| It's best to keep the internet away from your music machine, but you can limit any negative effects by setting up a dual boot, ie one windows installation for music and one for general use on the same computer. It's very easy to do and worthwhile.
These are the things you need to look at to get yourself a good custom machine:
Processor - the one you're looking at is very popular and performs better than most, it'll even give you an edge over quad core processors under most normal operating conditions.
CPU cooler: Replace the stock cooler with a third party, quieter, more efficient one.
Motherboard: Does it allow you room to expand? How many pci and pcie slots are there, which firewire chipset does it use, how many sata ports etc.
Check the motherboard against known good configurations for any and all hardware it's possible you may acquire.
Ram: Get 4Gb. If you're using 32bit windows (like most people), you'll be limited to 3½ but the more the merrier as far as ram is concerned.
Buffered ram is best but very expensive. Not even Apple use buffered ram in their machines, but go with branded, reputable ram, such as Corsair, Kingston, Geil etc.
Hard drives: Get one IDE system drive for your OS and programs, and SATA II drives for audio data. Make sure that you buy identical spec SATA drives, as then you have the option to set up a raid configuration if you want to.
GFX: Audio apps are not graphics-intensive, but look for something that runs quietly and cool. Asus do a great card for a daw - the EAH2400 Pro.
Case: Play safe and go with an Antec case - the P182 is excellent as a tower, or theres the 'Take 4' rack case. But you'll want to replace the stock fans with some quieter ones - acoustifan or Akasa are good.
PSU: 500w is fine, compare reviews on models in your price range.
Screens - Cheap at the moment, get two 22".
Wireless keyboard is handy if you want to move around. |