Opinions on Audio Production PC Build

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Long time reader first time poster. I've been home recording a little over a decade. First on 4 Track then digital. I'm putting together a PC to replace a dying laptop. It has to be powerful enough for many multiple tracks, processes, vsts etc while remaining quiet and somewhat future proof. I use a VS100 external audio interface, Sonar 8 & Windows.

So far I have two builds put together from research and one suggested by a friend as a reaction to those builds. I'm completely new to all of this and I'm just looking for any opinions from those familiar with recording and PCs. Any help is appreciated. The builds are as follows.

This first build was a combination of researched/recommended parts:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£343.39 @ Kustom PCs)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£30.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£204.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£68.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.86 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GT 730 2GB Video Card (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.97 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.36 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £880.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 18:12 BST+0100

This is a slightly cheaper build where I scaled down on certain components:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£343.39 @ Kustom PCs)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.01 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£204.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: PNY Anarchy 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£43.16 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.86 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 5450 1GB Video Card (£27.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.97 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £817.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 18:08 BST+0100

Finally this build was recommended by a friend after seeing the first two:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£343.39 @ Kustom PCs)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£30.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£176.21 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X OC Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.95 @ BT Shop)
Power Supply: EVGA 700W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Total: £765.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 18:00 BST+0100

I realise this forum is dedicated to recording as opposed to PC parts however the same is true of latter in reverse and I'm trying to cover all of my bases.

Thanks!
 
I think any of the computers you listed look like they would do the job. I would suggest you add more SSD space so you can have some room to do projects. I split my SSD into two partitions, one for OS and programs, the other for a place for active projects. If you have a old disk or get an additional disk for long term archiving.

The 256 SSD would work, just seems SSDs are so cheap, little extra room (I have 480 and it gives plenty of room) just seem better. Otherwise I think you would be just fine with most of what you had listed. I haven't kept up with MBs, so you would have to rely on reviews. I don't think there is anything special required of MBs for audio (assuming an interface). If you do decide to do video production on that machine, you may want to double check the specs on the video card. I imagine what you have listed would do well with that, but couldn't say with much current knowledge.
 
You are going to want to have the OS and DAW software on one drive and write your audio to another drive. Also, a vid card with more on board memory and faster processing will help keep the meters more in time with the audio. Google optimizing pc for audio recording. That made a big difference.
 
cafehonda said:
You are going to want to have the OS and DAW software on one drive and write your audio to another drive.

Also, a vid card with more on board memory and faster processing will help keep the meters more in time with the audio.
Click to expand...

Not required. Most app data is loaded into system memory when the app is launched. SSDs offer plenty of throughput to read/write in real-time. Specifically with audio production, system processing power and latency are the bottlenecks, not disk read/write with SSDs.

And no, not true. Music apps operate in 2D/desktop mode, extra video card power would be unnecessary unless he wanted to play games (3D).
 
Pinky said:
Not required. Most app data is loaded into system memory when the app is launched. SSDs offer plenty of throughput to read/write in real-time. Specifically with audio production, system processing power and latency are the bottlenecks, not disk read/write with SSDs.

And no, not true. Music apps operate in 2D/desktop mode, extra video card power would be unnecessary unless he wanted to play games (3D).
Click to expand...

Weird. I don't have an ssd so I can't comment on that but adding a seperate hd made a significant impact on my system. I will say that when I upgraded my vid card it made a huge difference in metering response. It's not real time but it is close.
 
The Thermaltake case is very quiet. Consider a few extra case fans to keep air flow up and noise levels down...try Cooler Master Sickle Flow or Cougar Vortex PWM 120
No question the i-7 5820K is a great buy for the money.
Don't know why you're hung on the Samsung SSD. HyperX Savage are faster and have great reliability (and cheaper than the SM951. You def want two SSDs regardless. As well, a cheap, standard drive that both could mirror to would be a great option unless you're using cloud.
The 2400 memory is only good if you use it. Remember anything above 2133 has to be clocked to work. If you put 3200s in and don't clock it, they still run at 2133...this may be hoogus...older motherboards operated that way, and I'm only assuming that they still don't autoswitch.
AFA video, you're probably underkilling, and you're definitely waffling. Your #1 build lists an AMD card, but your others use Raedon. Do a little research and decide which way you prefer to go. You'll probably want to up your budget a bit, especially if you'd like to run multiple monitors (always nice when dealing with a DAW). I would shoot for something with 4 HDMI ports so you have expandability. Something along the lines of EVGA 02G-P4-1950-KR, or ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 depending on what you like (both under $200, not sure about pounds.)
 
Just beware that the bigger and more powerful the video card the more heat it generates and more noise it's likely to make (video card cooling fans are notoriously loud). I would get a passively cooled video card if possible. I'm using a cheap Nvidia GT625, it's passively cooled (no fans) and I don't have any issues with 2 x 1920 monitors and my metering is most definitely in real time. ;)

Cafehonda, it sounds like your PC is having issues. And for god's sake - upgrade to a SSD drive! It's like night/day performance.
 
Yes, there are fanless options as well. The new PC I am in the middle of (and will probably never finish with our finances being where they are) was being built with a Zotac ZT-70707-20M
 
I would consider any of those speccs to be overkill for any reasonable amount of tracks/plugs considering what peeps got by with just 5 years ago!

Yeah, AFIK a posh graph card will just prettify games and eat juice. Little dodge here/..
I bought a passively cooled GC for my Asus M5A97 (does not have OB Graphs, watch that!) but, being a tronics geek I did not like how hot it got (finger, one second, Ouch!) so I fitted an 80mm B Q fan alongside it in some semi-rigid foam. Can keep digit on it all day now!

Last thought. Latency will be wholly determined by the interface and mostly by its drivers.

Dave.
 
I JUST BUILT THE BEST MUSIC PC EVER!!!!

Here is what I did, and I did not break the bank!

I started off with a QUO Z77 motherboard. Why? #1-I can Boot Windows xp through Windows 10 (all 64 bit), and I can also boot OSX 10.5 through El Capitian. Yup, you heard me right, I can boot OSX and Windows, 1 computer to do both. The QUO also has 2 x Thunderbolt 20GB ports, 2 x 400GB Firewire, and 2 x 800GB firewire, in addition to plenty of USB3/2 ports, front and back. I did, however, to make things simplier, use 3 different boot hard drives. OSX and Windows each get their own Velociraptor 10k drives, and I used a 32GB OCX Solid SSD for XP. When the machine boot, I choose the boot menu and tell it which drive to boot to. When I installed each OS, I unplugged the other drives so there would not be any issues. I could, if I wished, install a software boot menu on each drive, but why bother?
$180 ebay or Amazon, $240 direct from QUO
Quo Computer | your computer. your configuration. your choice.

CPU ($100) - I went with a i7 2600K which I can OC to 4.5GHz easy on air, and if I go water, I can hit 5GHz. There was some article that the 2600k was one of the best overclockable CPU's of all time.
14 Of The Most Legendary Overclocking-Friendly CPUs

RAM ($80) - Most DDR3 chips work in this board, but I went with 32GB of Corsair Vengenance. You can start off with 2x8GB chips and add 2 more later to save $$$.

Drives = I had some VR's lying around (I work in IT), but those 300GB VR's are less than $40 on eBay. I prefer a seperate drive for booting vs my data drive. Here is my exact setup:
Boot Drive #1 ($35)- WD Velociraptor 300GB
Boot Drive #2 ($35)- WD Velociraptor 300GB
Boot Drive #3 (25) - OCZ Solid SSD
Data Drive #1 ($50) - Toshiba 2TB DT01ACA200

*** If I had to buy all the parts, I would have purchased Samsung 840/750 series ($50 ea.) 128GB or 256GB drives to boot with instead of the VR's ***
The 840's are the older series than the newer 850 series, same with the 750's. Also, ADATA OEM's Samsung drives, think those are even cheaper.

Case = Whatever you like, try to get as many front USB and FW ports as possible.

Video card - I used the onboard, but the board comes with PCI-E 3.0 16x slots (2 of them), so I could easily run SLI/Crossfire. (why would you on a music PC?)

ROM - I had a Samsung BDR drive, I can get these now for under $40, writes to 128GB BD-RE discs.

A good 650+ power supply will run $50-$80, depends on if you go with a video card or not. If using inboard, a 650 should work fine, even with all those drives.

So, to recap and list my parts and prices:
$180 = Board
$100 = CPU (You coudl go with an i5 for 1/2 the price of the i7)
$50 = Drive(s), you only need 1 drive to start with, can add more later as you like.
$80 = RAM
$40 = ROM
$50 = Case
$0 = video card, I used the on-board
$0 = OS, I got in on the free Windows 10 upgraded before it expired, and OSX is FREE!

$500 = Total cost, you can save another $100 by starting off with lesser parts. This builds you a heck of a machine, which has Firewire and USB3, lots of expansion potential, and lots of choices for software.

Just thought I would share, I like that board so much I will build another and use it for something else.

Enjoy!

David

PS - Barebones cheap way to go (you can add RAM, anotehr CPU, RAM, and a video card anytime in the future without having to re-install Windows or apps)
$180 = Board
$50 = CPU i5 Quad
$50 = 2TB Toshiba
$40 = RAM, get the 8GB stick, do NOT get 4 x 4GB chips.
$0 = ROM - can get later, who uses ROM anymore anyway?
$35 = Case - Go to Microcenter or Fry's and get an OPEN-BOX special
$0 = video card, add one later if you need this
________________

$355
 
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Almost forgot, the apps I run, and NOTHING is even close to slow or sluggish:

FL Studio 12 Producer
CuBase 8
Ampltibe4 MAX
Guitar Rig 5
Kontakt 5 (for my Roland VDRUMS)

Everything runs SUPER fast, nothing lags, no circles to wait for. I even run multiple apps at the same time while browsing the web, could not ask for a faster machine for what I am doing. I can convert and export audio files much faster than the previous Music PC I had.

I saw the PCpartpicker lists, but why spend that much on a non-graphical use computer? I think RAM has a more central role than video on music PC's, that is where the samples and VST files load to when you mix and record music. Also, I knwo the newer USB3 audio interfaces get all the hype, but I recently tested Komplete Audio 6 against my ancient Firebox Firewire, and the latency was 2ms for Firewire vs 8-12ms (and variable) for USB. Think about it, the USB bus is shared with keyboard, mouse, and whatever else you have plugged up, and has less buffers than the dated Firewire ports. Not to mention you can pickup a used Firepod or Fire Studio for around $100 and have 8 inputs, chain 3 of them together and get 24 inputs. Also, if you hit the bandwidth wall, the QUO also has Thunderbolt, good luck saturating that bus...

Look at it this way, I have worked in IT for 20+ years (still do). I could and would build any machine I need, and I will only build the BEST for my own use. I could have spent $1k or more, but I decided what I needed, and what needs to be the fastest and fit the specs to do music with a PC. Many people OVERBUY PC parts and technology all the time. I see this on a daily basis, some grandma running a 10 core CPU to surf the web and play online bingo, with 64GB of RAM and a 2TB Samsung SSD. In my industry, we are all to happy to oversell you the technology and parts. Listen to what I have said and be wise with your $$$, my QUAD core $500 box will run just about anything the same speed as a $2000 6-10 CORE. Sure, an Intel 750 or Samsung 950 SSD would make it boot 2 seconds faster, but do I really need all of that to play and record music, and mix some tracks? The best thing you can do is have your operating system on a different drive than your music apps and your recording scratch space. The recording and mixing apps should not have to contend with the OS for IO cycles and IOPS. learned this long ago from working with VMware.
 
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Good luck promoting firewire around here.
It's the 'work of the devil'. ;)
 
I might be just an old Bottle Jockey but surely if you put a USB AI on one of a PAIR of ports has THAT bus all to its lonesome? Even if that is wrong, a PCI/PCIe USB 2.0 card would surely be an isolated source?

20 years in IT? You obviously were not reading the almost daily anguished posts about Fussywire and chipset SNFUs! And what kind of "engineer" (I use the term loosely here!) designs a system that CANNOT be hot plugged AND does not have a foolproof connector index?

Dave.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Good luck promoting firewire around here.
It's the 'work of the devil'. ;)
Click to expand...

No wonder! My Firewire Solo was a great little interface and I loved it. I upgraded to the US1800 and donated the Firewire to the church when I built their new computer. It ABSOLUTELY REFUSES TO FUNCTION there. Same OS, same firewire card, same software, locks the machine up after 30 seconds every time! Glad to know it wasn't the hardware, but spiritual issues that are making this happen. :) :laughings:
 
I've literally never had problem with firewire across about 6 interfaces, 3 windows laptops, 2 windows desktops and 3 macs.
Not a peep. Not even "It won't connect.....ah, there it is!"
Nothing.

I don't feel like a particularly lucky guy, either.


In what way to you believe the hardware is at fault? By bet would be on "I built their new computer"...No offence.
But then, you did the research and know exactly what chipsets were on each mobo etc so..yeah...Spiritual issues. ;)
 
I don't really see firewire or USB as superior. I know that USB stability and quality tends to be more reliant on decent drivers/software. But even within the USB interface world, there's clearly tiers to 'performance' and entry level with regards to latency. Hopefully this is changing from what I've read in products coming down the pipeline soon [cheap, low latency entry level].
 
I've had my fair share of FW problems. The UAD Apollo is very particular about which FW card to use. And it never worked right with my old motherboard. BSOD everytime I booted, worked on 2nd reboot. Could never figure it out. Finally trashed that computer and got a Dell workstation.

USB drivers seem to have come a long ways in recent years.
 
Windows just never really implemented FireWire support properly. It seems to be a crapshoot as to who has problems with it and who doesn't. I couldn't get a FireWire interface to work for me. I made sure to get a PCIe FireWire card with a TI chipset, supplied it with a proper voltage from my power supply, and Windows 7 just simply refused to ever install that card properly. Tried legacy drivers, installing in different slots, you name it. All it ever did in its half-installed state was cause my computer to blue-screen every few minutes when the FW interface was plugged into it. It was a total disaster. The interface was a hybrid, and it sucked on USB as well, just in different ways. I punted it and picked a dedicated USB interface that's been rock-solid ever since.
 
Pinky said:
Just beware that the bigger and more powerful the video card the more heat it generates and more noise it's likely to make (video card cooling fans are notoriously loud). I would get a passively cooled video card if possible. I'm using a cheap Nvidia GT625, it's passively cooled (no fans) and I don't have any issues with 2 x 1920 monitors and my metering is most definitely in real time. ;)

Cafehonda, it sounds like your PC is having issues. And for god's sake - upgrade to a SSD drive! It's like night/day performance.
Click to expand...

It might be having PC issues, though I doubt it considering it is a fresh build and after I swapped out the graphics card I have real fast video. And while I appreciate your desire for me to have a SSD, at almost $900 for the size I need I don't think I will be doing that any time soon. I fill up a TB about every 3-4 weeks. Multiple artists with many, many, many tracks. My WD Blacks run just fine thank you very much.
 
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