kevro2000 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Hi, Friends! I have a an old Core I5 Windows 10 unit that is about at its end of life. I'm still using CbB on it as my main DAW (only DAW). I've been glancing around at the desktop/tower machines at COSTCO & SAM'S CLUB. I'm at the end of my lunch period, trying to write this as fast as I can, so I can't give specific brand names other than HP and Dell, but there were others I didn't recognize. One had the name that started with CYBER..... Anyway, you can guess my questions: Are there any benefits to buying and using gaming PCs for DAW use? The clear cases on display at the stores reveal a few expansion slots, and I noticed at Sams club, there were multiple video outputs in the back (currently, I have rigged up 3 monitors to use and I like being able to do that) Noise issues during recording? I don't have the luxury of putting PC apart from my live recording environment Reliability issues? Any other questions I should be asking, but too naive about gaming systems to ask? any other thoughts you may have? Thanks, Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 CyberPowerPC was probably the one you cannot recall... they also sell pre-made ones to brick-and-mortar stores. IIRC they have a monthly deal on things, so is worth monitoring their website and playing with build options (although they often only have a few CPU variants available). Overall, a "gaming" PC may be extreme overkill for a DAW, but the advantage to CyberPowerPC is you can dumb down things like graphics card and bump up RAM (or buy aftermarket). Dells and HPs often have proprietary hardware in them, so be careful of that (one HP laptop I saw even had the RAM soldered in, so it wasn't swappable/expandable). I got an i7-8700K from them 7 years ago and is still going. Noise is primarily from the fans (both case and GPU), but you can tweak those, and the GPU design is something to consider (a few are designed to blow air out the case like a jet engine rather than circulate air internally in the case). If you are using it as a DAW, the fans shouldn't be cycling hard. In general, most "gaming" PCs are focused on intense graphics, so have expensive GPUs and can be overclocked. Neither of these are required for use as a DAW, but the ability to add/remove hardware is a benefit for a desktop variant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Morgon-Shaw Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) With a gaming PC you'll likely be spending over the odds because of the powerful GPU that you don't really need fow DAW use but can be the most expensive part of a gaming system. Better to buy from a music PC specialist or build your own ( it's not that hard and there are some great build guides out there like on Linus Tech Tips Youtube ) Edited February 15 by Mark Morgon-Shaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvatore Sorice Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 I’d recommend you reach out to @Jim Roseberry. He builds custom DAW PCs and really knows his stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevro2000 Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 14 hours ago, mettelus said: CyberPowerPC was probably the one you cannot recall.. Yep! Thats the name. Thanks. I had no idea any PC Maker would solder memory. Ugghhhggh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevro2000 Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Thanks, everyone, for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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