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View Full Version : Is this a good PC for recording? Please help.


dastardly
08-06-2014, 05:18 AM
Im on a budget and i see these on ebay alot. I dont know alot about the technical part of PCs. This seems like a decent deal to me, Id be using it purely as my recording rig. Also i assume i might have to get a better sound card for it?

Any advice would be appreciated.




HP 6005 Pro SFF Computer (SK802UC#ABA) ~ AMD Athlon II X2 B24 CPU @ 3.0Ghz (Socket AM3) ~ 160GB HDD ~ 4GB DDR3 Memory ~ DVD-ROM ~ Small Form Factor Case Type ~ GENUINE Microsoft Windows 7 Home Professional 64-bit Installed + Warranty!

AMD 785G chipset with integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics supporting DirectX 10.1
Side Port Memory for increased power savings and increased graphics performance
DDR3 Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM)
Supports industry standard management protocols including DASH 1.1
Integrated dual independent monitor support via both a VGA and DisplayPort video interface
Standard efficiency or 89% high efficiency energy saving power supplies available on SFF and MT models
ENERGY STAR qualified models available (dependent upon the desired configuration)
Guaranteed lengthy purchase lifecycles and image stability
Created using industry leading Design for Environment standards


Manufacturer HP
Model / Part Number 6005 Pro SFF PC - P/N: SK802UC#ABA
Operating System

GENUINE Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) Installed

Processor Name AMD Athlon II X2 B24 CPU
Socket AM3 - 3.0Ghz Dual-Core
CPU INFO

Processor AMD Athlon™ II X2
Model B24
OPN Tray ADXB24OCK23GQ
OPN PIB
Operating Mode 32 Bit Yes
Operating Mode 64 Bit Yes
Revision C2
Base Speed (MHz) 3000
Boost Speed (MHz)
Voltages 0.85-1.425V
Max Temps (C) 74
Wattage 65 W
AMD Virtualization Technology Yes
L1 Cache Size (KB) 128
L1 Cache Count 2
L2 Cache Size (KB) 1024
L2 Cache Count 2
L3 Cache Size (KB)
CMOS 45nm SOI
Socket AM3
AMD Business Class Yes
Black Edition No
Hard Drive Size 160GB Rotational HDD
Memory 4GB DDR3 RAM (16GB Max. Capacity)
Graphics Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics; featuring a Side Port memory interface for 128-MB of dedicated frame buffer DDR3 memory with a device width of x16 for the integrated graphics engine
Media Drive

DVD Multi-Player 16X
I/O Ports

USB 2.0 - 4 (Front) - 6 (Rear)
PS/2 - 2 (1 Mouse, 1 Keyboard)
VGA - 1
DisplayPort - 1
Audio in / out - (1 pair front, 1 pair rear)
RJ45 Ethernet Port - 1

Expansion Slots This is a small form factor PC and will require low-profile expansion cards:

PCI 5-Volt - 1
PCI-Express x1 - 2
PCi-Express x16 - 1

Dimensions

Width 13.3 in
Depth 14.9 in
Height 3.9 in
Weight 16 lbs

Power Supply

240W
Case Type Small Form Factor
Expansion Bays

Internal 3.5" HDD Bay - 1
External 3.5" Bay - 1
External 5.25" Bay - 1

g8torcliff
08-07-2014, 10:36 AM
Among other things I would check the HDD speed....most consider read/write speed of 7200 rpm as the standard. Also, a 160G drive is a little on the small side. There may be other things but these are what stuck out most for me.



cliff

Serenitynow
08-07-2014, 11:17 AM
How much does it cost?

donchilcott
08-07-2014, 12:25 PM
I have a very similar PC I use for recording and it works fine with my typical modest track count in reaper. I can big down the system with S1 or Sonar which is exactly why I use reaper with my machines that have modest resources. My typical demos are no more than 30 tracks and if a song starts using lots of vst/vsti I use freeze often. Works for me:-) make sure the HD is 7200 rpm, it makes a difference. Ram and a bigger hard disk or pretty cheap these days and perhaps you can go 64 bit to utilize additional ram ...

Naji
08-07-2014, 11:19 PM
Requirements for audio production:
8 GB RAM or more (you could add 4 GB RAM)
HD 500 GB or more and 7200 rpm !!!

Mink99
08-08-2014, 12:34 AM
32 bit OS should have 4 gig
64 bit OS should have 8 gig , preferable 16

Better take the cheaper one and invest into a decent audio device.

There are several threads around that here in the forum.

If these pcs are in a store and not bto, you might go there and check them with latency mon before you buy, to avoid problems with the graphics card, card readers and all this stuff ...

paulheu
08-08-2014, 12:58 AM
Requirements for audio production:
8 GB RAM or more (you could add 4 GB RAM)
HD 500 GB or more and 7200 rpm !!!

For audio editing 5400RPM HDDs are fine.. I run 90+ tracks in reaper over the network from a NAS without a hitch..

bluzkat
08-08-2014, 02:11 AM
For audio editing 5400RPM HDDs are fine.. I run 90+ tracks in reaper over the network from a NAS without a hitch..

You are the exception, not the rule. Generally 5400rpm drives are not acceptable for audio work.


:cool:

Mink99
08-08-2014, 03:36 AM
As long as it is a dedicated disk only for recording, and nothing else happens on this disk, a 5400 will work.
Remember the time when they worked perfectly because we had no alternatives ?

When there were faster disks available, did they stop working immediately ?

Ollie
08-08-2014, 05:24 AM
Just a reminder - whether or not a PC is any good for recording cannot be told from a list of specs or even general reviews and benchmarks. Buying something off the shelf by those specs is hit-and-miss, I think the general situation has improved in the past decade but you still may end up with something that doesn't behave well with realtime audio software and needs analysis and troubleshooting to improve that, if it can be improved that is.

That's not really a question of price or budget either, but generally some bargain-of-the-day offers are somewhat prone to give you headaches, in particular if you're not quite experienced in beating a computer into the shape needed for DAW operation. Never buy something you can't return easily.

Naji
08-08-2014, 10:13 AM
But I can tell for sure Reaper will run on more pcs than e.g. Pro Tools, I saw someone working with Reaper with an i3 processor without any problems, try that with PT ! ;) 5400 or 7200 rpm ?, for Audio 7200 is recommended you should have at leat two HDs anyway.

Steve36
08-09-2014, 08:08 AM
As Ollie says, the specs of a system won't necessarily tell you how it will perform as a DAW. If you spec your machine to run ProTools though (ie: motherboard chipsets, video cards, cpu's,system tweaks, etc...) you can be pretty sure it will work with anything. I am still using a Toshiba Core2 Duo laptop with 4gb of RAM and a 5400 rpm system drive...(external drives for audio and vst instruments 7200 rpm)...with a digi 003 rack and have very few issues. I did a 10 hour session today with no glitches what-so-ever recording at 64 spls. My laptop is only for recording though (a dual boot of win 7 and win 8 (x64)).
Occasionally when mixing (using a much larger buffer of course) I am handling pretty healthy track counts (50-70) and a load of plugins.

Steve