Author Topic: PC advise (Read 13684 times)

maliciousteve · « **on:** August 11, 2006, 04:06:46 PM »

Hey guys. I'm on the look out for a Laptop so that i can use it for installing music programs and do some recording. I'll be buying Line 6 Rifftracker to start off with and as i get more comfortable with recording etc, i'll upgrade recording programs. The PC i'm on at the moment isn't 'up to date' enough to have music recording programs installed and having my own laptop would help alot with certain things as me and my brother + sister argue over using the computer sometimes.

How's this one?

http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_339237.html

My budget is about £500 to £900 (if i don't buy one this weekend my budget will rise)

_tom_ · « **Reply #1 on:** August 11, 2006, 04:39:21 PM »

I think for that price you could get an awesome spec desktop pc, which would probably last longer than a laptop of the same price and be more powerful. Laptops are nice if you dont have much space though, and I guess would be possible to take to band practise to record whereas a desktop is stuck at home..

schmendict · « **Reply #2 on:** August 11, 2006, 04:43:55 PM »

I seriously wouldn't advise buying a computer at this time as DX10 and Windows Vista are just around the corner.

Wait until Christmas, DX10 will be out, and you can anticipate for Vista's introduction easier.

I agree with Tom that you could get a fantastic PC for that price, but if it HAS to be a laptop, then I guess that's OK, but personally, if I had the money, I would go custom.

That said, if you don't know what you're looking for, then go for a stock PC, or maybe get someone who knows a lot about PCs to help you go custom.

Muttley · « **Reply #3 on:** August 11, 2006, 04:52:30 PM »

Unless you absolutely need something easily portable don't get a laptop. You get much more for your money with a desktop machine...

Muttley

LiamH · « **Reply #4 on:** August 11, 2006, 05:17:46 PM »

Have you considered a Mac? I was a confirmed PC user for years until I borrowed my dad's powerbook. Now all I use is macs. They are dearer than pc's but they are really geared for music. I was in pc world the other day and they are doing the older g4 power book for about £850. It may be the older model but if you are going to use it mainly for music it is still a great machine. You could also consider something like a refurb'd G5 Dual 1.8GHz Tower 512MB RAM 80GB Hard Drive which tcsmacs.com are doing for around £799. I have a dual 2ghz powermac and it is an absolute beast.It still is ahead of what a lot of pro musicians use, for instance Dave Weiner (Steve Vai band) and Billy Sheehan are still using the G4 model which was superseded by the G5.

LiamH · « **Reply #5 on:** August 11, 2006, 05:21:44 PM »

I just spotted that tcsmacs have got one of the new all singing, all dancing macbook pros going for £799. That is a bargain.

I don't own shares in tcs by the way !!

jt · « **Reply #6 on:** August 11, 2006, 05:54:47 PM »

:D DON`T BUY YET !!!

i`ve been thinking of doing the exact same thing your planning on doing. WAIT For the money your looking at paying out the laptop your gonna get will not be great but very basic. Your going to find if you want to do really pro sounding recordings your basic package wont be good enough & all the other top of the line packages ie; Pro Tools, Cubase etc will require a much better system than you`ll have on the laptop & that`ll render your laptop useless unless you fork out a small fortune to upgrade it. For pro sounding recordings you`ll need at least 2GB of RAM, 150GB hard Drive, A top of the line graphics card so you can see all the bits & pieces. You might even need to get an aditional sound card [ some of the other guys will chip in to confirm this detail or not as i`m still in the process of finding this out myself. Muttley, HJM, TO & others are more up on this than i am i`m sure there`ll chip in]

If you just want to make some basic recordings then a stand alone 4 track type job might be more suited.

Laptops are coming down in price but i`ve already been quoted $3000. US or £1700 pounds UK for a laptop nearer the speck you`d really need to be looking at. The guys are right you can probably get that now on a regular PC for the kinda money you`ve got to spend. Hold your fire for a while. There`s also been quite a few threads on this subject on the Time Out section & the Dressing room section on this veryforum hunt them down & read `em 1st

:D 8)

EDITi forgot you`ll also need to be very up on processers & processer speeds to get the right one but from what i`ve seen out there you`ll need at least or preferably a 3GB clock speed. & right now on laptops thats bloody expensive

plastercaster · « **Reply #7 on:** August 11, 2006, 07:28:38 PM »

Quote from: jt

i forgot you`ll also need to be very up on processers & processer speeds to get the right one but from what i`ve seen out there you`ll need at least or preferably a 3GB clock speed. & right now on laptops thats bloody expensive

Dont fall for the whole "ghz" thing cos its balls. With Intels newest Chips the fastest one is 2.93 Ghz but loads more powerful than the old 3.8ghz ones. Although JT is right, you will need a decent processor, especially if you want amp modelling, otherwise there will be a noticable gap between strumming a chord and hearing it out the speakers.
+1 on the Point on Desktops unless you Really need the portability. Even if that is important you'd be better off getting a small Desktop. £900 will get you an upper mid range PC but an average laptop. also remember that if you want to upgrade to a faster processor, a bigger screen, a larger hard drive and a better sound card on a laptop, forget it.
Also remember that soundcards use power quick, so you wont be able to do long periods of recording and editing on a laptop without mains power.
And Finally (I'm Nearly Done now) If You do get a desktop I highly recommend building it yourself. If I had bought my PC from a Big company, it would have been £1k+, As i built it myself it only cost £600. It really isn't very difficult, just set aside half a day to build it, I have had no problems with my PC that I built myself with no previous experience. If you Buy a high end PC from Dell etc. You'll probably end up with a gaming PC- So you'll end up shelling out hundreds for a graphics card you wont use. I can however, recommend that £800 Macbook pro if you really need a laptop. And dont Jump the gun before you choose what to get if you get a windows based machine. In the coming months, AMD will release their new Processors, there'll be DirectX 10, Windows Vista, so half your stuff will be obsolete pretty quick.

Dakine · « **Reply #8 on:** August 11, 2006, 10:34:41 PM »

I agree ya get more with a PC and it is usually easier to upgrade.
Also, although no exp. with em, hear Mac's are great for this stuff.
My old laptop (as stated in old post) died few months back so bought another laptop with insurance.
I got this one in the States (close as can see it exactly the same) and recording and speed were amazing!
http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1874197000.1155331816@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfiaddiiekifgmcflgceggdhhmdgmh.0&page=Product&fm=2&sm=1&tm=0&sku=776538&category_oid=-27403
That said, laptops are outdated sooooo quickly. I just had mine insured so was easy to replace, also they are convenient due to portability. My better half needs it so right now it's still in Texas and I am using an old cr@ppy PC for now.

CaffeineJunkie · « **Reply #9 on:** August 12, 2006, 01:45:54 AM »

a) don't buy a computer from a retail store, they mark them up a ridiculous amount

b) get a desktop, MUCH easier to upgrade later, you get more for your money and you get a handy footrest

c) definitely wait for the latest technology to come out, and if you can make sure you get a 64 bit processor

these may have already been covered, but i didn't read all the posts :D

froglord · « **Reply #10 on:** August 13, 2006, 10:45:59 AM »

I wouldn't get too excited about Vista, guys. I mean, I realise that eventually you'll be forced to use Vista because XP will no longer be supported, and therefore if you're going to stick with Windows it makes a certain amount of sense to get the latest stuff, but the benefits are going to be minimal. It looks nice. It has desktop search. Err ... everything else seems to be a tiny incremental update on XP.

The big problem is that, true to form, Vista is going to require massively more resources than XP. So you're going to need a correspondingly more powerful and expensive PC/laptop to get the same amount of work done.

Cynical about Microsoft? You bet.

deg0ey · « **Reply #11 on:** August 13, 2006, 11:19:41 AM »

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/k.asp

My dad built our last desktop from there at a fraction of the price of going elsewhere and buying a pre built one :drink:

maliciousteve · « **Reply #12 on:** August 13, 2006, 11:47:57 AM »

Quote from: froglord

I wouldn't get too excited about Vista, guys. I mean, I realise that eventually you'll be forced to use Vista because XP will no longer be supported, and therefore if you're going to stick with Windows it makes a certain amount of sense to get the latest stuff, but the benefits are going to be minimal. It looks nice. It has desktop search. Err ... everything else seems to be a tiny incremental update on XP.

The big problem is that, true to form, Vista is going to require massively more resources than XP. So you're going to need a correspondingly more powerful and expensive PC/laptop to get the same amount of work done.

Cynical about Microsoft? You bet.

I read about Vista on Microsofts web page. To be honest it seems like Windows XP but looks 'prettier', it didn't look like it had any major benefits.

CaffeineJunkie · « **Reply #13 on:** August 13, 2006, 02:37:57 PM »

except they have worked on the 64-bit compatibility shiteloads, whereas the x64 version of XP was mediocre at best

Author Topic: PC advise (Read 13684 times)

maliciousteve

schmendict

maliciousteve