Need to upgrade athlon cpu/motherboard PC or replace?

[Guest]

here is the current specification of my computer,

AMD Athlon XP 2500+, 1.83ghz,
Micro star international co ltd motherboard, MS 6734.
VIA KM400,
VIA/SG3 Unichrome IGP graphics on board,

1.96GB RAM.
Standard onboard soundcard,
DVD RW 16x,
CDRW 52x.
Several USB ports at back and 2 at front.

100 GB HD currently partioned into 2 drives.

Running Windows XP SP 3.


I'm looking to see whether it is worth upgrading existing PC or simply buying a new one?

Ideal spec wanted is this:

Core i7 CPU - highest spec
Good seperate graphics card,
High spec soundcard - for professional audio production
8GB Ram
DVDRW
350GB to 500GB of HD space,

Plenty of USB ports

Budget is about £350 to £450.

is it possible?

Thanks

 

[finn281175]

Sorry to be blunt but the only thing worth keeping from your old setup is probably the dvdrw!

And even at the highest end of your budget you are not going to get near your ideal spec.

A high spec audio interface/soundcard is going to use up a large chunk of that budget before you have even considered anything else.

If you can explain exactly what you are going to be using the rig for and what software you will be using then you can start to shape your build around that.

 

[Guest]

hi
yes
cubase, vst software, maybe photoshop and thats about it

its purely for audio production

the soundcard i know which ones to get, i might get them after, but the main thing is the tower, cpu and motherboard

i need i7 to cope with audio production

thanks

 

[need4speeds]

- The case could be reused,

- windows xp can be reused.

- the dvdrw and cd can be reused.

- You are pretty much stuck with your current power supply in that price range.

The Llano A8 is only 100 watts but has a 2.9ghz quad core and a 400 shader gpu to get you started. It should work ok with your current power supply.

-4gb mem kit is cheaper and winxp maxes out at 3gb anyway.

-The 500 gig sataIII seagate drives are usually cheaper but they are fast, single platter drives that run cool and quiet.

 

[finn281175]

Just wondered what version of cubase do you intend to use?

 

[Guest]

ok lets say i just build my i7 spec from scratch, how much am i looking at in terms of budget?

 

[finn281175]

I asked what version of cubase you will be running because unless you are running version 6 with lots of intensive plugins a high spec i7 processor is going to be overkill for you. And if you are on a budget like you say then its probably better to go for a cheaper cpu. You dont really need a high spec gpu because like you say this build is purely for audio production. In fact you dont really need one at all if you go for an i5/i7 core. I would not recommend Llano cpus because although they benchmark better than equivalent icores when it comes to games, they benchmark considerably worse when it comes to multitasking and day to day/2d programs (such as Cubase).

 

[Guest]

hi
yeah either cubase 5 or 6

Ok, lets say my budget is £500 max.

whats the best spec PC i can get/make for this amount?

it will be for audio production only really, so it needs to be able to run several vsts at once.

if you could use my budget to work out what to get that would be brilliant.

which CPU, which motherboard, how much RAM,how much HD Space.

the main thing is for the PC to be ice cold in being able to run multiple VST's and being able to cope.

The only reason i said i7, is because I want to get a good spec now having had such poor spec for the last decade!

Also, which places i can buy my PC from online. my existing one was from CCL online.

I'm happy to buy all the parts and build it myself, i have had to learn how to build, but still learning on CPU's and motherboards.

thanks

 

[need4speeds]

-The Llano A8 has a pretty good graphics gpu already built in. it can play most newer games, it is usually bundled with a free dirt3 game that runs on. You can get a crossfire board so it is easy to upgrade to a faster video card later on. The cpu part is a quad core that is close in speed to the phenomIIx4 3.0ghz.

The Llano also runs on only 100 watts, so with a older case and power supply it will work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.689111
AMD A8-3850/A75/8GB/1TB SuperCombo
Complete DIY solution on AMD APU w/ Radeon HD6550D GPU

There should be systems or combo kits like that one, since you need most of the parts that could be easier and cheaper than buying the parts separate.

There is also a Llano A6 and A8 laptop, the A6 has a 320 shader video gpu built in and a quad core, and the a8 a 400 shader gpu. You might want to find a A8 Llano laptop instead, It would be in your price range i think.

 

[finn281175]

-The Llano A8 has a pretty good graphics gpu already built in. it can play most newer games, it is usually bundled with a free dirt3 game that runs on. You can get a crossfire board so it is easy to upgrade to a faster video card later on. The cpu part is a quad core that is close in speed to the phenomIIx4 3.0ghz.

The Llano also runs on only 100 watts, so with a older case and power supply it will work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.689111
AMD A8-3850/A75/8GB/1TB SuperCombo
Complete DIY solution on AMD APU w/ Radeon HD6550D GPU

There should be systems or combo kits like that one, since you need most of the parts that could be easier and cheaper than buying the parts separate.

There is also a Llano A6 and A8 laptop, the A6 has a 320 shader video gpu built in and a quad core, and the a8 a 400 shader gpu. You might want to find a A8 Llano laptop instead, It would be in your price range i think.

Need4speeds this is a setup required for audio production - not gaming.

Like I said before I would not go with a Llano if your main aim is audio production. And I wouldnt even consider a laptop if you will be working from home. So a Llano laptop = no, no, no!

 

[finn281175]

Whatever you decide upon please dont scrimp on the PSU. A lot of people spend all their budget on gpu & cpu and then settle for the crappy PSU that comes with the cheap case they buy! Check out the reviews on here and other respected places such as pcper.com and you should be able to come up with a decent budget build for your money. If your based in uk then dabs.com is a good website to purchase your components. Have you got a decent set of studio monitors already? If not the Rokit series are great for people on a budget.

 

[Guest]

Whatever you decide upon please dont scrimp on the PSU. A lot of people spend all their budget on gpu & cpu and then settle for the crappy PSU that comes with the cheap case they buy! Check out the reviews on here and other respected places such as pcper.com and you should be able to come up with a decent budget build for your money. If your based in uk then dabs.com is a good website to purchase your components. Have you got a decent set of studio monitors already? If not the Rokit series are great for people on a budget.

hi
yeah, im in UK so my budget is about £500 GBP which is roughly $750 to $800 i think.

i think i should be able to get at least the highest i5 core processor with plenty of RAM.

no i don't have studio monitors yet!

believe it or not, i've managed to learn how to mix on headphones, a set of audio technica ones, i know them quite well now, but obviously with monitors i could make better mixes!

but thats for later, the soundcard + monitors.

for now, i just need the PC with good spec.