Good computer for Audio Recording? ?

Question

I'm a musician/songwriter and I just recently invested in my own home recording equipment -- digital audio interface (Presonus Firestudio Tube), recording software (Cubase), reference monitors - the works. I noticed though, that when I record a lot of tracks in Cubase and add effects such as reverb, delay, etc to them, when I hit playback the music is extremely choppy and scrambled sounding. My computer is a Dell Dimension 3000, with a 2.80 Gigahert processor and 1 gig of RAM. I've recently bought some home recording books and they state that both the speed of the processor and not enough RAM can cause this issue, yet I've been told by a friend of mine who is a programmer that this should be plenty of resources for audio recording. I am about to buy a new computer for college anyway - so I was wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of system I should get. All the books say get a fast processor and lots of RAM, but they don't tell you how fast or how much. If at all possible I'd like to stay within the $400-550 price range. Any help anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Do you want to get a notebook or a desktop? For a desktop, get a core 2 duo with speeds of at least 2.4GHz. If it's a notebook, find a dual-core that runs at least 1.8GHz. For RAM, look for at least 2GB since computers these days come with 2GB. Hard Drive depends on how much you want to store on your computer, which ranges from 160gb-1TB. If you want to audio record, make sure you buy a dedicated sound card from a retailer store or on newegg. Below are links to some sound cards which are good for audio recording. These only work on desktops.