Professional C5 Music Production Computer

The Professional C5 audio computer features the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and more than a half-terabyte of hard disk storage”all in the space of 3 hard drive cases. The Professional C5 is designed for professional musicians who want the computer at the heart of their digital studio to be flawless, supremely powerful, quiet and overly robust. This PC is all those things and then some.

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU

The Professional C5 is an Intel Core 2 Duo workhorse built on the 1066 MHz front-side-bus Intel 945G chipset. It runs Windows XP music applications very fast. The dual-core engine is the latest wave of performance power coming to your desktop. This is an impressive performance increase compared to the previous generations of processors. For years MusicXPC has utilized the virtues of the Intel architecture and its outstanding performance attributes. Now, finally, everyone's on the bandwagon. While some competitors are just getting their feet wet in the Wintel world, MusicXPC is on their fourth generation of these music production powerhouses.

Motherboard for Music

The Professional C5 is equipped with a premium motherboard that is ideal for a music production studio. This motherboard supports 1066 MHz FSB, Intel Core 2 Duo processors, DDR2 RAM (Dual Channel) and PCI Express. The motherboard supports the next-generation hard drives based on the SATA 2 storage specification, which provides enhanced scalability and a doubling the bus bandwidth for high-speed data retrieval and saves. The motherboard incorporates a heat-pipe which ferries heat away from the CPU through noiseless conduction rather than large noisy fans - found in many other computer. The motherboard sports all the essential ports you can ever want.

DDR2 667 RAM

The Professional C5 is loaded with 1GB of top-tier, dual-channel, custom-made DDR2 667 MHz RAM upgradeable to 2GB. Starting in 2007 MusicXPC introduced custom made RAM in all their computers. This RAM comes from a top-tier supplier who manufactures and tests the RAM chips to meet rigorous standards. This RAM is then supplied in matching pairs that are further tested for perfection using a combination of special RAM testing software and MusicXPC's own proprietary systems, methods and tools. By the time a Professional C5 computer arrives in your studio it is certified to be in possession of flawless, ultra fast RAM.

570 GB of HD Storage

The Professional C5 is meant for professional music production. This means that it needs multiple hard drives. Multiple drives are a tremendous way to safeguard your data. The Professional C5 comes with 2 Serial ATA II, 7200 RPM drives that run fast and quiet. The drives also host a Host Protected Area that is accessible outside of the Windows operating system where the Factory image resides. This means that even if your drive crashes, your computer may still be recoverable. Access to more than half a TeraByte of storage means that you can record, record and record as much as you want as you keep your mind on the music side of the studio equation.

16X Dual Layer DVD Optical Drive

The Professional C5 ships with a 16X dual-layer DVD-R/RW recordable optical drive that does it all. Not only does it whip through CD authoring tasks, it also allows for backups of your audio projects to dual-layer DVD discs. This optical drive records data up to 4.7GB per side on DVD media and writes in all kinds of formats: DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, DVD-RAM and CD-R/-RW. The Super-Multi also reads most DVD and CD formats, including DVD+R/+RW. This adds up to one versatile drive suitable for any application. Buffer Underrun Protection and UltraDMA 4 support ensure fast, reliable writing every time. Supported formats include: DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, DVD-RAM, CD-R, CD-RW.

Very Quiet Operation

The Professional C5 would not be a MusicXPC if it didn't have components carefully selected to generate the whisper quiet operation music producers desire, deserve and demand. Each generation of computing technology ups the ante with respect to speed in all areas, this speed comes with a price - heat. To keep things cool, some computers employ an army of fans, which only brings an army of noise. The computer steps around this with a slick Heat-pipe technology which moves heat away from the CPU by convection instead of with fans. This audio optimized computer, as you would expect, is very quiet indeed.

Connections and Ports Galore

The Professional C5 covers every type of connection that music producers need now and later. There is 1 PCI and 1 PCI-E slot. The PCI slot work with most PCI cards on the market. There are 8 USB 2.0 and 2 FireWire ports and a Gigabit LAN port to lessen bottlenecks when piping data over a network. Two of the USB 2.0 ports are internal and can be used to deploy dongled inside the C5. SATA 2 throughout mean blistering, direct connections between the PC and internal & external hard drives. There are still the legacy PS2, COM and audio connections to make this not just a computer for your studio, but a computer capable of any function you can imagine.

Protected Backup/Restore

The Professional C5 sets itself apart from all other music computers with the inclusion of an almost magical backup/restore facility with the power to turn a nightmare of tears into a sigh of relief. You can easily survive major computer problems and fatal crashes by restoring the computer in minutes rather than in weeks via Fed Ex.

To make this possible, MusicXPC does some special work on the front end of production. A special section called the Protected Area is created on the main hard drive specially to hold the original factory image as well as future user created backup images. This is followed by the installation of the Windows XP section of the drive. The "Hidden Zone" invisible to the Windows OS and cannot be erased or tampered with by normal operations. This preserves and protects the backups and factory images from damage, accidents, viruses and deletions. The music producer can easily survive a fatal computer crash by invoking a restore procedure to a previous image stored in the "Hidden Zone".

The backup system is dependable and extremely flexible so that you can even back up to DVD, across a network, another hard drive. You can load images, modify them and append to them. MusicXPC boasts it is one of the most robust audio PC systems money can buy.

Aluminum Chassis

All MusicXPC Desktops and Small Form Factor machines have been made from this amazing metal. Aluminum makes for the best computer chassis because it is excels in a few key areas. It is strong and therefore can be a solid place to anchor other components. It is light and therefore will not add needless weight to the final product. It is corrosive resistant and therefore will never rust or warp like steel or plastic. It is a great heat conductor and helps the system dissipate heat by acting like a giant heat sink. Finally, one of the best qualities is that it looks gorgeous. The Professional C5 is aluminum through and through and it is a truly beautiful computer.

Service and Support

MusicXPC is supported by an acclaimed network of music retailers. These retailers form the backbone of the MusicXPC user-friendly support system and provide the first line of support. Added to that is an informative live telephone support line where you are treated like a human being and not an incident number. All customer support is free. All Customer Service staff is familiar many music software programs and can speak the musician's language, not just GeekSpeak from a flow chart.

Don't Worry, Be Creative

The Professional C5 music production computer surely is one sexy computer that is small, light, powerful and robust. MusicXPC takes the trouble out of making music today in a demanding studio environment by making triple sure that the system will work in 95% of conditions. It gives you unprecedented power and flexibility out of the box - no upgrades needed. MusicXPC provides every feature that 95% of customers need and want and then some. In the end you get to spend more time thinking about and music instead of installing drivers and tweaking the system.