Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

General user help and bug reports for Playground Sessions for Windows
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Pohutukawa
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:18 pm

Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

Post by Pohutukawa » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:16 pm

Hi there, I'm a Mac user but need to buy a dedicated machine to go with my Casio Privia + Playground Sessions, and not a Mac because $$$$! Can anyone recommend a machine that's not wildly expensive that might work for that, so JUST for my music learning. I'm totally ignorant about anything other than Macs (and not even wildly knowledgable about them really)... Thanks!

Moreless
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 12:45 am

Re: Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

Post by Moreless » Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:58 pm

Pohutukawa wrote:
Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:16 pm
Hi there, I'm a Mac user but need to buy a dedicated machine to go with my Casio Privia + Playground Sessions, and not a Mac because $$$$! Can anyone recommend a machine that's not wildly expensive that might work for that, so JUST for my music learning. I'm totally ignorant about anything other than Macs (and not even wildly knowledgable about them really)... Thanks!
I have a Dell Inspiron 7352

Specs:
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Hard Drive: 256GD SSD
  • CPU: i7 2.4GHz
  • GPU: Intel Graphics 5500
It's less $$ than a MAC. No lag issues. That should give you a starting point.

Here is a pictures of my setup:
https://imgur.com/a/ViQFbOK

I have a key on my keyboard macro'd to switch between monitors when I'm ready to play. Before I had the monitors, I would set the laptop on top the keyboard. The screen felt small so I upgraded. Plus, I hated disconnecting and re-connecting all the cables, so I got a docking station.

Pohutukawa
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:18 pm

Re: Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

Post by Pohutukawa » Fri Jun 15, 2018 2:11 am

Many thanks @Moreless for the suggestion, which I'm gonna look into. What a great looking set-up you have. Mine is totes Michael Mouse compared to yours...but I have definitely learned that messing about plugging, unplugging devices blah blah blah is an impediment to practising, so a situation like yours (at least, within the confines of my tiny room and crappy piano stand) with a dedicated monitor etc. is a goal...

andrewwegierski
Posts: 783
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 4:37 pm

Re: Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

Post by andrewwegierski » Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:33 am

I would say in general, look for these requirements:

-A large, HD display monitor (almost a given these days, anyway).
-8 GB of RAM
a side note about this: I have a 4 gb RAM laptop computer from 2015, and I frequently get messages like "there is not enough memory available for this task" when running complex programs like Sibelius, Playground, Google drive, etc all at once. In a nutshell, RAM (Random access memory) is the memory or "Brainpower" that your computer has to run multiple tasks at once. Otherwise, it won't be able to keep up with all the processes and it will be overloaded and very slow.
-USB ports, headphone inputs
-AMD 12 or intel i7 processor - i3, i5 and i7 all came out around the same time, but the i7 core processor is definitely better than the others. AMD is more of a gaming processor, so it can definitely handle complex operations like Playground.
Andrew Wegierski

Customer Support Representative
Music Arranger

support@playgroundsessions.com

Pohutukawa
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:18 pm

Re: Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

Post by Pohutukawa » Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:05 am

Oh dear... Thanks. I'll take all the info from this thread with me if/when I pluck up the courage + $$ to spring for something. Many thanks!
andrewwegierski wrote:
Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:33 am
I would say in general, look for these requirements:

-A large, HD display monitor (almost a given these days, anyway).
-8 GB of RAM
a side note about this: I have a 4 gb RAM laptop computer from 2015, and I frequently get messages like "there is not enough memory available for this task" when running complex programs like Sibelius, Playground, Google drive, etc all at once. In a nutshell, RAM (Random access memory) is the memory or "Brainpower" that your computer has to run multiple tasks at once. Otherwise, it won't be able to keep up with all the processes and it will be overloaded and very slow.
-USB ports, headphone inputs
-AMD 12 or intel i7 processor - i3, i5 and i7 all came out around the same time, but the i7 core processor is definitely better than the others. AMD is more of a gaming processor, so it can definitely handle complex operations like Playground.

andrewwegierski
Posts: 783
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 4:37 pm

Re: Advice on Basic Dedicated Desktop Computer?

Post by andrewwegierski » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:05 pm

No problem!
Andrew Wegierski

Customer Support Representative
Music Arranger

support@playgroundsessions.com

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