Buying a computer for a home studio?

[BoneDigger]

I already have the interface, etc. So, if you had around $1,000 to buy a computer for recording, what would you get?

Is it even possible to get a new computer these days without all of the bloatware?

Todd

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

I already have the interface, etc. So, if you had around $1,000 to buy a computer for recording, what would you get?

Is it even possible to get a new computer these days without all of the bloatware?

Todd

You might build your own, or half build by buying a barebones pc from the likes of Newegg or Tiger Direct. I would say you might be ok with something like a HP Pavilion, etc., however these type of computers have proprietary motherboards with very limited choices in BIOS - for example I want to be able to turn off "speed step" in the BIOS as it messes up certain high CPU intensive software (e.g. some reverbs). With a build your own or barebones use a good motherboard from the likes of ASUS, Gigabyte, ...

Buy your own copy of Windows (Windows 7 at this point in time) and install it yourself.

[Paikon]

$1,000 is a lot for a pc. I 'd focus on a quiet machine with a big screen.
If you dont know what Rick is talking about dont try to understand

[philjs]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

I already have the interface, etc. So, if you had around $1,000 to buy a computer for recording, what would you get?

Is it even possible to get a new computer these days without all of the bloatware?

Todd

Get a Mac Mini...no fans so they're dead quiet. You probably already have a screen, keyboard and mouse but if not you could still get all three, PLUS the Mac Mini, and likely add an external backup drive for that $1K.

Just sayin'

Phil

[MikeBmusic]

Just get a quiet one.
Depending on how many tracks you will be handling at one time, and how many VSTis, 8G RAM will do very well.
I bought a HP Pavillion with 6G Ram, I use it for everything, not just for recording. 6G RAM is barely enough to process HD videos, though. Quiet as a mouse.

[Bob Womack]

You might check out Sweetwater for their music-ready computers. Every once in a while here at the studio we need a new workstation for some odd job and don't have time to build one from scratch. We've had a pretty good experience with buying one from Sweetwater and just transferring our software to the new box. We just did that on a secondary DAW in my suite used for self-service voice-over recording and it slotted into the job seamlessly. We installed Cubase and SoundForge on the box to accommodate people who are used to the different packages.

No bloatware, just a clean software install.

Bob

[KevWind]

Do you know if prefer Mac or PC ?
If it is going to be a dedicated music computer, you can build or have built a purpose built PC with virtually nothing but DAW software and OS for less money than the equivalent specked Mac (which automatically comes with a bunch of peripheral software) reflecting more cost.

If however you are going to be using it for other things video, photos etc. and be connected to the internet. You may want to consider a Mac. But you are going to be looking at either $1300 and up for and Imac or $600 and up for a Mac Mini + you will need a monitor. The third party non apple monitors will run aprox $ 150 to $400