i don't know about the processor, but the gig sounds good if not more... i would say this should be the minimum and just make sure that you got a good soundcard

Ahhh the old P4 vs AMD debate I like AMD over P4, although for music production, the P4 might be better as the new one's (the one with HT on the logo) are apparently awesome with multi-tasking which is nice for sound production

Don't forget about a big ass hard drive. Those wav. files take up an enormouse amount of space after a while.

By the way, are you sure you're doing the right thing. Perhaps you could keep your best synth. I mean after all, you're still gonna need a keyboard/midi controller. You'll find making music with a mouse to be really annoying. I know i can't stand moving all those nobs on the screen with a mouse.

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If its only for music I would definitly go with a P4 3.06 and with Hyper Threading. I know alot use athlon because there cheap but trust me I have built athlon systems that should run better then p4 and there is always some issue with athlon... and from experince i think they are just crap But if you want a real Digital Audio Workstation get a MAC, sorry but the new g4's own. In my friends studio he has P4 2.53 system and a dual 800mhz G4. guess what gets used more?

And athlon guys don't take this personal for gaming athlons own

well I'd go with the p4. and if at all possible try to get RD Ram! If it will fit into ur motherboard that is..

RD ram is alot more efficiant and even with less it still outpreforms SD. trust me I have a gig of SD and it doesnt feel like alot in comparison!

intel 4 2.0mhz or more
512megs to a gig of ram
delta 1010 (10 in 10 out ) for midi recording
edirol da 2496( 2 mic pre 2 direct boxs for guitars.6 in )
5 or more usb ports
2 fire wire ports

forget the amd processor i'd go with an intel xeon that should do the trick

man I've seen some whicked sound cards, wish I had about 2 grand to blow on a puter

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Hey -

Just a sidenote, but have you checked out www.mcglen.com? You can get a barebones system for so damn cheap over there that you could use the leftover money on other things - like the kickass soundcard. All you have to do is add your own videocard and harddrive.

haha thats not cheap BTW. i could build the same barebones systems for half of that

If you have a lot of cash to throw around, you might consider dual Athalon MPs. If you use more than one software synth at a go while previewing music, this will help. The problem with hyperthreading is that the virtual CPU can get starved, and almost never reaches its peak as with a real second CPU. Tomshardware.com did a side by side comparison with a 3.6 gHz P4 and a 3.0 P4 with Hyperthreading enabled. The real-world multitasking results were pretty heavily in favor of HT technology, while the benchmarks/games often sided with the faster chip.

As for RDRAM, it's going to be pretty scarce soon. With DDR2 on the way and 400mHz memory already avaialble, the performance gap is narrowing considerably. The VIA KT400 chipset is out, though it doesn't "officially" support the 400mHz memory setting yet. The reviewers also claimed that stability took a nosedive with 400mHz DDR, but there was no real indication of that was a chipset or a memory thing.