Building custom computer for recording on budget.

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ReDpHiVe

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I'm looking to build my next computer ... Looking for suggestions as to mobo's , cpu's and such. I have decent knowledge of subject but still learning. Budget under $1000 if possible


I run Sonar 7 PE, Ableton Live, Reason 4, Komplete 5, as well as vsti's. For an interface i use an old layla20 (im poor) and a tascam Fw-1880. Use a Sytek MPX-4Aii w/Burr-Brown on 3-4.

Computer i use now is a Dell Intel Celeron 2.8 Ghz 1.99 Ram. Having problems with Sonar playback drop outs and latency issues. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
$189.99 - CPU - q6600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

$134.99 - mobo - Asus P5N-D http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232

$35.99 - RAM - 4 GB OCZ DDR2-800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227334

$24.99 - video - EVGA 7200GS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130098

If money's really a huge issue, you can reuse your existing drives, case, power supply, and OS, and effectively have a pretty badass new DAW system for $385.96. If you later decide you want a RAID array, 8GB of RAM, or serious 3D graphics, the P5N-D will happily accomodate your upgrade, and the most you will have wasted is $24.99 on the video card. ;)

Do it now, thank me later (or something clever/cocky). :D:D
 
Not to hijack this thread, but is there a monster increase in speed/power with that 2.4 Core2Quad over a P4 2.8Ghz w/hyperthreading? (gotta build myself a new comp in the next couple months.) I put a Core2Duo in a computer, but it wasn't a gaming or recording setup so all I got to see was its MS Word and internet power. ;)
 
In most situations, yes, a monstrous increase. In all situations, an increase. It depends on how the software was written.

Here's an overview of Tom's Hardware's most recent benchmark results of a 2.8 P4 directly compared with a q6600: http://tinyurl.com/3uefej (Used tinyurl because the URL has []s in it, which pisses vbulletin off...) You can click "go" on each one to see the entire roundup of chips, and also to see if higher or lower is better, because it's not clear for each benchmark which result is better, if you're not familiar with the benchmark itself, in that overview.

Now... Without spending too terribly much time analyzing that for you, I've picked a benchmark that I know, for a fact, supports all four cores of the q6600.

3DS MAX:
2.8 P4 rendered the scene in 301 seconds.
q6600 rendered it in 47.
Overall - Q6600 = 2.8P4 performance*6.4, a 540% increase
Core for core - Q6600 = 2.8P4 performance*1.6, a 60% increase.
(I might have done this math wrong, lol...I'm kinda tired, and something about it doesn't seem quite right to me. Either way, it's obvious that the q6600 destroys the higher clocked P4 2.8)

I also know that Supreme Commander makes full use of all four cores, so you can apply the same math to that. I *think* that winrar supports 2 cores, so you can adjust the math for that. For the rest, there's Google. ;)
 
TyphoidHippo said:
If money's really a huge issue, you can reuse your existing drives, case, power supply, and OS, and effectively have a pretty badass new DAW system for $385.96.
Click to expand...

T.H.,

I'm jumping threads here (Sorry to OP, and thanks for the info in my other thread), but I was wondering about just this thing: re-using parts. I was thinking about re-using my HD's (I have a small 75GB that will work fine for apps & the OS), case, and OS (XP Pro). Is there any cavats you know of to doing this? Does an old-ish (5 years) HD work well with new boards? Will XP allow me to load it onto another MOBO? From some reason, I seem to have memory of that being a problem
 
rtech said:
T.H.,

I'm jumping threads here (Sorry to OP, and thanks for the info in my other thread), but I was wondering about just this thing: re-using parts. I was thinking about re-using my HD's (I have a small 75GB that will work fine for apps & the OS), case, and OS (XP Pro). Is there any cavats you know of to doing this? Does an old-ish (5 years) HD work well with new boards? Will XP allow me to load it onto another MOBO? From some reason, I seem to have memory of that being a problem
Click to expand...

That won't be a problem. Drives from 1986 (if I recall correctly) right up until the last few years were all PATA (also known as, and often called, IDE), and the newer ones, from the last year or two, are SATA. Don't worry about what the acronyms mean, unless you want to for whatever reason. You will, however, need to know the terms when picking your motherboard. Just make sure the motherboard you get has an IDE controller onboard (which most still do, including the P5N-D), and you'll be fine.

There are quite obnoxious problems when trying to install old operating systems, like the original, retail XP disks for example, on new SATA drives, because the drivers hadn't been included by MS in the OS yet, but not the other way around, that I'm aware of. If you run into this problem, you'll have to slipstream the drivers into the installation disk, which would be a topic for another thread. Maybe this is what you're thinking of?

As far as whether or not XP will "let you" install it to another system... to be quite honest, I really don't know. I started slipstreaming service packs into, and stripping the aggressive registration/activation shit ouf of, my retail copy of XP years ago when MS started that whole charade, and I have never really dealt with it, beyond those first few days when I didn't understand wtf was going on. The side-effect of this is that I also don't get updates for XP, except for the service packs, like I mentioned, but I have yet to experience a single problem with that.

Sidenote: I do recommend doing a full format before you install the operating system, and running chkdsk afterwards, since 5 years is getting pretty old (lifespan-wise) if you use your drives extensively...data loss sucks infinitely more than anything else that can go wrong with a computer :( Always better safe than sorry, in my book.
 
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Sorry for disappearing .... just got done moving. I'm thinking of going with a barebones computer from tiger direct for $189


MSI K9N6PGM2-V Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz OEM Processor,
3GB DDR2-667 Memory,
250GB SATA II,
ATX Mid-Tower Case,
450-Watt Power Supply

It can hold all my cards and peripherals (drives and such) for starting out with an upgrade but your suggestions for upgrading are my next move. I also need to upgrade my mics. I'm primarily a drummer and as of yet don't have enough mics to record all of my percussion. ( alot of percussion, djembes, timbales, congas, cojons well you get the idea).

Will the barebones setup above be satisfactory before I go to quad core setup? also doesn't the quad core setup need a 64 bit OS?
 
ReDpHiVe said:
Sorry for disappearing .... just got done moving. I'm thinking of going with a barebones computer from tiger direct for $189


MSI K9N6PGM2-V Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz OEM Processor,
3GB DDR2-667 Memory,
250GB SATA II,
ATX Mid-Tower Case,
450-Watt Power Supply

It can hold all my cards and peripherals (drives and such) for starting out with an upgrade but your suggestions for upgrading are my next move. I also need to upgrade my mics. I'm primarily a drummer and as of yet don't have enough mics to record all of my percussion. ( alot of percussion, djembes, timbales, congas, cojons well you get the idea).

Will the barebones setup above be satisfactory before I go to quad core setup? also doesn't the quad core setup need a 64 bit OS?
Click to expand...

I would stick to newegg and build one. I've heard way to many horror stories with Tigerdirect. I'd just hate to see you run into a problem before you even got started.
 
ReDpHiVe said:
Sorry for disappearing .... just got done moving. I'm thinking of going with a barebones computer from tiger direct for $189


MSI K9N6PGM2-V Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz OEM Processor,
3GB DDR2-667 Memory,
250GB SATA II,
ATX Mid-Tower Case,
450-Watt Power Supply

It can hold all my cards and peripherals (drives and such) for starting out with an upgrade but your suggestions for upgrading are my next move.
Click to expand...
That's not a bad deal at all - I've had bad experience with Tiger Direct, but many have not...
ReDpHiVe said:
Will the barebones setup above be satisfactory before I go to quad core setup?
Click to expand...
That computer would be way more than adequate for working with audio - but if you're thinking you can upgrade from that to the quad core I mentioned earlier in the thread, you are mistaken. You can upgrade that to another AMD quad core, but not to an Intel one. You would need an Intel-compatible motherboard for that upgrade path, which this will not give you. Check out the charts on tomshardware.com and look at the benchmarks for AMD's quadcores vs Intel's quads...Intel is clearly superior - but - as far as audio work goes...either would be just fine, really.

ReDpHiVe said:
also doesn't the quad core setup need a 64 bit OS?
Click to expand...
No.





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not to change the suject of thread but what kinda horror stories ... anything major?
 
ReDpHiVe said:
not to change the suject of thread but what kinda horror stories ... anything major?
Click to expand...

If you can think of it, I've heard it. From not getting their stuff, to ordering something only to be told later on that they don't even have it or stock it. Countless defective items. etc. etc. From my understanding TigerDirect is damn near someone selling this stuff out of their house. ie. no real warehouse or actually company store.

While it's a decent setup, and very cheap in price I'd rather stick to a tried and trusted company like newegg. I'm sure you could even find something around the same specs for around the same price at newegg too, while at the same time assuring yourself a pleasant purchase and knowing everything will turn out fine. :)
 
buckkillr8 said:
From my understanding TigerDirect is damn near someone selling this stuff out of their house. ie. no real warehouse or actually company store.
Click to expand...

That is completely untrue. I think one of their warehouses is in Indiana I'm pretty sure they have several. They are a pretty big operation.
There are a couple of differences between Tiger and newegg. One is that Tiger direct's shipping prices are high compared to NE but Tiger usually beats newegg on product pricing so it tends to be a wash.
Also Newegg's customer service is exceptional. Tiger can be a bit spotty when compared to NE but only because NE is so good not because Tiger is so bad.

I order a lot of PC parts as part of my job. Most things I get from either NE or Tiger. I usually end up going with Tiger because of price and selection I can usually get everything I need at once from Tiger so while I'd prefer to order from NE If I can get everything in one order I'm going to do it to save time and shipping costs. I have been placing several orders a month for about 5 years with Tiger and have had no issues. I have had to return things and had a couple of things get lost and their customer service took great care of me.

I would prefer newegg but I certainly wouldn't warn anyone away from Tigerdirect.
 
Maybe now that they teamed up with compUSA but it wasn't like that before. It was the one headquarters and wasn't really that. I suspect the joining with compUSA brought a lot of that in now.
 
back to the subject matter of computer setup ... For audio, if i go the new egg route and buy parts seperately, the case and power supply are the big question now. Is there a factor for quietness and cooling or is that issue really more for gaming and overclockers? and what cases & psu's does anyone recommend?
 
got my new system up and running ... Built it myself! From parts bought at a computer show!!!

amd athlon 64 x2 3.1 ghz
Gigabyte ga-ma78gm -s2h mobo AMD 780G + SB700 Chipset
4gb ram crucial
4 sata hd 500 gb each


Ran 35 tracks with plugins all over the place and it never even broke a sweat. more power than I'll ever need!
 
TyphoidHippo said:
$189.99 - CPU - q6600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

$134.99 - mobo - Asus P5N-D http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232

$35.99 - RAM - 4 GB OCZ DDR2-800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227334

$24.99 - video - EVGA 7200GS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130098
Click to expand...

I'm curently runing a P IV 3.0 HT on an ASUS P4P800, 2 gig DDR400 dc mode. Yamaha N12 firewire mixer, Cubase 4 and 2 UAD-1 cards.

If I upgraded to the above (I need to, want a UAD-2 and have no pci-e slots) would it be worth while changing from XP to XP64? to take advantage of the 8G of ram?

Also need to find out the firewire chip in this board for yamaha compatability
 
guess not, I just read this............

Steinberg has released a downloadable 64-bit Preview version Cubase 4.1 for Windows Vista 64-bit editions (A 64-bit Preview version of Nuendo ships on the Nuendo 4 installer DVD). (NOTE: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is not supported).

I was really trying to avoid vista...back to the drawing board
 
i actually built a monster computer for about 500 bucks for my girlfriend for gaming

i used the intel quad + mobo combo from newegg, with a 4g OCZ ram.

the video card won't necessarily be a waste if it has dual outs, for dual monitor support. The extra screen space is really nice to have- i mean REALLY nice.

if you're under budget by $700, consider upgrading your cooling system and possibly add a good tower to reduce fan/computer noise.

you're still way under budget, consider 10k rpm drives in a raid array also!

and dont forget that the more you put in, the more vicious the installation and setup- especially when you start in with the RAID crap. in the end it's worth it though.

keep the computer you've got though and set it up next to your recording computer- and don't even plug in the Ethernet cable unless you're updating!
 
35 tracks with plugins and no issues? What the hell am I doing wrong? I have a an Intel 6300 Core 2 duo, 2 GB of DDR 667, and a 10K SATA harddrive, with XP and Audition 2, and I ALWAYS get glitches when I use multiple plugins. Every damn time. If i have 12 tracks with like 8 plugins of reverb and compression the playback will pause before starting and then it clicks and pops on play. Am I missing something? Am I doing something wrong?
 
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