Building a new pc...

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xXxMetalJunkiexXx

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Jun 6, 2012
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So I'm building a new pc dedicated for audio work(recording, mixing etc). Currently I have an old core2duo machine with 4gb ram, which was kind of fine until last year or so. I'll be using Reaper and I'll be working with at least 60+ per project, so this is what I have in mind:

Processor: Intel i7-6700K 4.0Ghz(4.2Ghz Turbo) Skylake LGA1151 Tray

Cooling: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2

Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H for 1151

Case + PSU: IPPON i04 case Gaming Beast WHITE with 2X 120mm fan + FSP HYPER 600W

Memory: Crucial DDR4 8GB 2133Mhz(Might put another stick in the future)

Storage: Samsung SSD EVO 850 120GB + WD 1TB Sata3 Caviar Blue 1TB Platter

Optical Drive: LG DVDRW X24 SATA

All this for around 1100$.

What do you say?
 
My overarching opinion is that Skylake is not really necessary. The improvement you see won't really be worth the price imo. I'm kind of a PC newb since I only built mine a couple of months ago, but I did a shitload of research.

Processor: bit of overkill imo- Skylake uses less power but isn't really much faster. Get a 4790K at the same speed and you'll save a bunch of money.
Cooling: Fine.
Mobo: Again, go with Haswell instead of Skylake and you'll save money.
Case: Never heard of that company- consider the NZXT quiet cases or the Fractal R4 or R5. Also don't ever cheap on the PSU- get a well-known brand and a product with good reviews. EVGA and Corsair are relatively inexpensive but still excellent.
Memory: If you look at videos comparing DDR4 vs 3, just like Skylake you'll see the improvement is virtually nill but you pay a lot more.
Storage: I'd get a 250GB SSD. I have that WD and it's great.
Optical: Doubt this is really necessary in this day and age. Most people omit them entirely.

You have a very top-of-the-line next gen build except for the case and PSU; I just think you can easily dumb down the specs to top-of-the-line current gen, save tons of money, and get almost identical specs at the end of the day.

edit: and be sure to watch Linus Tech Tips videos, read the /r/buildapc subreddit, and use PCpartpicker for selecting stuff. And always go to Micro Center if it's near you- I saved several hundred dollars.
 
Only thing I'd change is get a bigger SSD and go at least 16GB RAM. I'm not familiar with a lot of the new computer stuff out so I'll keep my mouth shut here.
 
He's Dead said:
My overarching opinion is that Skylake is not really necessary. The improvement you see won't really be worth the price imo. I'm kind of a PC newb since I only built mine a couple of months ago, but I did a shitload of research.

Processor: bit of overkill imo- Skylake uses less power but isn't really much faster. Get a 4790K at the same speed and you'll save a bunch of money.
Cooling: Fine.
Mobo: Again, go with Haswell instead of Skylake and you'll save money.
Case: Never heard of that company- consider the NZXT quiet cases or the Fractal R4 or R5. Also don't ever cheap on the PSU- get a well-known brand and a product with good reviews. EVGA and Corsair are relatively inexpensive but still excellent.
Memory: If you look at videos comparing DDR4 vs 3, just like Skylake you'll see the improvement is virtually nill but you pay a lot more.
Storage: I'd get a 250GB SSD. I have that WD and it's great.
Optical: Doubt this is really necessary in this day and age. Most people omit them entirely.

You have a very top-of-the-line next gen build except for the case and PSU; I just think you can easily dumb down the specs to top-of-the-line current gen, save tons of money, and get almost identical specs at the end of the day.

edit: and be sure to watch Linus Tech Tips videos, read the /r/buildapc subreddit, and use PCpartpicker for selecting stuff. And always go to Micro Center if it's near you- I saved several hundred dollars.
Click to expand...

Agree with above. The difference between the 4790K and the 6700K is minimal. I just built my system (4790K) and it's super fast. Don't skimp on the PSU, Corsair is who I went with after a lot of research. Agree about the case too, the cable management in the Fractal is really good with lots of options(and space) for expansion of drives.
 
He's Dead said:
My overarching opinion is that Skylake is not really necessary. The improvement you see won't really be worth the price imo. I'm kind of a PC newb since I only built mine a couple of months ago, but I did a shitload of research.

Processor: bit of overkill imo- Skylake uses less power but isn't really much faster. Get a 4790K at the same speed and you'll save a bunch of money.
Cooling: Fine.
Mobo: Again, go with Haswell instead of Skylake and you'll save money.
Case: Never heard of that company- consider the NZXT quiet cases or the Fractal R4 or R5. Also don't ever cheap on the PSU- get a well-known brand and a product with good reviews. EVGA and Corsair are relatively inexpensive but still excellent.
Memory: If you look at videos comparing DDR4 vs 3, just like Skylake you'll see the improvement is virtually nill but you pay a lot more.
Storage: I'd get a 250GB SSD. I have that WD and it's great.
Optical: Doubt this is really necessary in this day and age. Most people omit them entirely.

You have a very top-of-the-line next gen build except for the case and PSU; I just think you can easily dumb down the specs to top-of-the-line current gen, save tons of money, and get almost identical specs at the end of the day.

edit: and be sure to watch Linus Tech Tips videos, read the /r/buildapc subreddit, and use PCpartpicker for selecting stuff. And always go to Micro Center if it's near you- I saved several hundred dollars.
Click to expand...

Thanks man! I'm not so familiar with motherboard types, this is a build that I saw on another forum(one of the suggestions). You have any idea what I should go for? Planning to overclock the CPU at some point.

Also, I'm not so sure I need 16gb at the moment, but 8gb will probably be enough for now(not using too many virtual instruments\samples at once). Mainly doing actual recording and mixing tasks, automations, EQ, compression etc. Might add more later though.

Also, unfortunately I don't live in the US, I'm from Israel, so parts are a little more expensive here.
 
xXxMetalJunkiexXx said:
Thanks man! I'm not so familiar with motherboard types, this is a build that I saw on another forum(one of the suggestions). You have any idea what I should go for?

Also, I'm not so sure I need 16gb at the moment, but 8gb will probably be enough for now(not using too many virtual instrumentssamples at once). Mainly doing actual recording and mixing tasks, automations, EQ, compression etc. Might add more later though.

Also, unfortunately I don't live in the US, I'm from Israel, so parts are a little more expensive here.
Click to expand...

Ahh okay. Basically, Skylake just barely came out, and when you have a new CPU sometimes Intel will create a new socket that mounts it to the motherboard. Skylake is associated with LGA 1151 motherboards if I remember correctly, whereas the current generation (Haswell) is associated with LGA 1150. So when you decide to go with 1151 (Skylake), everything automatically becomes more expensive because it's all new. Same with DDR4 RAM- the RAM and the motherboards that fit it are more limited, newer, and more expensive. So just stick with DDR3 RAM and LGA 1150 motherboards and your costs will decrease.

For reference, here's my build:

CPU: Intel i7 4790K
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-AR
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600mhz 16GB
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Case: Fractal Define R5
PSU: EVGA something or other, but it's 80+ gold rated and 550 watts. That's another thing- use PC Part Picker to calculate the wattage of your system. You probably don't need more than 500 watts if you aren't buying a graphics card.
Storage: WD 1TB Blue & Samsung EVO 850 250GB

It came out to about $900 with taxes- which you should consider in your prices.

You could easily get away with that build and then save money by buying a slightly cheaper case (but not too cheap!), an 80+ bronze PSU, stick with your 8GB of RAM, and maybe a 4770K instead of a 4790K CPU and still perform very well. G Skill also makes pretty cheap but reliable RAM. Just make sure you run tests using Memtest x86 when you put everything together.
 
He's Dead said:
Ahh okay. Basically, Skylake just barely came out, and when you have a new CPU sometimes Intel will create a new socket that mounts it to the motherboard. Skylake is associated with LGA 1151 motherboards if I remember correctly, whereas the current generation (Haswell) is associated with LGA 1150. So when you decide to go with 1151 (Skylake), everything automatically becomes more expensive because it's all new. Same with DDR4 RAM- the RAM and the motherboards that fit it are more limited, newer, and more expensive. So just stick with DDR3 RAM and LGA 1150 motherboards and your costs will decrease.

For reference, here's my build:

CPU: Intel i7 4790K
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-AR
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600mhz 16GB
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Case: Fractal Define R5
PSU: EVGA something or other, but it's 80+ gold rated and 550 watts. That's another thing- use PC Part Picker to calculate the wattage of your system. You probably don't need more than 500 watts if you aren't buying a graphics card.
Storage: WD 1TB Blue & Samsung EVO 850 250GB

It came out to about $900 with taxes- which you should consider in your prices.

You could easily get away with that build and then save money by buying a slightly cheaper case (but not too cheap!), an 80+ bronze PSU, stick with your 8GB of RAM, and maybe a 4770K instead of a 4790K CPU and still perform very well. G Skill also makes pretty cheap but reliable RAM. Just make sure you run tests using Memtest x86 when you put everything together.
Click to expand...

I think I'll stick to the 4790k and the Fractal Design R4\R5. You think a 500kw psu(from Corsair or SeaSonic etc) would be enough if I were to add in a graphics card and overclock the CPU in the future?

Much appreaciated!
 
Depends on what graphics card you end up getting- an Nvidia 980ti overclocked or two different cards together (like some people do) would probably not work on a 500w PSU, but a 970 probably would. I added an EVGA 970 to my build and it's still fine. But just sign up for a PCPartPicker account, put in all your components, and it will tell you your exact wattage and whether any specific card will work.

P.S.: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/store-ssd-factory-recertified

Crucial is a very reliable brand- if they ship to Israel, I would jump on that. Those prices are nuts. You could buy one SSD and never need anything else!
 
He's Dead said:
Depends on what graphics card you end up getting- an Nvidia 980ti overclocked or two different cards together (like some people do) would probably not work on a 500w PSU, but a 970 probably would. I added an EVGA 970 to my build and it's still fine. But just sign up for a PCPartPicker account, put in all your components, and it will tell you your exact wattage and whether any specific card will work.

P.S.: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/store-ssd-factory-recertified

Crucial is a very reliable brand- if they ship to Israel, I would jump on that. Those prices are nuts. You could buy one SSD and never need anything else!
Click to expand...

It seems that even when I put a GTX 970 in the build, the wattage isn't going above 317kw. Around 170kw without it :)

Thanks a lot for the help man!
 
Yup, I briefly considered Skylake, saw the prices, and it's almost a "sidegrade" rather than an upgrade from Haswell.
 
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