okay, i'm on the verge of ordering a new custom built computer.

 

 

 

LET ME STRESS THAT THIS IS NOT A GAMING PC AS I DO NOT GAME MUCH. I DO NOT NEED A HIGH END GRAPHICS CARD FOR ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã150!

 

 

 

I need something that can pack a punch in terms of performance and for this reason, i'll be modifying settings for performance over looks, but I have a few questions first;

 

 

 

1. Core 2 Duo vs AMD Dual Core. Is there a staggering difference for the price?

 

 

 

2. 2gb or 4gb of ram?

 

 

 

3. How many CD/DVD drives? My guess is one will be enough...

 

 

 

4. 2 hard drives or 1? One for running, one for storage

 

 

 

I am going for, currently;

 

 

 

AMD Athlon 64 x2 5200+ (2.6ghz) 2x 1mb Cache

 

2048mb Corsair DDR2 RAM 800mhz

 

ASUS M2V: DUAL DDR II, S-ATA, x16VGA, 4PCI

 

250GB Serial ATA II HARD DRIVE

 

BLACK+SILVER TRIDENT CASE +2 FRONT USB

 

20x DVD+RW/RAM/DUAL LAYER + LIGHTSCRIBE 48X CDRW

 

256MB RADEON X1550 PCI EXPRESS + DVI + TV-OUT

 

EMU 0404 PROFESSIONAL PCI SOUNDCARD

 

500W QUIET DUAL RAIL PSU +120MM CASE FAN

 

STANDARD CPU COOLER

 

WINDOWS XP HOME

 

 

 

sorry for caps, most is copied.

 

 

 

anyway, are there any major improvements I can make in terms of performance or will this be good?

Since it will be for audio creation you will need a lot of cpu power, which the core 2 duo beats AMD at the moment at all levels besides the entry level.

 

 

 

2GB should be enough.

 

 

 

1 Cd drive should be enough unless you want to copy CDs/DVDs on the fly, meaning you would want to copy from the original directly onto the blank disk.

i'd take 2 cd drives for faster copying... make sure they both have decent speeds though. the amount of RAM depends on the OS really, 2g will be enuf for xp but if u ever upgrade to vista u will need 4gb..

 

 

 

high quality audio can take up a lot of space. and 2 hard drives will speed up the PC significantly when it starts to get full compared to just 1. i'd get at least 2 250gb hdds.

 

 

 

and yes.. core 2 duo kicks the crap out of AMDs offering atm. Or if you are really serious you could go for a quad core.

Core2Duo does not "kick the crap" out of the AMD CPU's.

 

Please provide evidence of your outlandish statements or shut up.

Core2Duo does not "kick the crap" out of the AMD CPU's.

 

Please provide evidence of your outlandish statements or shut up.

 

 

 

+1 ... link to some specs or some way to cite your sources ...

 

 

 

As someone said 2 drives for copying, but if you're only interested in production you might not need to copy much.

 

 

 

However, seeing as you're probably a major audiophile can I suggest 2 drives for mostly storage instead of 1 for running and 1 for storage?

 

 

 

Basically, you can get two drives, and the first drive split into 3 partitions. Put about 20% as your C: drive for booting (minimum of 10Gb, 20 is best.) Make another partition that's about 30Gb for your programs. Then make the rest a partition for your data. I've found this makes it a lot easier if you need to reinstall your OS because you can do a clean wipe of that single partition and leave most everything intact. Makes the reinstall process easier, in my experience.

 

 

 

-- You may encounter problems with programs that can't be "repair installed" but at least you won't have to reinstall them ALL. Plus this makes it easy to backup your files before you do the reinstall. --

 

 

 

And I would DEFINITELY go for as much ram as you can get your hands on, because uncompressed audio, when you've got multiple tracks, can really soak up the memory. It would be a waste to compress during the editing stage; you would lose a lot of quality. However, I must say... having FAST ram is more important than having LOTS of ram.

 

 

 

:-D