Debating on buying a new computer.. please help

[hilikus533]

Right now I have a dell computer 2.66 ghz p4, 512 mb ram, soundblast live 24 bit soundcard, and a 80 gb hd. It is in my clustered room on the top floor of a house.

My other pieces of equipment include.. boss br-600, GNX3 (amp modelling, effects, etc.), fender strat, gibson les paul, Taylor T5, TAylor ce414, and two shit amps. I'm mostly want to record track by track songs, using sampled drum beats.

Would it be smart to buy a new computer? My room sucks for recording, unless I went directly into the computer. And moving my computer back and forth really isn't an option (all the gear is downstairs). Should I just upgrade my current computer... or would it be smarter to buy a great one now, that would last me through college (I'm a junior in high school now)? Are laptops bad for recording, mixing, sampling (I would like to get a midi controller with nice software down the road), etc.?

[hilikus533]

I'll probably wait until college to get a laptop, and for the time being, upgrade to 2gb RAM, along with an external harddrive with firewire ports? Is there such a thing, so that I can plug all my recording "stuff" into that external HD via firewire and keep all my other files on my internal 80 gb harddrive, as it is almost full. Is this external harddrive available (one with firewire)... I thought I remember reading somewhere here about something of the sort, but am not sure, please help on that aspect.

Thanks !

[Strangedogs]

get a PCI firewire card and plug-in to your computer (inside). Then buy any Firewire Drive (I buy Generic FW ENCLOSURES and any old IDE Drive and throw in em but there's plenty of good Firewire Drives in the stores that will simply PLUG-IN - almost all have another Firewire port on the back to DAISY-CHAIN another device but the card you buy will also have 2 or 4 ports on it too. Firewire is much better for sound (and Video too) that's why we use it on Mac's... I'd say buy a Mac Then you'll get GARAGEBAND and all those drivers, and issues, and latency problems will be in the past!

[Strangedogs]

Yeah - SATA has come down a lot in price - the first enclosures were really expensive too... My Imac (G5) has a SATA drive in it - I was going to pop a larger baby (500-750 gig probably) in it and use the one I have in it for an External but I'd have to modify the back of my case as there's no SATA connectors on the back (wouldn't be a hard mod maybe).... and hopefully would have room inside for a dual connector although the Imac is PRETTY FULL as it is... Firewire 800 on the new G5's is darn fast too I'm told - is SATA faster than Firewire 800 (being too lazy to Google...) ?

[Strangedogs]

wow... that's fast.

[hilikus533]

I'm confused.

This external Hard Drive I would be buying should have 7200 RPM, and have enough space (I'm assuming 250GB is enough). After looking on newegg, the majority connect via USB 2.0, but the "external enclosures" have eSATA connectors like right here.

What does this eSata do? Where can I get clarification on picking a harddrive for my recording needs, what I have to do to make it compatible with my current desktop, etc.

[brandondrury]

Would it be smart to buy a new computer?

While I have 2GB of RAM, you have a faster computer than I do for recording. If you set up a dual boot on that system, I would expect you to be very happy. I would get it up to 2GB of RAM, however.

And moving my computer back and forth really isn't an option (all the gear is downstairs). Should I just upgrade my current computer...

Depends on the results you want. If your room is really bad sounding for tracking or mixing you are going to have an EXTREMELY tough time making anything sound good. Of course, I'm going on your word that your rooms sound bad. I may not agree.

would it be smarter to buy a great one now, that would last me through college

Computers are like women. The "great" looking ones now are sagging crap tomorrow. It's the nature of the beast. I NEVER buy a great computer because I know they are a money pit. If you are on a budget, the last thing I'd dump a ton of cash into is a high end PC (by modern standards). I've created some pretty decent recordings with my Athlon 64 2800 computer. You could build one of these for $400 without any problem.

Are laptops bad for recording, mixing, sampling (I would like to get a midi controller with nice software down the road), etc.?

No, but you can expect lower performance with a laptop if specs are the same.

The soundblaster sound card will not give you the low latency you need for recording audio.

Anyone even halfway serious about recording should DEFINITELY own a low latency audio interface designed for home recording. See my home recording soundcard wizard in my signature.

You can experiment with the KX drivers they work with some soundblaster cards and they are free;

You can also chase your own tail repeatedly. I'd recommend simply buying an audio interface with the cash you were going to throw in a NASA caliber computer.

Brandon

[brandondrury]

In that case, I guess you don't need the Firewire 800 connection.

Brandon