My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

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nickture
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My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

Post by nickture »

Hello everyone,
Title of this post pretty well sums it up...I had an ancient Lenovo M71e (CPU. Intel Core i3 (2nd Gen) 2100 / 3.1 GHz.) that I bought second-hand on eBay. A few weeks ago it finally kicked the bucket, now I'm looking for an upgrade for a studio PC. I plan to use it strictly for audio production via AV Linux, really small projects (I have a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6), and maybe some light cloud-based gaming via Google Stadia (if you're familiar with Stadia and its contemporaries, all that's needed is a good internet connection...no need for super powerful graphics cards).

I really like the low-profile footprint of mini PCs like the Lenovo M93p (the one I'm looking at has an i7 Intel chip and 16 GB of RAM)...or maybe even something like a Chromebox.

Does anyone have experience using these types of PCs?
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Re: My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

Post by GMaq »

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your computer... Bummer!

In my experience anything Dell, HP and Lenovo are pretty good to go with Linux, the cases and builds are always top notch. In our studio we have a 5 year old lease-return Dell Optiplex with an i5 in it and it has ample power for anything I've thrown at it. Some of the SFF (small form factor) cases made by Dell, HP and Lenovo are also lots of power in a compact shell, just make sure if you need any special video or other cards that they are available with an optional SFF bracket..

As a cautionary tale I built my own Ryzen Threadripper all out of select top quality components and it is working better now but it was a real flakebox when i started with it especially under Linux... It really made me appreciate both the robustness and the great value of lease-return machines by the major PC manufacturers..

Just my opinion..
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Re: My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

Post by lilith »

GMaq wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:38 pm Hi,

Sorry to hear about your computer... Bummer!

In my experience anything Dell, HP and Lenovo are pretty good to go with Linux, the cases and builds are always top notch. In our studio we have a 5 year old lease-return Dell Optiplex with an i5 in it and it has ample power for anything I've thrown at it. Some of the SFF (small form factor) cases made by Dell, HP and Lenovo are also lots of power in a compact shell, just make sure if you need any special video or other cards that they are available with an optional SFF bracket..

As a cautionary tale I built my own Ryzen Threadripper all out of select top quality components and it is working better now but it was a real flakebox when i started with it especially under Linux... It really made me appreciate both the robustness and the great value of lease-return machines by the major PC manufacturers..

Just my opinion..
One of the most important things at least for me is that the PC is silent. I have a HP in the office which is quite loud. Is this an issue with Dell for instance?
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GMaq
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Re: My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

Post by GMaq »

lilith wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:59 pm
One of the most important things at least for me is that the PC is silent. I have a HP in the office which is quite loud. Is this an issue with Dell for instance?
Hi lilith!

Still waiting for your 'greatest hits' album... :)

The Dell optiplex (model 790) is very quiet, maybe not silent but I have a separate control room and studio floor so silence isn't really a must for me but that studio machine is one of the quietest PC's I have..
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Re: My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

Post by lilith »

GMaq wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:13 pm
lilith wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:59 pm
One of the most important things at least for me is that the PC is silent. I have a HP in the office which is quite loud. Is this an issue with Dell for instance?
Hi lilith!

Still waiting for your 'greatest hits' album... :)

The Dell optiplex (model 790) is very quiet, maybe not silent but I have a separate control room and studio floor so silence isn't really a must for me but that studio machine is one of the quietest PC's I have..
That sounds good. Always good to have an idea what to buy. Was thinking to get a Mac next time, but somehow I'm used to Linux meanwhile.

Maybe I make a Bandcamp account and load something up there. I really don't like Spotify... I can also share some tracks... For instance I can offer free download on Thursday on SoundCloud... Also made some new tracks I didn't post here...
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Re: My studio PC went up in smoke...looking for an upgrade...

Post by sadko4u »

Purchased ASUS TUF Gaming FX506II laptop recently without the OS. Very powerful, like the Ryzen 4800H 16-core processor.
Pretty good for a pretty cheap price. I think lapop is the best option if you want to keep being mobile.
LSP (Linux Studio Plugins) Developer and Maintainer.
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