the "today we build our studio pc"-thread

[flashofthedark]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

Discussed the RAM memory question in the chatroom. No one seemed to have experienced any problems with main brands of RAM and motherboards. Corsair and ASUS both are very widely used brands. Also, those parts will be put together at my retailers, so any incompatibility will be noticed when they test it.

Just make sure the specific ASUS motherboard has been reported to POST (boot up OK) with the Corsair PSU you're looking at and you're done there. As to the RAM/motherboard issue, allow me to regale you with another one of my many cautionary tales of DAW building woes to further educate you on this important issue.

This issue is not as commonly experienced as motherboard-to-audio interface issues, or cheap psu issues, but it can be a nasty insidious problem. It is not true that any incompatibility with RAM to motherboard will be discovered during the system build. The concern here is more long-term stability than general spec compatibility, and that will not be sussed out with whatever burn-in test, if any, your builder will do. That's why you should NOT rely on your builder for anything regarding compatibility. I've known people that have blown thousands on builders, and this was after I told them what parts they should get, but they had it in their mind that the builder would do a better job somehow, only to end up with sending parts back to forth to the builder company. I did not rub it in, but I sure wanted to. One of those companies was BOXX btw, the only personal account I've heard of their service. I do think my friends were expecting more from their builders than they should have, so I put some blame onto both parties, but the truth is they could have saved over $1,000 each just doing the research you're doing now, thoroughly, to the end, and end up with a fantastic system. Their situations were year-long nightmares, give or take a few months.

Anyway, RAM chips vary in many ways. You do not need to know the details why, but basically it comes down to RAM timings and chip manufacturer types, but mostly RAM timings; some motherboards do not stay very stable based on the timings or the chips used on the RAM, and this is a bigger deal with higher capacity RAM chips; 16GB kits definitely fall in that category. You can use one Corsair/Kingston/Crucial kit on a board with great results, and take that same kit over to another quality board with bad results; even though both boards report supporting the same exact RAM type and speeds, the results are not the same. I had the issue with this very DAW; it was the very last issue I had with it that caused instability. I used Crucial Ballistix, their high performance kit, which is rated to be as compatible and high quality as Corsair and Kingston. After tearing my hair out over the motherboard, PSU, video card, PCI cards, etc. it was time for the RAM. I replaced the RAM with a certain Adata kit, as I read someone who had my exact motherboard with my exact problem, and they now had 100% stability with the kit, 3 weeks going strong. Since I've put that kit in, never a blue screen was seen or heard from again on my system (except when I tested a cheap, inferior chipset PCI to PCMCIA adapter with my Hammerfall; a TI-based adapter fixed that issue).

So again, the long and short of it is a) confirm someone who's run that ASUS board with like a month or so with no issues, find out the RAM kit they used, or if that fails, b) enter the motherboard you've got over at crucial.com. Why ignore this last step when you've come so far? No good reason can be given I say.

[TheFutureIsSweet]

Sigh... One phonecall to an old buddy, and I'm back to square one.

It's hard to discuss the reasons why on this forum, due to the rules prohibiting the discussion of certain things, but let's say he informed me on compatibility of 64 bit systems with certain third party adaptations of software, wich means I would lose a lot of plug-ins that I don't own in the strictest sense of that word.

So it's either spend a lot of money on software, or choose a 32 bit option.

Now that changes a lot, and I will have to see if it is really possible and worth it to go for 32 bit. The good news would be is that the PC would become A LOT cheaper that way. The bad news is of course the restrictions that 32 bit systems will introduce on my performance.

I will report back...

[sam adams]

I haven't read all 38 pages. So I'm sorry if this is redundant or out of place.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, obviously to use for audio engineering, maybe a little gaming. I've never built one myself, assembly and all. But I've been told that's the cheapest way to go. Is it difficult? Or could anyone suggest places that just let you choose your specs and they put it together for you without charging insane amounts?

[flashofthedark]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

It's hard to discuss the reasons why on this forum, due to the rules prohibiting the discussion of certain things, but let's say he informed me on compatibility of 64 bit systems with certain third party adaptations of software, wich means I would lose a lot of plug-ins that I don't own in the strictest sense of that word.

So it's either spend a lot of money on software, or choose a 32 bit option.

I always have that situation on and off, depending on what I'm playing around with. It is not a big deal. There are three ways to go: 1) live with 4GB of RAM within Cubase 32-bit, which is plenty for a lot of projects, 2) get jBridge and use it with Cubase 32-bit, 3) if you're using the software long-term and need the 64-bit equivalents, buy it, or find cheaper equivalents. More research will show you you do not need Waves to sound good. There's some affordable amazing plugins out there, even free ones. Bundling is key with a budget.

As far as 1), it's far from ideal, but you sure can do a lot of projects with 4GB of RAM. It took me a while to push past 4GB on even my orchestral projects, so you have to understand how big your projects are to know how limiting this will be. But again, you're getting a new system, and it would be a waste of resources to live with this limitation. You'll want 64-bit, which brings us to

2) jBridge is pretty sweet. It can create multiple 32-bit environments for your plugins, effectively eliminating the 4GB barrier, and they work transparently inside the VSTi menu within Cubase 32-bit. The only issue with jBridge is it can be unstable, but there's a lot of support for this program, so research will be needed to see just how stable it will be with the 32-bit plugins you're considering. I've done limited playing around with jBridge myself, but it has a lot of tweaks and options available I have not touched.

3) Already went into. Free and ones that are bundled with Cubase; I don't know how experienced you are with mixing, but unless you've got serious clients, you could get great results with this stuff if you really learn how to mix well.

[Emilsh]

Same at the guy above ^^

Looking to buy a new computer... my budget is arround 600-800 euros (or up to 1000) well i don't know shit about computers so could anyone point me in the right direction?

[flashofthedark]

Originally Posted by Emilsh

Same at the guy above ^^

Looking to buy a new computer... my budget is arround 600-800 euros (or up to 1000) well i don't know shit about computers so could anyone point me in the right direction?

For PC, ADK; you cannot go wrong and Scott will take care of you. For Mac, Mac Mini or Macbook Pro, but if you're going Mac, you'll need help from somewhere like GS to know what hard drive to go with, how much RAM and where to get it, etc.

[flashofthedark]

Originally Posted by sam adams

I haven't read all 38 pages. So I'm sorry if this is redundant or out of place.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, obviously to use for audio engineering, maybe a little gaming. I've never built one myself, assembly and all. But I've been told that's the cheapest way to go. Is it difficult? Or could anyone suggest places that just let you choose your specs and they put it together for you without charging insane amounts?

Like I mentioned to the poster after you, ADK if you go PC. They keep their profit margins low, so you get a lot for your money. You'd get to deal with Scott, and he stands behind the systems 100%, and your customer support will not only be PC-centric but DAW-centric as well. You will not get that with Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc. They will not have a clue why your computer is popping or clicking in Ableton, but a call to ADK and they'll have your DAW software working as soon as possible. That's invaluable for someone like you who knows little to nothing about DAW PC configuration.

[TheFutureIsSweet]

Originally Posted by flashofthedark

I always have that situation on and off, depending on what I'm playing around with. It is not a big deal. There are three ways to go: 1) live with 4GB of RAM within Cubase 32-bit, which is plenty for a lot of projects, 2) get jBridge and use it with Cubase 32-bit, 3) if you're using the software long-term and need the 64-bit equivalents, buy it, or find cheaper equivalents. More research will show you you do not need Waves to sound good. There's some affordable amazing plugins out there, even free ones. Bundling is key with a budget.

As far as 1), it's far from ideal, but you sure can do a lot of projects with 4GB of RAM. It took me a while to push past 4GB on even my orchestral projects, so you have to understand how big your projects are to know how limiting this will be. But again, you're getting a new system, and it would be a waste of resources to live with this limitation. You'll want 64-bit, which brings us to

2) jBridge is pretty sweet. It can create multiple 32-bit environments for your plugins, effectively eliminating the 4GB barrier, and they work transparently inside the VSTi menu within Cubase 32-bit. The only issue with jBridge is it can be unstable, but there's a lot of support for this program, so research will be needed to see just how stable it will be with the 32-bit plugins you're considering. I've done limited playing around with jBridge myself, but it has a lot of tweaks and options available I have not touched.

3) Already went into. Free and ones that are bundled with Cubase; I don't know how experienced you are with mixing, but unless you've got serious clients, you could get great results with this stuff if you really learn how to mix well.

Well said. However, one problem, I have a lot of projects that use the plugins I haven't bought "yet". So I'll lose those. And unfortunately it's not just waves that is the problem. There's a bunch of stuff from a certain company that uses a lot of K's in their product names that I could lose as well. That's basically all my major synths...

[flashofthedark]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

I have a lot of projects that use the plugins I haven't bought "yet". So I'll lose those. And unfortunately it's not just waves that is the problem. There's a bunch of stuff from a certain company that uses a lot of K's in their product names that I could lose as well. That's basically all my major synths...

I don't see why you can't just open the projects on the new system after you install the plugins you installed on the last system. You can install 32-bit plugins on a 64-bit OS, you can run the 32-bit version of Cubase (is that what you're using?) on a 64-bit OS. Not sure what your issue is, but if your old system still works, you can finish the projects on that one. Or, you can port them over with a jBridge setup, you just need to setup the plugin and patches the same way and connect them to the appropriate track. Not a big deal.

[TheFutureIsSweet]

Well, I wish I could be more specific about the 64 bit issue with the plugins, but it's not allowed by the rules of the site. That can mean only one thing, right?

My friend used the same "discount" plugins I used, and couldn't install them on a 64 bit system. Further research showed that the people responsible for the bargain didn't extend that bargain to include users of 64 bit systems.

So yeah, you could install 32 bit plugins on a 64 bit system, but not when they come as cheap as I got them. That's the problem.

[chk23]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

Well, I wish I could be more specific about the 64 bit issue with the plugins, but it's not allowed by the rules of the site. That can mean only one thing, right?

My friend used the same "discount" plugins I used, and couldn't install them on a 64 bit system. Further research showed that the people responsible for the bargain didn't extend that bargain to include users of 64 bit systems.

So yeah, you could install 32 bit plugins on a 64 bit system, but not when they come as cheap as I got them. That's the problem.

I understand what you're talking about... So maybe it's time to get clean with this and buy the stuff you're using - or invest some time by replacing those "bargains" with some of the really great free (and legal) stuff that's out there. There's even currently one thread running here about the best free plugins available

[TheFutureIsSweet]

I really do wish I could follow your advice, and I will to some extent, chk23. But I've looked at the prices for NI Komplete and Cubase and the question then becomes wether to buy those packages or to buy a set of monitors and and audio interface. I will save up for them, since I've really grown to love those pieces of software. For the moment at least, the "bargains" will have to do. I'm not saying anyone should do the same thing I did.

Having discussed extensively with the old buddy I mentioned last night (we ended up having a 7 hour telephone call ending 5 AM this morning), I seriously downgraded the computer I'm buying. After all, he bought his computer a couple of years ago, and i3 was the best available option then. Since I know for a fact that his system runs perfectly, and would operate perfectly for my purposes, I've settled on buying an i5 processor (still better than his) with 4gb of 1600 mhz Ram. The great thing is that this guy is a very experienced pc builder (now IT consultant) and a pretty serious home studio owner, and he offered to build my system for free, so I can buy all the parts online at the cheapest price available. The entire system is now some 500 euros cheaper than what I had originally planned.

The choice that remains now is if I will stick with the Yamaha HS80M monitors, go for the Adam A7X, or wait til next month to test the new Adam F7 and go for those if they are close enough to the Adam A7X. The prices for a pair will vary between 500 euros for the HS80M's, 600 euros for the Adam F7, or 1000 euros for the Adam A7X. I'll need to test them all, or at least the Adam A7X and the HS80M. If I go for the HS80M's I could of course decide to buy either NI Komplete or Cubase, or I could invest the remaining cash on a decent vocal mic and A/D converter.

I really am very grateful for everyone's help, and I almost went for the system you guys helped me pick. Even now I am following some of your suggestions, such as the harddisk configuration, and the need for a good PSU and RAM. 4GB Ram will be somewhat limiting of course, but not as limiting as having to redo all my projects, and having to start over from scratch on a new DAW and a mountain of VST's. When the system is finally up and running, I will of course report back here.

For now, I say good morning, and in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

[chk23]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

I really do wish I could follow your advice, and I will to some extent, chk23. But I've looked at the prices for NI Komplete and Cubase and the question then becomes wether to buy those packages or to buy a set of monitors and and audio interface. I will save up for them, since I've really grown to love those pieces of software. For the moment at least, the "bargains" will have to do. I'm not saying anyone should do the same thing I did.

OK, I don't want to get too high on the moral ground here - I started too with some of those "free versions" before it became clear to me that this (producing and mixing music) is what I want to do seriously. But since I made the decision, I'm strictly buying the stuff I'm working with. And there are indeed lot's of free plugins out there, that don't have to hide behind any of the expensive commercial ones. As for sample libs, even there are cheaper (but still usefull) alternatives to the expensive stuff. And last but not least Reaper is a very good example for the fact that even a full featured and professional DAW can be found for a tenth of the price of the "big ones".

[TheFutureIsSweet]

Well, this is going very off-topic, but I know there's a lot of free stuff out there that can compete with the big boys, and in an ideal world I would work with free plugins, and a couple of real workhorses that are worth the money. Native Instruments would definitely be worth my money if I could afford it. Reaktor has been the centrepiece of my productions for about 12 years now, and I would never want to do without it. Pro53, FM7, and Akoustik Piano are almost as important to me as Reaktor. Outside of NI products, there's of course Waves plugins, and it would be quite a blow to lose BFD. As you can see, listing these plugins, that's some 1500 euros worth of software easily. And I've been using a lot more than just the ones I mentioned here.

This is going to be a gradual process for me. I'll try to phase out the bargains, and buy the pieces I really want, starting with NI, and replacing others with good free plugins. I'm about to take this music production thing to another level myself, so I'll have to get out of the dark and into the broad daylight some day. It's just a matter of not having the money, and having to make difficult decisions to achieve a workable environment.

[flashofthedark]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

Native Instruments would definitely be worth my money if I could afford it. Reaktor has been the centrepiece of my productions for about 12 years now, and I would never want to do without it. Pro53, FM7, and Akoustik Piano are almost as important to me as Reaktor. Outside of NI products, there's of course Waves plugins, and it would be quite a blow to lose BFD. As you can see, listing these plugins, that's some 1500 euros worth of software easily. And I've been using a lot more than just the ones I mentioned here.

BFD Eco is about $70. Komplete 8 is $499. You really do not need Waves unless you're doing jobs paying you in the thousands. They're great, but you really do not need them.

Free VST Plugs: How To Cut Your Costs By 100%

2012: The 27 best free VST plug-ins in the world today

Good deal... http://www.ebay.com/itm/NATIVE-INSTR...item20c5abb64d

[darkriver]

Hey everyone,

I've just built my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 i7 2600k.

I have two issues:

1) I can't get two monitors running. I get the D-sub video, but not the DVI. I have enabled multi monitors in the BIOS, tried the windows 7 driver, two Intel drivers from ASUS and one from Intel. ...just one monitor is recognised. I am about to give up and buy a dedicated card to support two monitors. Suggestions please...?

2) I am running a legacy PCI card (RME HDSP9652). Things seem fine for the most part, but if I have the HDSP_Mix application open the system will eventually freeze up (the clipping indicators all light up and the audio either stops or loops a half-second of audio) - not right away though and not all the time. ...and it doesn't matter what audio app I'm running (Media Player, Nuendo, Samplitude, etc.) This always requires rebooting to reset. Any thoughts...?

Thanks. Once I get things stable I will post my experiences with this project.

- d

[Masaaki]

Originally Posted by darkriver

Hey everyone,

I've just built my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 i7 2600k.

I have two issues:

1) I can't get two monitors running. I get the D-sub video, but not the DVI. I have enabled multi monitors in the BIOS, tried the windows 7 driver, two Intel drivers from ASUS and one from Intel. ...just one monitor is recognised. I am about to give up and buy a dedicated card to support two monitors. Suggestions please...?

2) I am running a legacy PCI card (RME HDSP9652). Things seem fine for the most part, but if I have the HDSP_Mix application open the system will eventually freeze up (the clipping indicators all light up and the audio either stops or loops a half-second of audio) - not right away though and not all the time. ...and it doesn't matter what audio app I'm running (Media Player, Nuendo, Samplitude, etc.) This always requires rebooting to reset. Any thoughts...?

Thanks. Once I get things stable I will post my experiences with this project.

- d

>2)
Have you tried disable/enable PCI power management feature in BIOS?
It seems a lot of problems around 9652 card in PCIe/PCI bridge motherboards are related to the power management feature of the PCIe bus.

[slugware]

hello everyone


i am going to have a custom music production pc built these days

so far i've decided on the cpu and i hesitate on the mobo


CPU I7-3770K /3.5G/8M/BOX/LGA1155
RAM 16 gb

my interface is rme ff400 and i've headed for any of those 2 models mb -

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard


or


GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

the main issue i am asking for this is compatibility and flawless integration between the rme ff400 and the mb,

i suppose the IEEE 1394 port is texas instruments chipset, but huh, anyways? has anyone experienced issues running the ff400 with any of these mobos?


besides from that, which mb would let me upgrade the system more?

can you recommend a better choice motherboard [in the same budjet] for that setup - cpu and audio interface

let me know what you think?

[msp13everlasting]

What would be more beneficial to me?

-1tb hard drive with 16gb of ram

or...

-1tb hard drive with 8gb of ram and an 2nd 500gb hard drive

I'm strapped for cash and have to choose between more ram or an extra hard drive? I'm using Sonar X1 x64 along with Nebula Pro 3x64.

[chk23]

Originally Posted by msp13everlasting

What would be more beneficial to me?

-1tb hard drive with 16gb of ram

or...

-1tb hard drive with 8gb of ram and an 2nd 500gb hard drive

I'm strapped for cash and have to choose between more ram or an extra hard drive? I'm using Sonar X1 x64 along with Nebula Pro 3x64.

depends... if you're not making extensive use of big sample libraries, 8 GB will be enough. A second harddrive will be usefull to have a separate projects drive, so that your DAW is able to read and write streams without being interrupted by OS tasks.

[ooohhh2]

Originally Posted by msp13everlasting

What would be more beneficial to me?

-1tb hard drive with 16gb of ram

or...

-1tb hard drive with 8gb of ram and an 2nd 500gb hard drive

I'm strapped for cash and have to choose between more ram or an extra hard drive? I'm using Sonar X1 x64 along with Nebula Pro 3x64.

I would say the second one. Put your OS, vst dlls and nebula programs on the smaller hd. You can add the ram later easily. But if you manage to have the money, an ssd 128gb would be nice, it helps to get faster loading time with nebula.

[DAW PLUS]

Originally Posted by TheFutureIsSweet

Well, I wish I could be more specific about the 64 bit issue with the plugins, but it's not allowed by the rules of the site. That can mean only one thing, right?

My friend used the same "discount" plugins I used, and couldn't install them on a 64 bit system. Further research showed that the people responsible for the bargain didn't extend that bargain to include users of 64 bit systems.

So yeah, you could install 32 bit plugins on a 64 bit system, but not when they come as cheap as I got them. That's the problem.

Originally Posted by chk23

I understand what you're talking about... So maybe it's time to get clean with this and buy the stuff you're using - or invest some time by replacing those "bargains" with some of the really great free (and legal) stuff that's out there. There's even currently one thread running here about the best free plugins available

CHK23 is correct. Go his way. Get the small Cubase package, get clean, don't bother paying users here to deal with cracked software. You don't need big expensive plugin bundles, packaged plugins are already pretty good for the bread and butter stuff, and LOTS of *real* freeware to get your creativity flowing, until budget allows to buy the toys you want to buy. One step at the time. Most of us suffer that...

Originally Posted by darkriver

Hey everyone,

I've just built my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 i7 2600k.

I have two issues:

1) I can't get two monitors running. I get the D-sub video, but not the DVI. I have enabled multi monitors in the BIOS, tried the windows 7 driver, two Intel drivers from ASUS and one from Intel. ...just one monitor is recognised. I am about to give up and buy a dedicated card to support two monitors. Suggestions please...?

2) I am running a legacy PCI card (RME HDSP9652). Things seem fine for the most part, but if I have the HDSP_Mix application open the system will eventually freeze up (the clipping indicators all light up and the audio either stops or loops a half-second of audio) - not right away though and not all the time. ...and it doesn't matter what audio app I'm running (Media Player, Nuendo, Samplitude, etc.) This always requires rebooting to reset. Any thoughts...?

Thanks. Once I get things stable I will post my experiences with this project.

- d

1. check BIOS, in advanced options there are settings for onboard video and I am pretty sure dual graphics are disabled by default on these boards.
2. its predecessor definately works great with PCI cards, not sure about the gen3 models. Try disabling all c-states in the BIOS, since ASUS SB boards tend to have an issue with that which does not show up in DPC monitoring.

Originally Posted by msp13everlasting

What would be more beneficial to me?

-1tb hard drive with 16gb of ram

or...

-1tb hard drive with 8gb of ram and an 2nd 500gb hard drive

I'm strapped for cash and have to choose between more ram or an extra hard drive? I'm using Sonar X1 x64 along with Nebula Pro 3x64.

What do you need? More drive space? If yes, no way to work around it. If you notice RAM is full and you trigger *lots* of samples, you might need more RAM, but somehow I doubt this is the case.
Buy what you NEED to get a good workflow. Drive space always is good since you will want backups on other harddrives.

[WhySoLazy]

Hello ,

I need new PC for film scoring , video games scoring and post production stuff.

Right now I use Live8 and some NI synths and next month I'm going to buy Komplete 8 Ultimate , but , eventually I want to use some heavy libraries like Symphobia , Omnisphere , LASS , EW STUFF etc .

I have 2 options :

Buying super strong PC ( i7-3930K - Intel X79 MB -32G RAM - 2TB HD - 128G SSD)

Buying semi strong PC ( i7-3770 8MB - Intel H77 MB - 16G RAM - 1TB HD - 128G SSD )

Because I'm only going to use Live8 and Komplete8 in next -1-2 years ( until i will buy the more serious libraries ) I'm not sure if this is good idea to buy super strong PC right not .

What do you thing guys?

Invest now on MONSTER MACHINE or buy decent PC and wait until I get all the serious libraries ?

[DAW PLUS]

One year is not that long, in 2 years you will probably want a new system anyway. Issue is, whatever system you buy, in 2 years you intend to shop for both a lot of libraries AND potentially a new system.
So I suggest to get a fast system now and concentrate on good libraries when budget recovers...

[WhySoLazy]

Originally Posted by Paul in SoCal

Do you have paid work waiting for you? If yes then go ahead and buy the best equipment you can, borrow money if you can. If not, then take your time to explore what's best for you. Just because a library is expensive, it doesn't mean it's what you're looking for.

Actually I'm a student in music college and I don't have any paid work yet

Recently I started write more cinematic music and I want to buy Komplete 8 Ultimate as it seems the best option for me right now . My PC always crashes so I want to buy new PC for music only .

I found today company that build custom PC for audio work .

Here what I'm thinking about :

i7-3820 (10MB )
Intel X79 MoBo
RAM- 16GB (4096 x4) DDR3 1600MHz
HD - 2GB 7200 ( 64MB) + 128GB SSD

What do you think ?

[chk23]

Originally Posted by Sameself

For all you hesitating on building a new PC i give you one simple reason and it involves only 3 letters:

SSD!!!!! Baby!

After building PCs for years, I had fallen into the camp that the value proposition didn't compensate for the hassle factor. But when it came time for a new PC i knew I wanted lots of SSDs and when I saw the price for off-the shelf I was like, huh??????????

So I had no choice but to build my own. And sure enough, it was a hassle. But worth it, because it forced me to update myself of the current technologies like SATA3, USB 3.0, etc.

And lemme tell you, running on an SSD is a dream! Boots so fast, runs my libraries like a hot knife through butter. I am going to get another SSD soon. I am never looking back ever again. HDD are dead to me. HDD what's that? Are you serious? Like looking for that 5-1/4" floppy drive...

Cuz here is the dealio....PCs have gotten so fast that the bottleneck now is the hard drive. hard to believe (no pun intended) since we have all been won over by the 1+ TB capacities.

So save your money where you can and splurge on RAM and SSD, then you can switch off the virtual memory like I did and fly by the seat of your pants. It's liberating and I luv it!

For system and applications drives - absolutely! But if you have big sample libs and extensive projects wit many recorded audio tracks, HDD still makes more sense for those. Because in a Raid setup there isn't much difference in performance with streaming (reasons for that have been pointed out often enough in this thread). And you can spend the 1000$ you saved by buying two TB HDDs instead of 2 TB SSDs for samples and projects for audio gear.
So my recommendation: 128-256 GB SSD for system and applications, and some big HDDs for the rest.

[sssmear]

I have $1K to spend which does not include monitors, mouse etc, for a recording computer. I have a Digi 002 and Pro Tools, but got rid of my iMacs.

I posted this in the wrong area earlier.


Is it unrealistic to think I can build a PC for $1K that is powerful enough to record music? I'm not asking for top of the line. I have so much random gear, and I have that creative feeling but I can't record any of it.

It's a bit embarrassing that I've been recording music for so long, but now that I'm starting from scratch (no computer), I just cannot figure out what I need.

I can get a hold of a mac pro laptop which is about 2 years old for about $500, but I guess I just have this idea that for $1K I can build a powerful PC which is much better.

Also, I'm sure it is, but can I use other software besides Pro Tools with my Digi 002?

[chk23]

Originally Posted by sssmear

I have $1K to spend which does not include monitors, mouse etc, for a recording computer. I have a Digi 002 and Pro Tools, but got rid of my iMacs.

I posted this in the wrong area earlier.


Is it unrealistic to think I can build a PC for $1K that is powerful enough to record music? I'm not asking for top of the line. I have so much random gear, and I have that creative feeling but I can't record any of it.

It's a bit embarrassing that I've been recording music for so long, but now that I'm starting from scratch (no computer), I just cannot figure out what I need.

I can get a hold of a mac pro laptop which is about 2 years old for about $500, but I guess I just have this idea that for $1K I can build a powerful PC which is much better.

I think you could - I don't have the time to do a google search for all the components in U.S. Dollar for you, but just take the parts recommended in this thread and do some research. I would start with an i5 2500 (or maybe i7 2600, if that's still within your budget) , look for a motherboard, 8 GB ram minimum, case, PSU, coolers, big HDD and small SSD... I made some good bargains with used parts on amazon marketplace, personally never had a bad experience with marketplace, but maybe I was just lucky...

Originally Posted by sssmear

Also, I'm sure it is, but can I use other software besides Pro Tools with my Digi 002?

Maybe you should google "Digi 002" and the DAW you want to use instead of Pro Tools - a "Digg 002 cubase" google search brought up that thread, for example:

Using my DIGI 002 control surface with Cubase - Avid Audio Forums

[kmaaj]

SO my kid's HP laptop's hard drive bit the dust, and rather than see if a new hard drive fixes the problem, he just goes out and buys a new Toshiba. ANd here I am trying to decide whether to get a new Win 7 laptop or a secondhand MacBook Pro to be a dedicated music recording and editing PC, and the though hits me: Why not take my kid's dead laptop to a geek and tell him to make it into a music machine, with a quieter fan? It's only 2 years old, my kid, the rabid gamer, brutalized it.

[WhySoLazy]

Hello ,

I need new PC .

I use Cubase6/Live8 , Komplete 8 and some Kontakt libraries .

I have 3 options :


( i7-3770 8MB - Intel H77 MB - 2x8G RAM - 1TB HD - 128G SSD ) -1150$

( i7-3820 10MB- Intel X79 MB - 4x4GB RAM -2TB HD - 128G SSD) -1550$

( i7-3930K 12MB- Intel X79 MB -8x4GB RAM - 2TB HD - 128G SSD) -2100$

It's not hard to say which one is the best PC but I'm not sure if I need right now the most expensive one .

I just have purchased Komplete 8 + 2 Orchestral Kontakt libraries so I'm pretty short in cash but if it's really necessary I'll try to get the best PC .

Which PC would you pick up if it was your first audio PC and you were in my condition ?