Minimum Computer specs for recording

[UsefulIdi0t]

Ok so im in the middle of building a practice room above my dads shop in the backyard. Im going to my all my gear up there(drums, guitars, bass, amps,keyboard,etc) Right now i record everything in my room, but when I move it all up there, I wanna be able to record in the new room. Only problem is that im keeping my good computer down in my normal room. I have a lot of extra computer stuff so I was going to try and put together another computer to stick up there, so I was wondering what you think the minimum specs would be for one. Ill probably have to buy a bit more ram but I have a good soundcard for it so yea...

[irtehmitchell]

i think any pentium4 or athlon xp processor would do fine, even slower pentium3's would probably do fine too. atleast 256 megs of ram would do the job, but preferabely 512. good luck with your whole project seems like fun :)

[Seafroggys]

RAM. 512 is good, but a gig or 2 is even better.

Big harddrive. At least 100 gigs, if you're multitracking.

The processor doesn't have to be too fast, depends on what you're using. Anything over 1 ghz shouldn't be a problem, but if you're multitasking and using like Sonar 5 then probably something in the 2 ghz range.

Basically, any PIII or Athlong or faster.

[10571z]

Id say minum petium 3. 256mb ram but its cutting it short and not really a great idea you can have 512mb for a little extra and will be worth it... Also like someone else said 100 gig harddrive is minum if you plan on recording alot... But you can get a 200 gig hard drive for cheepish price. Video card wise dont worry.

[Moseph]

Hard Drive speed is also a factor. 5400 rpm is considered the bare-bones minimum for real-time audio streams, but in reality you'll want 7200rpm or above.

Additionally, go with as much RAM as you can. Right now that's the biggest bang for the buck in terms of performance.

DVD-R/W is a good idea as well.

Lastly, make sure you have distinct Firewire (800 if possible) and USB 2.0 ports in seperate slot inputs to the motherboard. You'll realize the value of this later.

[Knifeboy]

Make sure you have two harddisks, this is very important.. One to run the recording program on it, and a seperate one where it saves the files.

The one where the program is installed, should be the same as the one where your OS is installed, that harddrive doesn't have to be anything fancy

[InsomniaTrance]

Get as much RAM as you possibly can, and make sure you have plenty of hard drive space (this has all been stated previously).

[Devil Inferno]

not as much ram, XP can read only 4 gigs of ram MAx, don't get 5, its useless.

Pentium 4s and Athlons 3800s+ are great.

minimum of 512 ram, 1 gig for average, and 2gig for normal.

2 HDs, 7200rpm 8mb cache. Remember, with 24bit audio, 8 tracks, 1 minute audio is 40mb.

Remember, make the comp as silent as possible Look into Zalman cooling systems. Also, make sure all the parts are compatible.

[pitchfork]

It can read more than that, its a gig without sysmem.sys running i think.

[10571z]

not as much ram, XP can read only 4 gigs of ram MAx, don't get 5, its useless.

Pentium 4s and Athlons 3800s+ are great.

minimum of 512 ram, 1 gig for average, and 2gig for normal.

2 HDs, 7200rpm 8mb cache. Remember, with 24bit audio, 8 tracks, 1 minute audio is 40mb.

Remember, make the comp as silent as possible Look into Zalman cooling systems. Also, make sure all the parts are compatible.

1 gig is by far enough...

[UsefulIdi0t]

Yea im thinkin im going to have to just move my computer up there when I wanna record. I dont wanna put a bunch of money into a new computer just for recording when I had a perfectly good one right here.

[Seafroggys]

1 gig is by far enough...

Not really. Maybe for doing single tracks, but if your multi-tracking, 2 gigs should be perfect.

The imporant stuff is Lots of PC3200 RAM, and big and fast (7200 or 10000 RPM) hard drives.

Any decently paced processor should work fairly well.