kidkage's PC build thread (read: kidkage's request for PC build help thread)

Also, thanks for reminding me of Thunderbolt Jojo Baffman! I completely forgot that it's possible to have that on Windows machines now. I'd definitely like that.
 
Hey Kidkage,

You are welcome. The mobo I use at home is the Asus Z87 expert, Not the Z97. I am not an expert by any means. But, I will tell you that I really like the Asus utility that allowed me to use 1866 ram and over clock the cpu. It runs at 4ghz constant. I do not use the turbo function with Pro Tools. With that said, the utility dose allow the user to change the cpu setting with one click. ex. normal use, medium and hi also there is a "very high" for the folks that know how to over clock. I don't really know much about the hole over clock thing. My home system is slightly over but the studio system is not.

Stability is the no. 1 thing on my list. Really stability and compatibility is the no. 1 thing. I'm not that smart so I looked at Sweet Waters Creation Station 450 and documented all the parts they used. Then I went to PC Part Builder and selected those parts to get an idea of the build price. After a ton of reading/ research I ended up with a better PC solution than Sweetwater or Rain ect. could provide for almost half the price with some of the parts upgraded. For example; A much better cpu cooling solution and I like to have 4 hard drives in the box. SSD boot drive, Audio drive, Sample/ V instrument drive and a large back up drive. I also use the thunder bolt option to record to for client specific projects and to make a redundant back up of every thing. I built the PC for 1878.00. not including the external thunderbolt drives. The build was 10 months ago. If you would like I can get the parts list and give it to you,

Good Luck, Jojo
 
Since you brought up computer builds.... :) ....not sure if any of my info/specs are of value to you in your build, but here's what I'm doing at this time.

I too am building a new DAW computer....well, not a total parts-for-parts build...more like taking an existing ready-made "base" computer system, and then adding to it the necessary components and setting it up for DAW use.

First...I have ZERO qualms about buying on eBay. :D
I can cherrypick decent used stuff, and not spend a lot of $$...so if it doesn't work out, I'm not out by much, and/or I can buy spare stuff/parts, and it's still spend less on all of it than single new items.

I needed to find a computer with a 3-PCI (not PCIe) slot MOBO since I still use Echo Layla24 converter boxes, and their cards are PCI, and I have three converters. Of course I also wanted some PCIe slots for the graphics and whatever.
Since that many PCI slots are hard to find in more current computers, I went back as far as had to, which wasn't too far.

I picked up lightly used Dell Precision T3400 with a Core 2 Extreme 3GHz quad core processor, and then I picked up a second T3400 to have for parts if needed. Got them both for $200. :cool:
I dropped 4 2GB sticks of RAM for a total of 8GB of RAM into my primary computer (I have another 8GB for the second one)....and I may at some point buy 4 sticks of 4GB each and bump the primary up to 16GB total, but 8GB will do fine for now.

These Precision T3400 computers come with 3 PCI slots, 2 PCI x16 slots and 1 PCIe x8 slot....which covers my needs for the 3 PCI cards and one PCIe for the graphics. I'm going to use the x8 PCIe for a Firewire card so I can have that plus the USB connections, and I still have one PCIe x16 for whatever comes up.
I picked up 4 WD VelociRaptor 10k RPM SATA2 Enterprise drives. I went with 300 GB drives, as I don't like having once massive storage drive. I'll run one for the OS, two for audio work and the fourth one for samples. Got all 4 drives brand new for total $216/shipped...I plan on getting a couple more as spares.
I may even drop one drive into the other T3400, install the OS and my basic DAW apps (I can install the DAW software on as many computers as I like...all I have to do is move the dongle from box to box to authenticate)...that way, if the other one has issues at any time, it would be easy to swap the audio/sample drives and get going on the second computer without a lot of down time....though I doubt I'll have that need.

I'm just looking to grab a couple of used dual DVI cards on eBay, and pick the one that works best on my setup...and that's it.
For about $500 I'll have a pretty decent DAW.

I'm currently running an older Precision 530 as my DAW. It has dual Xeon 2.8GHz processors, 4 GB RAM and I've been running XP 32 bit.
One reason for this current build is because I want to go with Win 7 64 bit, since I can boost the RAM, and because my DAW software (Samplitude ProX) has an upgrade version coming soon which will not run on XP...so it was the right time to make the move with a new box, and I'm still able to stick with my 3 Layla24 converters, which I like a lot and don't have a need to change.

This new build, like my current DAW and the one before that....are all single-purpose computers. I don't run them on any network, and they are purely DAW computers....nothing else. So I run them as lean & clean as I can get them, and that makes up a lot for the fact that they are not the most newest generation computers.
 
Well, guys, /thread.

I gave in to a great deal on a gaming PC (under $1000) that seems to be supercharged for audio work.
An Asus ROG G20. i7 4790, 8GB RAM, 1TB 7200rpm/8GB SSD system drive, Nvidia GTX 760 graphics card, Windows 8.1. I'm going to be running 2 USB 3.0 drives with it. (A 7200rpm 750GB drive for libraries, and a 2TB G-Tech G-Drive for projects.)

I'll be running Cubase Pro 8 (or is it 8 pro? Idk) So far, so good. Except with one particular soft synth - the D16 LuSH-101. It didn't crash, but at 24bit/96khz the VST performance meter in cubase gets to a average load I consider uncomfortably high - 50/70%. Everything else was fine though. I opened up 30 instances of the Cubase virtual instruments in seconds. 10 instances of other 3rd party plugins in seconds. Plug-ins seem to work fine with no hiccups. I'm waiting for the drives to come in before I install Komplete and check with that. I'm also trying to figure out what sample rate I want to record at. I'm thinking I'll go 96khz to sort of future proof my sessions... I also definitely hear a difference from 44.1... but I guess this is a convo for a different thread.

Thanks for all the tips and info! At some point in a couple years (or when I'm financially able lol) I'll definitely build the next one for Windows 10. I just like computers. So I'm sure more won't hurt :D
But, for now, I hope *knock on wood* that this'll take care of me. At least for a handful of serious projects.

Happy new year!

P.S. If anyone has tips to optimize windows 8.1 for performance, could you share them with me?
 
Well done kidkage,
8 more gigs of ram will make your VI's a lot more solid. If there is an app on the mother board to check temp. it would be a really good idea to use it. You did not mention what type of cpu cooler it came with so this may be of no consequence. Temp is the biggest killer of PC's. I'm glad you have it sorted and are making music !

That Sweetwater link above is a great place to get the info you need to optimize Win.8

Jojo
 
Thanks d00ds!

That link helped a ton!!!

Also, further testing reveals that, yes, the D16 LuSH-101 is a CPU hog. I've went ahead and retired it for now anyway.

I'll be adding that extra 8 gigs of RAM as soon as I develop the patience for it lol. Took me 3 days to get everything formatted, installed, and otherwise running as I need it to be :(
As far as the temp is concerned there is an on board app to monitor it. I'll have to check it once I have a session running. Hopefully ASUS has taken the proper cooling measures since they're pushing it as a serious gamers machine, but if not, I guess that's a risk I should've expected with an off the shelf PC :/
 
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