1,500 - new computer - suggestions?

I haven't purchased a new audio computer in about 6 years so it's time. I have saved up $1,500 for the purchase. I don't need a monitor and I could build it myself but was hoping for some suggestions if anyone could find the time I would greatly appreciate some links.

Looking for a quiet pc, quiet fans, quiet case etc. Also I need a very good power supply. Was thinking of an Asus motherboard too, heard some good things about them and of course an Intel I7 but then you might ask If I know what I want why am I asking here? Well I have had so many bad experiences with things after making purchases online and I want to be sure I get high quality products from reliable companies.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Hey brolance!

I'm a long time forum lurker and finally decided to sign up here after reading your post. So about this audio computer you're trying to build... I recently built a gaming computer about 2.5 years ago with the base items you've mentioned (i7 and Asus mobo). If you wan't more details about the computer just let me know.

Basically what I'm saying is that if you're interested in buying my computer I'll be more than happy to sell it to you. Why am I selling it you ask? Well I'm a college student out of state and shipping my baby back and forth is definitely not an option (fear of opening it up at school to find that it's been damaged). So because of that, I don't use it during the school year.

With all that being said, I have all the original packaging for all the pieces, which are also in mint condition, and I'll cut you a good deal on this beast. PM me and we can talk details!

And without further ado here is my soundcloud set with a mix of some of my early beats with Reason 4 and my more recent stuff with Maschine: https://soundcloud.com/darksource16/sets/dat-bounce

Enjoy!

 

I know youre not wanting a MAC...but hell my main rig is a PITA PC, everytime i install a new piece of hardware im back to square one with installs and fricken usb ports malfunctioning

For that money id be looking at a used mac powercore, there are some seriously powerful machines around at that pricepoint and only a couple of years old...plus i have a macbook pro and imac, you install something on them and its like plug and play everytime

 

Agreed!

 

The only problem I have with a MAC is having to relearn things. Im 42 and not interested in changing now. No offense to you DarkSource but on this purchase I definitely cannot take any chances. Thanks for the replies!

 

There are very stable PC configurations, you just have to know what parts are compatible, what chipsets can coexist, etc. For 1500 you could build a phenomenal new PC that is as trouble free as any Mac, and much more powerful than two year old Mac hardware. The ONLY reason Macs work without hassle is that they do the research and ship exactly one hardware configuration. With PCs, people can combine literally thousands of different configurations. A forum search at KVR, Cakewalk, Cubase, Tom's Hardware, etc. yields many results about stable PCs for audio.

If you don;t want to build your own - check out this site. The owner is a regular at Cakewalk forums and a really nice and competent guy. He sells an i7 system starting at 1400.

http://www.adkproaudio.com/

 

ADK pro audio all day if your going with a pc.

 

adk stuff is very nice but after customizing to the way I want Im hitting 1,900 easy even with the box machine

 

Email him and discuss what your looking for, budget, expectations, etc. He's a great guy and will take care of you.

 

No problem brolance I totally understand, but if you change your mind hehe I've got you! What exactly are you adding into your computer to make it 1,900?

In terms of mobos: I highly recommend the Asus P6T Deluxe V2! Up to 24 Gb of ddr3 ram, supports ATI/AMD Xfire and Nvidia SLi, cpu socket for i7 and backwards compatible with older chips too, SPDIF, eSata, Firewire, and plenty of USB (not sure if it's 3.0, if not there are enough pci and pci-e slots to get an add on card).

Power supply: I suggest 850watts and modular (you can connect the necessary wires you need to the power supply so you don't have a jungle of cables in your case). Corsair is pretty reputable with their PSUs.

CPU: sounds like you've decided on an i7! If you're going to use this solely for music, then the base model should be sufficient.

HDD: solid state or a 10,000rpm VelociRaptor by Western Digital.

GFX: I may get some heat on this one (Nvidia vs ATI/AMD), but you'd do your wallet a favor if you grabbed an ATI/AMD gfx card with 2GB of vram the likes of a 5870 x2 or 6870 x2 or whatever they're at these days. The advantage of these cards is that you essentially have two GPUs on one pcb board (look up ATI/AMDs Xfire technology) and it only takes up one pci-e slot.

RAM: DDR3 1600 and up from vendors Corsair, Crucial, or Patriot. 6GB minimum.

Cooling: Get yourself a $40-50 mid range CPU air cooler and couple that with some $2 Rosewill 120mm fans (they also come in nice colors if you're into that).

Case: I don't know your expertise with building computers, but I've built a few and trying to muck around with all of this hardware in a mid size tower case is not what I like to call fun. So I suggest a full tower case, and if you can, get one with a slide out mobo tray so you can set everything up outside of the computer and just slide it in like magic.

Where to buy: newegg.com no doubt about it. All the things I suggested should run you about 1,470 give or take depending on the combos you decide on.

 

or NCIX.com if in Canada

they build some fairly decent configurations for mid range price under $1000 CAD. Last PC I got from them, no problems for $499 - all I did was increase the RAM and added my soundcard.

 

Consider the volume of the beast as well. My PC is great for gaming but that means loud fans which is a pain when it comes to recording audio.

 

Even with a fan speed monitor/controller? When I use my desktop my fans are around 25% with temps around 42 C. It's not laptop silent of course, but when the monitors are rocking my head is surely bopping haha.

 

Im 45 i bought my first mac three years ago...but it does take a little adjustment

 

I always built my PCs and it is good, you know what you got and can choose the best components and it is easy
Your budget is good. My suggestions:
Box: Medium size with BIG fans, good air flow, hopefully adjustable fans (too many small fans make noise)
PS- 600+watts good quality
1 SSD 120GB for programs and VSTs
1 or 2 Western digital HHDs Black caviar 500-GB-1To (5 year warranty)
Video card-with passive cooling=fanless
Main board-ASUS M5A99X EVO...AM3 socket
For CPU I recommend AMD FX 4170 (4.2 GHz) or similar AM3
Scythe cooler, Mugen, Ninja, Yasya (I run mine @ idle 900-1100RPM)
8 GB of memory
Windows 7 64bit
You will have a very quiet and hi performance PC, almost inaudible for less then your budget.
I have never been disappointed with AMD, it is worth the money and if you match your components you wont be disappointed...
Besides mobo and CPU I don't give you any brand names, because there is so much to choose from...
Good luck
Edit: main board+cpu, warranty 3 years, RAM- lifetime buy from reputed sellers and try to get everything from 1 place=saves on shipping
ASUS makes best main boards

 

wow - my last pc cost me £350 with a 21inch widescreen and plenty of power for modern software, 1500 is a lot and should give you an epic performer.....

 

First off thank you all for your replies they have been very helpful!

Hopefully this doesnt turn into a AMD sucks INTEL is great vice versa battle, but since I do video editing as well as audio it would be helpful to know if one is better than the other for that purpose. I've heard so many good things about the I7 and it really draws me, maybe it's just hype? I have an AMD processor now so I'm not totally scared of them.

One other question I have is since Maschine is not mulit-core I'm guessing it would be better to have the fastest part of 1 core of any processor to be my aim?

Thanks again Maschine forums you rock!

 

I hope not, because it would be very stupid. The fact is that both rival companies are so advanced and so good, that it is a question of $$$s not so much of performance.
I think in a single core Maschine, speed is more important then 8 cores
If you like I-7, go with the fastest one, they (all) can be all slightly overclocked without damaging them.
Still, a quad core is a must.

More important then Intel versus AMD is to have a good arrangement of HDDs: an SSD for program and VSTs 60-125GB and then move all the temp files, my documents, my music, photos etc to another location by "default" for a reason that SSDs are READ only discs, they SHOULD not be formatted and erased etc.
They are super fast in executing.
Your samples and storage HDD(s) should be arranged with the important stuff in the beginning of disc and backups at the end, the disc spins much faster at the bigger diameter.

Your $1500 budget is really overkill, you can have a fantastic PC for around 700 bucks and RME 9632 sound card for $300+
and then you got to tweak windows 7 for performance with: http://www.blackviper.com/service-c...dows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/

 

You have provided some really good advice, but I will add:

1.) While I might agree that an SSD would be best for OS and programs and an HDD for samples and data - SSDs are in no way meant or required to be read only as you have said. SSD memory lifetime is based upon the endurance of the flash memory used- how many times it can be erased and overwritten. On a typical consumer SSD drive used 'normally' (not in a server or doing nothing but continuous writes all day) SSD drives should last several years without special file management actions by the user. If the user of an SSD does very heavy writes, then the drive may be at risk of reaching its write cycle maximums in 3-5 years. Writing/deleting audio may fall under heavier writes than normal, but its still nothing close to the sustained writes seen in servers doing web page hosting or database, or other enterprise/industrial applications. I would bank on any HDD failing before an SSD reaches end of life in the average system, especially if samples and audio data are placed on an HDD. Few SSD will be used for samples anyway because they are small capacity and expensive compared to HDD still.

2.) Performing service tweaks is a bit of an obsolete practice. It produces very little benefit for a hassle. Maybe if someone were using Windows XP, they would want to tweak services for that amazing 10% of extra performance. On a clean installation of Vista and later there is very little performance gain to be had from tweaks to the OS and services. Unless computers are a religion to you, I think the average user will never notice the small gains here and will be quite frustrated wasting the time.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyKmbAV9WSI"]Public Image Ltd - Bad Life - YouTube[/ame]