PC for general sound purposes

[millershswtechcrew]

looking for a PC to use in our booth at school to run itunes, youtube, powerpoint, cubase 7, and some basic lighting software (my dmx 2.0) . not looking for anything to fancy, just something under $400 with a 64 bit, intel i3 or higher with any amount of ram (we can add it) and decent specs so in the future we could run basic video projection for power points presentations and MINOR video editing (most editing would be done on another computer.) we already have monitors and keyboards and such, just looking for a desktop. any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[Amiers]

Your looking at hopes and dreams at under 400$ especially with such a broad spectrum of needs for the PC. I bought 3 premade i5 from Costco for our show computers and still had to upgrade hardware and I was around 3k$. Also as far as editing that is a software cost as well.

but barebones your looking at minimum an i5, 16gb ram, a OS HDD and a Raptor for video playback.

 

[MarshallPope]

Have you talked to your school's IT dept.? For what you have to spend, you'll probably be better off just asking them for the best computer they can find you for the price, and hopefully they should have a discounted source.

 

[Joshualangman]

I'm aware that this doesn't actually answer the question, and I'm not trying to start an OS war here, but I honestly think you'll be a lot happier saving up and paying $600 for a Mac Mini. This seems to be the industry standard for a low-end playback machine. It can run all the things you mention, in addition to QLab, which — even in the free version — is far superior to iTunes for sound playback. It will also come with GarageBand for free, which will give you very capable audio editing. Another nice thing is that unlike on a PC, most audio interfaces will not require installing any drivers. You can basically expect to plug in just about any audio interface and have it work. And of course, you could still use your monitors and keyboards with it.

Also, ideally, you should decide whether this is to be a content creation machine or a playback machine, and have it only be one of those. Though I know budget my not allow.

 

[ruinexplorer]

If you don't mind refurbished, try this. We have purchased a few of the refurbs from Geeks.com (including monitors) and have been pleased. I have a Dell XPS from them (cost a couple hundred extra) to use for this purpose.

 

[zmb]

Have you talked to your school's IT dept.?

Speaking of school IT departments, they won't provide any help for people needing software or hardware out of the ordinary. In my photography class, we had a 5+ year old computer that hasn't been updated in ages so we can use an Epson inkjet printer. I think the PAC also bought their own computers to install necessary software that wasn't going to be supported on a district IT machine.

 

[josh88]

Speaking of school IT departments, they won't provide any help for people needing software or hardware out of the ordinary. In my photography class, we had a 5+ year old computer that hasn't been updated in ages so we can use an Epson inkjet printer. I think the PAC also bought their own computers to install necessary software that wasn't going to be supported on a district IT machine.

That all depends on the department and school system. A lot of systems are on a cycle be it 5 years or insert whatever number they are using. So things get updated regularly around various buildings. I've seen some that don't go out of their way to help out, but my IT director spent a lot of time on the phone with Microsoft trying to make it so windows movie maker would run on our servers and the cloud but ultimately they couldn't make it work. So it really can be hit and miss. There are also some decent free video editing options out there WMM being one if you don't need serious editing like premiere pro.


Via tapatalk

 

[millershswtechcrew]

talked to the I.T dept. in june... they wont give us anything except the wifi info... i think we may go the refurbished route... what about a refurbished dell, lg, leneovo, or even a refurbished mac or mac mini? thoughts?

 

[Joshualangman]

You could certainly go the refurbished route. One thing to consider if you get a Mac is that though it will be more expensive than a PC, you will save money on software because it comes with more capable programs out of the box. GarageBand for audio editing, as I mentioned above, which is really just a slightly stripped-down professional level studio recording and mixing program — there are well-known bands that do all their recording and mixing in GarageBand. Also, iMovie for simple video editing. Add the free version of QLab for audio and video projections, and you may not even need to buy PowerPoint, depending on what you're projecting.

Other good things to have (variously for creation or playback): Audacity, a free sound editor; Keynote, the Apple equivalent of PowerPoint, which is about $20 as opposed to a couple hundred, and can actually play ppt files somewhat competently as well; Caffeine; SoundSource; Display Menu; Nocturne

 

[techieman33]

Your looking at hopes and dreams at under 400$ especially with such a broad spectrum of needs for the PC. I bought 3 premade i5 from Costco for our show computers and still had to upgrade hardware and I was around 3k$. Also as far as editing that is a software cost as well.

but barebones your looking at minimum an i5, 16gb ram, a OS HDD and a Raptor for video playback.

You can get a perfectly capable system for $400. It may not be the fastest editing box but it will do the job just fine. Buying a WD Velociraptor is a total waste of money when you can buy a bigger and faster SSD for the same money as what one of those noisy things costs. If it was me I would build my own system, a barebones kit from newegg or tigerdirect can make it pretty painless. If you want to buy one from one of the manufacturers that's ok too. Just make sure the motherboard has 2 video outputs, or you'll be buying a video card to go with the computer. I would go for more ram and an SSD over a slightly faster processor if it comes down to it, you'll notice them a lot more than a few extra clock cycles.

 

[millershswtechcrew]

You could certainly go the refurbished route. One thing to consider if you get a Mac is that though it will be more expensive than a PC, you will save money on software because it comes with more capable programs out of the box. GarageBand for audio editing, as I mentioned above, which is really just a slightly stripped-down professional level studio recording and mixing program — there are well-known bands that do all their recording and mixing in GarageBand. Also, iMovie for simple video editing. Add the free version of QLab for audio and video projections, and you may not even need to buy PowerPoint, depending on what you're projecting.

Other good things to have (variously for creation or playback): Audacity, a free sound editor; Keynote, the Apple equivalent of PowerPoint, which is about $20 as opposed to a couple hundred, and can actually play ppt files somewhat competently as well; Caffeine; SoundSource; Display Menu; Nocturne

very true... we will have to consider all options but i really like the whole "everything in a package" concept... dont have to buy anything else really...

 

[museav]

How is this being purchased and what is the funding source? In my experience, in public schools and even some private schools computer purchases often have rather defined procurement processes, hardware options and management. Depending on the policies and funding source you often have to go through existing procurement channels for already defined hardware with whatever is purchased considered an IT asset. And most schools I have dealt with will not allow any machines not procured through the defined process to be on their network other than possibly with guest or student type access. Similar procurement issues may also preclude any refurbished or DIY options.

The software is another issue, for example you mention PowerPoint so would you have to include a licensed version of Office in the purchase or do you already have an available seat? I also wonder about the implications of aspects such as iTunes and YouTube in terms of both their use and possibly even their availability on the network. It sounds as though if you purchase on your own then you may not be able to rely on any school or district provided software or licensing and thus also have to address that as part of the purchase.

On the hardware side, do you know what you want or need as far as connectivity? Do you need certain quantities or types of video, audio, network, peripheral and other I/O? Do you need any peripheral devices such as audio/video-to-USB interfaces, audio interfaces, external hard drives and so on? Do you need, or need to avoid, any specific OS in order to support the planned software and connected hardware? You probably want to make sure you can purchase what you want or need before potentially spending the money that then does not work for you.

 

[Amiers]

You can get a perfectly capable system for $400. It may not be the fastest editing box but it will do the job just fine. Buying a WD Velociraptor is a total waste of money when you can buy a bigger and faster SSD for the same money as what one of those noisy things costs. If it was me I would build my own system, a barebones kit from newegg or tigerdirect can make it pretty painless. If you want to buy one from one of the manufacturers that's ok too. Just make sure the motherboard has 2 video outputs, or you'll be buying a video card to go with the computer. I would go for more ram and an SSD over a slightly faster processor if it comes down to it, you'll notice them a lot more than a few extra clock cycles.

He mentioned future use which means it has to hold up for sometime and even if you swapped the Raptor out for a SSD you are still well over the 400$ mark in mobo processor and HDDs alone.

 

[ruinexplorer]

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So, maybe looking into NewEgg or other similar site for a refurb?

 

[jtweigandt]

You can probably do sound cues and projections even on a 5 year old pc that is sitting in someones basement or business unused. I use showcuesystems software (incredibly inexpensive) at 2 different theaters, and have done projections and sound cues. If you are savvy it can even do midi out to trigger your existing light board. Audacity is good and free for sound editing, and I think showcues systems can be downloaded for less than 80 bucks. I use older xp machines that were stripped of all extraneous software, and probably each have at least 10 shows or more under their belt. 1 we did a sound card upgrade, the other we ran plain vanilla. Both are older pc's that I took out of a buisiness environment. Probably 100 bucks each on craigslist, or I bet you could get one donated.