While it is not the focus of our business there a great
many customers who have asked us for advice on building
their own PC's. This page is intended to help you
understand the most important concerns and hopefully
empower you to find the most suitable configuration to suit
YOUR needs.
Work out what you want from the system in very concrete
terms.
Once you have chosen a platform there are still hundreds of
options. It can be daunting and there are many pitfalls.
Cheap is not neccesarily a good thing even if it looks
right on paper.
Be wary of buying an off the shelf PC and expecting great
audio performance. Appliance stores are better for when you
want to buy a toaster!
The latest Core 2 Duo processors (not the Dual Core which
is the predecessor) are absolutely amazing and are used in
all the new Macs and are the ideal choice if building a
Windows XP system.
Mac or PC? Which one is for you? Both can
work great and it depends on the individual as to which one
suits your needs. PC's can be cheaper or can cost just as
much if you buy all the top quality components.
I don't want to open a minefield of debate on this subject
because it really doesn't matter at the end of the day
which one you use. The choice is yours. At the risk of
opening a can of worms, here are the main different
differences worth considering.
When you buy an Apple, the hardware and software are all
designed and made by the same company and generally it will
work straight out of the box. There is less that can be
changed beyond adding RAM and bigger/faster HDD's etc,
however if you choose the machine that suits your needs to
begin with there is nothing that needs doing. Macs usually
deliver what they promise without much fuss. There are
thousands of 3rd party hardware and software products that
work seamlessly with OSX.
When you choose a Windows machine you can choose from a
plethora of hardware brands and it is up to you to find the
components that provide the right balance between
performance and price. There is a lot of good information
and probably even more mis-information on the Internet in
this regard. There are bargains to be had and there are
just as many people who have been had thinking they were
getting one. There is always the old adage of getting what
you pay for.
The difficulty with building a PC is knowing which parts
will work well together without significant issues. Memory
is a major performance difference and can often be a
bottleneck for performance. Generally it is advisable to
stick to genuine Intel mother boards and processors and get
the right RAM. Video cards can be an issue.
It is not the focus of our business to specialise in
building PC's but we are very aware of what the
considerations and implications are for a computer based
DAW.
We have a supplier who specialises in building dedicated
high performance PC's for audio. These machines are rock
solid and deliver absolutely staggering performance specs.
They are not budget machines. They are all built
These guys think about this stuff while they are sleeping.
We think more about transformers and microphones and other
tasty audio stuff!
We can help you with all the hardware and software,
microphones, monitors, headphones, acoustic treatment for
your room etc which is where our expertise lies.
Depending where your interest is, we have Serge is a
Windows person and Brendan who is an Apple kind of dude.
