[uzziah]

well, my ibook is dying. sad but true. i plan to build a pc or buy a dell to replace it. would like some opinions. this is to be my sole pc, but i want it to be my home music source also. i don't need a very fast pc as all i basically do is internet surfing and word processing. not to mention i probably won't be able to afford broadband for a while.

so, with a budget of around $1000 all told for computer including all sound modification stuff, can i have some insight?

with a low-end model processor like i'll probably using, it seems cheaper to buy a dell or emachines, and then mod it from there: opinions?

i will put the pc in another room, and run wires from the tower to my monitor, keyboard, dac etc., so sound from the computer shouldn't bother me too much.

people keep suggesting the emu 1212m

so i guess i'm probably looking at buying a pc (with no sound card), and adding:

emu 1212m
external dac
headphone amplifier
phones (or course)

does that sound about right? i've never done this before. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah well, my ibook is dying. sad but true. i plan to build a pc or buy a dell to replace it. would like some opinions. this is to be my sole pc, but i want it to be my home music source also. i don't need a very fast pc as all i basically do is internet surfing and word processing. not to mention i probably won't be able to afford broadband for a while. so, with a budget of around $1000 all told for computer including all sound modification stuff, can i have some insight? with a low-end model processor like i'll probably using, it seems cheaper to buy a dell or emachines, and then mod it from there: opinions? i will put the pc in another room, and run wires from the tower to my monitor, keyboard, dac etc., so sound from the computer shouldn't bother me too much. people keep suggesting the emu 1212m so i guess i'm probably looking at buying a pc (with no sound card), and adding: emu 1212m external dac headphone amplifier phones (or course) does that sound about right? i've never done this before. any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't think you'll get much improvement from an external DAC that's going to fit in the budget with everything else...

Anyway, you should be able to build a nice PC from parts for about $400 that's pretty damn quiet. Add $165-200 for the 1212m and you'll be good to go.

As far as cases go, Iron_Dreamer just built as system for his mother that's really quiet using a Antec case. He replaced the PSU but it turned out the one he got is only ever so slightly quieter than the stock one... I inherited the stock one and replace my noisy PSU, thanks again Peter! Anyway, what I'm getting at is that if you shop for parts on Newegg, you should be able to put something together pretty cheaply. If you're intending to use it as a source as well, focus on making it quiet and having lots of hard drive space.

Off the top of my head, some recommendations:

Antec case with quiet PSU (look at their solutions series offerings that have 120mm case fans)
Seagate hard drive 160GB+ (generally considered among the quietest)
Panaflow case fans to replace stock

 

[S_Dedalus]

Antec Phantom 350, Zalman 'flower' shaped cooler, and get an athlon xp-m 2500+ with 512 megs of DDR 200. Find a big quiet hard drive, and a fanless Radeon 9600, and you've got a silent, but decent pc.

 

[S_Dedalus]

For a decent system, with no fans, you could get it to under 600. If you want, I can email a sample setup.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah so, with a budget of around $1000 all told for computer including all sound modification stuff, can i have some insight?

Sure. Before I can start reccomending stuff, I should ask: do you have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse? A keyboard and mouse can be found pretty cheaply (though they still impact what goes into your system), but a monitor is pretty expensive.

Quote:

with a low-end model processor like i'll probably using, it seems cheaper to buy a dell or emachines, and then mod it from there: opinions?

Don't buy Dell or eMachines and expect anything that's moddable (or built with quality in mind). If you want to be able to tweak stuff you have to build it yourself.

Quote:

i will put the pc in another room, and run wires from the tower to my monitor, keyboard, dac etc., so sound from the computer shouldn't bother me too much.

This opens up a lot of possibilities, as you aren't constrained to "silent" components (though of course it'd be a good idea to still stick with quiet stuff).

Quote:

people keep suggesting the emu 1212m so i guess i'm probably looking at buying a pc (with no sound card), and adding: emu 1212m external dac headphone amplifier phones (or course) does that sound about right? i've never done this before. any help would be greatly appreciated.

A few questions: is the budget for your amp and phones included in the computer budget, or is it seperate? If your budget includes a good phone system you won't get very much computer by the time you're done buying audio gear. I'll make the rest of my advice assuming that you have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and your budget is for your computer only.

The EMU 1212m is highly recomended for it's great analog and digital outputs, but if you don't need it's analog outputs or 192KHz capability then the EMU 0404 at half the price would probably be a better option. Price: $100

For a processor an AMD Athlon64 2800+ in the socket 754 package is probably the best deal in CPUs right now. Price: $141

For a motherboard the [ulr=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-137-042&depa=1]Aopen AK86-L[/url] looks pretty good at $89, and is supports AMD's Cool-n-Quiet technology that turns down the clock speed when you're not doing anything with the CPU. Price: $89

For a video card you don't need anything fancy for web surfing, though it's still a good idea to have a bit of power under the hood in case you ever want to play a game. this Radeon 9600 looks pretty good, plus it's fanless. Price: $70

For a case the Evercase 4252 is suppost to be a great budget case, though not the best looking. Price: $45

For a power supply, the Fortron FSP350-60PN is a great power supply. I have one from the line it replaced (the FSP350-60BN) and it is great. Price: $46.98

For CPU cooling the Zalman CNPS 7000A-AlCu is suppost to be good, and Arctic Silver Ceramique is a great cooling compound. Price: $45.96

For case cooling the Enermax Adjustable 120mm fan is suppost to be very quiet, yet move a lot of air. Price: $19.98

For a hard drive I reccomend the Samsung SP1614. It's 160 gig, 7200 RPM, 8mb of cache, and comes with a 3-year warantee. It's also suppost to be among the quietest hard drives available today. Price: $91

The Lite-On SOHC 5232K seems to be a decent combo drive. Price: $44.99

For a modem this one from Encore seems to be very highly rated. Price: $13.88

Get 2 cheap rounded IDE cables like this one for the drives. Price: $13.90

Total system cost: $721.69.

This should be a good computer for your purposes, and of course you can always spend more or less.

 

[Budley007]

Wow! hellava list MR. Don't forget about the combo CPU/Memory bundles @ Newegg. Sometimes you can get a really great deal that way as well. Also, Ive used Newegg exclusively for the last couple of years and have never had a problem with there service. Reasonable prices as well. Great recommendation.

 

[uzziah]

mr radar, you're a big help. i really appreciate it

well, the plan is to put the computer in the other room; in the closet!

so, we're basically saying i couldn't possibly hear it

i see you're point about building the pc myself, but with a 3 year warranty from dell, i thought it would be a good way to go. then again, building it myself is probably a good idea.

i don't have a monitor or keyboard yet, but that's just something i have to get anyway. hopefully i can get a used monitor somewhere close.

the $1000 budget was to include everything, but it doesn't seem reasonable for what i need, i can adjust it.

 

[uzziah]

wondering if the $$ i'd spend on audio components for the computer would really rival a similarly priced nad cd player, for example, for sound quality

what do you guys think

 

[skitlets]

Well, I respectfully would like to recommend a different component mr radar. With socket 939 processors quickly dropping in price with new lower models and seeing as how socket 754 will be phased out, why not a socket 939? Processors are about the same price, and motherboards are slightly more expensive, but then again this platform will be supported by AMD for a longer amount of time, leaving room to upgrade the processor if you ever find the urge to.

 

[ixeo]

Seagate harddisks are well known for being quiet. Samsung harddisks, i don't know if they are quiet or not, but i can tell you they are all brand new (as they just started manufacturing harddisks). i heard stories of other <insert name here> harddisk manufacturers actually sell refurbished harddisks as new.. i dont know if the rumor is true or not, but with Samsung you can't go wrong...least for now

 

[S_Dedalus]

If you want something you could just stick in a drawer, I'd look at this.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...MP=OTC-17exta6

 

[uzziah]

so, would i just hook up an external amp and phones to that soundcard, and boogie-woogy?

i'm gonna need some serious extension cords for monitor, keyboard, amp, and well probably external cd drive too. that way, i'd have full connectivity from way the heck on the other side of the house

fun stuff

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by S_Dedalus If you want something you could just stick in a drawer, I'd look at this. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...MP=OTC-17exta6

what on earth is that thing?

 

[uzziah]

i'd also have to buy windows, ram etc.

buying a full system from dell seems like a better and better idea

are you saying i couldn't modify it at all? or that it would just be more difficult?

 

[archosman]

What about the Shuttle computers? I've been thinking about going this route... but know jack squat about PCs. Specs are on the bottom link

http://www.so-trickcomputers.com/Mer...tegory_Code=C2