Wheres cheapest for stuff? [UK or Internet]

[Karbon L. Forms]

Hi all. Does anyone have any recomendations as to where to get a PC for like THE CHEAPEST?
My younger brother was visiting a few weeks ago and was blown away with what I can do musically with my PC. He's a guitarist and he was under the impression that there was no such thing as home studio recording unless you spent shitloads on amps, mixing desk, effects, drummers, bassists, synths, 8 track recorder etc etc. So now he wants a PC but he's not loaded (he cuts grass for a living (no not that kind))
We went to Maplins in Inverness and looked at stuff and I think we can get a machine (parts bought seperatly: I'll build it) for about £400. Thats with an AMD xp2600 and all the other ncessarys.
And on top of that he'll want Tracktion and Amplitube.
I think that the £400 for a useable DAW machine is quite good but do you know of anywhere I could get the stuff cheaper?
Any other advice welcome.

[Notron User]

If you were in the US I'd say NewEgg, but I don't know the market in the UK.

[chagzuki]

In the UK the cheapest place I've found is ebuyer.com
There are some awesome deals there and I've found customer service to be good.

[Karbon L. Forms]

If you were in the US I'd say NewEgg, but I don't know the market in the UK.

Thanks anyway. For info purposes what sort of prices are you getting there?

Also i'd like to add to the original question... Is an AMD xp2600 good enough for recording guitar and running a drum machine and a sampler for bass? Those will have to be CM Studio stuff as this budget is very limited.

You can get a 24bit / 96khz sound card for £80 these days as well I believe? The Audiophile 2496 has just dropped in price I think and theres a new one from EMU/Creative?

I could find this out myself but it's so easy to just ask KvR!

[Notron User]

This might give you an idea of performance to expect.

The mobile chip series are to be preferred if you want to overclock.

http://www.fivetowers.moar.net/cubasete ... erformance

[scuzzphut]

I'll second the nomination of ebuyer

I've used them exclusively for bits and bobs for a couple of years now.

Bearing in mind that AMplitube is $300 , you may want to look at the guitar suite instead for amp simulations.

I currently run an Nvidia NForce based motherboard (which has a GForce2 built in) and an Athlon XP 1700+ . I rarely run out of cpu. It should handle what he's looking for nae bother, although I suspect that you could pick up a significant improvement on that for a paltry sum.


let's see...

In their blowout section right now they have the following used items

300W ATX case £6
Asus A7v8X (Kt400 / nforce2 motherboard) £28
Athlon XP 2200 £45

need I go on.........

[Karbon L. Forms]

Holy shit! If we can get a system that cheap then we can afford Amplitube! I don't have it myself and will not until someone gives me a job. What's the market like for cheaper alternatives?

[whyterabbyt]

For parts, I buy from www.dabs.com or www.overclockers.co.uk

Maplin's tend to be overpriced, even on their 'sale' bits.

I reckon a decent system is easily doable in your budget


NForce 2 Mobo with onboard MX400 graphics: 30
XP2800 : 80
80gb HD : 45
CD-RW : 20
Case, kbd, mouse etc : 40-60
512Mb memory : 50-60

Total w/out screen : 270?

17" Screen : 70

Total = 340

You may also want to consider a better audio card than the onboard stuff, say:

Audiophile 24/96 Soundcard : 70 (DV or somewhere)

[IIRs]

Suprisingly good freebees:

http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm

Who needs GUI's anyway?

[donkey tugger]

Suprisingly good freebees:

http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm

Who needs GUI's anyway?

Aye, I

And a couple more good amp sim freebies;

http://www.helium.ex0.org/vst/guitifier.html

http://www.ndzeit.org/guitar/tubebaby.html

[Kingston]

www.dabs.com has always been reliable and fast to me.

think my new box will be from ebuyer as it seems to be a bit cheaper and everyone's been saying it's good, too.

Good luck with getting the best bang for the buck.

[funked]

I orderd a heatsink from dabs.com and shortly after realised it wasnt the one I wanted. They replace it for me without any hasle.

They definitely have best prices on some hardware. I usually use dealtime.co.uk. It will let you compare the price of hardware from dif web stores in the UK. dabs.com is one of many stores they list prices for.

[Karbon L. Forms]

For parts, I buy from www.dabs.com or www.overclockers.co.uk

Maplin's tend to be overpriced, even on their 'sale' bits.

I reckon a decent system is easily doable in your budget


NForce 2 Mobo with onboard MX400 graphics: 30
XP2800 : 80
80gb HD : 45
CD-RW : 20
Case, kbd, mouse etc : 40-60
512Mb memory : 50-60

Total w/out screen : 270?

17" Screen : 70

Total = 340

You may also want to consider a better audio card than the onboard stuff, say:

Audiophile 24/96 Soundcard : 70 (DV or somewhere)

Wow. Right 270 + 70 = 340. I can get a second hand monitor for 15 here in Aberdeen. So thats 355. So lets say we've got 145 left for monitors? And lets say we have a £250 budget for software. Which will be a month after he gets the hardware.
So monitors for <£145. Host is already decided; Tracktion (hey! my first referal!) so that's about 200 left for software?
Also help me out here. He's not very ermmm, technically minded? He's not thick but what drum machine and something for bass would you reccomend?

[Ja.x]

I have an Athlon 2600XP and it does the job. As for a sound card I have a Terratec DMX6 Fire; good stuff, a convenient interface, low latency, ASIO. The PC I don't know anymore (upgraded twice), but soundboard costed about 300€: not too bad, I think.

[VitaminD]

dont forget a sturdy powersupply.. :p