Building a new AMD pc. Need tips!

T

toka

New member
Hello!

I have a budget of 900 USD and im thinking of buildning a new AMD PC for music production. Since im not updated regarding what DDR ram , motherboard and processor i should buy i would appreciate some suggestions.

Could you please advice on which DDR Memory, Hardrive, GFX Card, Processor i should buy ?

regards
toka
 
Have you already got a recording interface? If not, first decide which interface you want and work around that. Go to the manufacturers website and first see if you can find out which mainboard chipsets, graphics cards etc are certified to work with it 100%.

This could save you a lot of time in the long run. Tell us which interface you have/will buy and we can work something out.
 
timvdwest said:
Have you already got a recording interface? If not, first decide which interface you want and work around that. Go to the manufacturers website and first see if you can find out which mainboard chipsets, graphics cards etc are certified to work with it 100%.

This could save you a lot of time in the long run. Tell us which interface you have/will buy and we can work something out.
Click to expand...


Now THAT is good advice. I would've went for the obvious "don't use amd" argument, but I like yours better.
 
You mean DDR2. That make a difference. I just built a new studio rig (well upgraded motherboard,cpu and memory) If your looking at a new cpu and motherboard then DDR2 is a must. I went with Gskill memory,(GSK F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK R), an AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor (retail version), and most important a GIGABYTE GA-MA7 AM2+ motherboard. The motherboard is rock solid with the Phenom and it had 3 (yes three) firewire ports (Texas Instrument based). The board itself has a copper inner layers to cut down on interference and it has Japanese solid capacitors, not the cheap ones which will leak after a while. Use an Antec Sonata case. Its is extremely quiet. Definately buy a video card. Never use onboard video. For $50 you can get a Nvidia 9500 which will do fine. Then grab a few 1TB hard drives. One for the OS and apps and the other for music files. And your set.
 
The best tip I can give you is go intel
Better bang for the buck generally speaking in terms of CPU power and the MOBO chipsets AMD make are horrible compared to intel south bridges too and are a lot more liabale to give you compatability issues with outboard gear

I'm looking forward to AMD pulling out of their slump and providing some real competition back into the market again but as of right now with the exception of the phenom II which can potentially give a core 2 a run for it's money they're a pretty poor second. Once you start looking at i7s forget AMDs got nothing
 
Hmm. Do I spend $559 for a Intel I7 940 or $245 for a AMD Phenom II 955 which is on par with each other. Then the motherboards (socket 1366's) tend to be 30% more in cost (for a good board). So best bang for the buck goes to AMD. Sure intel have the fastest chips right now, but the price is higher. Two comparable machines (same benchmark) and I guarentee the AMD will be cheaper.
 
BushmasterM4 said:
Two comparable machines (same benchmark) and I guarentee the AMD will be cheaper.
Click to expand...

Well that's the rub isn't it? AMD chips aren't up to par with Intel. Every benchmark I've seen placing equivalent Intel and AMD processors against one another has left the AMD chips sorely lacking. Yes, they are cheaper. Though, if you want cheaper why not consider Core2Quad?
 
AMD Phenom ii is somewhat comparable to a q9650 intel quad although the Cache is a lot smaller and the bench marks I've seen are not quite up to par with a 9650 (although it is cheaper)
That said its very very easy to get a Q9450 to 3.2 ghz without even having to tweak the voltages at all in many cases, just a bump in the FSB since it's basically a 9650 with a locked rather than unlocked multiplier which pretty much eradictes any price difference

Phenom ii doesn't really compare to an i7 as it's a straight quad versus 8 logical cores on the i7s. Intel is pretty much uncontested here right now.

I'm not an intel Fan boy by any means 2-3 years ago AMD was putting out some seriously nice CPU's (still poor chipsets though) that was hurting intel badly. They have been slow to catch up to the last two genereations of 45nm quads and now i7s though and even outsourcing their production to china to try and cut their costs and make their business model more similar to Intel has not brought them back up to the same level yet.

I hope they can make it work the quality and performance available to all of us improves when these guys are seriously competing.
 
I agree 100%. Intel does have the fastest processors. Its like the ATI vs. Nvidia pissing contest. Ive always beed a Nvidia fan. But along with redoing my studio rig I bulit a new gaming rig and went with an ATI card this time. I got a 4850x2. At the time it was the best bang for the buck. I was also dead set on building an Intel i7 system for my studio too. But after alot of research the Phenom II gave me comparable stats at a cheaper price. As far as my studio rig goes, I have yet to run into any cpu issue because of track count or plugins. And Ive had a few tunes with over 40 tracks with multiple plugins on each track. So thats quite good. And I use Tracktion 3 which many say is a cpu hog. I need to push the system and see what kind of track count I can acheive, but 40 tracks is probable more than most around here use. Sure maybe a professional studio with multiple UAD Cards may push 100 tracks. That would be nice. But yes Intel does make the fastest CPU's. But, if you have a dollar limit, do some research and get what gives you the best performance per dollar. When I redid mine, it was AMD. If Intel was the price/performance leader at that time I would have gone with them. The money I saved, I spent of musical equipment :)

These stats are pretty close. And I used this info from Toms Hardware to base my purchase.

image034.png

image036.png

image037.png

image044.png
 
I'd be a little skeptical of those numbers since both the i7 and the phenom ii appear to be fairly heavilly overclocked based on the quoted speeds and the tests quoted aren't particularly usefull in determining audio performance anyway.

That said, the Phenom ii is the first nice CPU AMD have come up with in a while. My own benchmarking tests (I build PCs as a side business) put it at least on the same playing field as a core 2 Quad

It will do what you want and then some. My main beef with AMD for audio is compared to intel they are not great on compatability and can be trouble some with outboard gear

I'm a bleeding edge junky however so have to go i7 but understand that the budget constraints mean this is not for everyone.
 
Bristol Posse said:
I'd be a little skeptical of those numbers since both the i7 and the phenom ii appear to be fairly heavilly overclocked based on the quoted speeds and the tests quoted aren't particularly usefull in determining audio performance anyway.

That said, the Phenom ii is the first nice CPU AMD have come up with in a while. My own benchmarking tests (I build PCs as a side business) put it at least on the same playing field as a core 2 Quad

It will do what you want and then some. My main beef with AMD for audio is compared to intel they are not great on compatability and can be trouble some with outboard gear

I'm a bleeding edge junky however so have to go i7 but understand that the budget constraints mean this is not for everyone.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. I upgrade usually every other year. I might be using an Intel chip in two years :) Ive switched between Intel and AMD since the 486 era. In the 286 and 386 era it was always Intel even though some of those might have been AMD chips branded Intel. AMD use to be a subcontractor of Intels.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top