Considering a high end PC build? READ!

[dannycurtean@yah]

After seeing so many contributions to GearSlutz I decided I would make one according to my expertise - computers, in order to help fellow GS build a successful computer while picking proper and perform ant components.

This thread is dedicated to building a computer for multimedia production (Mainly audio but also Video and such)

There are 5 very important components when building a high end computer. These should be considered of high importance and not skimped on, and they are; (IN THIS ORDER)

1. Chipsets (Northbridge and Southbridge combo)
Chipsets are very important. The reason a good chipset combo is important is because a chipset on a motherboard directly dictates what your computer can and cannot have as far as expandability and future upgrades. It directly dictates what performance parts you can and cannot have and MOST IMPORTANTLY it directly dictates your computers stability and efficiency in using your hardware.

2. Motherboards
The reason I am mentioning motherboards as the second most important thing is simple - a well built motherboard with the expandability options you need will last you allot longer physically and virtually in getting everything you need to get out of your computer for years to come. Some may think that any motherboard will do, but with my extensive experience in IT, I would have to disagree. The build quality of a motherboard is as important as the build quality of an Analog to Digital Converter or ADC. The single surest way to identify a quality motherboard is to find a quality manufacturer.

3. Memory (RAM)
Now if you want rock solid stability and an insane computer is not in your agenda, you can move RAM to slot # 2. The reason I say this is because motherboards are more important when going to the high end spectrum of PC performance for things such as over clocking. Ram can be picked on one of two characteristics.
A. Rock solid performance, usually with a down step in performance, or
B. Super fast speed, usually but not always at the expense of stability.

As with Motherboards the build quality and ultimately the manufacturer of the RAM is absolutely CRUCIAL! I cannot stress enough how important it is to pick your RAM properly and wisely. RAM can be the component in your PC that will make it run solid and fast but it can also be the component that can destroy performance and stability. I have a little saying with memory and it is "There is nothing memory cannot do. Memory can blow up the moon if it’s set right; therefore never disregard it as the culprit in your problems."

Important things to note about memory that should concern you are;

1. Timings - (you know, the 3-3-3-21)
Timings are more important than raw clock speed of memory. Timings are, well, timings of when the module reads and writes to the blocks and how fast or often it switches banks. So the lower the timings, the lower the latency for reads and writes.......yes.....the faster the ram. BUT! Be careful in your selection because this is the most dangerous part of any RAM module. It DIRECTLY influences whether the RAM runs faster than it should and therefore cause it to trip itself which to you, the user means....
duuhhh duuhhh duuuuuuuuuH! THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!

2. Clock Speed. The second most important thing in RAM is the clock speed. Now the newer DDRIII modules run allot faster than the old DDRII modules mainly because of the newly discovered FSB speeds which have been haunting the Intel FSB platform for a good number of years. The new DDRIII architecture can run up to 2000 MHZ speeds, yeah that’s 2 GHz memory. And you might say "ohh that’s great, I’ll get me some DDRIII on my next build"....and I say, sure.....IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT! DDR III runs more the double the price of DDR II for not that much performance increases. Meaning.....spend your money on a better CPU.

3. RAM Voltage. The third thing to consider when selecting RAM is the voltage. All ram modules need a certain voltage to run stably and smoothly. The reason you should consider this important is because of the power consumption and therefore heat output of the modules. If you don’t care about having loud fans circulating air through your case to keep things from overheating then skip this. Now DDR III is great at voltages. It runs faster, but also uses considerably less juice to keep it going....therefore less heat output and a little more performance. It’s up to you to decide which is for you but remember - pick the board first that supports the memory you want to use be it DDR II or DDR III.

4. Cooling.
Cooling is very important in a computer. It’s quite simple - the cooler you’re CPU, RAM and Chipsets run the better your computer performs and the more stable it is. Now because this is for studios and multimedia production you must not skip cooling. Good cooling doesn’t necessarily mean jet engine turbines pushing air in your case. Good cooling means the latest technology to improve cooling efficiency. One great example of efficiency is heat pipe technology. I’m not going to go into all the crazy details but in theory heapipes are better at cooling because it sucks the heat out of the source and moves it very fast and efficiently to the heat sink for dispassion. A good heapipe cooler for your cpu is important not only to prolongue the life of the cpu or to just keep it cool, but also heapipe coolers tend to be extremely quiet as far as operational noise by as much as -10 to -15 dB when compared to other "stock" coolers.

5. Balance. You might say, well don’t you think that power supplies, Disk drives and hard drive are important? Yes I really do believe that all that is important and the best components should be picked, but balance between everything is a much better "component" to have in making sure everything is taking advantage of everything else to its fullest. In other words, having a super fast Intel Extreme CPU won’t do you any good if you only are running DDR I and a 5400 RPM hard drive. The other components are bottlenecking the CPU. So when building your computer make sure that you define a budget for yourself and buy accordingly. The main reason for this thread was to inform you in making the proper decision and not throwing your money away on Dells and HPs which can be a fraction of the performance of a computer you build yourself for the same amount of money. So it is again, very important to keep things in perspective when picking your parts. A quad core with DDR II is great but not as great as a Dual Core with DDR III and a 10,000 RPM Raptor hard drive.

Speaking of hard drives, for audio it is worth your investment to get as many 10,000 RPM hard drives in your main storage as possible. Sample libraries getting to the sizes they are getting, it’s important that your computer can pull and send files over to your DAW very fast so I would consider hard drives way up there with memory. A hard drive does not really influence stability but it does greatly influence performance especially at high load times. So remember, get yourself a 10,000 RPM hard drive as your main C drive and get another 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor (300 GB) for sample storage....if more is needed get another Velociraptor for more storage accordingly, you will tank yourself later. You don’t NEED 10,000 RPM hard drives for your sounds drive or recording drive, but I would highly recommend 10ks for main C drives and sample drives (such as Atmospheres database, and Ominisphere.....Battery, ect.)So you don’t wait 10 seconds for your patches to load.

Now to conclude this recommendation, I would like to provide some specs for a fast and stable computer that won’t break the bank.

As I mentioned earlier for Motherboards and RAM it is VERY important what manufacturer you go with and PLEASE NOTE! CERTAIN MANUFACTURERS DONT GET ALONG. For example, I have NEVER been able to get OCZ RAM to run properly in Asus motherboards. In fact I just did a $3k+ build and I broke my own rule of getting OCZ with Asus and boy did I regret it. I had to dish out another 600 bucks to get the Corsair ram that I have now (which works a MILLION times better).

Some of my HIGHLY regarded manufacturers:
*Asus (Motherboards and coolers)
*Corsair (XMS and Dominator series for RAM....THE BEST! They also make great power supplies)
*Ultra (Power supplies and accessories)

So now down to raw specs.

Asus P45 Chipset Motherboard (with DDR II or DDR III, your call)
DDR III Corsair XMS 1333 MHz (lowest timings you can get)
Ultra X3 800 Watt Power supply
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @ 3GHz (important)

Note, for a stable multimedia workhorse, do not get pre over clocked components. Stick to the stick stuff because you want performance and stability.

I picked an Intel P45 chipset because of its widely known stability and also the performance options it has. Whets great about P45s is that it offers many different configurations of expandability (you know for those PCI-e Cards that keep coming out like UAD 2, RME, Lynx, Apogee, and ECT.) So make sure you think about what config you want and what expansion slots you need.

Intel is currently the #1 CPU manufacturer by a pretty healthy margin. Their Quad cores (namely the new 45nm processors) and a must have in a great performance build.

Corsair is the best memory manufacturer in the world by man’s terms. I have used it and it’s more solid than it should be. It’s one of those components you get because you know it won’t be the problem and it’s FAST!

So I built myself like I said a $3,500 dollar box with:
Asus Striker II Extreme (Nvidia 790i Ultra Chipset) Motherboard
Intel Q9450 Quad core (Overclocked to 3.6 GHz stable)
2 GB Corsair Dominator III (DDR III @ 1800 MHz)
Ultra X3 1k Watt Power Supply
Western Digital 10k RPM VelociRaptor (300 GB)
2x BFG 9800 GX2 in Quad SLI (that’s 4 high end graphics cards)
Air heat pipe cooling

And I am telling you, with this setup, no matter what I do, I cannot get the CPU meter up over 25%. I ran like 30 instances of waves IR 1 full at 96k and I couldn’t do it. So if you are looking for this kind of performance then contact me and I will be able to assist you in making the right decision for your next multimedia pc.

Do note, you don’t need to spend the kind of cash I did to get great performance. I did because I could and because I wanted to over clock.

Hope this helps and I will apologies ahead of time for any grammar mistakes I have made. Seems that after so many words GS won’t do spellchecking anymore lol, so I just hope this was informative to somebody.

Cheers!

[JustinAiken]

Originally Posted by dannycurtean@yah

I picked an Intel P45 chipset because of its widely known stability and also the performance options it has.

....

So I built myself like I said a $3,500 dollar box with:
Asus Striker II Extreme (Nvidia 790i Ultra Chipset) Motherboard

??? I'm confused.

But very true guide - my first big build I used an Asus Striker Extreme I board, which used some nvidia chipset, and it was horrible - crashed all the time. Then I got an Abit IP35 board using the Intel P35, and it's been much more stable. Buying the Asus Striker board was a huge mistake - $300, and I couldn't return it because I bought it from compusa right before they went out of business.

But the much cheaper IP35P board is great! And it can run osx86!

[357mag]

I don't think I would spend $3500 on a computer just for recording. That's excessively expensive. You can get a Mac Pro for less than that.

I feel instead of spending a whole ton of money in just one area, it might be better to distribute the money a little. I could take a lot of that money and buy other things like an isolation cabinet, some real good mics, and another Marshall head which would benefit me more.

My latest machine has an Intel Processor, an Intel Motherboard, an E-MU sound card, Crucial RAM, an nVidia Graphics Card, Seagate Hard Drives, and an Antec Power Supply. Works pretty good. And it cost about $2500 less than what you spent.

But to each his own. Everyone likes to set up and run their computer their own way so in the end as long as you are happy with the outcome then that is probably all that matters.

[Hammer v2]

??? I'm confused.

But very true guide - my first big build I used an Asus Striker Extreme I board, which used some nvidia chipset, and it was horrible - crashed all the time.

That's probably why ASUS made a Striker mkII....

[357mag]

My eyes are absolutely watering! Your post was the funniest thing I've read on the internet in a long time. I could barely control myself while reading your post.

I see your point exactly. And the way you expressed it was hilarious!

Congratulations for making me laugh. I can't sleep very well anyway due to all sorts of issues. But tonight I won't be able to sleep cuz I read your post.

[hereadawtheradaw]

ahh yes, it's lovely being scared to sleep, i'll be up along with you until atleast 7 or 8 am...I'm messing with reaper as an experiment, the interface is so annoying and frustrating to try to arrange with that it gives you a fire in your belly to record some really seething and incisive lyrics...i get madder and madder until i just go off and it's really entertaining stuff, but of course the music sucks because I can't express what i want in that realm with this ******** interface.


also, you're pretty intense dude, drawing all those emotions from my post...i think you were pretty accurate, my emotions came through pretty well and it was a poignant post with a strong spirit that travelled right through the screen at which time you were like a DAC and you converted it back into analog emotions from 1's and 0's.

[neilwilkes]

Originally Posted by 357mag

I don't think I would spend $3500 on a computer just for recording. That's excessively expensive. You can get a Mac Pro for less than that.

................................

But to each his own. Everyone likes to set up and run their computer their own way so in the end as long as you are happy with the outcome then that is probably all that matters.

The first part I could simply not disagree more with.
At the risk of getting flamed here, I am sick & tired of the mac snobbery against PC.
Everybody - and I mean everybody - I know running a Mac/PT/Logic combinations has trouble and lots of it. I just spent a very pleasant weekend break with a work colleague running PTHD on around 3 different macs (The original PT setup was admittedly seriously stable for him) where he had to get a new system to run PT HD as he had run out of tracks on the old setup.
Since then it has been nothing but trouble.
OS updates mean older plugins do not run, will not install, will not authorize, all manner of troubles.
Plugin changes & architecture changes mean similar things. I saw this with my own eyes - 3 new plugins bought for compatibility purposes ( another client was running them) but if Logic authorized one, PT would not & Vice-Versa.
I was, frankly, appalled at what I saw.
And I know he is far from alone. SO the grass ain't necessarily greener.

The second part I agree with whole heartedly.
It ain't what you got - it's what you do with it that matters.

(FWIW, I am running a PC with the following specs:
XP Pro SP2
ASUS Commando
3 UAD-1 (Will get a UAD2 Quaddie next month)
2Gb Crucial RAM
Q6700 CPU (4 cores at 2.66GHz)
Nuendo 3.2.1 & 4.2.2
1,000W PSU
Praetorian Coolermaster case.
Rock solid, silent & only crashes if I do something stupid.
(No internet except to download licenses, 6 dongles (2 iLOK, 2 Syncrosoft, 1 Sonic Rainbow Sentinel, 1 MLP) with the 2 iLOK directly into a port, and the rest on a powered hub.

Cannot tip this over 50% CPU.

[waltermusik]

Folks,

just consider the topic of this thread. The OP wanted to describe how to build a high end PC, and this is what he did, delivering reasonable info.

To those who use Mac anyway, this is just not an interesting thread. Fine.

To me, being more interested in a quiet than a powerful setup (boy, considering all the bl**jobs it needs to keep that 1kW monster cool, how can you still hear your musicians?), this is interesting because it delivers valuable background even though I will never buy or build such a machine.

My PC runs at roughly 90W, using a (I believe) 350W fanless power supply. It will not be able to cope with Danny's load though.

Cheers, thomas

[jcschild]

Hi Danny,
first let me say thats for taking the time for such a long post.

if you dont mind a little constructive critisism (corrections)

Memory:
timings, the increase of a CL rating IE: from CL5 to CL4 is very nominal and is mostly only a concern for samples guys. less than 10% increase at best.

raw clock speed is FAR more a concern, however ONLY when balanced with front side bus speeds.

using 1066 ram on a stock FSB is pointless over 800 ram.

how it works (for those who dont know)
DDR 2 800 realy is 400 FSB speed.

a CPU @ 1333 is really 333 FSB (a 5/4 ratio)
a CPU @ 1600 is really 400 FSB. ( a 1 to 1 ratio)

however if you are overclocking out of spec. (past a 400 FSB) then the DDR2 1066 is needed.

at the same time less than 800 is a bad thing even if you have a 1066 FSb processor like the Q6600 the motherboard defualt would be still 800 fsb for the ram.

now going to DDR3 1600 (if your a samples guy) will yeild a huge increase over DDR2 800.

where as going to DDR3 1066 would actually be worse that DDR2 800.
at the same time getting DDR3 2000 is a complete waste unless doing extreme over clocking (again out of spec)

again CL factors (timings) dont seem to yield much for audio.

lastly Corsair is not the holy grail. there are numerous manufacturers just as good

Corsair does not make memory they only assemble it using other memory.
Super Talent
OCZ
Mushkin
Crucial
ETC
the key is not to buy value ram but to buy the higher end line.
also buying ram with Samsung chips is prefered.

ram voltage is unimportant unless
1) using an Intel brand motherboard (they dont like agreesive memory voltages)
2) build a new Core i7 system (past 1.7 will fry the cpu.)


Hard drives: 10k RPM are a complete waste of money. the only area it makes a little sense is for disk streaming samples.
most samples are now memory loading.

as far as the OS drive for 10k completely useless unless booting into windows 5 seconds faster is important to you. after that is offers little benefit to an audio system.

i agree that a power supply is highly important.

as far as cooling, all the heatpipes in the world wont help you if you dont get the hot air out of the case!

the only comment i have about motherboards is
i wouldnt touch Asus with a 10' pole right now.

their build quality has went down hill horribly for the last few yrs.

Scott
ADK

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by jcschild

Hi Danny,
first let me say thats for taking the time for such a long post.

if you dont mind a little constructive critisism (corrections)

Memory:
timings, the increase of a CL rating IE: from CL5 to CL4 is very nominal and is mostly only a concern for samples guys. less than 10% increase at best.

raw clock speed is FAR more a concern, however ONLY when balanced with front side bus speeds.

using 1066 ram on a stock FSB is pointless over 800 ram.

how it works (for those who dont know)
DDR 2 800 realy is 400 FSB speed.

a CPU @ 1333 is really 333 FSB (a 5/4 ratio)
a CPU @ 1600 is really 400 FSB. ( a 1 to 1 ratio)

however if you are overclocking out of spec. (past a 400 FSB) then the DDR2 1066 is needed.

at the same time less than 800 is a bad thing even if you have a 1066 FSb processor like the Q6600 the motherboard defualt would be still 800 fsb for the ram.

now going to DDR3 1600 (if your a samples guy) will yeild a huge increase over DDR2 800.

where as going to DDR3 1066 would actually be worse that DDR2 800.
at the same time getting DDR3 2000 is a complete waste unless doing extreme over clocking (again out of spec)

again CL factors (timings) dont seem to yield much for audio.

lastly Corsair is not the holy grail. there are numerous manufacturers just as good

Corsair does not make memory they only assemble it using other memory.
Super Talent
OCZ
Mushkin
Crucial
ETC
the key is not to buy value ram but to buy the higher end line.
also buying ram with Samsung chips is prefered.

ram voltage is unimportant unless
1) using an Intel brand motherboard (they dont like agreesive memory voltages)
2) build a new Core i7 system (past 1.7 will fry the cpu.)


Hard drives: 10k RPM are a complete waste of money. the only area it makes a little sense is for disk streaming samples.
most samples are now memory loading.

as far as the OS drive for 10k completely useless unless booting into windows 5 seconds faster is important to you. after that is offers little benefit to an audio system.

i agree that a power supply is highly important.

as far as cooling, all the heatpipes in the world wont help you if you dont get the hot air out of the case!

the only comment i have about motherboards is
i wouldnt touch Asus with a 10' pole right now.

their build quality has went down hill horribly for the last few yrs.

Scott
ADK

Hey, thanks man for the corrections. I do agree with you on speeds but the reason i wrote this thread in the fist place was to think for the people are that are inquiring about building a more capable system for less. That said, DDR II is cheaper and more suited for most people. DDR III vs DDR II is actually not that much faster. If you want more info, just do any google search for and you will be convinced. The benchmarks all scream it. In fact, with DDR III loading samples will not yeild any more speed or performance what so ever. And you are correct about the FSB speeds but you missed the whole multiplier thing which makes it super confusing for those who dont know what the Front Side Buss is anyways. But again, thanks for the contribution, you touched on things that I missed.

Guys, just as a side note, the system specs that I gave you at the bottom are for a CHEAPER system. It is not 3500 bucks....thats MY build and it is 3500 because I have 1200 dollars in graphics processors...soo hope that clears up some questions. A p45 or p35 chipset is very stable and VERY VERY CHEAP! Thats why I recomended it.

As far as macs are concerned, as a pc expert I would have to say that if you are not innovative and inteligent enough to keep a PC clean and running smooth, it is not Microsoft's or anybody else fault...its yours.

Macs are allot more simple to use and thats why it makes it a double edged sword....you cant do SHIT on macs...but thats just me as a heavy power user. In fact I recomend macs to my clients ALL THE TIME. Because for people that need email, music and some pictures capabability it is great. But for any serious user that needs power I could not imagine using a mac. lol what makes me laugh is the other day I saw a signature of a fellow on here that read something like "I have gone mac, and Im not goin back" and I could immediately associate with him because I have tried mac also.

And hey, thanks guys for the well received work and for all the appreciation. Was glad to help.

[dannycurtean@yah]

That is a bit true about Asus going down a bit. I was disapointed at that also.

And yes, common sence dictates that you get the hot air out of your case of course!!!

I know that Corsair does not MAKE the IC modules but they sure know how to pick them. Again, i am not going into details about what PLLs and IC chips and what capacitors that a motherboard or product use (which is important BTW lol) I am just trying to help the average guy decide what he needs to look out for when ordering parts from Newegg.com or any other online retailer (WHICH IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DO....DO NOT BUY PARTS FROM RETAIL STORES SUCH AS FRYS....RIPOFF!)


And as far as real world improvement for 10k rpm harddrive it does matter. You must consider the fact that in the very near future DAWs will slowly but surely upgrade to take advantage of the potential of new Quad Core systems with insane memory bandwidths. And with the new Nehalem platform comeing, people need to rethink about their code so they can take advantage of the hudge benefits. The reason I recommend 10k rpm harddrive for the C or main drive is because of, of course load times but as well and lower latency in reading and writing. The reason I recommend 10krpm harddrive for your "sounds" drive and "sample drives" is becasue when some of these people record 40 tracks at once (which is unlikely, but sure happens) you need the harddrive to be able to keep up and not crap your session. Its more of a precaution with some nice gains in performance. But you do have a point about the load times....I for one care if I wait 2 seconds for something to happen as opposed to 5. Think about it....sit there and count...Thats one reaon people wrongly, but surely pick quad cores....they think its faster...when really its not. A quad just has 4 threads as opposed to most CPUs having only 1 (excluding Prescotts) which in turn results in 4 simultanious threads being active on the buss as opposed to one. But it is not ....FASTER....just does more at once.


But again, thanks for striking the match, you did cover things I either willingly left out or felt is unnecesary and confusing information.

[jcschild]

a side note to DDR3
its makes a HUGE differnece for samples users.

read this thread

Cores and VSTi the facts

Scott
ADK

[dannycurtean@yah]

Its not that big of a difference unless you are overclocking. He has a 1600 MHZ FSB and ram speed which is overclocked because it is 1600 mhz! Fsb for non Q9770 CPUs is 1333....Therefore I am correct. 1333 speeds are stock and not overclocked....and for those speeds DDR III is not much of a difference. Please think about your arguments before you go posting.

But as far as dual vs quad, the thread is right....NOW, there is not much difference. But again, going to my earlier post, I say get quad, they are cheap and you will be benefiting from in the near future when programmers will write multithreaded apps to run quads propely...Right now, a Dual will run a Daw almost the same, (with quads being a little more powerful because of the availalbe threads and more plugin instances and what not.)

[jcschild]

Danny,
your not reading it corectly

Quad 3.0Ghz @ 1600fsb (this is overclocked) DDR2 800
ONLY 512 buffer.

Quad core 3.2GHz 1600 FSB DDR3 1600 CL7 (native 9770)
128 buffer clean


ummm thats 4 times better....

Scott
ADK


never mind the core i7

[357mag]

I was not implying that Macs are better. I simply stated that even an expensive Mac Pro was cheaper than a $3500 computer hand assembled. I agree that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the fence.

I was also wondering about the value and benefit of these 10000 RPM hard drives. A couple of people swear by them, but I suspect that they are the exception rather than the norm in most peoples's computers. I'm using 7200 RPM drives with no problems at all. I suspect most people also use them.

[verdisQUO]

Thanks for the thread. I'm considering building a PC. I've built loads, but never one for myself, let alone one for audio production. I'm making the switch from Mac. This will come in handy.






vQ.

[Scott Cairns]

Originally Posted by 357mag

I was also wondering about the value and benefit of these 10000 RPM hard drives. A couple of people swear by them, but I suspect that they are the exception rather than the norm in most peoples's computers. I'm using 7200 RPM drives with no problems at all. I suspect most people also use them.

Originally Posted by jcschild

Hard drives: 10k RPM are a complete waste of money. the only area it makes a little sense is for disk streaming samples.
most samples are now memory loading.

Agreed on all points. I have to do orchestral music a lot for my line of work, some themes have 100s of sampled voices streaming all at the same time. My 7200rpm drives have never even raised an eyebrow.

BTW - Hi Scott, hope all is well with you. My dual Xeon you gave advice on 5+ years ago is still going stong!

[jcschild]

5 yrs, man your doing good! glad i could help!

Scott
ADK

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by 357mag

I was not implying that Macs are better. I simply stated that even an expensive Mac Pro was cheaper than a $3500 computer hand assembled. I agree that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the fence.

I was also wondering about the value and benefit of these 10000 RPM hard drives. A couple of people swear by them, but I suspect that they are the exception rather than the norm in most peoples's computers. I'm using 7200 RPM drives with no problems at all. I suspect most people also use them.

Let me give you a practical benefit for 10k RPMs. Ever tried scrubing audio back or going from a certain point on (as in playing from a certain point) in any DAW and you get this czzzzzzrrrrrrrrrereeeeeeeee sound and then the audio takes a bit to come in? Thats slow harddrive speed. Also when you press stop certain tracks keep playing while others stop for about 1 second, same for startup? Thats a slow harddrive.... its definately not a must have, but for me its a benefit. I guess the benefit is in the eye of the beholder....even so I do recommend them (and I do agree they are overpriced) but I go by the rule that your chain is only as strong as your weakest links. You can make it wiht a 7200 RPM harddrive....the reason I recommend 10k I stated earlier and also tried to keep it as broad as possible so the recomendations fit lower end guys as well as high end guys with many many tracks. There are some great benefits in my book....but hey thats me. You may not see it that way and not notice the benefits...again eye of the beholder.

[357mag]

Yes I have heard that whirring..... noise when you take the cursor and move it back or forwards on a track. I was wondering what that was. Although that really isn't a big deal.

Is Western Digital the only company that makes these 10K drives? Does Seagate make them?

[princeplanet]

Hmm, I shoulda checked in here before I made my decision. Oh well. So I got me an ASUS P5K somethin' or other along with with the Q9550. So far so good despite a little kookiness and warnings about BIOS updating.

Could I have done better? btw, PT 7.4 on HD3........

[dannycurtean@yah]

For audio, I would have gone Q9450 because its cheaper and 200 mhz wont do much even if it is consistent throughout 4 cores. P5 series motherboards by asus have a great reputation but there is a reason why I recommend p35 - 45.

[jholmes]

BTW, Asus P5 series do use the Intel P35 chipset.

[manning1]

for those with less of a budget who dont need ultra big plug in counts,
there are lots of pc's you can buy used for 150 buks that are refurbs.
i see em all the time. dual cores.
imho one of the most important aspects is disk cache.
install a nice 32 mb cache 7200 rpm drive to record to.
and you can do easy 80 traks in a song.
for a total cost of 250 buks.
way more traks than i need to do a song.

i'm also concerned bout spending lots of buks when i suspect
budget 8 core systems are coming.
cos intel n amd have gotta keep the revenue flowing in.

[AB3]

I was curious about the original post indicating the use of dual graphics cards. What benefit does that serve with audio? I usually get an inexpensive, non-intensive graphic card, because I am more concerned about the audio than the video. Am I making a mistake there?

[ekwipt]

No I don't think you are making a mistake it depends on what you need, if all you need is one monitor buy the cheapest PCIe card with the most stable drivers....

[Scott Cairns]

I currently run a dual graphic card, powering two 17" LCDs.

One thing to keep in mind with running multiple monitors, is in how it can affect the placement of your speakers and your monitoring environment.

At the end of the day, the audio is the most important thing - thats why im ditching the 2 x 17" screens and going with one 24" on an articulated arm.

ATDEC SPACEDEC ACROBAT: Atriculated Arm | Desk Mounts & Mounting Solutions | Atdec

[357mag]

The original poster spent $3500 building his dream system. He also pointed out that he had the money to do it so he chose to do so. Nobody else of course needs to spend anywhere near this amount to build a good PC for recording.

I believe he also said he put in $1200 worth of graphics cards. If I remember correctly he also stated that he uses his machine for working with video.

But if all you're doing is audio you can probably get by with a graphics card that costs about $1100 less.

[7161]

well, that original post a load of old tosh if you dont mind me saying so.


1. that machine is spec'd all wrong for music

2. that machine is spec'd all wrong for video


so whats the point of it? in the video scenario, there's not enuff drive space for even editing SD video, the 10,000 rpm drives arent required for SD video, but also will not be of use for HD video etc etc, there's no import/export cards, no RAID setup etc.

In a music scenario it's slightly better in as much as the cpu is ok, but the graphics is completely wrong and a huge waste of money, and it simply doesnt have enuff drive space. On top of that overally it's full of sweeping generalisations such as the talk about asus boards.


sorry, but thats my take on it. it's complete nonsense from start to finish. and to kinda prove that point, what person out there with even a little pc experience would save ANY critical data such as synth 'patches' on their C: drive?

[357mag]

I prefer smaller internal hard drives. These massive drive sizes that we have now are ridiculous. If you need it that's fine but I don't need 500GB or 750GB. If you're working on 12 feature films then I can see utilizing the space. But otherwise...

I save all my stuff to external drives.