Brina's going shopping!!

[CosmicDolphin]

I did the same thing CD did. Went with XP on my Dell and you can customize from there. You don't need a bunch of wasted software if you use it mainly for music. Saves resources. My $.02

AJ

It's very quiet too , but then so should any Core2 machine in comparison to older PC's due to running cooler......I also just remembered that I paid a little more so I could get the 2.3ghz processor as it's the first one where it has a faster Front Side Bus.

CD

[Bobby Watson]

Okay, this is getting close to input overflow... So, my final advise is get "someting" and start tracking.. 
Regards,

[CosmicDolphin]

Did you find anything yet Brina ?

CD

[atljam]

hmmm,...

I think I'm actually going to go this route...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8661575&type=product&id=1196470438845

don't think there's much that I'm going to need any more than this...

only real big concern now is the vista issue with sonar 6....

push comes to shove I guess I can dump it and install XP...famous last words...Oh Mark!!!!!!!!

I appreciate the suggestions guys, You'd think by now I'd have a clue eh???  I'll still be watching the sales fliers and schtuff though, never know i might get lucky.....

Brina

Hi Brina,

I think if you haven't taken the plunge on this or a similar system, I wouldn't.

when it comes to sonar and multi track development(with effects) you need to concentrate on 2 things processor and hard drive, on the processor on that quote, I think you will not be satisfied with performance.
I would go with no less than and E6850 processor, 2gb memory is good but at that fastest speed possible 666 mhz to 800 Mhz, and for hard drive large is not necessarily ideal, you need a minimum of 2 drives just for music, one for regular use and the other for a daily backup, best to have these internal.
THe 3.0 SATA drives will do just fine they transfer at 300mb/s .
With Sonar effects eat up CPU and the more tracks you have requires fast hard drive retrieval.
Also on your bestbuy quote you have built in video, not really preferred best to have a separate video card at least 128 MB.

I really find some of the best deals on Dell, and there is a website called dealcatcher.com good for watching there best deals.   The Dell Vostro 400 is a good choice just select the E6850 processor. the 20" monitor is really nice for Sonar.

I know you are on a budget but it would be closer to $700-800 for a system you will be happy with and will carry you forward.

Vista, XP dilemma?  If you verifiy any software or devices you plan to use work with Vista, that would be fine, but I have had negative results and went back to using XP, and that's another thing Dell you can get XP as a choice most other venders are not offering it.

I'm sure you are overloaded with choices here, I build my own systems and have been building systems for small business for the past 8 yrs. the above recommendations work and you will spend more time making music and not fixing your computer or crashing the great take you just made.

good luck

Dan

[Cary]

Vista is horrible, and has been horrible since it's release.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1297934,00.html

The problem is, it should always work and should never drive people to discuss how they got it to work.

In my company, I run a small network of about 15 computers, most running XP, windows server, and two computers running Vista.  Of all the computers, the Vista machines give us the most problems.

[Tacman7]

I think the things atljam is talking about is more towards building a proper DAW, which I wouldn't buy off the shelf.
The cost of a good power supply and case is getting close to the price of one of these out the door systems. And these bargain systems do have a lot of bang for the buck.

[robwood]

Vista is horrible, and has been horrible since it's release.

Couldn't agree more.  I bought a vista machine for my wife recently to replace a win2K box.  I've had to disable most of vista's "slick" features to get it to run at all-- and this thing came with vista installed already! It also came with so much bloatware I'm still uninstalling crap two months later.  She only uses it for email, web browsing, and occasional spreadsheets.  She wants her win2K machine back!  God help anyone trying to do a daw on a vista machine, that's gonna be an exercise in despair.

Upgrade to XP!

[BassPlayer]

Vista is horrible, and has been horrible since it's release.

As one of my friends said "I'm done with Bill".

I would love to switch to using a Linux DAW but it's not all there yet. For general stuff no worries I can use Linux, yet to dupe what I have on Windoze would be hard with the amount of wma files being pushed around here. MAC seems to be the logical choice but shelling out for another system plus DAW is prohibitive right now.

[Blades]

I have to say that, aside from Sonar and some low-latency issues, I have had VERY good luck and adoption of Vista as my primary.  My work laptop, a Lenove x61 tablet works great with it, and unline the tablet edition of xp, it doesn't feel like an afterthought-add-on.  On my desktop, I have two partitions, one with XP, and one with Vista.  for the longest time, I was using Vista exclusively, but I went to work on a larg-ish Sonar project and I just couldn't keep it happy, so I flipped over to the XP side where it's been fine. 

But I definitely LIKE Vista better as an OS and from a productivity perspective.  Lots of shortcuts to get to things, instant search, context irrelevent document and email finding, snappiness of the system, etc.  If they can get a few more things ironed out at low latency (or I have some time to get back to my Vista partition and check if 7.0.2 is working now) and/or Echo gets their new WaveRT drivers to work right with Sonar in WDM mode (i.e. not ASIO), I'll be happy to make the switch.

I also own a tech support company providing support to small->medium sized businesses in the Atanta area and I don't yet recommend corporate adoption of Vista, even if for only the learning curve, expense, and the IE7 mandates that are issues for some of my clients and the web sites they use.  But if someone is getting a new special purpose machine or is plopping one into a "standard" office machine, running typical apps like Outlook and word/Excel, Inet browsing, etc, I don't have issue with the move forward, as it's generally been pretty painless for me and my use and for a lot of other IT folks I know.  Of course, a pre-built system is going to have all sorts of extra "fodder" on it, so it's likely to be a botched/bloated install, so that's possibly a different animal.

You certainly have to know a few things about your "stuff" to go into Vista to make sure it will all work, but especially for the "common user", Vista is pretty good, and for the power user, it has some great opportunities that just kill XP for me.

HTH

[Brina]

**sigh**

If the budget wasn't as much of an issue, then i'd definately be a slight bit more picky.

But, now it looks like its going to be months before I can be up and running again.

I do appreciate all the comments, and i'll come back and take a look and  keep everything in mind when i do, in the mean time I'm dead in the water so to speak.

Brina

[Studioplayer]

  That sucks

[CosmicDolphin]

Well it's not like they ever go up in price.

You'll get a better one for the money a few months down the line.

CD