First PC build for recording

[futbol1097]

I am about to do by first PC build - I want to focus on music recording capability. Other than that, I'd only use for basic web-surfing; don't care about gaming. I want to stay at $500 for the system (no monitor). Looking at Used components to keep cost down. I use a MOTU Ultralite firewire recording interface and Cubase as my recording software. I don't think I want to worry about overclocking at this point. At most I would probably be recording 3 or 4 tracks at one time. I plan to do a lot of Wave editing on the computer and VST Instruments

Processor - I'm thinking about the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale - it may not be possible to stay under $500 with this processor but I definitely want to build my system around smthng like it. I would like to find savings in other components
Operating System: XP Pro.
Memory: 2GB RAM should suffice with XP
Video: I don't play games so I am not interested in a good video card.
Hard Drive: I have external HD so I don't need anything amazing smthing with adequate storage, 7200RM, etc
Mobo: Recommendations appreciated here. I need at least 2 firewire ports w/ TI
Sound Card: As mentioned, I will be using the MOTU unit to record with so I don't know what I should look for in my computer sound card given that fact.

Recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
J

 

[LemonTree]

I am about to do by first PC build - I want to focus on music recording capability. Other than that, I'd only use for basic web-surfing; don't care about gaming. I want to stay at $500 for the system (no monitor). Looking at Used components to keep cost down. I use a MOTU Ultralite firewire recording interface and Cubase as my recording software. I don't think I want to worry about overclocking at this point. At most I would probably be recording 3 or 4 tracks at one time. I plan to do a lot of Wave editing on the computer and VST Instruments

Processor - I'm thinking about the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale - it may not be possible to stay under $500 with this processor but I definitely want to build my system around smthng like it. I would like to find savings in other components
Operating System: XP Pro.
Memory: 2GB RAM should suffice with XP
Video: I don't play games so I am not interested in a good video card.
Hard Drive: I have external HD so I don't need anything amazing smthing with adequate storage, 7200RM, etc
Mobo: Recommendations appreciated here. I need at least 2 firewire ports w/ TI
Sound Card: As mentioned, I will be using the MOTU unit to record with so I don't know what I should look for in my computer sound card given that fact.

Recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
J

Before you start check out the soundonsound website. I read an article on there about 2 months back. Aboud certain music apps not taking advantage of dual and quad core processors. So if you have a dual core and the software is only using one of the cores you're already running on half the processing power.


Is this machine going to be a dedicated DAW? If so then get along to musicxp teaks and ripp out all them hidden microsuck programs and background services you're never gonna need. There's a couple of services that run in the background that take up a LOT of memory location. That's why you hear about XP only using 2-3 gig of ram when it's capable of utilising 4 gig easy when stripped out.

Video cards, Matrox had good cards a few years back the G450/550/600 range, dueal headed cards if you're tjhinking about dual display.

As for your mobo, go with the best you can buy with enough expansion slots for what you think you're gonna need in the future. Asus & AsRock both made pretty solid boards in the past.

Western Digital get a lot of praise for their drives but I know plenty people on here, my self included build systems with seagate barraccudas.


Wish my knowledge was a bit more up to date, seems like only yesterday I built my current system.

P IV 3.0GHz
Asus P4C 800-e mobo
2 Gig DDR400 (4x512meg in dual channel mode)
600watt Antec silent PSU
Antec 4U rackmount case
Zalman flower cpu fan and Acioustifan case fans

Uses 62 Meg of 2 GHz of ram on bootup with the stripped out/bare bones XP shell.......27 seconds for a full boot and 7 seconds on shutdown.

I run SX3 on this old donkey with 3 M-Audio Delta 1010's in3 of the 5 PCI slots and 2 UAD-1 DSP cards in the other 2 slots. 24in/24out feeding an analog board and it'll record in 16 tracks at a time at 24bit/48Khz without a stutter. Since switching to the UAD-1 cards for plugs some of the heat has been taken off the CPU. I can easily have 40+ tracks in a mix and stream back 12 stereo stems to the board for outboard processing and analog summing. Most of the time I have 4 or 5 VSTi's running like EZdrummer and a few synths and the old P IV doesn't ever kick up muck over 50/60%. Stable temp of around 42 degrees C on the CPU on intense mixes.

Mine is still going strong and I have a spare mobo & processor incase of a system faliure because they are just so cheap to buy these days. I'm thinking about ditching the 3 Deltas and going with 2 Echo Audiofire 12's to free up the 3 PCI slots for more UAD-1 cards

Good luck with your build.

 

[altitude909]

I am about to do by first PC build - I want to focus on music recording capability. Other than that, I'd only use for basic web-surfing; don't care about gaming. I want to stay at $500 for the system (no monitor). Looking at Used components to keep cost down. I use a MOTU Ultralite firewire recording interface and Cubase as my recording software. I don't think I want to worry about overclocking at this point. At most I would probably be recording 3 or 4 tracks at one time. I plan to do a lot of Wave editing on the computer and VST Instruments

Processor - I'm thinking about the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale - it may not be possible to stay under $500 with this processor but I definitely want to build my system around smthng like it. I would like to find savings in other components
Operating System: XP Pro.
Memory: 2GB RAM should suffice with XP
Video: I don't play games so I am not interested in a good video card.
Hard Drive: I have external HD so I don't need anything amazing smthing with adequate storage, 7200RM, etc
Mobo: Recommendations appreciated here. I need at least 2 firewire ports w/ TI
Sound Card: As mentioned, I will be using the MOTU unit to record with so I don't know what I should look for in my computer sound card given that fact.

Recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
J

Sounds good. With a modern chip, you really dont have to worry about optimizing anything. They have more than enough horsepower. I went from a 3.4ghz P4 to a E6600 and my benchmark track count (i.e. mutiple instances of an audio track with 3 instances of roomworks reverb ea) went up by FIFTY TRACKS before starting to max out the processors. Go ahead and get a cheaper p35 based board, you really dont need the dual SLI or any other of the bells and whistles for a daw.

 

[LemonTree]

Sounds good. With a modern chip, you really dont have to worry about optimizing anything. They have more than enough horsepower. I went from a 3.4ghz P4 to a E6600 and my benchmark track count (i.e. mutiple instances of an audio track with 3 instances of roomworks reverb ea) went up by FIFTY TRACKS before starting to max out the processors. Go ahead and get a cheaper p35 based board, you really dont need the dual SLI or any other of the bells and whistles for a daw.

I guess thats what I'm trying to say Alti, you don't need all the bells and whistles of the very latest components but QUALITY components, i.e. good solid motherboard and trustworthy BRANDED ram go a long way to a STABLE DAW that will keep you future proof for years to come.

 

[Hard2Hear]

The Intel DP35DP is still a safe and inexpensive choice that has proven itself to work well. Just get the newest bios, as they fixed some issues lately that directly affect pro audio.

 

[altitude909]

I guess thats what I'm trying to say Alti, you don't need all the bells and whistles of the very latest components but QUALITY components, i.e. good solid motherboard and trustworthy BRANDED ram go a long way to a STABLE DAW that will keep you future proof for years to come.

Hey man, you're preaching to the choir. I don't skimp on any part of my ax (intel only chipsets, I have been a loyal corsair user going on a decade now). I used to be a "tweak windows to death" person for years, but these days I dont bother and honestly I haven't seen any real performance boosts from any service tweaks other than indexing and system restore. As far as the P35, if myself and hard2hear are actually agreeing on a chipset, you know it is good

 

[futbol1097]

Thanks for the help! I have a question on soundcards - if I plan to do all recording through my firewire-powered MOTU unit, why does it matter what kind of PC soundcard I have? My plan was to get a motherboard with on-board sound and not worry about purchasing an additional card. Just wondering. Thanks.

 

[altitude909]

Thanks for the help! I have a question on soundcards - if I plan to do all recording through my firewire-powered MOTU unit, why does it matter what kind of PC soundcard I have? My plan was to get a motherboard with on-board sound and not worry about purchasing an additional card. Just wondering. Thanks.

Thats what I use, the onboard sound connected to PC speakers for windows sounds, WMP, games etc and the TDIF card connected to the console for all the music stuff

 

[LemonTree]

Thanks for the help! I have a question on soundcards - if I plan to do all recording through my firewire-powered MOTU unit, why does it matter what kind of PC soundcard I have? My plan was to get a motherboard with on-board sound and not worry about purchasing an additional card. Just wondering. Thanks.

and if it's a dedicated daw no don't need to hear them beeps n clicks. A mobo with no built in sound is a cleaner board taking up less system resorces/memory/memory locations. I personaly have always stayed well clear of mobo's with built in sound or video....it's just something less you need to disable in the bios. If it's not DAW dedicated you might want to think about this...as in, I asume you already have a computer and this is an upgrade so why not keep what you have for online chores and make this the dedicated DAW.

 

[LemonTree]

Hey man, you're preaching to the choir. I don't skimp on any part of my ax (intel only chipsets, I have been a loyal corsair user going on a decade now

I had corsair in my first system, good memory. When the Asus P4 boards came out they were all tested with Kingston ram apart from one website I stumbled on testing with kingmax DDR400 which was never listed on the asus site as compatable when the p4 boards came out. "super ram" it was branded ans "super ram" it has been...am still using the 4 x 512meg strips a bought 2 years ago.

I miss building new systems done a lot a few years ago for a few mates and wish I was building from scratch now with todays technology (it advances so fast) but untill I see my system taxing that's not gonna happen and I've pushed it as far as my recording skills go a few times so anything short of a total destruction studio fire and am gonna stay old school.

I'd like to hear from anyone that's looked into the multicor processors not being utilised in certain audio apps, never experienced it but that was a good read in sound on sound magazine just before christmas.