TAXI.com

hi everyone.

right now i have an old desk top dell with xp on it. i been having problems with garritan and xpand since i moved and people are suggesting i upgrade my pc. i have everything on pc so mac is out. i won't go online with it. itll be only for recording

i run protools 7.3 using east west play,garritan, finale and addictive drums plus the stuff that came with pro tools like amplitube,xpand etc.. i'll upgrade pt and finale

can you recommend a desk top under 1000? a link would be good.

i have the composers ed of east west and there were problems getting it loaded last time. im worried bout that.

also i wanna be sure i can write something on finale then save an audio file to edit in pt.

thanx

It's hard to beat a MicroCenter off lease computer for the money. Starting about $169, you can get a computer with an i3,i5, or i7 processor, 8gb of ram, windows pro, 500gb hd.

Not too long ago, we got a $99 HP off lease for my dad, he uses it for the internet and it works great. You can't even buy windows for that!

http://www.microcenter.com/search/searc ... y=pricelow

thanx len.

these are like super cheap! is there anything wrong with them? why are they so cheap?

They are off lease from a business usually. We have a brick and mortar store about 30 miles from here. You might inquire about their return policy, every item is different and they also sell insurance policies. They are sort of like a Newegg, but they also have physical stores. I've met computer techs that have driven from Omaha, NE, a couple hundred miles away to buy supplies there for their company. They have 4 stores in New York, Queens, Yonkers, Brooklyn, Long Island. You can check on line for what is available in each store.

My uncle had given my dad a dell computer with vista. The power supply was going out, and because dell and hp don't have standard sizes for their power supplies, it was like, $60 for a new one. But for $99, we could get him an off lease hp core 2 duo with Windows 7, and that's all he needs, it's only for internet and he watches comcast xfinity cable on it. We ordered it online, and it was ready at the pickup desk.(18 minute pickup guarantee) It was during the Christmas holidays and very busy. It's usually worthwhile to look around because they have so many other good buys on everything computers, air, mice, ... He hasn't had any problems with it. It worked on startup, it did come with a new keyboard and mouse.

There are other outlets as well that sell them, I believe even Newegg does. I've even seen similar on ebay, but you have to be careful, many don't have windows installed, or don't have a hard drive or missing some components, and really outrageous shipping fees! And the prices aren't that great!

It wasn't that long ago that I would have recommended people build their own, but the way prices have come down, and the performance to software ratio, and the refurbished off lease computers with 8gb or more of ram, bigger hd, newer processors, etc., it doesn't make sense really for audio, maybe in extreme cases or if you're a gamer, editing video, animation??

For music purposes, buy at least:

Intel quad core i7
16 gig of ram
SSD hard drive

Len911 wrote:It wasn't that long ago that I would have recommended people build their own, but the way prices have come down, and the performance to software ratio, and the refurbished off lease computers with 8gb or more of ram, bigger hd, newer processors, etc., it doesn't make sense really for audio, maybe in extreme cases or if you're a gamer, editing video, animation??

Also, [AHEM]....large orchestral/trailer templates. If you'll be scoring to picture a graphics accelerator card is recommended.

A $1,000 only? Based on what I'm hearing from your compositions on your Taxi page, it doesn't sound like you'd be happy with a system that couldn't do orchestra backgrounds.

Composition is no.1, performance no.2, and quality of sound is equal to both.

It would be closer to $2,000 to build a PC you wouldn't have to worry about limitations for quite a while. Windows 7 Pro (or 10), minimum 32 Gig RAM, and an Intel i7 Quad Core CPU, an SSD for the main operating system drive, a 7200 RPM drive for writing to audio, and another 7200 RPM drive for library samples (you can add more SSD drives later). An NVIDIA Quadro graphics card (more important than you may think; take graphics load off of CPU).

You might check out Vision Daw and see what they could build for you. I highly recommend them.

A no-hassle option, Sweetwater has a Creation Station at your price point, and you can have your software pre-installed. If you're not all thumbs the best bang for your buck is to build your own PC. Someone in a chat room mentioned that you could be money ahead to run Bootcamp on a refurb Mac Pro.

Hi,
I upgraded my computer this spring, and had one built. I looked at what Sweetwater had as a reference. I got a i5 processor, Nvidia video card, SSD for OS and programs, 1TB for E/W & vst samples, and a 1TB to record to. It was in a gaming case with a large ( quiet ) fan on the side, and fan in front of the hard drives. It has not given me any problems with multiple tracks playing while recording. I cost about $1300.00CND. I got a new DAW as well. I got the Mixcraft 8 Recording Studio ( 64bit ) daw. For an audio interface, I got a Focusrite Scarlet 18i20. I wanted more inputs so I could record a real drum kit to separate tracks, as well as other instrument ensembles. I have 16G of RAM, which I could add more when needed. I also have a MOTU 5 channel MIDI interface connecting my keyboard controllers and hardware sound modules. It has USB-2 and USB-3 connections. I am running Windows 10 64bit.

I found building one cheaper.

- Myran