Sounds based pc

[Curfew Pete]

Hi - am a newbie in the upgrade scene. Basically I want to build a pc catering largely for music (without video) and wondered if anyone could give me a few hints on a spec that would include a Sound Blaster sound card(or an alternative).

[minus-sign]

When looking for a computer:

1.What will it be used for? Obviously the first and most important question but oft overlooked. What you intend to do with your PC defines the life of it, and thus its specs. You don't want to buy a cheap PC with onbaord video if you intend to play next gen games with it. You also don't want to waste hundreds of dollars on a highend video card that will never do more work than basic word processing. You don't want to buy a 100GB hard drive if you intend to turn it into a media server storing your video library any more than you want to buy several terabytes of hard drives if you never intend it store excess data. You need to consider these questions, and we need to know your answers to better help you decide what you need...and what you don't.

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3.When do I need it? Time is a factor in any decision, and no less so in a purchase as significant as a PC. It affects the shipping cost of parts if you need it rushed, or if you can wait. This affects price. If you need it up and running ASAP, you may not be willing to go through the effort of building a PC; you may need not need it so soon, can wait a week, or a month, and be willing to reshape your budget by those couple hundred dollars that change "what i can get now" for "what I will want later". Don't underestimate when you need it. It can radically change what you buy, build and have when all is said and done.

4.What can I bring to the table? Your experience or lack thereof defines what you want, what you can buy to get it, and how much you'll pay. Home built PCs are considerably less expensive than a Dell of equal specs. But they require effort on your part and knowledge to make it work.

Consider these questions and be honest in your answers to yourself and to us. This will allow us to give you good answers in return.

Welcome to the PCGuides

[Curfew Pete]

Thanks for the advice my negatively inclined friend. My experience to date is simply confined to upgrading parts of my HP Pavilion but I wanted to spend around $1,000 on a pc which will be used for acquiring music downloads and playing them.

I don't play games so a top spec video card is not required nor is there a rush to build as our summer is coming and there will be plenty of rainy days!

My reason for asking was that I couldn't access any information about the compatibility of a system by starting with the sound card so if you or anyone else could point me in the right direction I should be very much obliged.

Pete

[astoroth88]

Here's a list of parts for you that comes to $914.91



Rosewill TU-155 II 500 case w/ 500w PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147117)

Asus Intel P45 Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131375)

Intel Core 2 Duo @2.8ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115206)

4GB (2x2gb) Geil Green Series DDR2 1066mhz RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144347)

Hitachi 1TB HDD Sata 3.0gb/s 7200 RPM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145233)

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102021)


Logitech G51 155 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121012)

LG 22x DVD burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121012)

EVGA GeForce 9600 GSO 512mb Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130437)

Just something that I whipped up real quick for you to get atleast a feel for what parts you'd be looking for, perhaps some one else could suggest better parts and/or prices for you, but from what I looked at these were pretty good deals (everything I listed has free shipping :p )

[Curfew Pete]

Thanks Astoroth - that's just what I needed to get me started looking in the right direction.

Pete

[astoroth88]

no problem, like I said I'm sure there are better deals out there. Reason I suggested that sound blaster is that I have a sound blaster live! 24-bit card, that's like 8 years old, and it makes my woofer rattle my windows at quarter speaker volume on a $60 5.1 speaker system to this day, where as the integrated 7.1 integrated that is on my mother board has to be up to 1/2 volume if not more to get the same quality. So that one I suggested would probably be capable of shattering them :D an exaggeration of course but you get my point.

*edit*

You could probably also skimp out a little more on the video card if you wanted, the geforce 8000 series goes for low as $30-$40 these days, since you said you weren't into gaming on a pc.

[Curfew Pete]

Thanks once again - I think I'll go with the geforce 8600 or similar but not too sure that the Rosewill cases are available over here ( i'm in England) but I suppose any decent 450-500w gaming case will suffice.