How To Build A Computer For Home Recording
Hard Drives
Hard drives wear out. It sucks! There is nothing you can do about it. I've never noticed one brand being any better than another brand. In other words, I've had Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate, and IBM all crash on me at one point or another.
I usually pick up Maxtor's locally at Staples because they will have mega awesome sales every once in a while.
With hard drives there are ATA hard drives that have been around for a while. This is what I've always used and I've never had a problem with performance. These are the least expensive hard drives out there these days.
There are also SATA which means Serial ATA. These are capable of handling more tracks simultaneously, but I've never been able to max out my ATA drives. So, SATA may be a little overkill.
Hard drives also have an RPM at which they spin. I've always been fine using 7200 rpm hard drives.
I'm of the opinion that standard hard drives have surpassed the needs of audio. So unless you are recording at high sample rates or something (I never bothered) you should be just fine with a standard, over the counter, hard drive.
I always recommend a 3 hard drive setup. Pickup a small hard drive for your C: drive. I used a 20GB for my C: drive until it died on my a few months ago. I think I have a 60GB for my C: drive that I'm using almost nothing of. (I keep my C: drives very clean). I recommend a separate drive for audio. This should probably be a fairly large hard drive. I recommend a third drive to backup your audio data onto. I don't use RAID or anything fancy. I just have copy and paste a folder I worked on onto my backup drive when the session is over.
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Comment #1
(Posted by Futant55)
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I don't know if you thought about this or if I just missed it. What about an operating system, and or any other software that will be requred to get a computer running.
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Comment #2
(Posted by Futant55)
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This comment is to boost the rating, because I forgot to select it the first time. This did help me out a lot. Putting a computer seems scary from a distance, even though I've replaced my ram many times, and installed drives and pci cards. Thinking of building a whole computer sounds like a huge deal, but seeing it broken down like this and going and running the costs of building it piece by piece, it is cheaper and I know I could do it.
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Comment #3
(Posted by spec55(Chip))
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Excellent primer for getting started. Simple, step by step approach, without any biased opinions to brand names. Each builder needs to form his own opinions by doing his own presonal research. Only you know your needs and wants. Thanks Brandon.
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Comment #4
(Posted by an unknown user)
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This article is incomplete and poor
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Comment #5
(Posted by AfaraWayland)
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I found the article (11 pages) just what I needed to get started thinking about a new PC for Audio. In other words, it was great for getting my head straight, while informing me, a PC noob (i use Macs :P), of a few things I hadn't considered.
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Comment #6
(Posted by calesco)
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simple but informative I would've liked a little more detail.
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Comment #7
(Posted by mario)
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listen...in your rcording computer there are items which are called quiet itmes..such as h atx case but its thermadynamically designed to be quiet...such as aluminum..also in the processor the fan can be very noisy ..in quiet times we can substitute copper piping tubing to transfer the heat to the chasis..this makes it fanless ..this is very important in maintaining the quiet in a recording computer..also in the hard drive there are copper enclosurs which further silence the hard drive that is already a quiet hard drive..so sir....do your research...you dont just buy anything like you say...ok?
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Comment #8
(Posted by Buz Tarlow)
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Hi
Love this site
Not this article
Lots to debate but mainly it will not serve a newbie well.
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Comment #9
(Posted by cam)
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well you are not even close to the problems that a recording computer can have.
All the things that are in this article are related to a normal computer build.
A recording computer is something that could deal with a whole band that is at least 3 inputs with vocals.
Wich is not the case here.
Even if it is for simple one guitar recording this article doesn't mention the direct output and real time effects, wich are alone ,the core of any recording.
So as i said before this article is a very general view of how to build a computer and not a specific sound recording studio computer ( even home one).
You can go to: geocities.com/bandpc to see how to build a more complete recording studio computer .
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Comment #10
(Posted by an unknown user)
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So, to summarize:
Just buy whatever and put it together.
????
No, there's alot more to it than that.
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Comment #11
(Posted by Deodar)
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The article is great for newbs.The comments are a joke.I say that
as an A+ technician who builds & a soundfanatic.Interface is not the computer OK?Brandon acknowledges this elsewhere.Sound Card is all it needs apart from any build.&Firewire
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Comment #12
(Posted by daniel bellemare)
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Thanks
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Comment #13
(Posted by joseph)
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good explanation
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Comment #14
(Posted by Tim)
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Excellent overview of how to build a PC. The Devil is in the detail in my experience - but if anyone following this kind of guide got stuck they should know exactly what question to ask.
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Comment #15
(Posted by an unknown user)
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Ignore #15
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Comment #16
(Posted by ssscientist)
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Good solid info presented well and in plain English. Full marks!
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Comment #17
(Posted by Brook)
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Rid of those pesky bugs you pick when surfing the net.
One of the first things that I learned when I got my new computer was that if you own a PC then you better have a good antispyware scanner to help get rid of those pesky bugs you pick when surfing the net. Otherwise, your computer won’t keep running like new for very long. It will begin to slow down and eventually get so sluggish you won’t even be able to use it. I tried a variety of different scans before I ran across Orbasoft Antispyware at http://www.orbasoft.com. So far I have been very happy with the antispyware solution from Orbasoft and very glad that I gave it a try.
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Comment #18
(Posted by Nello)
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This is a very usefull post. Its hard to find this kind of thing on the web, cuse they are always selling something.
Thank a lot man!!
But you should say something about software, speakers and micros.. ;)
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Comment #19
(Posted by Yung Ryder)
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Woooow! Dude thanks soo much! This helped out 100% im only 15, and made the fastest and best sound quality pc i've ever seen, if u follow these steps, mac isnt nothing compared 2 ur pc. IM ONLY 15 AND I BUILD MY OWN PC! You can do it pple!
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Comment #20
(Posted by Erahgon)
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Although some facts are outdated by now, it's still an awesome bunch of guidelines! Any thoughts about the 64-bit processors and their impact on recording?
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Comment #21
(Posted by daniel)
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This was a great article. I like that is was short but still said what needed to be said. good work
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Comment #22
(Posted by Theo)
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Brandon,
Someday I will be ready to record my rocking riffs and I'll have to dedicate it all to you!!!
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