Anyone wanna spec me out an audio PC

[Ericlingus]

I have decided the best way to go for me is to just build a PC for audio recording instead of getting an overpriced prebuilt one or a mac mini which seems a bit outdated spec wise (as well as not being future proof). I think 2k on a computer is too much for me so I'd like to spend no more than 1500 USD on it. That of course is just the computer. I already have 2 monitors and a audio interface. Anyone here want to spec out a PC for me? Maybe someone here has recently built one for themselves and has gotten good results with there builds. I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Redoubt9000]

Well I have been running off on a Phenom II X4 965 since its release (quad core), which at the time years ago met my needs adequately. However in recent years, as my projects slowly grew in size and became more sample heavy, I would experience some noticeable latency/distortion in sound whenever the project became too taxing for my system.

In response to that, recently I upgraded to the FX-8350 AMD 8-cores, and I am most certainly breezing through projects with ease. I hope to one day go for an Intel based system for an NLE, but to be perfectly honest an AMD system is more than enough for an audio PC. At least for my needs.

Honestly, for the entire system I think you could easily get away with only spending around 1k$ On the AMD side, it's pretty cookie-cutter if building around the AM3 8-core cpus, so you should not have much difficulty planning a system.
My other recommendations apart from the FX-8350, is to nab two ssd's. one for boot OS, the other for your sample libraries (if you have a moderate sized library). For your boot drive, you will not need one any bigger than 60gb. Anything larger and you're not working with just an audio pc anymore, if you ask me... I say this, because usually anything of great size as far as audio software, is usually a sample library, which should be on a drive apart from your OS anyways... Just be sure to disable pagefiling on your boot drive, and you should be good to go (so long as you have plenty of RAM)

I recently picked up a 512gb ssd refurb for 230$ off newegg, and it's been performing wonderfully. My samples load up in mere seconds versus the hard disk counterpart it replaced. You could go the HDD route, but eventually you'll find yourself wishing you had a sizable ssd to store your library and archived projects on.

To give you an idea, my mixes usually are sample heavy, with minimum 3-4 fx (basic eq/comp/color/etc) on each track over a spread of 60+ tracks per project, 24 bit, 48khz sample rate. Typically I see upwards of about 7-8gb RAM usage with samplers and DAW functions. I wouldn't fret too much on the amount of RAM (with my 12gbs I've never hit the max, not unless I had two projects opened at any one time). Some propose minimum 1-2gb of RAM per cpu core.

 

[Redoubt9000]

I guess I should ask, what your situation is on the software side of things as an OS is necessary... (idk if you're upgrading from a previous tower, I assume you were) You mentioned monitors, but for a moment there I was assuming you meant displays. considering other peripherals, than yeah I guess you may come to spend upwards of around 1.2k$~ish.

250 - for a cpu and after market cooler (as a stock cooler may not be enough)
150 - Motherboard
150 - DDR3 RAM
<100 - Graphics / Unless you're looking to feed multiple displays at high resolutions, you can cheap out on this one.
<40 - Boot SSD, they're getting cheaper by the day. $/gb rate is quite reasonable today. For the boot drive, you really will not need any more than a 60gb drive. Unless you plan to run games or other items unrelated to production : /
<75 - PSU min 600w
<100 - Tower case, with adequate cooling solutions. I love my xclio tower, 25cm dual intake fans push in alot of air

peripherals? If you wanna treat yourself, minimum get a G13 & G600 mouse combo... The G13 I program to perform various functions when navigating windows, my DAW, vid editors, etc. It has helped my workflow CONSIDERABLY, and for the cost of only 60$ new, it would be silly to not consider it. Unless of course there are preferable alternatives. One COULD use their keyboard, but I say being able to program any keystroke to the g13, versus performing finger gymnastics reaching for key combos on a conventional keyboard, is a plus...

Optical/Storage drives will vary. Again I suggest a larger secondary ssd for storage of DAW related samples etc.

 

[Ericlingus]

Yeah I mean monitor displays. I have a 23 in widescreen and 19 inch. I also have monitor speakers as well as an audio interface. I only need the actual computer itself. I would like to go intel and something that is going to be reliable and future proof (which is why I didn't want a mac mini). I use a lot of amp sims and VST instruments btw. Thanks for the help.

 

[Redoubt9000]

As do I! (in response to the Amp sims, vsti) You won't have any problems on the AMD front, someone will have to suggest a good build on the Intel route, but I'm sure it's no different. Really if you ask me hardware has come quite a ways this generation around, I would be surprised if a new system would in any way hiccup along the way on account of audio production/engi if you operate around 48khz rates. Just watch for bottlenecks throughout the system (mainly to be found in your storage options) and all will be well in the world

My latest project ate the following resources

Numbering at 87 tracks, no frozen or rendered out tracks. I believe the 4gb shown is what is being held for DAW functions in general (track items, etc I imagine) and the rest likely dedicated to loaded samplers, global RAM use in Task Manager is showing 8.5gb with about 60% load on cpu during playback (I'm running several other things in the background/mediaplayer/browser/etc)

Hope this helps!

 

[Ericlingus]

Thanks a lot for the help. ANyone else? Is it worth getting the newest and best CPU? ANy tips on making the computer quiet?

 

[AD Chaos]

You might want to check the new Ivy Bridge-E LGA 2011 socket and build your machine around it. Came out very recently, and unlike the newest Haswell platform, Ivy-E is geared towards high-end performance, not energy savings.

I would advice against buying AMD based on benchmarks alone, although if dead set on it, I'd go for an FX-9590 Eight-Core atm.

Fwiw I'll be putting up together a couple of new builds very soon (2011 for OC and a 1150 Z87) and hopefully post specs/details about the 2011 one.
That one can go around $3k or more in total though, so I guess it could be out of your plans, but a build around a Haswell i7-4770K can be considerably cheaper; still a newest-generation 22nm machine, just around your budget.

 

[Flow Of Time]

Check out the Xeon 1230v3, if you're planning to get a seperate videocard. It' basically a 4770 without the iGPU.

 

[Ericlingus]

yeah I can't spend anymore than 2 grand. Actually probably even less. I think I could live without having the best possible processor there is.

 

[Sloan]

I'm in the same boat here and I'm most concerned with whatever socket is going to be still viable in 5 years or so... running phenom II 965 right now but would like to try the intel i5/i7 stuff. i game on this same machine so i'm gonna end up losing my ass in the cash dept anyway. lol.

 

[Flow Of Time]

yeah I can't spend anymore than 2 grand. Actually probably even less. I think I could live without having the best possible processor there is.

Dude, 2grand is a shitload of money for a pc

 

[anotherpaul]

I've recently mixed two LPs on my 5 year old core2duo laptop, but finally decided that I need something with more power.
Last week I've bought a new desktop PC: msi b75 mobo, core i5-3470, 8 gb ram, 1 tb black caviar hdd. I've already had a case and an old 320gb hdd so with all the necessary stuff like coolers and PSU, I've spent about $500 (it's russia, we've got weird pricing, mind you)! And then another $300 for an unnecessary "gaming" video adapter lol.

 

[Ericlingus]

how does this computer look to you guys? How much of a rip off is it?

http://www.pcaudiolabs.com/rokbox_i7-buynow.asp

 

[Roncore]

You could build that same PC for way cheaper, just sayin'....

 

[anotherpaul]

Well, here's more or less the components of Rok Box MC 7xs which is $2,229.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157322
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150655
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W018K9404
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792 x 2
+ ~$100 for the case, coolers, dvd-drive and such. You will end up with about $1500 or so instead of $2229.

Of course these components are just whatever came first in the search. If you spend some time you can make more optimal configuration for less money (like from the top of my head you can get away with a simpler motherboard, one 2gb drive and ditch discrete video card, since i7 has integrated video).

 

[Ericlingus]

thanks man. Which MOBO would you recommend for an audio PC? I need one that is future proof and super reliable. THe one you posted had some bad reviews about it being faulty.

 

[anotherpaul]

Basically get a LGA1155 socket type motherboard. As far as I know, if you don't feel like overclocking your build, H77 or B75 chipset will be enough. General rule of "if you don't know what it is, you don't need it" applies as usual.
If you need RAID support, get H77.
If you have a USB audio interface you might look into mini-ITX motherboards and cases. Most of them don't have firewire or PCI slots, but they are really small.
If you need several displays support get a discrete video adapter (any cheap with several outputs will do, to fit into mini-ITX get a low-profile one).

I personally got something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130654
Mine is E-31 though I haven't noticed much of a difference in specs. Suits me, works fine and is really cheap. Only one PCI slot might be an issue, but I personally need just one for the firewire adapter.
You don't get much future-proof because Moore's law, but I suppose that i7-build will last you 5 years at the very least. I mean with audio you're going to need pretty much the same amount of processing power anyway unless some new trendy CPU-heavy plug-in appears.