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Hi,

Looking into buying a new desktop for use with Studio One 2 Professional. Likely upgrading to Studio One 3 Pro as well. Hoping to get some advice from the experts on here. I want to get a serious machine and the most bang for the buck for under or around $2000.

I've been comparing PC's from HP, Dell & Alienware as well as PC Audiolabs & ADK

I think I've narrowed it down to these 3:

HP Omen- $1999

Windows 10 Home
7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7700K
32 GB memory
512 SSD + 2 TB HDD storage + 2 TB HDD storage
Liquid Cooling Solution for i7K processors for 500/600W PSU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 3G; Founders Edition
500 W Bronze efficiency power supply
Ultra Slim-tray SuperMulti DVD burner



Alienware Aurora - $1979

Windows 10 Home
Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo Boost 2.0, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz)
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz;
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s
Alienware™ 460 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
AMD Radeon™ RX 560 (75W) with 2GB GDDR5
Tray Load DVD-RW Drive



Dell XPS - $1699

Windows 10 Home
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8700K 6-Core Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz)
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz;
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s
460 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Memory
Tray Load DVD-RW Drive

$1699

The Dell XPS could be upgrade to 64GB Ram and come in at $2099


Any advice or suggestion appreciated,
Mark Grant

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by scottmoncrieff on Sat Nov 18, 2017 8:35 pm
My simple answer and advice, none of them...

The same question has been discussed in the past week in fact...and the reason's why I said none...see this thread here :-)

There are other threads asking about what components of a PC to get in the past year if you do a search on here also.

:-)

THE INTRANCER- Digital 2D & 3D GUI / Music Artist |- Full Orchestral -Trance - Ambient - Film Scores 27 on S-Cloud 7000+genuine plays | 16 on S-Click | Studio One 3 Concept Re-Designs - Sample One XT | Reason X | S-O-3 Pro | Reaktor 6.0 | Reason 7 | C4D | CS6 |Win 7 64 Bit-Intel I7 [email protected],Focusrite Pro 14, ATH M50's, Casio XW P1&G1 Producer 20+ years - FOH - UK Stadium / Festivals) >>Studio One 3D GUI's<<
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by Black_Haus on Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:37 am
Yeah I have been researching this topic on the web as well as this forum.

I did a search for what tPC to get and came up with one match which was my original post.

Did a search for what components to get for a PC came up with the thread you listed and my original post

Your advice is to just build your own, correct? If so, is the main reasoning behind that cost or do you think the PC’s I’ve listed aren’t adequate.

Thank you for your suggestions

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by Tacman7 on Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:27 am
I had always built my own computers but now I buy used business machines instead.

The interface is a big part of the studio to me.

If you want a thunderbolt interface you have to build a computer to work with it.

Or get a mac I guess.

I still use firewire.

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by Black_Haus on Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:34 am
Had to dig a little deeper but I did find a lot of useful information in the “Desk tops & studio one“ thread.

Problem is I don’t want to spend six months to a year like you did researching and building a PC. I’m sure I could do it and I may even enjoy but for a little more money looks like I can get a nice system quickly and have a warranty and tech-support to boot which I wouldn’t have if I built my own. Then I can get back to doing what I like to do most which is composing and recording music.

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by Black_Haus on Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:41 am
Tacman,

I Already have two fire studio project interfaces and a studiolive 16.4.2. 32 channels if needed and they still work very well for me.

I’m still good with firewire for now. I know with any of these off-the-shelf PCs I will have to add a firewire card but I’m OK with that

Thanks for your reply much appreciated

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by Skaperverket on Sun Nov 19, 2017 12:02 pm
My advice is having an audio PC builder build a computer based on the new i7 8700K. Something like this: https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configurator ... r-music-pc
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by scottmoncrieff on Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:26 pm
Black_Haus wroteHad to dig a little deeper but I did find a lot of useful information in the “Desk tops & studio one“ thread.

Problem is I don’t want to spend six months to a year like you did researching and building a PC. I’m sure I could do it and I may even enjoy but for a little more money looks like I can get a nice system quickly and have a warranty and tech-support to boot which I wouldn’t have if I built my own. Then I can get back to doing what I like to do most which is composing and recording music.


You don't need to spend 6 months doing research, but it is important to do research if you want to stay clear of any potential issue's with any of the components you select from any of the manufacturing brands for such things as the motherboard, which are not all made the same, have different features, differ in quality and reliability, as well as reliability when it comes to over clocking, as well as any potential BIOS issue's, and actual support should you ever need any.

Other potential motherboard issues relate to where the RAM slots are located and the height of any RAM selected. Whether any HSF 'heatsink and fan' is going to have enough clearance space for the RAM for instance, if you don't otherwise choose a water cooling solution, assuming you can fit one in any case you choose. Other research on things such as the graphics card if you're not using a builtin GPU on CPU type of CPU, giving the nature of them is important also, and even more so if you are going 4K or higher in the future.

Besides the PC itself, there are drawback's if you are buying all in one systems from a single vendor.

1. If anything fails or your system fails to boot, you could be waiting a week or weeks for the system to be fixed besides the hassle of boxing it all back up. 2. On-site warranty's, don't guarantee that your system will be fixed there and then.

The advantage of building your own is that, each of the component's have their own warranty, if you have an issue, you can fix it yourself, replace parts in a modular way and don't need to send the whole system back and pay a fee, or get into arguments with the vendor over the phone, (if you can get through to them whilst waiting 15 to 30 minutes to answer).

Having a custom built system with carefully selected components you've researched and be confident about will provide years and years of trouble free computing..

THE INTRANCER- Digital 2D & 3D GUI / Music Artist |- Full Orchestral -Trance - Ambient - Film Scores 27 on S-Cloud 7000+genuine plays | 16 on S-Click | Studio One 3 Concept Re-Designs - Sample One XT | Reason X | S-O-3 Pro | Reaktor 6.0 | Reason 7 | C4D | CS6 |Win 7 64 Bit-Intel I7 [email protected],Focusrite Pro 14, ATH M50's, Casio XW P1&G1 Producer 20+ years - FOH - UK Stadium / Festivals) >>Studio One 3D GUI's<<
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by Black_Haus on Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:13 pm
Skaperverket,

Thanks for the reply. I did a quick check of their site and it looks impressive and their prices are reasonable. I will definitely look into them further.

Thank you for the suggestion

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by Black_Haus on Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:25 pm
Scott,

Thanks again for your replies. You seem very knowledgeable on the subject. For me it’s those first two paragraphs in your last post. That is a lot of stuff I’m not sure if I want to deal with at this time.

Looking at having one custom-made from the ground up by one of these audio specific companies seems intriguing as well but the XPS still comes in cheaper with better specs, newer processor more ram and equal if not more storage space for the money.

Thank all you guys for your input it really does help

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by mikehowell1 on Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:29 pm
Problem is I don’t want to spend six months to a year like you did researching and building a PC.


FYI- You will always be better off building your own PC setup, because of each manufacture's proprietary hardware (Dell, HP, etc) if for no other reason. Mac's are another story... And it doesn't take 6 months- more like a few weeks of PC parts surfing and that's if you don't know anything. It's not that hard to do these days with YouTube and the net for back-up. :thumbup:

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by Lokeyfly on Tue Nov 21, 2017 11:43 am
Black_Haus wrote
Thanks again for your replies....


Looking at having one custom-made from the ground up by one of these audio specific companies seems intriguing as well but the XPS still comes in cheaper with better specs, newer processor more ram and equal if not more storage space for the money.

Thank all you guys for your input it really does help


Yeah, go with your gut, black_Haus. People will usually, being the helpful bunch they are, steer you to build your own. I always have as well, except for my last PC. A Sony laptop, Intel i7, that is now going on 5 years old. I bought it outright back then and its been a rock. Never crashed once. Studio One along with most reputable software will yield excellent results. The systems you are looking at will certainly give you years of enjoyment, and room for expansion.

Have a blast, and buy what you need. From what you spec'd out, you could shave several hundred off building your own, but by the the looks of things, you're looking in the right direction at a nice system.

Go get it, man! ;)

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by matthewgorman on Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:00 pm
Maybe flip the first post, and tell us what hardware etc you are either using, or will be upgrading to in the future. Looking at the specs in your first post, Thunderbolt could be a blind spot. If you intend to go in that direction, mobo choice is one of the more important aspects. It would be a shame to upgrade only to find out that TB is more involved that just picking up an expansion card.

Good luck.

Matt

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by Black_Haus on Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:52 pm
Hey guys,

I really appreciate all the advice and input. I did some research and talked to a local shop that said If I got all the parts together they would build me the system I wanted.

Did some more research here on this forum and online. Priced everything I wanted on PCpartspicker.com which I found to be a very informative site.

By the time I had matched the specs of the off-the-shelf computers I had been looking at I was well over $1700 and that’s before paying to have it put together.

So I called Dell. Spoke with one of their representatives who was very helpful. We went over everything I wanted several times to make sure we had it right, he gave me $80 off the Black Friday sale price, free expedited shipping and 12 months no interest financing. I found all that hard to beat.

So I decided to just buy the Dell.

From what I found I couldn’t build this PC any cheaper than they are selling it.

Thanks again for all the advice and input you guys have been very helpful.
Last edited by Black_Haus on Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire
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by Black_Haus on Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:10 pm
Matthew,

As far as outboard gear and software right now I’m using two firestudio projects, I have a studiolive 16.4.2 an audio box 44 VSL.

I mainly use the firestudio projects. So I plan to stick with firewire for the npw. I’ve already ordered new PCIe FireWire card with an approved TI chipset. Also have a KORG Padkontrol a bunch of amps a few guitars and a bass. That’s about it

Software....I just upgraded to studio one 3 professional & EZ Drummer 2.

Dell XPS 8930 - Win10 64-Bit i7 8700K 32GB RAM 512 SSD 2TB HD S1 2 Pro, S1 3 Pro & S1 4 Pro
HP Omen - Win 10 64-Bit i7 7700HQ 12GB RAM 1TB HD S1 4 Pro
Firestudio Project x 2, StudioLive 16.4.2, Audiobox 44VSL Yamaha HS8 & HS10
Roli Seaboard Block & Lightpad, Nektar Impact LX49+, Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Avatar, ADA, SWR

https://www.zeroempire.net
https://constantcollision.com
https://www.youtube.com/zeroempire

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