Help with building a computer

T

Timmy Ford

New member
So I have done some research but feel I need my own thread for this. I am looking to build a computer strictly for music. I know ram and drive speed are key issues. What about single vs dual core? The computer I have now performance meter redline's under the most routine things causing my recording to stop or even simple playback to stop frequently. Money isn't a huge issue however performance is. So I don't want to waste money unecessarily, but whatever it takes to avoid these dropouts!

-So what ram do you recommend?

-Drive speed?

-Brand?

-Clean install of windows 7?

Thanks!
 
RAM: One consideration is what DAW are you going to use? Is it 64bit compatable. If not anything more that 4GB of RAM is a waste.

DRIVES: If money isn't an issue get a solid state drive. If you go standard get at least 7200rpm or 10000rpm.

BRAND: Don't get a brand, go to a local computer shop. Tell them what you want and have them build a machine with the most RAM, the fastest harddrives and the fastest CPU you can get within your budget.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:
1) If your interface is Firewire make sure you get a compatible FW card. Check the manufacturers web site for a list of FW chipsets.
2) Don't get a motherboard with a bunch of crap (sound card, wireless etc) because you'll just end up disabling it.
3) If you're gonna hook it up to a network or the net do it wired. Wireless PCI cards can really screww up recordings.
 
Timmy Ford said:
-So what ram do you recommend?
Click to expand...
4 gigs min. More if you can afford it.

Timmy Ford said:
-Drive speed?
Click to expand...
7200rpm. Solid state drives are fast too, but they're a) really expensive and b) not really big enough to store your data- but they are big enough for your OS drive. Then you could set up a second drive for data and a third (internal or external) for backups

Timmy Ford said:
-Brand?
Click to expand...
Have you ever considered building your own? There's plenty of homework and research to do to figure out what you need, but the act of assembling isn't terribly difficult. If not, a local (reputable!) shop would be a fine way to go. I'd be more concerned with what parts are inside than what brand label is on the front...

If performance is key and budget is no issue, then quad core i7 is the way to go. Even if budget is an issue, quad core is the best option out (IMO). I like AMD stuff too. Dual cores are still there, but not a huge savings. I don' think they even make single core processors anymore.

Timmy Ford said:
-Clean install of windows 7?
Click to expand...
Do you have an interface or soundcard now that you'd intend to use with your new machine? If so, check for 64bit drivers (hint: even if they exist, some of them aren't up to par yet).
 
Awesome stuff so far, thanks for the responses guys! The DAW I am using is Presonus's Studio One which is 64 compatible. I am also using the Studiolive 16 channel mixer, with Firestudio built in.

- 5 gigs of ram sounds good! There's that.

- So what I am getting here is that solid state drives are fast but don't have enough space to save my data? One for the OS, one for the data and one for backup?

- I have no problem hard wiring the internet connection to avoid interference.

- quad core i7 processor it is?
 
i7 is pretty much the beast out right now. Although, I see AMD is putting out 6core processors. The reality is, as far as computing goes, audio isn't *that* much of a resource hog. Not like video production. As for the ram, you might as well just go for 8 gigs. Most good motherboard have 4 ram slots- so just get (4) 2gig sticks.

I looked a few weeks ago and the biggest SSD was 32gigs and it was a couple hundred bucks. Lots of people do separate drives for the OS and audio for speed. I'm no pro, but I really doubt that this is as much of an issue now, where even modest machines can do so much (someone more in-the-know, feel free to agree or disagree). No matter what, if your data is even kind of important, you'd be a fool not to back it up :).

I think the biggest reason people have problems with windows machines is because they get virus, malware and junk from the internet. Lots of people don't connect their recording machine to the net at all. If you're computer savvy enough to get your computer disease-free I wouldn't sweat it. Again, this is where a good backup can come in handy (my machines back up nightly). Wireless or wired isn't really an issue.

I'll stress again, that just because a device has 64bit drivers available it doesn't mean they work well (yet). Do a google search and see if there are any recent gripes about your hardware.

This is a detail, but one other thing to consider- get a decent dual head video card. Two reasons... 1) onboard video uses system resources that could be used for your intended applications and 2) dual monitors are sweet. Even if you don't get 2 monitors now, you may in the future.

My current recording computer is a budget single core AMD with a gig of ram that I built 6 years ago for about $500- its not aging gracefully and I'm maxing out at about 28 tracks with effects. I just built a new machine (not for recording) that has a quad core AMD Phenom with 4 gigs of ram and 3 hard drives (1 OS, 1 data and 1 backup). That cost me about $600. Sure, I could have gone with nicer and better, but even so, I would be VERY comfortable using that for my recording computer.
 
Jeff_D said:
Wireless or wired isn't really an issue.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you say exept this. It just isn't true. If you have a wireless PCI card and a Firewire PCI card this can be a huge issue. I know, it happened to me. I also found several other people on the net that had the same issues when I was trying to solve my problem.
 
TetraFish said:
I agree with everything you say exept this. It just isn't true. If you have a wireless PCI card and a Firewire PCI card this can be a huge issue. I know, it happened to me. I also found several other people on the net that had the same issues when I was trying to solve my problem.
Click to expand...

I have wireless in our house, but I don't use it for my recording machine. Never thought it would be an issue, so I'll stand corrected :). So, were you having trouble because the wireless hardware in the machine was conflicting with your audio equipment? Or was the wifi causing interference like RF or something?
 
Jeff_D said:
I have wireless in our house, but I don't use it for my recording machine. Never thought it would be an issue, so I'll stand corrected :). So, were you having trouble because the wireless hardware in the machine was conflicting with your audio equipment? Or was the wifi causing interference like RF or something?
Click to expand...

It had something to do with the PCI bus, the wireless card would interrupt the firewire card. Everything would work great then every 20 seconds or so it would drop right out. took me a long time to solve that mystery. I thought it was a FW chipset issue.
 
Most people go about building a computer - whether for music or otherwise - the wrong way.
The right way is to follow this course:

Step 1, decide exactly what you want to do with it.
Step 2, decide what software will let you do what you decided in step 1
Step 3, find out what hardware will best run the software you have picked out, and build your PC accordingly.

With a Music PC you are also looking into music hardware, which should be part of your step 2.

And while I am a big fan of Windows 7, it may not be the best platform for a music PC. When you pick out what software and music hardware you are going to use, make sure it is well supported by Windows 7.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I like Tim O'brien's idea on copying the specs of a computer hand selected by "experts" to run efficiently for music (I like my mom to nicely lay out my clothes for me). Buying all the parts separately should save me some money. Studio One runs fine with Windows 7, as a matter of fact I believe it is the recommended OS.
 
Timmy Ford said:
So I have done some research but feel I need my own thread for this. I am looking to build a computer strictly for music. I know ram and drive speed are key issues. What about single vs dual core? The computer I have now performance meter redline's under the most routine things causing my recording to stop or even simple playback to stop frequently. Money isn't a huge issue however performance is. So I don't want to waste money unecessarily, but whatever it takes to avoid these dropouts!

-So what ram do you recommend?

-Drive speed?

-Brand?

-Clean install of windows 7?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Go with a quad core i7 processor.
Ram = ddr3 1600mhz
drive speed = sata 3gbps 10000rpm (biggest crutch when recording) - Forget about solid state for another 3 years.
always do a clean install.
 
Lungsh0t said:
Go with a quad core i7 processor.
Ram = ddr3 1600mhz
drive speed = sata 3gbps 10000rpm (biggest crutch when recording) - Forget about solid state for another 3 years.
always do a clean install.
Click to expand...

Why go with a quad ?

There was post somewhere stating that a higher rated dual core is actually better than a lower rated quad core because of how the software chooses to spread itself across the system. Plugins benefit from a faster core, not more slower cores.
 
CFox said:
Why go with a quad ?

There was post somewhere stating that a higher rated dual core is actually better than a lower rated quad core because of how the software chooses to spread itself across the system. Plugins benefit from a faster core, not more slower cores.
Click to expand...

Doesn't software have to be written specifically for multiple cores to benefit? If that's true I'd assume that the only benefit would be that the DAW would be running on a single core by itself and the others would handle the other services etc. that are running.
 
TetraFish said:
Doesn't software have to be written specifically for multiple cores to benefit? If that's true I'd assume that the only benefit would be that the DAW would be running on a single core by itself and the others would handle the other services etc. that are running.
Click to expand...

Nevermind. I just did some quick digging and it would seam DAW's are optimized for multiple cores but there seams to be a lot of grey area as to weather they are better or not. With all of the combinations of OS's, 32/64bit DAW's and 32/64bit plug-ins it's way to much effort and reading for me to figure it out.
 
TetraFish said:
Nevermind. I just did some quick digging and it would seam DAW's are optimized for multiple cores but there seams to be a lot of grey area as to weather they are better or not. With all of the combinations of OS's, 32/64bit DAW's and 32/64bit plug-ins it's way to much effort and reading for me to figure it out.
Click to expand...

There was a really good post somewhere from a while back explaining how plugins are a different animal when it comes to cores VS GHz. Hopefully that person rocks up again.
 
CFox said:
Why go with a quad ?

There was post somewhere stating that a higher rated dual core is actually better than a lower rated quad core because of how the software chooses to spread itself across the system. Plugins benefit from a faster core, not more slower cores.
Click to expand...

If your DAW software supports rendering through multiple threads, that is where the 4 cores come in handy. Faster rendering. I am assuming that if you are building a beast audio pc it will handle all of your plugins just fine.
 
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