Planned PC Build

[roy22341]

Using some information I've found on the forums and with some big help from ShreddyMarz and Ermz I've got myself a new PC spec'd out and just wanted to see if anyone else had any suggestions before I make the big move. I'm going to be using an Mbox2 (for now) with this and ProTools 8. I plan on using a lot of virtual instruments since right now I'm living in a small apartment. Any additional tips/suggestions are greatly appreciated:

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz Quad Core Processor
ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboar
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Video Card
(2) Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Internal Drives
(1) SAMSUNG STORY Station 1TB External Hard Drive
CORSAIR CMPSU-850HX 850W PSU
COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 Black/ Silver Steel ATX Computer Case
SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Tack on a keyboard and mouse and I'm at around $1450 (US). Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[alan1990]

2 suggestions go for the 640GB Caviar black drive its alot faster then the 500gb Because of the plater size and is only a few dollars more

second go for the Radeon 5770 instead of the 9800gtx the sapphire version is about the same price and it supports direct x 11 not to mention that its 2 generations newer

 

[chrisfromhell]

I'm currenlty engaged in this process also, correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think pro tools will work on the 64-bit windows version (yet). They have only just released a beta driver for windows 7 32bit. also does anybody know if PT-8 has encoded quad core processing?All input i think will help!

 

[roy22341]

I'm currenlty engaged in this process also, correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think pro tools will work on the 64-bit windows version (yet). They have only just released a beta driver for windows 7 32bit. also does anybody know if PT-8 has encoded quad core processing?All input i think will help!

http://musicindustrynewswire.com/2009/12/19/min2583_183301.php

It looks like they recently added beta drivers for Windows7 32bit AND 64bit in version 8.0.3.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone on here has had any success with this yet.

 

[chrisfromhell]

http://musicindustrynewswire.com/2009/12/19/min2583_183301.php

It looks like they recently added beta drivers for Windows7 32bit AND 64bit in version 8.0.3.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone on here has had any success with this yet.

Glory!

 

[Notuern]

Do NOT get ASRock.. its a piece of shit and you will regret it.
Go with Asus or Gigabyte.

I try to keep as much ASUS as possible when i build my computers.. never had any problems with ASUS at all.

 

[roy22341]

Alan and Notuern, thanks for the advice. I just found a company that builds custom PCs and got a quote on:

Computer Case : ThermalTake WINGRS 100VG1430BNS 430W
Power Supply Upgrade : Antec EA650 650W V2.2
Motherboard : Asus P6T SE LGA 1366
DDR3 Memory : 12GB (6X2GB) DDR3-1333 PC3-10666
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 2.66 Box with Original Intel Fan
Hard Drive : Dual HDD, 640GB SATA-II 7200RPM
Video Card : ASUS ATi Radeon HD 4850- 1GB GDDR3- PCI E 2.0 x16
DVD Recorder : LG 22X DVD+/-RW SATA

Plus keyboard, mouse, speakers, 1 year warranty, Windows XP or 7, etc. etc. for $1695. Free shipping too, so it would actually work out to be slightly less than buying the parts separately on NewEgg (plus it's got twice as much RAM). Any thoughts on this (slightly) different configuration?

 

[Humidfume]

I'd upgrade to 500W as your current supply may not be very efficient in it's usable current... for e.g

Electricity has to travel along lines etc and when it reaches your power supply some, of it is "lost". So if your power supply was 430W but rated at an efficiency level of 70% you're only getting 300W of stable power, too low for that gear in my opinion.

And go with XP 32 bit, it has the correct driver support, full ASIO and hardware acceleration support etc too. Windows 7 is awesome, but for serious audio work.. I'd skip it and stay with XP.

Hope this helps,


Joe

 

[Notuern]

Alan and Notuern, thanks for the advice. I just found a company that builds custom PCs and got a quote on:

Computer Case : ThermalTake WINGRS 100VG1430BNS 430W
Power Supply Upgrade : Antec EA650 650W V2.2
Motherboard : Asus P6T SE LGA 1366
DDR3 Memory : 12GB (6X2GB) DDR3-1333 PC3-10666
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 2.66 Box with Original Intel Fan
Hard Drive : Dual HDD, 640GB SATA-II 7200RPM
Video Card : ASUS ATi Radeon HD 4850- 1GB GDDR3- PCI E 2.0 x16
DVD Recorder : LG 22X DVD+/-RW SATA

Plus keyboard, mouse, speakers, 1 year warranty, Windows XP or 7, etc. etc. for $1695. Free shipping too, so it would actually work out to be slightly less than buying the parts separately on NewEgg (plus it's got twice as much RAM). Any thoughts on this (slightly) different configuration?

Id like to see what brand of RAM and HDD's they are using.. thats much more important then the pure specs.
Other then that it looks good.

I'd upgrade to 500W as your current supply may not be very efficient in it's usable current... for e.g

Electricity has to travel along lines etc and when it reaches your power supply some, of it is "lost". So if your power supply was 430W but rated at an efficiency level of 70% you're only getting 300W of stable power, too low for that gear in my opinion.

And go with XP 32 bit, it has the correct driver support, full ASIO and hardware acceleration support etc too. Windows 7 is awesome, but for serious audio work.. I'd skip it and stay with XP.

Hope this helps,


Joe

The first PSU he said he would get was 850w, the second one was 650w... what the fuck are you talking about?

 

[kev]

Stop and hold fire on that processor. i7 930 is out on Feb 28th for the same price @ a higher clock speed. i7 920 is EOL. Im waiting for it myself.

 

[roy22341]

Id like to see what brand of RAM and HDD's they are using.. thats much more important then the pure specs.
Other then that it looks good.

The HDDs are Western Digital. After a quick phone call to the builder he said (without knowing the exact specs of the build) it would either be Kingston or OCZ brand RAM, depending on what the manufacturer recommends.

The first PSU he said he would get was 850w, the second one was 650w... what the fuck are you talking about?

On that note - 650W should be enough for a power-supply right? I don't have any plans right now of overclocking.

 

[Notuern]

The HDDs are Western Digital. After a quick phone call to the builder he said (without knowing the exact specs of the build) it would either be Kingston or OCZ brand RAM, depending on what the manufacturer recommends.

Id try to go with OCZ.. never been a fan of Kingston(They work fine, but not as fast/stable as OCZ.)

On that note - 650W should be enough for a power-supply right? I don't have any plans right now of overclocking.

Yes, it should be enough.
Im running a 500w PSU on a much more power consuming rig then yours, and its only really a problem when i play games on really high detail levels(GFX doesnt have enough power to handle it.).

 

[alan1990]

Another thing to think about is Future proofing its the one reason I went with Amd with my current build. Intel has 3 processor sockets for the I series cpus and is known for releasing a new socket for every new processor range including there 8core offering coming out sometime at the end of this year meaning that your motherboard would be outdated with no upgrade path. (its moving to the server socket for more bandwidth)

However amd has already said that there 8core and All new 12 core offerings scheduled to come out the middle of this year and middle of next year will be equal performance to the intel equivalent 8 and 12 core cpus and will work in there current socket am3 motherboards guaranteeing that im not going to have to build a whole new system for quiet some time.

The best amd cpu currently the Phenom 965 Black edition isnt as fast as the i7 but its only just slower and is a significantly cheaper build with a guaranteed upgrade path to 12 cores in the next 2 years (Imagine having a computer with the latest tech for atleast the next 3 years)wich is huge for audio as most apps dont support multiple cores but cubase and most other DAW's do.

 

[arv_foh]

Get a 10,000rpm hard drive (WD Velociraptor) to use as your OS drive. They are so fast, it's worth the price premium especially if you are writing and transferring large files.

 

[Damian B]

Get a 10,000rpm hard drive (WD Velociraptor) to use as your OS drive. They are so fast, it's worth the price premium especially if you are writing and transferring large files.

+1

Get a smaller 10k drive for your OS and a giant secondary drive for sessions.

Also, Asus and ASRock are the same company, and both have had serious reliability issues in the last two years (IMO at least, I used to build about 5 custom machines a week at my old job, and we ran into a lot of problems with Asus boards). I'm quite partial to EVGA and Gigabyte. To be honest though, if you get an Asus board and it works, you should be fine. Most of the issues we had involved boards arriving DOA.

 

[kev]

+1 to the above, -1 to rpm. SSD it, they are extremely reasonable now.

 

[Notuern]

Also, Asus and ASRock are the same company, and both have had serious reliability issues in the last two years (IMO at least, I used to build about 5 custom machines a week at my old job, and we ran into a lot of problems with Asus boards). I'm quite partial to EVGA and Gigabyte. To be honest though, if you get an Asus board and it works, you should be fine. Most of the issues we had involved boards arriving DOA.

They are the same company.. but ASRock is a lowgrade brand, and they are absolutely terrible, and have always been absolutely terrible.

And ive built 3 computers this year, 2 with Asus P5Q and another one with a more expensive Asus mother board(Cant remember which one.).. 0 problems with either of them.
The expensive Asus was put in to my brothers computer, as he had just bought a XFX that wouldnt boot.. turns out almost everyone who bought that series of mb's had the same problem, and we couldnt get ours fixed on the warranty(Because of the inspector breaking the mb and sending us pictures of it.).

But yeah, i have to admit, ive heard that ASUS have had some issues from other people.. but seeing as ive built 3 computers based on ASUS the last year(5-6 over the last 2 years.), without having any trouble at all.. but Gigabyte's are great as well.