Any computer nerds here?

[Cederick]

Would all this be good for a recording PC?

http://www.inet.se/produkt/4304004/1tb-seagate-barracuda-7200rpm-64mb
http://www.inet.se/produkt/5315066/corsair-8gb-2x4gb-cl8-1600mhz-vengeance
http://www.inet.se/produkt/6909825/fractal-design-core-3000-usb-3-0-svart
http://www.inet.se/produkt/5310048/intel-core-i7-4770-3-4-ghz-haswell
http://www.inet.se/produkt/6911393/corsair-cx-600m-80-bronze-modular
http://www.inet.se/produkt/4304474/samsung-ssd-pro-basic-840-series-128gb
http://www.inet.se/produkt/1902504/asus-h87i-plus-mitx

 

[jackthehack]

Maybe; step one is deciding on what recording software/audio interface you're going to use and design the system around that, as a lot of software that runs on Windows (that your OS, or ???) has specific hardware requirements, those components look to make a pretty beefy system...

As an alternative suggestion, have you considered a Mac? I used to use Cakewalk recording software on Windows, but a year and a half ago broke down and bought the entry level 13" Macbook Pro, upgraded it to  8 Gb RAM and threw away the existing drive and replaced it with a 512 Gb SSD and now use GarageBand/Logic Express for recording software and couldn't be happier.

I wouldn't recommend the latest Retina Macbook Pros as they're not user upgradable and they ream you on the memory/storage options, but the same U.S. $1199 model is still available, or if you have no need for the system to be mobile you can go the Mac Mini route, they're still user upgradable as well.

 

[Cederick]

No, I don't like Macs. I have tried them and don't like it at all... It's Windows for me.
I record with Cubase.

My new shopping cart looks like this after some advice:
http://www.inet.se/kundvagn/visa/4061265/2013-10-26

Dude, I don't try to pretend like Macs are not stable: but I have been recorded on a now 4 years old HP laptop which was pretty crappy to begin with, and have had no problems with stability other than some occasional crashes but nothing lethal or something that occurs often. Now my only problem is that the specs is not enough for my often quite "big" productions

 

[AndyG]

step one is deciding on what recording software/audio interface you're going to use and design the system around that

Sage advice here.  You also have to consider what kind of recording you want to do to determine how much computer horsepower you need.  For example, if you're simply going to be recording guitars and vocals (one at a time) over MIDI tracks, most computers won't have a problem.  However, if you want multiple inputs available (to mic up a drum kit), multiple headphone mixes (so you can record more than one person at a time), or a lot of plug-in effects processing in the chain, that will require a faster processor in order to avoid input latency.

Your software and hardware choice will determine your computer needs.

 

[Cagey]

I'd say that would make for a good system. Lotta horsies there, so you should be able to run just about anything without any trouble at all.

You don't say how much memory you intend to install, but I'd advise going as high as you can afford. Also, use a 64-bit OS so you don't lose/waste addressing space. Audio and video files can be large, but you've probably got enough storage to start with. Thing is, when editing, those large files need to be loaded/cached to prevent a lot of disk-swapping because you'll end up with multiple copies of the same file in virtual memory. So, more physical memory tends to keep you off the HDD unless absolutely necessary.

Another bit of advice I've heard over and over again, that I can attest to and applies especially to Windows users, is you have to treat the thing as a workstation. Don't be playing games on it, or letting it on the internet. If that's gonna be your DAW, that's all it should be. You don't use your guitar as a baseball bat or a hockey stick; don't use your DAW as a gaming or web-surfing machine. Especially with Windows. You can lose so much so easily, most of which isn't replaceable.

Finally, you should add an external drive to do backups, and do them. It's a pain in the ass, but you're going to be storing a lot of personal work product on the HDD. You won't be able to replace it if the drive fails. There's nowhere on the internet to find your creations and work files; they're unique. It's imperative that you back it up, back it to something separate from the system, and do it frequently. If you're not doing that now, I'd strongly suggest you develop the habit. Without spending a lotta money, you can just get something like one of these...

They're reliable, inexpensive and easy to use. Buy the same storage HDD you're running in the main machine, drop it in this thing, and clone your main system's storage drive as needed. Need more storage? All you need is another raw drive. Stash the old one, and keep on going.

 

[swarfrat]

I am a computer nerd, and were i putting together a purpose built recording pc, I'd strongly consider buying one of those tascam/fostex appliances

 

[Cederick]

I'd say that would make for a good system. Lotta horsies there, so you should be able to run just about anything without any trouble at all.

You don't say how much memory you intend to install, but I'd advise going as high as you can afford. Also, use a 64-bit OS so you don't lose/waste addressing space. Audio and video files can be large, but you've probably got enough storage to start with. Thing is, when editing, those large files need to be loaded/cached to prevent a lot of disk-swapping because you'll end up with multiple copies of the same file in virtual memory. So, more physical memory tends to keep you off the HDD unless absolutely necessary.

Another bit of advice I've heard over and over again, that I can attest to and applies especially to Windows users, is you have to treat the thing as a workstation. Don't be playing games on it, or letting it on the internet. If that's gonna be your DAW, that's all it should be. You don't use your guitar as a baseball bat or a hockey stick; don't use your DAW as a gaming or web-surfing machine. Especially with Windows. You can lose so much so easily, most of which isn't replaceable.

Finally, you should add an external drive to do backups, and do them. It's a pain in the ass, but you're going to be storing a lot of personal work product on the HDD. You won't be able to replace it if the drive fails. There's nowhere on the internet to find your creations and work files; they're unique. It's imperative that you back it up, back it to something separate from the system, and do it frequently. If you're not doing that now, I'd strongly suggest you develop the habit. Without spending a lotta money, you can just get something like one of these...

They're reliable, inexpensive and easy to use. Buy the same storage HDD you're running in the main machine, drop it in this thing, and clone your main system's storage drive as needed. Need more storage? All you need is another raw drive. Stash the old one, and keep on going.

I already know most of this  :icon_biggrin:
And my shopping DOES say mugh memory I'm putting in it. 8GB

 

[Cederick]

step one is deciding on what recording software/audio interface you're going to use and design the system around that

Sage advice here.  You also have to consider what kind of recording you want to do to determine how much computer horsepower you need.  For example, if you're simply going to be recording guitars and vocals (one at a time) over MIDI tracks, most computers won't have a problem.  However, if you want multiple inputs available (to mic up a drum kit), multiple headphone mixes (so you can record more than one person at a time), or a lot of plug-in effects processing in the chain, that will require a faster processor in order to avoid input latency.

Your software and hardware choice will determine your computer needs.

I'm recording lots of tracks on drums in the rehearsal and guitars at home.
My old crappy laptop handles it quite well that's why I'm not going to get the absolute best rig I ever can with this

 

[Patrick from Davis]

The only thing that was really helpful on my system was making sure that the bus speed was huge and having native usb3.  If that is good, then crank up the memory, processor and get one of those drive thingies.  I use protools, and it can be a hog, but I started several years ago, and now have a lot of stuff that is specific for it.  Still I have not had much trouble with it.  More trouble with cheap recording equipment sounding, well, cheap.  The next experiment is to get a bunch of improvements to the IO unit and a nice word clock, then it is time to build the diy recording stuff.  Just need more money.
Patrick

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

Another bit of advice I've heard over and over again, that I can attest to and applies especially to Windows users, is you have to treat the thing as a workstation. Don't be playing games on it, or letting it on the internet. If that's gonna be your DAW, that's all it should be. You don't use your guitar as a baseball bat or a hockey stick; don't use your DAW as a gaming or web-surfing machine.

This is really good advice.  I wish I had the space to build a separate computer just for my music stuff.

Another thing I would recommend: Before installing windows, disable the motherboard's on-board audio so you don't get any driver conflicts with your audio interface.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

First I want to say you should get way more RAM than that. Think about at least doubling it, but really just get as much as you can possibly afford. Nothing affects the performance of your PC so dramatically.

Another bit of advice I've heard over and over again, that I can attest to and applies especially to Windows users, is you have to treat the thing as a workstation. Don't be playing games on it, or letting it on the internet. If that's gonna be your DAW, that's all it should be. You don't use your guitar as a baseball bat or a hockey stick; don't use your DAW as a gaming or web-surfing machine. Especially with Windows. You can lose so much so easily, most of which isn't replaceable.

This is very good advice; however, you should take into account the actual reality of the situation, which is that you will certainly want to surf the web on it sometimes. I don't know how expert you are at computers. My work PC is connected to the internet and is also connected to the production trade databases of an investment bank. But the fact that I can manage that without bringing the place down is part of what qualifies me for the job. Be honest with yourself about how well you can be sure that you're not going to break stuff. A little bit of web surfing is OK, and of course you'll need to download the latest drivers for your hardware, things like that.

Don't put games on it though. Get an XBox or something, seriously.

Something else I want to say is, if you're like Jet-Jaguar here, and you only really have space for one PC, well, that's really not unusual. But you can still make sure your DAW is safe and isolated from your general PC usage.

What you can do is set up one or more Virtual PC's. You can download the necessary software free from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=3702

What this allows you to do is build an entire virtual PC to your specifications, and have that PC then represented by a big file on your hard drive. When you launch the file, a full-screen window appears, and inside that window, you will see the usual boot-up sequence of a PC. You can install any OS you like on it, and you get a completely new environment. On this PC you can put any experimental stuff you're doing, surf the web to your heart's content, and so on. Treat it like you don't care if it falls down a hole.

Even better - once you've built it and installed everything you need, you can just back up the big file. That file contains the entire hard drive of the virtual PC, so if anything goes wrong, you just delete the file and make another copy of your backup - and now you're back to a fresh PC.

It really doesn't take very long at all to get the virtual PC up and running (basically just the time it takes to install Windows) and you're well protected. You can of course transfer files from the virtual PC to your main workstation and back, if you need to. You'll keep your main PC clean and fast, and your virtual one you can run into the ground and then just restore it.

It's a really nice way of working; I have several virtual PCs set up at home because, for example, I occasionally need to do some work in Windows 98 (don't ask). I have a Windows 98 PC that I can access at any time, and whenever I get a new PC, I just move that virtual PC file across and I still have my Windows 98 computer when I need it.

 

[swarfrat]

I actually have gobs and gobs of scrounged memory on a PC at work (64GB, small potatoes around here), and even with compiles and a big honking ramdisk, it rarely exceeds 4GB by much, and I've never seen it go over 8. Audio is latency sensitive, but isn't actually a lot of bandwidth. It's definitely a smarter, not harder type of optimization.