PC from Argos!!

[Dave Mc Donald]

Hi all,

I noticed a PC in the current Argos catalog and I was wondering was it as good as it seems.
I was planning on building my own PC from scratch but at this price and with the amount of RAM and a Quad core processor it's hard to find fault with it. I know it is running Vista which is not ideal but the rest of the spec seems pretty good to me.

I would appreciate any feddback on it. The link below should take you to it.

P.S. I have eventually joined the 21st century and got myself a broadband connection so I will be updating my page in the next few days and hopefully I will be a ble to make better use of the site from now on.

Thanks,
Dave.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5081213/c_1/1%7Cca...

[Adji]

Hey man, this actually seems like a very decent deal. Id be skeptical about using vista in the place of XP, but the specs are pretty good. However, I'm quite sure that for the same price, you could get a very similair system plus the extra tweaks you need/want from a custom builder.
The thing with these computers is usually you get ONE disc, which reinstalls everything, this means it would be very difficult to erase vista and replace it with XP. You could buy another hard drive and have a dual boot, but this seems somewhat pointless.
If you already own XP i would reccommend getting a similair computer made from a local PC shop. You oculd probably get a slightly bettew CPU due to the fact you wont be getting any bundled software.

[Ian Maleney]

This would depend really on what the use will be. Will it be just for audio or will it be for home/office work as well?

The specs seem good but theres no info on the mobo. Availability of upgrade RAM may be an issue. 2 pci slots may limit you somewhat depending on your setup. As Adji pointed out, there may be problems with installation, depending on the disks that come with it but I really don't see the need to wipe Vista and go with XP, I use Vista myself (generally band work) and with a little work it is just fine. I might wipe the disk as a matter of course, depending on the software that comes with it, but again that would be a personal choice and entirely up to you.

If you could get a PC built for a similar price, or even a little more, you might be better off, it will mean you won't have to spend so long tweaking and making sure it all works. Plus you'll have aftersales service that you just won't in Argos. Its a personal choice but I think I would prefer to go with a specialist build.

[Clinton Lobley]

There's nothing wrong with using Vista for audio - it's been far more stable/reliable for audio than XP ever was in my experience. Just the way Vista handles RAM makes a massive difference in performance. You do need to tweak it a little, but there's heaps of info on how to do that out there. Most of the tweaks are exactly the same as for XP anyway..

[Adji]

Really? Everyone except you Ive spoken to has condemned vista to hell haha. Also, there are a lot of programs that are yet to support vista, so all your old favourite plugins probably wont work.

[Ian Maleney]

I've never had a problem with compatability, hardware or software, and I've been using Vista for a year now.

[Clinton Lobley]

exactly. It's mostly interweb mythology. I can actually run MORE stuff on vista, like my old win 98 MC-505 editor for example, which wouldn't run on XP, but will on vista!

Hardware from Roland and Yamaha works perfectly with vista, as these companies provide drivers on their websites. I'm sure the other big companies do too..

[Jace]

As a first Pc This is a great step up from the pentium 4 i started out with, Their are a few checks you need to do as mentioned, 4 rams slots are better if you are going to be going 64Bit XP or Vista so as to utalise the Ram, but my advice Windows Xp 32_ to be 100% safe with audio copy right protection That i find drastically a hinderance in Vista, this is a problem once you delve into Production and copying audio from one Aplication to another.

2X2 GB ram in the 2 slots will be fine for your needs,you will get about 3GB usage, 800mhz speed i think best.
But Ram is quite cheep now so not a major issue.

You could do with also finding out How many sata connections it has, at least the two so you can add a second hard drive later down the line.
along with this also find out how many Pci Card Slots It has, you want at least Three Basic Pci Slots,
Incase you want to add graphics card/cards or audio card if your descide on an internal sound card, then one extra slot to be future proof or if you ever need fire wire connection.

Dont Forget you will need an add on soundcard, as the Pc will not suffice Pro Results.

[Clinton Lobley]

"That i find drastically a hinderance in Vista, this is a problem once you delve into Production and copying audio from one Aplication to another"

I move audio between apps constantly with no probs. Can you explain more what the actual problem is and how to get it to happen?

[Jace]

I can not copy Audio From ableton to sonar, and then get my v-vocal to work its audio to midi,
and some of my copied audio will not display its wave form , it stays blank (thats something to do with the bitmaps), i had Problems with quite a few things, off the top of my head all else i can remember was constantly getting some Mesages about not having permission to copy Such audio and midi, and this i might add was with my programmes running as administrator, I know it got so i could not work from ableton 7 to sonar 7/ 8
That is all i can tell thee, i have tried running vista 32 and 64 a few times, and these two daws have been unusable in this way.

what you have to look at also, in the other sense,but some poeple will ooh and ahh at this, Ripping stuff from other poeple's music, is what the dance scene is made up of, resampling ideas, and data etc.And in way of experimenting i found Vista slowed down this whole Proscess, when it also came to messing around in ableton on a dj capicity Trying to create bootlegs/Rehashes and beats etc, i was slowed down by all these messages if not stopped.

I can not add much more, i do a lot of my stuff by way of experimentation, and some things are hard to Recreate or put to words after the fact,, but i would say No to Vista and music judging by what i have encountered.

Hope this explains a little! better clinton,

[Clinton Lobley]

wow man no wonder you don't like it!!! I'd be saying no too...

I've never had any of these problems AT ALL. I constantly move audio from Reason to Acid to SF and back again with no probs whatsoever. That "edit in SF" option in Acid gets a workout every day.... (so that's moving audio between progs while they are both still running). I'm also one of those dance nuts so I do import and remix others' work a lot too. Seems like more of a problem with the software not being quite 'vista ready'; although you'd think Sonar would have no issues..

As a side note, my missus has these 'permission' problems with iTunes on her machine, but that is a definite 'problem' with the software (not that Apple would see it as a problem LOL)!!!

[Clinton Lobley]

looking into this a little further, I see that the copyright protection stuff is different in different countries. Could have something to do with it. Nevertheless, Ian is in Ireland and you're in England, so I would assume that the versions would be the same.

I've asked a few other Aussies and none of them are having these kinds of problems with vista in Oz.

Americans, on the other hand, seem to be the worst off by FAR... they can't turn on their computer without a written note from Microsoft, it seems...

[Jace]

I have just had problems again with installing my xp 32, i got told it has been installed two many time and i must purchase a new license, quite baffling, considering sometimes We have to do clean installs and in my case quite a few.
anyhow becuase of this i have had to revert back to Vista 64x as from the other day,when we last spoke, i am going to delve deeper Next time these Problems occur and take better notes,

Thanks for info Clint...