unless you go through and change all the settings when you do one of the other. Of course, if you get a blazing fast computer (core duo, 2GB Ram, yadda yadda) you might be able to run the media without much trouble without the tweaks.

[IbanezAndTamaDrums]

Any Intel processor over 2.8 GHZ should be able to do most anything, and any AMD over an Athlon 3600+ is pretty good, that and like 512 RAM and your set for anything like that.

I use an AMD Athlon 4400+ with 1 1/2 GB of RAM and a Nvidia Geforce 256MB DDR GFX card, and I can handle any video editing as well as sound editing I have to do extremely easily, basically anything out there thats new can handle that kind of stuff.

[85Dave]

havn't updated this post in a while

ive been working on a list for a gaming desktop.
im putting a good audio card in it but im also putting in a good processor and graphics card

im not looking for the best in audio recording really...this will be more for gaming but i will do some audio work with it that doesnt have to be great, i only record out of the house for fun.

[Matthew]

Well, if your gearing your computer towards gaming then your need to make sure it has a decent graphics card. At least a mid to high level 6 series NVidia (SLI setup is NICE!). I am a bit of a gamer myself, and I have been around computers for ages...and the main thing with gaming would be to get a good graphics card. Processor would be next on that list. Dual core is great...I have two PC's running with dual cores right now (One laptop and one desktop) Multi-tasking like a beast. Also don't get anything less than a gig of ram.

As far as price you can't beat building a computer yourself. I priced a computer I am looking at buying the other day for about 1,300...and I think that price had a video ipod thrown in there. It had an am2 socket AMD 64bit dual core processor in there (Which you can't get with dell because they like to suck up to intel) and it had 2 gigs of ram with a 7850 gtx NVidia graphics card. That would be well more than enough for what you want...but you did say you where not that keen on computer parts, so it probably wont be worth the headache to you to build one (Although its not that hard). If I where to buy a computer off the regular market right now I would probably get a dell xps...

Sorry if I went a little over the top here.. I just got to typing and I couldn't stop

[85Dave]

First off, my budget has gone up to $2,000, I don't have that money yet so I'll have to save for about 3-4 months before I order anything. At that time, graphics cards will change prices a lot and I may be able to get something a lot better.

I was going to get a dual core processor and a good graphics card to start the build off.

I was however looking towards 2G of RAM but its a lot of money...My brother who knows computers well says its recommended you get 2G of RAM and its on the flight sim box but my brother says I shouldn't need it to run the game

In my mind I should get all great parts so I don't have to update later...build the best from the start.
My goal is to get this flight sim game working at near top notch.

Here's the list of items to get:

DVD Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136103

Case: (Antec P180 silver)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129154

Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140

Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150189

Sound Card: (Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102188

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341001

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146057

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

Case fans: (3 to replace the 3 in the Antec case to keep noise down more)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835220014

Fan speed control panel:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813999902

*I'm looking for a fairly good motherboard that will work with all of this and the case as well.
Any suggestions?
I'm not looking to go way over the price here as I still need software for this which will bring up the cost but I have a cheap source for that as well.

I'll be running windows XP pro for now but plan on going with Vista later on.
Sound, I'll only be using a standard setup with 2 speakers with this build but its nice to have a good sound card in the project.

[85Dave]

Originally Posted by Matthew

If I where to buy a computer off the regular market right now I would probably get a dell xps...

yea I was looking at the dell XPS 710

I have had great luck with dell and my Dimension 2400 has held up well.
on the other hand, I'm not sure how the XPS 710 will compare to my build...

[Matthew]

I myself am a big Asus fan...I have had nothing but success from them, and the one board I did manage to fry I got back within 2 weeks from there RMA.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131032

This is my favorite of the two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131564

Another good thing about the Asus boards is the fact that they have great built in sound cards. It would be just as good as the one you bought...(Well maybe not as good, but you probably wont notice the difference) But if you are going for recording too you might look at something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829121122


It is made by M-Audio, but it is a regular sound card with coaxial s/pdif out. It also has a sample rate of 192k as to the Creative 96k. Its also cheaper