A new computer for making music

F

Fyer

New member
Hi guys

Im currently using Reason and a couple of other synths but my comp has pretty much died.

I was looking at Mac's but I want a desktop and the Imac's high end are too expensive, and the low end dont seem that special at the moment.

So Ive been looking at pre-built pc's, fairly priced. I found this one and it seems like quite a bargain.

Its a lenovo m93 tiny (cant post links yet)

Can anyone help me decide?
 
lenovo is the new name for IBMs designs (although it is now 10 years since that happened)

if you are going to look at pre-packed also take a look at Dell - get the business machine if you can (as they are better spec'd than the home machines)

dell inspiron i5 8gb ram win7 pro although you may need to go to your us counterpart (I can't stop being redirected to the australian site)
 
Its ok Im in Sydney too

Thanks for the advice mate, thing is Ive heard the ThinkCentres run on Texas instruments chipsets, someone told me they are the best chipsets for audio/ video editing.

Also, I might try and build one myself, seems like a pretty good idea as Ill be able to upgrade it whenver I need...
 
personally I buy older dells (I have a dozen GX260's and 2 GX620's and 2 T5400's) t5400 is my new machine with 16gb of ram and quad core xeon processor (ex server but good for audio work)

you can get them for less half of what is being asked for new with an os installed

ebay search for dell similar to above spec

as for chipsets dedicated to audio unless you are using the mobo soundcard it is irrelevant as most of your audio is down in your interface
 
Nice

So these older machines, are they any good? I mean the processors looks alright and Im guessing you could upgrade them if needs be but why are thye so cheap..?
 
because they are essentially runouts from business and government departments who have bought the latest and greatest - the company/person selling them to us has already got them at a really cheap price

in my experience nothing wrong wit them other than being old and out of warranty with Dell

the ones I have were top of the line 3 years prior when I bought each model - the GX620 and T5400 are 64 bit capable with 4gb of ram or more able to be used in them

this one looks good
 
Cheers

So would these machines be able to be upgraded? Like new hard drive etc...? Would they work with Reason 7, Kontakt etc?
 
There should be resellers in australia that buy those runouts and still give you proper guarantee on the equipment they then sell to you. We have the same here in the Netherlands. They buy the runouts, give them a complete check up, clean them out of dust, sometimes do a replacement or the customer can ask for a different HD or Ram and then they resell you the 2nd hand piece of hardware for a good price with 3 months to a year guarantee.

I mean warranty with guarantee :D
 
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Fyer said:
Cheers

So would these machines be able to be upgraded? Like new hard drive etc...? Would they work with Reason 7, Kontakt etc?
Click to expand...

yes, yes, yes

see this mob for more ram (cheaper than local prices even with the drop in the exchange rate)

the t5300 will handle reason 8 no problems
 
Ram is pretty much the easiest to upgrade on a laptop. Just make sure you have the right kind of ram. The motherboard usually dictates what bus speeds you can handle. That can be hard to find out on a laptop. There's websites that'll help you , where you can fill in your make and model of laptop , then it'll show you what ram you need. After that you can look for that cheap. Ram doesn't cost you much anymore.
A hd upgrade in a laptop would be easy to do as well. This'll speed loading times. Usually, they put 5400 rpm HDs in a laptop to save battery power. You can still get decent speeds with better rpms with green disks, although I'm not a big fan of them, they work well. I always upgrade to 7200 rpm no green disk for data storage and an SSD for running my OS and programs from. SSD is always a nice choice, if you have the money. ( check StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews and then pick one from their leaderboard) .
Another thing you could upgrade in a laptop is the CPU. That can be more difficult if the build of the laptop prevents you from easy access.
Those 3 can be upgraded pretty cheap. You can probably score a ram update for about 20 to 40 bucks, a HD upgrade for about 40 bucks ( if you go ssd, this can become more pricy, but today you already have a leading SSD for about 100 to 150 bucks, 256 GB) . A cpu, depending on what you are looking for , can also be upgraded for about 50 bucks , to a lot more :P
Depending on what laptop you have, it's age, it's speed and how far you can upgrade with the motherboard limiting what ram and/or cpu you can put in it, you'll have to figure out what you want to spend on it.
Ram is the easiest to upgrade which will make working your vsts possible.
 
we are talking about a desktop here so ram is much more readily knowable - both dell and lenovo publish their specs in easy to find locations on their webistes
 
Ah, oversaw that bit. Still, a lot of the same goes for a desktop.
Easier to find out what motherboard you have. That way we can give you better information if you need an upgrade. Alhough, if you're buying a used desktop from a reseller, that stuff can usually be delt with , with the reseller. Just check online if he's charging you too much or the right price for the upgrades.
 
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If I were you I would do what I did 2 months ago.
Just build high end PC based on AMD Chipset (way cheaper than Intel) with mad spec processor just put some cooling on it (not really necessary but people tend to say it is overheating - mines not).
If you're just going to use it for music production you'll save some moneys on graphics card as most of new processors have integrated one.
Possibly get little SSD and massive HDD.
I think you will need quite a few USBs for all devices and decent PSU to power it all up.
 
Don't go with AMD though. The motherboard will be the same price as an intel motherboard, the rest of the hardware will be the same, while the performance difference between an AMD processor and an Intel processor is big. If you want to save money, buy an I5 instead of an I7. You can then pick the speed and price that suits you.
 
B Side Producer said:
Don't go with AMD though. The motherboard will be the same price as an intel motherboard, the rest of the hardware will be the same, while the performance difference between an AMD processor and an Intel processor is big. If you want to save money, buy an I5 instead of an I7. You can then pick the speed and price that suits you.
Click to expand...
Whats wrong with AMD though?
 
Intel has been the leader in performance for quite a while now. The way the cpu calculates and the way it gets addressed through software/chipset drivers/os is superior to AMD atm.
 
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