Buying a Cheap PC DAW Slave Question

[fastlanephil]

What's the best route for acquiring a cheap PC box for use as a DAW slave. I see cheap ones online but I want at least three 3.5 HD bays, a reliable power supply and it needs to be quiet. Quiet is very important but just minimum onboard graphics.

Should I drive to a FRYS and have a sales person help me with choosing the components?

Maybe have a shop construct one if they are competitive with costs?

Find a PC geek that will tell me what component to order?

Any thought on this?

[spoonie1972]

i did this for awhile running a hackintosh - worked great until i needed more cpu (of course, now those amazing i7 chips are out now, cheap by comparison!)

i'm with you on the noise though - i could not get the thing quiet. it's possible if you deal with the expensive specialty fans, but otherwise - since it's a slave and all - why not just have it in another room and screenshare/vlc it?

[fastlanephil]

I've researched this and it look like if you want t cheap PC it will be noisy.

There's a room next to me but I gave it to my lady friend use it for her own space but she's not in there much.

I also have a high crawl space under the house. Maybe I could stick it down there if it's legal.

[spoonie1972]

http://www.quietpc.ca/

that might help.

i have my mac pro in another room - the only time i access it is when i'm tweaking a vep5 template. as quiet as they are, i'm happy to never hear it.

i'm curious about your crawl space having a legal issue?

[fastlanephil]

i'm curious about your crawl space having a legal issue?

I probably could have a PC down there. I have seen houses with furnaces in their crawl space.

The issue might be installing an electrical outlet that would be code or just running an electrical cord down there. I do have a dead 220 volt line down there which I had put in during construction for a hot tube option. I think I could have an electrician install an outlet with a 220 to 110 converter and after running the cat cable down there and something stable to set the PC on with lighting, I would be good to go. With the moister barrier it seems to be dry and never very warm or very cold.