Music PC for Production

[jackbrazzo]

Guys I am looking to get a PC to do some production on, plus surfing the net with.
I probably need

1TB (could be less) HD
Win 7
Ableton (I'll buy this seperately)
4\8GB RAM

I'll buy 2 screens as I like working like that - do I was thinking what the best option is - laptop or desktop.

I'll need to buy a seperate soundcard I guess too. Advantages of a laptop is the portability of course as space is limited in my flat in London. Adv of desktop, easier to expand and probably cheaper. Tending to go with that rather than the laptop - Can anyone give any guidance?

Many thanks

[lem]

There is a lot to consider when choosing a computer. A lot depends on how you work and how you want to work.

laptops are nessasary if you want to use ableton 'live'
but in the studio they are more prone to noise and compatability issues with external gear.

the advantages to desktop you have already listed...

dont get bogged down with uber spec's, there is so much choice and parts are cheap, its easy to get carried away.

you dont need a lightning fast computer for audio. again this depends on how you work.

[hydrogen]

getting two screens is great but with the new widescreen monitors its almost unnecessary and ableton doesn't support more than 1 screen... i guess you could use the second monitor for plugins or checking your email while you track

get minimum an i7. Just don't invest too much on the video card for now... (in the future hopefully audio processing will be done using nvidia cuda)

[eggnchips]

Hey,

I just built my first music P.C. with basic knowledge of how to do it.
Research is the key if you have time to do it.
The guys on this forum are great, and advise you on everything: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc
For 500€ or so you can build yourself a beast.
I went with i5 2600k as everybody considered i7 overkill.
i7 uses hyperthreading, something that isn't really advantagous in our field (or so I was told).

[Phase Ghost]

Definitely build one. Components in Dells and other big names are trash. i5 plus 4 (or gigs of ram and you'll be set. Put a texas instruments based firewire card in to.

[kristofason]

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/systeml ... =1&mcat=39

very cheap!!

[sorgenkind]

consider getting a solid state drive for faster and quieter operation, prices are dropping down slow.

[NoAffiliation]

build your own. im not sure what country you're in but if you hit up microcenter in the states there are literally shelves and bins full of sale ram, processors, motherboards for absolutely dirt cheap.

i built an 8 core system with 10 gigs of ram and a solid state drive + 2 SATA drives for under 900 dollars. apple would sell this for thousands. if you go the build route spend money on a quality motherboard that you can overclock. i have an asus sabertooth that's made of military grade bomb clay and i overclock the sh!t out of my i7 processor. my board is a year old you can probably get it now for <100 buks