A discussion about buying 'puters

[Lt. Bob]

@tadpui @vomithatsteve

OK ..... this is gonna start with me asking some questions about 2 possibilities.
I won't be buying anything next week or even the week after ..... prolly in maybe 6 months but it's time to start pondering right now and I don't know enough.
I will be asking about 2 scenarios and may actually buy separate 'puters for each.

1. a cheap laptop that will simply be able to handle file transfers between puters and store and play all my MP3s and possibly a MIDI player.
Do I want Reaper for those purposes or does it require a more powerful 'puter than I would need for the purposes I laid out?
So cheapest 'puter for those purposes.

2. A full fledged recording puter .... do I want a laptop for that?
I get the feeling that i can buy and build a powerful desktop for cheaper and I like the idea of the reparability of a desktop where you can open the case and swap boards and such.
If I build one, how cheaply can I build a pretty bad-ass 'puter and what would it be?

This is just a preliminary set of questions ...... I flat out will have many, many follow-up questions as I get my mind around all this.

I absolutely want a small laptop for music files but I'm not as convinced I will go to 'puter recording as I have my hardware based system and I'm happy with it.
But even to continue down that direction I'd like to know more than i do about what my alternatives are.

I already know about all the things you can do with DAWs so I don't need that spelled out .... this is a thread about the puters themselves and hopefully some buying suggestions.

I will be definitely be buying the small laptop for files transfers and playing MP3s, storing them and maybe a MIDI player and I want to spend less rather than more.
The bigger bad-ass I may or may not buy but I want to know more about what i can get for the least money and laptop versus desktop for that purpose.

IT'S 'PUTER LEARNING TIME!!!

[Armistice]

I'll leave the detailed specs to more knowledgeable peeps, but just about anything you can buy will handle task 1 in terms of computing power, the issue may more be inputs - the cheaper ones trend to have a smaller number of them...

I use a desktop for task 2 - it was pretty up-spec 7 or 8 years ago when i bought it, but not these days. It still barely breaks into a sweat for tunes with large numbers of tracks (as I tend to do) including multiple VSTIs. Desktops should be quieter (fan noise) and you can no doubt knock something together pretty cheaply these days if it's just for audio recording - it's really not that intensive a process - and you're comfortable with building such things. Personally I can't be bothered - I just want something that works, so I bought a machine with more of a server style CPU and it hasn't missed a beat since.

Will see what the more PC savvy guys tell you.

[CrowsofFritz]

Unless you want to do video, you can build a computer that handles anything for like $700.

[rayc]

A PC build is fairly easy n cheap. I'm lazy so I just hit the store with the specs I wanted & they did it.
Laptops - as mentioned connecting stuff is THE issue USB, USB2 & now USB3 as well as headphones, sound card etc.
With the ridiculous prices of storage these days you won't need to convert to MP3 any longer. Keep the ones you have but with thumb drives these days having more storage than a laptop of eight years ago you can save music as .wav or SDS etc no problems. While you're at it though, consider your storage drives...HDDs a good but don't necessarily last too long as they're mechanical and they can easily become unreadable. I spent an entire day with 1/2 a dozen old external drives dismantling them and using a docking station to recover stuff that I'd been unable to get to becasue the power etc carcked it. Even then I had to ditch a couple that couldn't be read. In terms of safe storage tape still wins followed by CDs then SSD with HDD coming last.

[Lt. Bob]

Unless you want to do video, you can build a computer that handles anything for like $700.

what if I want to have the possibility of expanding later and being able to do video?
Is it possible to have open slots for adding more capability later? I guess you'd need to have the RAM needed for those additions even if it was overkill for audio.

OK ..... so for audio I can have something that would run the crap out of reaper for maybe 700-ish.

What if i want to build a bad ass computer that's able to run anything that might come up like some future video card i want to add?

And what is state of the art nowadays in a home puter?
I don't even know ....... I see music puters for 5k and more but are they a legitimate thing or are they over priced hype?

And if they are awesome .... how close can you get for less?

I wanna know about this aspect of puters ..... everyone pile in

[Tadpui]

what if I want to have the possibility of expanding later and being able to do video?
Is it possible to have open slots for adding more capability later? I guess you'd need to have the RAM needed for those additions even if it was overkill for audio.

OK ..... so for audio I can have something that would run the crap out of reaper for maybe 700-ish.

What if i want to build a bad ass computer that's able to run anything that might come up like some future video card i want to add?

And what is state of the art nowadays in a home puter?
I don't even know ....... I see music puters for 5k and more but are they a legitimate thing or are they over priced hype?

And if they are awesome .... how close can you get for less?

I wanna know about this aspect of puters ..... everyone pile in

This moment in time is kind of an awful time to build a computer because there have been massive (and I mean MASSIVE) shortages in computer components that have driven up prices as things get more scarce. That mainly goes for CPUs and GPUs, but it's started to creep into RAM, SSDs, and power supplies as well. And it also mainly applies to the latest generation of astonishingly high-performance stuff that's been released for reasonable prices. Bang-for-buck has never been better...or at least that's the way it should be if not for the hugely increased demand versus reduced production volumes.

Companies that build computers have a bit more access to the scarce supplies at the moment, but that mainly applies to the latest-and-greatest (and they are pretty damned great) components that us mere mortals are unable to obtain right now. The computer component market is pretty much in shambles right now, which means that even older generations of components are selling for a premium.

I'd be happy to price out a few different DIY-builds (mainly for curiosity) but I have a feeling that a pre-built previous-generation system would provide more value than anything I could piece together today. But I'll see what I can piece together on PCPartPicker tomorrow, just to see if it'd be worth attempting a DIY build.

[SweetDan]

When I was researching and ramping up to build myself a new PC last summer, I found the "build guides" on the logicalincrements.com website to be useful - https://www.logicalincrements.com/guides . It was useful for me to read through the different descriptions of the build and understand how the focus shifts for different components depending on the tasks one wishes to do with the computer.

Looking back, I'd still have wanted to build my own, but I think buying a pre-built computer is fine too; pre-builts are really the only choice you have in laptops anyway. Anything you could buy say from Costco that wasn't at either end of price extremes (not their cheapest, nor their most expensive) would work out fine, both for laptops and desktop PCs.

[CrowsofFritz]

Unless you want to do video, you can build a computer that handles anything for like $700.

what if I want to have the possibility of expanding later and being able to do video?
Is it possible to have open slots for adding more capability later? I guess you'd need to have the RAM needed for those additions even if it was overkill for audio.

OK ..... so for audio I can have something that would run the crap out of reaper for maybe 700-ish.

What if i want to build a bad ass computer that's able to run anything that might come up like some future video card i want to add?

And what is state of the art nowadays in a home puter?
I don't even know ....... I see music puters for 5k and more but are they a legitimate thing or are they over priced hype?

And if they are awesome .... how close can you get for less?

I wanna know about this aspect of puters ..... everyone pile in

Well, to give you an idea, I recently bought a 2011 iMac for $400 that can run the crap out of Reason and still do some decent video work (as long as it’s not higher than 1080p) and video gaming. This 2011 iMac is ancient by computer standards. Yes, you can build a computer with a maybe three year old i7 (still powerful as all hell), 32 gigs of RAM and forgo the graphics card that you can always add in later.

Here’s a PC part picker list I threw together in like 5 minutes that’s overkill for audio:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fDPGRT

It’s $820. No graphics card, but the Intel HD 630 (integrated graphics) on the CPU is not bad at all if you do very light video work that doesn’t require color grading and is beyond 1080p and all that.

[Lt. Bob]

awesome ...... this is the kinda stuff i want to know.
And the price of these things will come back down as the supply chain logjams clear out.

So a bad ass final 'won't need to buy another because I'm old' computer is something I think I'm gonna do but i can wait for specials and for the chips to get back to being available again ...... I assume that'll happen at some point and there's no rush.

But I have no problem with an older pre-built.
There's a place that sells only refurbished 'puters that are pretty cheap if I know what i'm looking for.
So hopefully this thread will teach me what i need to make that choice.
What processors will be kinda future proof and how much RAM and all that sorta thing.




A question about if I understood something from the earliest responses.

So my 1st question about a cheap laptop that i'd only use for file transfer and for playing (not recording) music files WAV and MP3 and MIDI.

Basically almost anything would do that?
Some 300-400 laptop could accomplish that? The main thing is ins and outs?

[CrowsofFritz]

awesome ...... this is the kinda stuff i want to know.
And the price of these things will come back down as the supply chain logjams clear out.

So a bad ass final 'won't need to buy another because I'm old' computer is something I think I'm gonna do but i can wait for specials and for the chips to get back to being available again ...... I assume that'll happen at some point and there's no rush.

But I have no problem with an older pre-built.
There's a place that sells only refurbished 'puters that are pretty cheap if I know what i'm looking for.
So hopefully this thread will teach me what i need to make that choice.
What processors will be kinda future proof and how much RAM and all that sorta thing.




A question about if I understood something from the earliest responses.

So my 1st question about a cheap laptop that i'd only use for file transfer and for playing (not recording) music files WAV and MP3 and MIDI.

Basically almost anything would do that?
Some 300-400 laptop could accomplish that? The main thing is ins and outs?

Pretty much, yes.

[vomitHatSteve]

Every time I buy components for a desktop build, I end up saying "this is the last time". I don't really know that it's worth the hassle

That said, windows will be a bigger drag point than reaper by miles. Exceed the windows specs, and you'll be golden for reaper

For video, you need decent cpu and ram and as much GPU as you can get your grubby paws on. (Good luck. Gpu price is indexed to bitcoin because economies are stupid)

[Lt. Bob]

ok , so I've found that any laptop will handle audio for simple playing files so that's easy.

Now on to the bad-ass puter

Every time I buy components for a desktop build, I end up saying "this is the last time". I don't really know that it's worth the hassle

That said, windows will be a bigger drag point than reaper by miles. Exceed the windows specs, and you'll be golden for reaper

For video, you need decent cpu and ram and as much GPU as you can get your grubby paws on. (Good luck. Gpu price is indexed to bitcoin because economies are stupid)

so I'm gonna want 32G RAM ...... can you have more than 32G RAM?
Do I want/need more or is 32G sufficient?

A decent CPU ..... doesn't that get into which motherboard you get?
Isn't that where the CPU is so you don't just buy a CPU, you're buying a motherboard with a CPU on it?
And if so then we're talking about which motherboard/CPU that you guys consider stable and fast?

And what is GPU what do you mean as much GPU as I can get?
A quick half-hearted google didn't tell me what GPU is.

[CrowsofFritz]

ok , so I've found that any laptop will handle audio for simple playing files so that's easy.

Now on to the bad-ass puter

Every time I buy components for a desktop build, I end up saying "this is the last time". I don't really know that it's worth the hassle

That said, windows will be a bigger drag point than reaper by miles. Exceed the windows specs, and you'll be golden for reaper

For video, you need decent cpu and ram and as much GPU as you can get your grubby paws on. (Good luck. Gpu price is indexed to bitcoin because economies are stupid)

so I'm gonna want 32G RAM ...... can you have more than 32G RAM?
Do I want/need more or is 32G sufficient?

A decent CPU ..... doesn't that get into which motherboard you get?
Isn't that where the CPU is so you don't just buy a CPU, you're buying a motherboard with a CPU on it?
And if so then we're talking about which motherboard/CPU that you guys consider stable and fast?

And what is GPU what do you mean as much GPU as I can get?
A quick half-hearted google didn't tell me what GPU is.

32 is definitely sufficient. Are you building this yourself or buying one? A GPU is a video card.

[Lt. Bob]

32 is definitely sufficient. Are you building this yourself or buying one? A GPU is a video card.

right now I'm just learning about them ........ I may buy or build or even die before I do either.

But I can't make any decisions until I understand what I'm deciding about.

[vomitHatSteve]

32 GB of ram is more than sufficient.

Yes, mother board and CPU are inexorably linked in that they need to match (other components such as RAM and expansion ports are much more standardized). You technically buy them separate, but if you can find a bundle that combines the 2, that can save some hassle.

Yeah, GPU is graphics card. Sorry for not clarifying. They're very expensive, but a good one makes everything about video editing better.

[rayc]

Ah, I remember my 1st PC: 8meg of RAM and an HDD that was far, far less than a gig. A Compaq running W95, sent faxes and phone calls, (I had it set up to call casual teachers when someone was off sick), played CDs n CDROMs and ran a dot matrix printer.

[vomitHatSteve]

Ah, I remember my 1st PC: 8meg of RAM and an HDD that was far, far less than a gig. A Compaq running W95, sent faxes and phone calls, (I had it set up to call casual teachers when someone was off sick), played CDs n CDROMs and ran a dot matrix printer.

And now we all use our state-of-the-art phones to send faxes to the kids telling them to get off our lawn!

[rayc]

Ah, I remember my 1st PC: 8meg of RAM and an HDD that was far, far less than a gig. A Compaq running W95, sent faxes and phone calls, (I had it set up to call casual teachers when someone was off sick), played CDs n CDROMs and ran a dot matrix printer.

And now we all use our state-of-the-art phones to send faxes to the kids telling them to get off our lawn!

Probably. Though, personally, I use my phone for phone calls, SMS and the very occasional photograph only. It sits on a shelf or in a back pack most of the time.
I am Boomer
Hear me roar
from my walker on the lawn
'coz I have my patch and
That's what I'll defend.

Well my daddy fought the war
So I could purchase more and more
As a rocker then a hippy kid I’d spend
I have a house and my stuff
Petrochemically enough
I made McDaonalds and
Those plastic straws that bend...
Ohhh..

Yes, I'm wise
Bring back paper bags again
I saw the Grateful Dead
And I'll see that gig again...
If I had to
I could buy anything (though at fairly high interests rates that'd make you nasal hairs curl)
I am BOOOOOMER

I am Boomer
Hear me roar
from my walker on the lawn
'coz I have my patch and
That's what I'll defend.

[Tadpui]

Sorry I haven't been much help yet, @Lt. Bob . It turned into a busy week (and an exceptionally lazy weekend). I'll take a look at what's on the market soon and report back.

[WhiskeyJack]

You can get these at pretty respectable prices these days. Looks like they have two built in faders right next to the monitor there. Pretty convenient if you ask me.