Inexpensive home-use PC also for lightweight C7 use?

WaveLab
#1

Hi - I need to buy a definitely-not-very-powerful PC for lightweight home use - internet, browsing, maybe some light spreadsheet work, ,pdf, etc.

I’d also love it could run my Cubase 7 (about to upgrade to 7.5.10) in a very lightweight sort of way as well, at most to play a backing track while recording a single audio line, without interruptions. Or do some editing on headphones. Or getting greedy, some VariAudio use? :slight_smile:

I know about thesycon.com 's DPC latency checker. If I were to bring that to my big box store on a thumb drive and get good scores (all green), would that be all I need to do? Or is there more I need to check out?

Again, just to emphasize, this would not be my main DAW, and I’d like to buy something fairly inexpensive. But if I’m going to buy a computer anyway, it’d be nice to have it do some light double duty, right?:slight_smile:

Thanks for any suggestions!

#2

It depends on the audio interface as well. If you want to use the onboard soundcard it’ll probably work using ASIO4all and a fairly high buffersize, but there’s no way of knowing other than to test it.
If you want to use an external audio interface that shouldn’t be a problem, but if it’s firewire there may be issues with the chip used in the firewire controller.

Also, check the minimum required specs for Cubase and compare it to your PC of choice. They’re pretty low though so I guess most desktop PC’s bought today would suffice.

#3

Thanks, Stroph.

It would be with a Steinberg UR28M, USB, I believe.

Thanks for the suggestions! :slight_smile:

#4

From the other thread, Steinberg recommends a minimum spec to include a “dual core CPU”.

Quick question - how do I identify a “dual core CPU” - does it need to have the word “dual core” in the name, or is any old i3, etc. a “dual core”?

Thanks -

[Edit: Went to the website: http://www.intel.com/products/processor/previousgenerationcorei3/index.htm … I think it says the i3 is “dual core” … but to be honest I can’t quite tell - can someone confirm for me please?

Thanks -

#5

Yes, all i3/i5/i7 models have at least 2 cores as far as I know. The same is true for all CPU’s in AMD’s current lineup.
I don’t think any PC currently sold has single core processors anymore, with the exception of really low end notebooks like Chromebooks etc, and even those might have dual cores these days.

#6

Thanks, Strophoid. I will be hopefully shopping/buying an i3 with suitable Haswell, ivy or whatever was recommended in that other thread … :slight_smile: