Building A DAW PC

[Mindset]

$1k - 1.2K is plenty enough to build a powerful custom system. Some parts you can skid through, and upgrade other parts. I personally feel 2GB on a win xp system is plenty enough ram. I would get more HD space than the ram.
Something like a good build, other than the ones listed..

$200 for C2D Quad
$109.99 for Asus PK5/Intel P35
$60.99 2GB OCZ Reapers (2 x 1gb)
$60 Thermaltake 500w
$40 7200GS video
$69.99 320 GB Seagate SATAII 16mb cache
$80 500gb WD SATAII
$26 LG 22x DVD Burner
$10 card reader
$34 Athenatech case
$30 Wireless network card

$720.94

Throw in your $100 for XP, and get yourself a decent monitor, and your still below your mark.

 

[FunkDaddy]

You guys are the best! Really appreciate all the help. I did a little research on the Pentium vs AMD and there seemed to be quite the split vote. I ended up going with the X2 6400 because I found a great price on it. Dual 500GB hard-drives (cheap as hell so why not!). 4GB RAM. Nice 22" LCD.

I've got a buddy who's going to help me quiet any excess noise that I find once I (or more likely him) put it together (he's a PC tweakhead/gamer, prides himself on silent PC's haha I don't see the point for games but obviously see the advantage for a DAW)

Thanks again everyone

 

[djfontana]

that specs you mentioned should be good enough for the DAW tasks.

watchout for fake processors, make sure that it has the guaranteed genuine seal... i was fooled into buying a fake CPU and after a few months it died.

download free VST, learn to make beats

 

[The don]

Is your budget only for PC ?
with or without the decent audio card you need to get?
cause all here talks only for pc specs. Try to find a nice balance between pc components.
First choose the AUDIO card! Find someone who suits your needs. (and talking about needs and not wants.. ) watch the asio drivers and read maybe a review about latencies.
Then you built your PC. Buy as decent monitor screen (you will have it for some time) Buy a big case with silent fans and decent power suplly.
vga card...only that matters imo is to have a silent cooling system. nvidia 8500 silent for example.
As for cpu,ram,HD here is my opinion....quiecker is better BUT there is always a point where spending more money does not worth it. i should tell ya buy mid prices in all of them.
one more important thing in my opinion is the to choose your OS. if you go for vista you need more ram and you need to check your audio card driver.Many do not have vista drivers.