in the least likely of threads to help you - the tutorial master list.

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Probably not... any link I put to that sort of thing in the master list would be stale within weeks.

Use the search though dude, there've been at least 3 threads about this in the past two weeks.

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2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
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You like... buy a case... ATX full tower if your awesome like me...

Buy a good motherboard...

buy a CPU compatible with said motherboard

buy some ram

buy a graphics card

get some hard drives

buy some optical drives

grab a nice LCD monitor

and most importantly get a good audio device


so yea, not too complex really. it's all plugging stuff in.


*pats his custom PC*

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You're not telling us whether you'd be using hardware or software synths, which is important to know because running software requires much more CPU power.

If you're going to use many software plugins, then you should buy as fast a CPU as you can afford. I'd go for a dualcore (and did, last spring) but then you are going to need a sequencer that supports dualcore processors.
Many people, including me, are satisfied with AMD X2; mine's 4400+.

Get at least 1½ gigabytes of RAM, preferably 2 gb. And if you have two sticks of the same type, say 2 x 1 gb, you can use the dual channel mode which gives more performance.

As for motherboards, there are many quality brands and makes available, so you have plenty of choice. Asus, Abit, Gigabyte and Epox all have reasonably priced, good mobos. I have an Asus. I'd get one that has all the features you need and room for future expansion (like a new CPU). Don't get fooled into buying useless bells and whistles. For music production you're not going to need a superfast display adapter and so you can save cash buy buying a mobo with an integrated one.

If you don't know much about computer hardware, take your time educating yourself with the basics and don't make a hasty purchase.

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Doesn't matter. You learn to work with what you have. You will have to bounce eventually and getting a faster CPU just means you will have to bounce a little bit later. You can produce on an ancient pentium 3 if you render regularly but doing so will mean you have to adjust your work habits accordingly. Its less hassle to have a fast CPU though.

The point is that you should spend the majority of your money on converters, amplification and monitoring. The PC you can upgrade at a later date if you need it and you can work around its current limitations by changing your workflow.

For upgradeability I recommend going with an AM2 AMD board. The reason is that it supports the entire range of single core, dual core and server based CPUs currently available by AMD. And it will support AMD's forthcoming quad core CPUs so theres a bit of future proofing there. You can pick up a X2 3800 for chump change these days and if you get a late revision you can overclock the ever living fuck out of it - some people have overclocked theirs to X2 4600 speeds but your mileage will vary. They generally overclock well though.

Check the type of memory you buy also because AM-2 motherboards support DDR2 memory. So you will need to buy DDR2 memory which is fortunate because its cheaper than DDR1 memory. AM2 CPUs are also cheaper than 939 CPUs - the generation of processors they are designed to replace.

You could also go with an Intel Conroe (aka Core 2 Duo) board but I check on techreport.com which board you should get because some are better than others and I haven't had much experience with Conroe. Conroe boards will also support Intel's forthcoming quad core processors so whichever you pick, there will be some degree of future proofing. If you go Conroe definitely get the E6600. That processor overclocks like a bitch and whilst the E6700 and E6800 have higher stock speeds, they cost ALOT more and the overclocking headroom is not as high. Therefore you will get the most bang for your buck with the E6600. At stock speed the E6600 is on par with some of the fastest X2 processors from AMD so its a good buy for sure.

Conroe boards use DDR2 memory so buy that. Also, I would recommend going with a SATA II hard drive. Cheap, fairly fast and you can run them in a RAID configuration at some point although its probably not worth it for a home user (don't use RAID-0 because if any of the drives in a RAID-0 array fail, you lose all your data. Which sucks if you produce music because all that data is precious and irreplaceable).

The rest of the money you should spend on monitors and an audio interface.

We have dual core processors and nobody making software that utilises this technology except a handful of people.
They are building technology so fast that software companies cannot keep up with dual core never mind quad core technology.
And most software companies have stated they won’t use dual core for computer games music etc, Microsoft operating systems might use this technology, but what is the point if software companies don’t follow?
I mean you have a dual core sat in your computer and one core is sat doing nothing, a handful of software companies you can try it out on but not all.
I would stick to a system that works and not buy a system because it’s the new thing! Bragging rights is cool, but you’re waiting for software to catch up and by that time something new has come out!

That isn't true. The second core is used by all applications that can run multiple threads. Alot of windows processes use the second core. Some applications use the second core such as Cubase SX, 3D Studios MAX and Lightwave Maya. Some games are even starting to make use of the second core.

If that wasn't enough, you can get a decent dual core for not much more than the price of a single core chip, so if you get nothing else, windows is guaranteed to run better and you get a little extra peace of mind and a good chance that you will get a speed boost at some point down the line for spending little to no extra money.

quote:

Originally posted by dj_palm shouldnt u do that nomather what u gonna use it for? whats the point of buying a slow cpu even tho u dont use vst? it doesnt matter. get a fast comp either way ur using hardware or software as long as the sequencing and maybe say efex like eq+delay+reverb+chorus+distortion+phasors whatever are from the comp. even midi takes cpu.

I didn't mean it could be any antiquated CPU with hardware. Just that it doesn't have to as powerful as with software synths.

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When clouds moisten, rain forms.

That doesn't really matter though. If you have it, you'll burn it. Like money really.

You will work most efficiently with a super slow CPU because you have to. If you have loads of CPU headroom its easier to just burn it.

The second I moved on a 3.2ghz A64 from a 1.6ghz p4, I started working at 96khz and all the CPU headroom I would have had was instantly gone anyway.

quote:

You can pick up a X2 3800 for chump change these days and if you get a late revision you can overclock the ever living fuck out of it - some people have overclocked theirs to X2 4600 speeds but your mileage will vary. They generally overclock well though.

For overclocking you have to have good (read: more expensive) RAM and possibly extra cooling. In addition since you want the system to 100 % stable, you have to spend lots of time looking for the optimal settings. All those things may add up to it being more reasonable to buy a faster CPU than taking the DYI path.

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quote:

Originally posted by tranceinjection We have dual core processors and nobody making software that utilises this technology except a handful of people.

At least Cubase, Sonar and Live support multicores.

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When rain dries, clouds form.
When clouds moisten, rain forms.