Building myself a new computer for a home studio (+some gaming & digital animation)

Millet grain

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Building myself a new computer for a home studio (+some gaming & digital animation)

Hello!

Ok, so I'm building myself a computer to be used mainly for home recording etc., but it should also be able to handle some gaming and digital animation related stuff. I don't really know much about computers and whatnot and just wanted to ask if anyone else has any thoughts about this parts list, which was suggested to me by some dude who is I think somewhat an expert on computers but not on stuff producing music related. Anyway, this should be everything I need plus to the stuff I already have. I thank in advance for any help.

...Okay so I cannot post URLs, which kind of sucks as it adds trouble for anyone who possibly wants to check these links out ):

mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Fractal-Define-Mini-Tower-ohne-Netzteil-schwarz_739944.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/ASRock-Z87M-Extreme4-Intel-Z87-So-1150-Dual-Channel-DDR3-mATX-Retail_853239.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Intel-Xeon-E3-1230v3-4x-3-30GHz-So-1150-BOX_856397.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/8GB-Crucial-Ballistix-Sport-DDR3-1600-DIMM-CL9-Dual-Kit_794504.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/256GB-SanDisk-Ultra-Plus-Notebook-2-5Zoll--6-4cm--SATA-6Gb-s-MLC-asynchro_827412.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/550-Watt-Seasonic-G-Series-Modular-80--Gold_812464.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Thermalright-True-Spirit-120-M-BW-Tower-Kuehler_826472.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/2048MB-Gigabyte-GeForce-GTX-770-Windforce-3x-OC-Aktiv-PCIe-3-0-x16--Retai_856384.html
mindfactory.de/product_info.php/LiteOn-IHAS124-04-DVD-RW-SATA-1-5Gb-s-intern-schwarz-Bulk_821094.html
 
Double check on the CPU, it is an OK CPU, but there seems to better choices dollar for dollar. Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.50GHz, Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.40GHz, or for the money AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core. Double check to make sure you get a MB that supports. Also, remember you will still need an interface for music making and for gaming, I would get at least a middle of the road graphics card. You don;t need it so much for recording, but for gaming.

Compared to gaming, a music computer doesn't have to be as powerful. Hope this helps.
 
"I'm building myself a computer" ... "I don't really know much about computers" ...

That's not a good combination.

The list above is "ok". But I would never buy a Xeon for home use. Get an I series (eg i7) instead. Xeon is just the commercial/business grade version. For the same money you'll get a faster chip. If you build a machine based on the above you'd have a fairly decent machine. Spend a bit more on all the components and it will be a better. Spend a bit less, and it will be a bit worse. Simple as that really. The problem is measuring how good it will be compared to how good you want/expect it to be. Just saying "good for music and good for games", that's not enough. That's like saying "I want to buy a car, it needs to be good for driving, what type should I get?". Absolutely ANY computer will "handle" games and digital animation. It's how well they handle it that you're paying for.

Without wanting to patronise, go and read up on what all the different components of a computer do and some tutorials on building your own machine based on the purpose. All of the components link together and without understanding more, you'll end up either spending too much on some of the components and not understanding why the machine doesn't work very well, or end up with a machine which isn't want you hoped for.

The simple rules are;
1) You get what you pay for. With computers, the more expensive the component, the better it will be.
2) Spread your expenditure, but with a bias to where you need it. Don't throw all your budget on the best graphics card if that means spending less on Ram, HD, Processor.
 
The simple rules are;
1) You get what you pay for. With computers, the more expensive the component, the better it will be.
2) Spread your expenditure, but with a bias to where you need it. Don't throw all your budget on the best graphics card if that means spending less on Ram, HD, Processor.

To OP
1. No, that isn't true. But with the right research, you can get high quality gear at a decent price. You can spend a lot of money on crap. So, ignore one. But do look for quality components. For example, I've used AMD for 20+ years. Dollar for dollar, you get a lot of chip. No, not as good as Intel for the most part, but when you compare prices for an extra Nano second better, well...

2. RAM - Cheap, get quality RAM, most are made by one or two manufactures anyway, so look at the ratings. You will see the crap pretty quick. Focus on quality MB, that is where most people go wrong and a good power supply. Something in the 650W or above. Most systems have 400 and it doesn't take long to stress that out. Get a chip that has good over all ratings, since it is only Intel and AMD, focus on the performance/price ratio. You can get last year's "must have" for steep discount. You can get two years ago for even more savings.

One thing I would suggest, when you get power supply and chip cooler, look for how loud they are. For recording, that is probably more important than speed. As many here record with 10+ year old computers, but many of us record in the same room as our computers. Now that part will cost you extra but will be more useful than wama jama CPU and more RAM than you need, 8-16Gb seems to be the sweet spot for RAM. 7,500 RPM or better hard drive, or SSD (I don't use one, but any here do) for you project recording. I will say, keep the Hard drive 1Tb or lower as it seems like the larger drives do not perform as well (still has to look for 2Tb of data). Probably 500Gb (cheap!) in a traditional hard drive would be good performer for primary recording and the larger drive for archiving.

To me, good MB, good chip, 8-16Gb RAM, quiet CPU and a case cooler and Power Supply and a decent video card should get you where you want to be. Good music interface.
 
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