New Computer

[tinpan]

Hello all, Im having PC problems and thinking of replacing it. One of many problems I having is running mixcraft 6 & 7. Right now this PC has only a dual core processor. I heard a quad core would be better. Im not a computer geek so I would like suggestions as to what to look & ask for in a new PC. Recording on my Mixcraft and playback are most important to me, as well as playing other music such as MP3's and so on. Im not a "gamer" so I dont care much about video. My price range is limited "under 500".
Don

[Rolling Estonian]

The general rule is to get as much speed and power as you can. i7 and 8gb ram is a good start but might be a bit more than what you can spend, $500 is in that area of just getting into 'better than average consumer machine'. Not worrying about a video card is a decent way to save a few bucks and I would maybe look at refurbished from a good source with warrantee and all. Building one is also an option if you can do that. The gaming machine is often mentioned because they usually have fast processors and a lot of ram as recording and gaming require a good bit of both.

I have priced out components to build a monster desktop, i7, 32gb ram, 2 ssd drives with two hdmi out for right around $1k, that's today. Next year it may be a little less but not too much, good components tend to hold their value.

Anyway, look around at the options and see what the build your own and refurbished places have to offer. And if you can save up a bit more you'll be better off. I would also suggest to make sure you can upgrade the ram and drives at a later date if you need to.

M

[BillW]

A lot depends on how you will use MC. I guess I'm pretty far from a "power user" because I get by just fine on a Toshiba Laptop that cost < $300

[tinpan]

Thanks, all good info I appreciate it, also Im a musician and band leader, what I use MC for most is I down load "instrument" tracks of cover tunes and I rearrange it to the way I want my back up band to do the music and I either email the finished product to them or hand them a disc I burned and they learn the music at home. It save's us a lot of rehearsal time and cost's. Especially if my band mates live far apart, They show up at rehearsal already knowing the music as I arranged it, then we simply work out the kinks, and then we are ready for gig's with very little fuss. It works great for me and them.

[Mark Bliss]

Maybe Addressing what the problems with your existing machine are, and determining the cause would better inform your decision?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

For your existing computer with a dual core, you could try selecting Force Single CPU in sound device preferences to see if that has a beneficial effect. This sometimes helps on slower dual core computers.

Greg

[tinpan]

Existing problem is somehow I managed to wipe out the audio from the motherboard (not windows). However this pc is getting very old, the current motherboard wont even allow me to upgrade to Windows 10. Say's something like NVID wont allow it.
But it's time anyway for a new system.