I am looking to get a computer to run my PreSonus Firestudio. I am low on cash, so I was looking to get a Dell.
Any quick thoughts on whether a basic Dell could handle the FireStudio. Also, any recommendations on the PCI FireWire card?
Here the specs of the dell I am looking at:
Proc: Intel® Core™ i3-550 processor(4MB Cache, 3.20GHz)
OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
RAM: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz- 4 DIMMs
HD: 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
I can also get another hard drive or two.
Is there anything else I should be considering?
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It is a desktop. I would probably do a fresh install. Black vi
It is a desktop.
I would probably do a fresh install.
Black viper recommendations?
Would I have any problem running Sonar 8.5 (thanks recording.org!) with this setup?
How much of a difference would i3 to i5 be? I am trying to keep this under 500, as anything over 500 I have to get at least 3 quotes and the headache factor goes up exponentially.
Thanks for the help!
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Sonar is a ram hog but 4gig is respectable to start out. You can always add more later on as you can afford. Ram is frequently on sale at the usual spots like Newegg. The i5 has better data management than the i3 but the i3 is still a respectable cpu. The problem is that if you figure for future upgrades make sure about the pin count of the current processor and the desired future processor are compatible.
Yes. If you are buying a computer on the cheap with the idea of
Yes. If you are buying a computer on the cheap with the idea of later upgrading one of the factors is the cpu socket. Different processors use different sockets and sometimes even different generations of the same family use different sockets. Early i7 use a different socket than the very latest for instance. In the Core 2 Duo line there were at least four different sockets that I know of.
If you were not thinking this way then don't worry about it. Most folks don't think about upgrading a cpu.
I would go i5. Make sure you have an express card slot either 3
I would go i5. Make sure you have an express card slot either 34 or 54 if this is a laptop. Also if a laptop, make sure it has an eSATA port for your external audio drive and turn off the ACPI battery control from the Device Manager. I would go with Win7 Pro but sometimes you just can't get what you want. If this is a desktop then a Texas Instruments firewire card and eSATA card if no eSATA ports on the box.
Be prepared to uninstall all the extra BS and utilities off of the computer. Dell utilities aren't as bad as most but they still get in the way. A fresh install of the OS is even better. You would only reload the specific Dell drivers for devices Win7 didn't already have versions of. Tweak with the Black Viper recommendations as always. Make sure you change the permissions on any and all hard drives by right clicking and selecting properties/security.