Used my $20 to upgrade to X2 Producer but need a new computer to run it. (makes good economic sense huh?  Save $20 spend a couple hundred"  Anyway.....I have XP now so it's time.

Looking at a new desktop for my basement studio.  Purely a hobbyist. Music just for me and friends. I'm in my 50's and don't really want to troubleshoot computers.  I want something off the shelf. 

Without flaming me or telling me to "Build my own" give me your opinions on this for my needs.
I'd like to use Sonar X2, EZ drummer, and my own audio track (guitar vocals).  Simple stuff all VST's are from Sonar except EZdrummer and EZmix.

Tiger direct has this


[Lenovo H430 57311432 Desktop PC - 3rd Gen. Intel Core i5-3330 3.2GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 8 64-bit.

Should do right?  Any changes?

mrneil2


Used my $20 to upgrade to X2 Producer but need a new computer to run it. (makes good economic sense huh?  Save $20 spend a couple hundred"  Anyway.....I have XP now so it's time.

Looking at a new desktop for my basement studio.  Purely a hobbyist. Music just for me and friends. I'm in my 50's and don't really want to troubleshoot computers.  I want something off the shelf. 

Without flaming me or telling me to "Build my own" give me your opinions on this for my needs.
I'd like to use Sonar X2, EZ drummer, and my own audio track (guitar vocals).  Simple stuff all VST's are from Sonar except EZdrummer and EZmix.

[font="arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.933333396911621px"]Tiger direct has this
[font="arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.933333396911621px"]

[font="arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.933333396911621px"]Lenovo H430 57311432 Desktop PC - 3rd Gen. Intel Core i5-3330 3.2GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 8 64-bit.
[font="arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.933333396911621px"]

[font="arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.933333396911621px"]Should do right?  Any changes?

not a big fan of lenovo. lots of bloatware by lenovo. considering that Win8 and Win7 bundle in good backup utilities, the extra stuff that IBM provided back in the day is not really needed now. otherwise the specs look fine.

Getting a lot of use out of this link today...

Check out the recommended DAWs section of this site. It should give you a better idea of what to look for in a system. Also poke around the ADK site that these pages link to. Lots of useful info there as well and an interactive system builder.

http://www.cakewalk.com/PCResource/default.aspx

Cheers.

MrNeil I'll put in a plug for Rain Computers - mentioned on the link Beepster cites above. Great thing about Rain is that their business is centered around audio and video and their support team can and does actually answer your audio and computing questions if you ever get stuck. That's a big plus for a home studio person.

The specs for the computer you listed are fine.  Unless you are buying a purpose-built DAW, most any store brand you buy will have a bunch of software for you to uninstall.

Other than that, a good solid computer with an i5 or better, 8 GB of memory (or better), and a couple of SATA 3 hard drives would have the horsepower to run Sonar comfortably.

Bob Bone

Thanks Everyone for all your input.  If I had the money a Rain or ADK would be my first choice. I should have put a dollar amount in the original post. I have already gone over my personal "fiscal cliff" so a "store bought" one that I will only use for  Sonar will have to do.   Robert, thanks I will remove the bloatware no matter what I get..
 
Happy New Year Everybody.