i need a computer

So I need to invest in a new computer . I have about 1500. ( USA )to spend and would like any advice that i could get . I will be using it for recording software and a synth . Is RAIN a good system ? I was browsing this one thanks

good lord 

Hate to say it, but personally I wouldn't buy it. I'd stick with a quad core (mines a q6600 intel quad. still in the top 50 processors (and I bought it 1 year ago for $399))....personally I'd seriously consider an intel I7....which is a hyperthreaded quad, giving you 8 cores. If you are any good with simple stuff, you can replace every fan in it with a quiet fan, and put something like a silent Radeon video card in it. Compare the processor specs.... an intel quad vs. a "generic amd dual core" which they seem to give you no specs there. You can compare processor power here (left column Benchmark, right column how fast, 1 being fastest cpu, on down...mine is 49th fastest on the list): If you are going to run any soft vst's you will want horsepower under the hood. Dell i7 xps review Find them here starting at 749$ Of course the video card in this dell is performance oriented and as such has a fan which will make noise. But buying a fanless video card such as: will get you a long ways towards a silent pc. Putting it in your pc is pretty simple, there are I'm sure lots of how-to's on the net... you know, unplug computer, remove side, unlatch existing video card....etc. Changing video cards is pretty simple, and since these Dell's come with Radeon's, upgrading the driver for it should be easy. Replacing fans with silent ones is as easy as ordering the right size, unscrewing them, and and unplugging them (power off) and reversing that order with new fans. You can order quiet fans from several places... such as: and they all are rated in db's of noise. One other comment, the review mentions noise coming on suddenly. My older dell quad usually is exremely quiet. But during boot up and shut down, the fans come up. Also my radeon card that currently lives in that machine isn't fanless anymore, as I moved towards playing some games, and removed the silent card. When it starts up a game, the video card ramps up the fan. There are ways of setting up fan's that will stick within certain silent configurations... you usually have to play with the settings. Hope this helps. regards

Toshiba's 

Are Toshiba's any good for home recording ? And what about Vista ? I see the Dell has Vista . I heard i may run into problems there with software issues !?!

toshiba 

windows 7 

the I7's are using ram called ddr3. 

the I7's are using ram called ddr3. Is this on the Rain or Toshiba ?

pro Dell version