How much horsepower needed for a recording sound card?

[kranky]

I need to get a quality sound card to record from a mixer - probably either the e-mu 0404 or the m-audio 2496. I saw the minimum system requirements listed for the cards and they don't seem too demanding. Worst case was 1Ghz CPU and 256MB RAM.

If all I need to do is capture quality (48-bit) sound from a mixer, will any new PC be powerful enough? I'm planning on getting the cheapest Dell I can find and stick the sound card in it, if that will get the job done. This is for a non-profit and the only other thing they do with the PC is run Powerpoint, so extra money spent on performance might be wasted.

Thanks in advance.

 

[oynaz]

I did fine with my Celeron 375 Mhz and 320 Mb RAM, so I do not think you need to worry. Remember that 48-bit sound files take up quite a large amount of hard disk space, so the hard drive should not be too small.

 

[Tarrant64]

Any $300-$400 Dell should be sufficient enough to get what you need done. Intel P4, 512mb RAM and you should be good to go. That's way more than enough. 🙂

 

[kranky]

Thanks for the insights, much appreciated! 🙂