nzscythe

Thanks, Yeah I'll probably add a silent cpu fan - any suggestions? there are so many to choose from - Zalman are pretty good... Cheers Patrick

Hi Again, I've put together a bit of a shopping list for my new PC - looking for a bit of feedback. I plan to use my existing NVIDIA 8800GT Video Card and 500GB SATA HDD (for media only) Here's the list: AA06471 $278.00 Antec P182 (Black) Mid-Tower Case NO Power Supply Unit *Front Audio, USB & Firewire -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AA06856 $411.00 Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS5 Intel P45 Socket T (LGA775) ATX Motherboard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AA03802 $379.00 Kingston Memory - 4 GB ( 2 x 2 GB ) - FB-DIMM - DDR II - 667 MHz - fully buffered (KTH-XW667/4G) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CP00068 $312.00 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16Ghz 6MB Cache 1333Mhz Socket T (LGA775) CPU + Fan Retail Boxed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PSU00008 $186.00 Zalman ZM600-HP 600W ATX Heatpipe Cooled Power Supply Unit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HD00158 $94.00 Western Digital Caviar SE16 (WD2500AAKS) - Hard Disk Drive - 250GB - Serial ATA300 - 7200RPM - buffer: 16MB (System Drive) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AA06320 $53.00 Asus DRW-2014S1T Dual Layer Multi Format 20x (Black & Beige faceplates) SATA DVD-Writer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMP0054 $366.00 M-Audio Delta 1010LT PCI Virtual Studio -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SW01400 $230.00 Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM Operating System Total Cart Value: $2309.00 What are your thoughts? Any comment on the soundcard? I've Heard M-Audio cards are pretty good?

Thanks very much for all the input, some good information in there (and some confusing stuff too!) I'll make a start on putting together a list of what I will probably get and then post it on here to get some feedback. Please remember this is just a starting point for me and in the long term if it looks like things will be successful I will possibly look at setting up a better system with dual boot and/or seperate from any network - If I got really serious I may even look at getting a mac system but that is going to be at least a year off I think. I may need a bit more help with selecting a suitable sound card but I will first review the many posts on sound cards already on this site. Thanks again Patrick

Thanks for the response, I know of dual boot systems - I prefer not to have to go to that myself but I understand the need if you are really serious about recording. I'm just going to be doing it more as a hobby so I'll try to keep it reasonably simple with one operating system (win xp 32 bit) I was talking to a friend today who is into digital recording (he uses logic pro software) and he was suggesting the best starting point for a sound card is to have something that can easily manage up to 8 inputs at the same time - that was I can record the rhythm section (1 bass + 7 drums) or just a simple drum kit mic setup and include guitars and vocals - I know there are many combinations but 8 inputs sounds like a good starting point... I have a mackie 16 channel mixing desk - it is mainly suited for live performances (doesn't have individual outputs for each channel) but I am looking at maybe trading up to one that does. I've had a bit of a quick read of the article you posted a link to, It has some usefull stuff but I can see I am still going to have a lot of questions. I guess that providing I get a pretty high spec gaming type machine with a high end sound card I am not really going to have any problems with recording later on... are there are tricks to be aware of? incompatibilities? software to watch out for? certain types of hard drives etc? Any suggestions on how to keep the noise of the computer down? Thanks for the help Patrick

Hi guys, I am looking at setting up a new custom build PC which I plan on using for a bit of recording for my band. (a 5 piece alternative / indie / rock type band) I want to go with a PC rather than a mac as the computer will also be used as my general use, gaming, web surfing, emailing computer. I play a few games and already have a pretty good graphics card which I plan to include in my new build. (an NVIDIA 8800GT) The PC needs to be pretty high spec, but not over the top - I'm thinking something like a dual core 2.6 or 3 ghz processor and 4 gb of ram (but probably still running 32 bit windows xp as vista doesn't run some of my software very well) I really want a quiet machine as all my previous PC's have been very noisy and I want this one to be quiet! I'm looking for advise on everything from soundcards to hard drives to power supplies... I have a 500gb Sata drive in my current PC which I also plan to use. Can anyone point me in the right direction on how I should go about setting up a new machine that will alow me to get started with home recording/mixing and still allow me to run my current games/flight simulators without breaking the bank. I don't really have a budget in mind, probably around the $2k (NZ) mark... I don't currently have any recording software so I'm open to suggestions and starting points there too - A couple of friends of mine use Logic Pro which I have heard is really good, but only available on Mac now... What other PC based software is good for starting out with? I look forward to hearing from you - and feel free to ask any questions, I'll help out as much as I can. Thanks Patrick