I'm putting a computer together for a friend... Her basic needs are internet browsing, minor entertainment, and possibly music producing and editing in the near future. Since she wouldn't be gaming or using two taxing applications at the same time, would a single core be more reasonable than a dual core processor (AMD only)? For example wouldn't it be more of a value to get a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103526

over a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103751

She is on a $1000 budget by the way. Thanks for the replies

I've been looking close at getting a dx2250 computer from HP. One with 512 megs of ram and a DVD/CD-R burner should be more then enough for simple browsing and music editing. Since these machines are easily upgradeable, if she needs more RAM she can put up to 2 gigs in there, throw in a PCI-16x card, and up the processor quite a bit.

For what you're saying she needs the computer for, this model should be more then enough for years to come.

You do know that those are 2 different sockets, right? Other than that, thanks for the FX link. I might get that for my dad who's stuck with an Athlon 64 3400 which, IMO, is defective! The thing idles at 50C! And he has very clean cable managemant as well as airflow and an aftermarket CPU!

the dual core chip will be more future proof. 4600+ is AMDs sweet spot right now, btu soon it wil be the 5000+.

GO for it.

I don't think she would need the pci-16x card cause shes not a gamer. But a 1gb in my opinion would be a must. I've ran spyware doctor on 512 systems that totally couldn't handle it. I want the comp to be fast and effective with programs running in the background. Thanks for pointing the socket difference out Eurasianman. I didn't look over the specs well. Would've caught it before I went through with the purchase.

For music you'll need a minimum of 1gb ram. 2gb would be better. You'll be able to use more samples etc. Get a dual core. Low to mid range will do ie from x2 3800 on up. You don't need a GPU. Integrated graphics as found on nvidia 6150/430 boards will do fine.

Go ahead and get 2 gigs of RAM. Can't hurt.

I don't think she would need the pci-16x card cause shes not a gamer. But a 1gb in my opinion would be a must. I've ran spyware doctor on 512 systems that totally couldn't handle it. I want the comp to be fast and effective with programs running in the background. Thanks for pointing the socket difference out Eurasianman. I didn't look over the specs well. Would've caught it before I went through with the purchase.

Gig of RAM

That should take care of the memory bottleneck. ~$650+~$100+~$30=~$780

So about $780 for a system that should work pretty well. If need be, a new CPU can be put in after a year or two.

I would think that with future encoding/decoding/converting music, you might want to consider dual core. And, of course, more RAM the better.

8O

The FX-55 is more than enough. If anyone has been following the DARPA contract awards for leading edge computing , you would know that cpu accelerators are going to replace dual and quad core cpus because they are 5-30 times faster and use about 20-30% of the energy. Roadrunner uses IBM Cell chips combined with opterons and Stanfords Folding at Home uses the ATI X1900/later series graphics cards to do the same thing. Code is easier to write for the accelerators than for the dual/quadcore cpus. http://www.supercomputingonline.co [...] ?sid=11894
http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html
A few bucks extra for a dual PCI-E slot will do more to future proof the computer than Socket 1207 or AM@.

The question was a PC for misc stuff and *MUSIC PRODUCTION*. A GPU isn't needed - never mind dual PCIe. It doesn't have to be cutting edge but it ought to be dual core and have at least 1gb ram.

If you just want to record stereo, a low end machine is fine but not for any serious work with Ableton, Cubase, Reason etc.

THANKS ALOT FOR ALL THE HELP!!!

Just to bring it to everyone's attention. When I said she needs it for the near future, I mean maybe next year. So the hardware should be for today's software demands. I always thought that 1gb (512x2) was good enough for audio editing.... Here is a run down of what I'm getting her so far:

BIOSTAR TForce6100-939 Socket 939 Motherboard $69.99

LG 18X DVD±R Super-Multi DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black IDE Model GSAH22N-BK - OEM $36

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $50

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $48

Microsoft D66-00066 Black 3 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse - OEM $15

Microsoft Wired ZG6-00006 Black PS/2 Standard Keyboard - Retail $15

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2 - Retail $135

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Processor Socket 939 Retail $185
SAMSUNG 740B Black 17" 8ms DVI LCD Monitor - Retail $210

FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply - Retail $60

CHAINTECH AV-710 Sound Card - Retail $30

Logitech Z-4 40 watts 2.1 Speaker - Retail $80

Windows Xp Pro: $140

Total: $1040 or something like that

*Note: These prices are rounded off*

Please feel free to critique anything I've listed here. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA3800CUBOX - Retail

Change the CPU, it's AM2 and won't fit in a s939 motherboard.

Thanks for the heads up. I made note of this and changed it accordingly.

Yeah I'd go AM2. The Abit Abit NF-M2 nView would be perfect. It's got dual monitor support including DVI (not all of these onboard mobos do). One thing to watch is that there are only two PCI slots - plus a x 1 x16 but you can't put a soundcard in there. You can stack several M-audio sound cards for example - if you have enough slots. If that's a problem check out Gigabyte - they do a mobo with onboard video and 4 PCI.

M-audio make very good soundcards with high quality DACs. Anything from the audiophile 2496 on up depending what sort of inputs you need. How many? Balanced or unbalanced? As mentioned, if you go for an M-audio you can always add extra cards later on.

E-mu are also very good - but no linux drivers, unlike M-audio.

PS: an 80gb HDD won't have room for lots of multi-track audio projects, samples, mix-downs and so on but you can always add a couple of big drives later: one for storage and one as a backup / scratch disk. 80gb is perfect for OS and apps. Plenty room for a normal windows install, one tuned for music production, and Ubuntu if you want to try out the linux world.

I don't even think they make anymore AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 for the S939. At least not at the sites I've looked at. All they got is the FX-60 and Opterons. Opterons might not be bad for her since she doesn't game.

If the "music production" involves recording of live instruments, you'll definitely want a good soundcard rather than onboard.