Comments on: Building an inexpensive PC

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:27:18 +0000

O.K… so that link I gave is dead.. they just changed the name of the site to http://www.fasoft.com.. whoda thunk it.

WATYF

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:11:46 +0000

If he's serious aboot building a DAW and doing some hard core audio recording, and wants to get a great entry level sound card, try the Echo MIA 24/96.

True 24 Bit recording (unlike SB Audigy) 4 1/4" inputs on the card, comes with Cubasis software (fairly nice multi-track recording app) for around $200. Of course that's retail price.. and who the hell ever pays that.. :) Get it for aboat 150 on eBay.

P.S. If the Echo is too much, then the Midiman Audiophile is another great choice. Also 24/96 for $150 Retail, comes with cakewalk (but I'd use N-track instead... www.ntrack.com.. best audio app for the money, hands down.. only 40 bucks to register it and it does everything cakewalk or cool edit does.)

P.S.S. I sent an email with my latest puter build specs.. but I just found this comments section, so here it is again...

AMD Athlon XP 1900+ CPU
Soyo Dragon Plus Mobo DDR
Volcano 6cu HS+Fan
GeForce3 Ti 200 Video Card
Maxtor D740 7200RPM 40GB
256MB PC2100 RAM (Apacer, Cas Latency 2)
Alps 3.5" Floppy
Pioneer 16X/40X DVD (slotload... man those are cool)
AOpen 24X10X40X CD-RW
FuturePower JADA Case 400W

All new parts... $850

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2002 01:31:34 +0000

No sound card other than the one built into the motherboard. He’s going to use a dedicated editing card that comes with the software package he wants to run. I probably would have used whatever Guillemot or Turtle Beach card would have fit the budget.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jan 2002 15:55:53 +0000

Sounds like it will easily cut the mustard to me. I don't know what your friend was complaining about wrt the Duron.

What sound card did you go with in the end?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jan 2002 00:09:56 +0000

Hi Dave:

I built a systems specifically for audio recording and it works great and is VERY low end in this day and age.

I use it to record LPs and some tapes thorugh a Kenwoord receiver connected to the sound card line in. These are then recorded on CDs as well as convereted to MP3s.

I also use it to rip CDs and make "car copies" of my favorite CDs.

What is this PC:

FIC VA503+ Motherboard
AMD K6-2 550 MHz CPU with Thermaltake cooler
258 Mb PNY 133 DIMM
QPS 24X CD-R
Old ATI PCI All-in-Wonder 4Mb video board
Old Soundblaster AWE64 Value ISA Sound Card
Two Seagate 40 GB 5400 new hardrives.

Software used includes Win98SE updated, Nero 5, MusicMatch, CDEx V 4.3, Adaptec Easy CD Creator V4 and the bundled CD label maker (which is the only part of that bundle I routinely use).

The LP turntable is a Harmon Kardon T60C with a Shure V15 Type V-MR cartridge (very expensive in the mid 80s) that still prodices excellent sound with LPs.

The resulting CDs, to my fairly well trained ear sound EXACTLY like the LPs.

Not bad for cheap equipment. The motherboard was bought about three months ago bundled with the CPU for $106, the memory was about $35 and everyhting works great.

I think this MB / CPU combo is excellent, there are many settngs you an tweak. This PC is FASTER than my Dell PIII 800 Latitude notebook also running Win98SE with 256 Mb Ram.

Very stable, no blue screens, etc. What more could you ask for?

Cheers,

Bruce