Po' boy's 'puter

[og]

I have been shopping around. avadirect.com sells barebones kits that are really bare, so there's no added stuff. How's this sound;ASUS, A8N-VM CSM GeForce™6150 boardApex 450W power supplyAthlon 64 3000+ 1 Gb DDR RAM40 & 80 Gb HD"s Soundblaster card (I record thru a USB preamp at the moment)CD-RW/DVD combo drivefor under $600. I took the recommendations for some of the components from Devon Brent's series on building a DAW in Recording. This fits the budget pretty well at the moment, and I'm handy enough to install any cards or upgrades I might need. Comments? Suggestions? Chime in folks. If you read my posts, you know I'm light in the tech stuff. Thanks in advance!

[andreh]

Quote:I have been shopping around. avadirect.com sells barebones kits that are really bare, so there's no added stuff. How's this sound;ASUS, A8N-VM CSM GeForce™6150 boardApex 450W power supplyAthlon 64 3000+ 1 Gb DDR RAM40 & 80 Gb HD"s Soundblaster card (I record thru a USB preamp at the moment)CD-RW/DVD combo drivefor under $600. I took the recommendations for some of the components from Devon Brent's series on building a DAW in Recording. This fits the budget pretty well at the moment, and I'm handy enough to install any cards or upgrades I might need. Comments? Suggestions? Chime in folks. If you read my posts, you know I'm light in the tech stuff. Thanks in advance! Sounds like a competent enough box, og. I suggest you visit the support sites and forums for the software you use and make sure there are no compatibility issues (which are more common among PC's than Macs) with your motherboard.You might consider upping to a DVD-R for backup purposes, but you could live without it if your sessions aren't too huge.You'll probably also want a firewire card when you upgrade your AD (analog-to-digital) converter, but that can be added later as long as your motherboard has PCI slots.Lastly, it's generally good advice to buy the fastest computer you can afford, since it plays such a major role in the studio and it'll probably be with you for awhile. If your productions are "lite" this may not matter too much to you, but if you use a lot of softsynths & plug-ins, you can tap out your CPU resources pretty quickly even with today's speedy processors. Andre

[aubreyz]

Quote:I have been shopping around. avadirect.com sells barebones kits that are really bare, so there's no added stuff. How's this sound;ASUS, A8N-VM CSM GeForce™6150 boardApex 450W power supplyAthlon 64 3000+ 1 Gb DDR RAM40 & 80 Gb HD"s Soundblaster card (I record thru a USB preamp at the moment)CD-RW/DVD combo drivefor under $600. I took the recommendations for some of the components from Devon Brent's series on building a DAW in Recording. This fits the budget pretty well at the moment, and I'm handy enough to install any cards or upgrades I might need. Comments? Suggestions? Chime in folks. If you read my posts, you know I'm light in the tech stuff. Thanks in advance! Quick look.. it seems like FW800 is not on the motherboard. Also there are only 4 ram slots... 1g is pretty marginal anymore, so you might want to check to see if they load it with 4 sticks of 250 to get that... that would be a waste if you wanted to upgrade.Have you priced those components? If that's a good package price then it sounds like a pretty healthy system.

[ernstinen]

Hey Og,You've got some good advice here.My question is the Soundblaster sound card. Are you doing MIDI sequencing? When I built my first computer for GigaStudio, I began with this card:http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/A ... in.htmlYou can get one for about $90. I later upgraded, but it works fine as an inexpensive option.My 2 cents,Ern

[og]

Thanks, gents! I do pretty simple, acoustic songs, with loops for bass and drums when used. I may piddle with MIDI if I can ever get the %*&#!@)*& keyboard to work!. Aub, does the 'no FW800" mean I can't add a Firewire card?I picked the SB card becausemost of my stuff runs thru the USB preamp. I know several people who use SB cards with kx project drivers for all their recording, and swear by them--but I'll check into the other. I have other M-Audio stuff (including this second, also nonfunctioning MIDI keyboard), and I like most of it.This machine has a Sound Blaster card, and I've had no problems since I went to ASIO4ALL drivers.Good advice to check those prices. Thanks again, guys! Oh, there's room for 2 Gb RAM, and another HD.

[og]

I priced the components (Newegg, tigerdirect, etc.) and I could save about $40 if I bought it all piecemeal. Of course, then I'd have to get my computer genius stepson to come and put it together--he's very reliable, if you don't rely on a clock or calendar! All in all, I don't think the price is out of line. $40 to assemble and test don't sound bad.