Audio PC Build recommendations (1k and under budget)

Just go to a place like Multiwave Direct-you can pick the parts and they will put together as much or as little as you want. I usually get my motherboard and CPU bundle from them ( which means they mount the CPU and heat sink), which is probably the most tedious part. Especially if you have never done it, then build the test which is very simple really and of course you have google.

I enjoy the building myself, but that's me-I am a retired MS tech.

I "definitely would NOT buy an off the shelf HP or Dell, just my 2 cents.

definitely SSD for OS and programs which means you need at least 1 more hard drive. So it does get involved. Sweetwater-too pricey for what you get, as mentioned already.

Jim Rossenberry, (hope I spelled that right) a Guy on the Sonar forums builds nice audio PC's-great rep. StudioCat google it
 
USMC_Trev said:
You have to go a little further back in the thread to get the ethos behind the post.
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Yeah, it has to do with a Grammy Award winning Mixer who has been using a five year old Mac setup to Mix cutting edge stuff. You know for people like Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, Kelly Clarkson...those types. Don't buy a set up like his to record your home hobby stuff. Please don't. You might get left behind in the pro audio world...
 
Maybe you two should have a seat and chill. :)

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Here's what we don't hear about, the specs and pricing of said 5 year old Mac.
Pricing & Availability
The new Mac Pro will be available in August through the Apple Store® (Apple), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.
The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:

two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.
Configure-to-order options include:

one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
Mac Pro RAID card;
dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.
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The base Mac Pro was $2,500. 2.5x more expensive than whatever I listed in a notional PC build. We haven't heard anything about options, external, storage or any details (a Mac Pro as we all know can option up to 8-10k easy if we clicknon everything in the configurator) other than "I know a guy...".
 
USMC_Trev said:
Here's what we don't hear about, the specs and pricing of said 5 year old Mac.


The base Mac Pro was $2,500. 2.5x more expensive than whatever I listed in a notional PC build. We haven't heard anything about options, external, storage or any details (a Mac Pro as we all know can option up to 8-10k easy if we clicknon everything in the configurator) other than "I know a guy...".
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LMAO, dude, chill out. My post was tongue in cheek. Learn to take a joke and move on.

"I know a guy" is my family member, and feel free to look him up based on the various "hints" I've dropped. Anyway, you win. I'm a dumbass lol.
 
I didn't say you were a dumbass. I do think your suggestion that I chill suggests I'm not.

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The real thread here is someone disagrees with you and you don't like it very much. I'm guessing that doesn't happen too often in your little pocket of the world. I'm arguing just to keep my chops up. I don't really care that much.

And, no, I'm not going to analyze your hints and research until I can make a guess as to your cousins name. That's a childish approach to trying to passive/aggressively win a forum debate - which is all this is and what your tactic is. "Anyway you win. I'm a dumbass, lol." is really just disappointing, frankly. I was hoping for better.
 
USMC_Trev said:
I didn't say you were a dumbass. I do think your suggestion that I chill suggests I'm not.

g1371407736550188761.jpg


The real thread here is someone disagrees with you and you don't like it very much. I'm guessing that doesn't happen too often in your little pocket of the world. I'm arguing just to keep my chops up. I don't really care that much.

And, no, I'm not going to analyze your hints and research until I can make a guess as to your cousins name. That's a childish approach to trying to passive/aggressively win a forum debate - which is all this is and what your tactic is. "Anyway you win. I'm a dumbass, lol." is really just disappointing, frankly. I was hoping for better.
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Sorry to disappoint, LOL.
 
IDK if I've said this but I plan on using this PC for gaming (Nothing crazy, mostly games like LoL and Civ 5). Not too set on having a rig to run high settings with super good FPS although I'd like to be able to run these games on mid settings smoothly.
 
Your shopping carts don't come through to us on this end, so you'll have to post the items you are looking at if you want feedback on them. It's a pain, but you should be able to paste in the basic info fairly easily.

If you're gonna build your own, the one piece of advice I'll add is don't skimp on case and power supply. It's not just about watts either, it's about having something that is quiet, well-built and reliable. A quality case is worth every penny when you're working on building or maintaining the PC, and if you shop around you can find one that will keep the noise down. One company that makes nice quiet cases is also named Fractal. (Not related to our favorite guitar processor company, but that's the case I have for my StudioCat DAW and it does help keep the noise down.) Even if you aren't tracking live instruments with mics, a quiet PC in the room does help when you are mixing.
 
Lel my bad.

Here's my build;

-BUSlink CD/DVD Combo Drive Black IDE Model RWD-5216B

-GIGABYTE GZ-ZA1 Black ABS / 0.6mm SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

-Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM

-120mm Computer Case Cooling Fan LP4 Adapter Silent Smoke Rosewill

-EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

-EVGA 600 B 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified 600W Active PFC ATX12V v2.31/EPS 12V v2.91 3 Year Warranty 100-B1-0600-KR Power Supply

-Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150 BX80646I74790K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600

-GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Guise pls let me know if I'm an idiot and picked a bunch of incompatible parts lololol. Thanks.
 
PC's are basically like tinker toys now days, just snap the parts together. You list is more than adequate for any type of reasonable audio work and light gaming.

I also use a Lenovo laptop for a lot of recording (with a Firewire interface.) It's been very reliable, but they do ship with a lot of extra junk designed to hold the customers hand. That's what 'Add/remove programs' (or a reformat!) is all about.

Good luck, and more importantly, make music and have fun.

TT
 
cobbler said:
Your analogy is just as laughable to be honest.

An Apple costs what? Two to three times more than a Windows build. I would love to see the Ferrari you can come up with at even five times the price of a low end ford or a Fiat Punto.
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Well obviously. I wasn't the one who set up the ridiculous Ford vs Ferrari / PC vs Mac comparison, but I stuck with that rather than coming up with a whole new comparison. The point was that the considerable price difference is in the badge.
 
USMC_Trev said:
You don't need a sound card. Between onboard audio and the Axe-FX and whatever other interface happens to be floating around a sound card is redundant. I haven't done a build with a sound card in 7 or 8 years.
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A good soundcard offers you additional inputs and outputs. It's not required if you have an external interface already, but depending on what you're trying to do, a soundcard with lots of connectivity options will make your life much easier. Hence why I suggested a mid-level soundcard, not a top-end card. You basicly only need the periphery, nothing else.

Experience with DAWs are completely irrelevant to this discussion.
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I was writing this more to get the point across that you don't need to invest serious money in order to get a usable audio workstation. Almost any machine and external interface will do the trick.
I wasn't trying to insult anyone with this; just reminding people reading this that sometimes 500$ are better spent on a workshop than a workstation.

Severed said:
All an SSD will do is speed up how fast your computer boots and loads your DAW. The audio will not benefit.
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Correct. But then again this stuff can be pretty annoying. File management is part of the production process after all (and copying a 4 Gigabyte project file happens).

I'm not saying an SSD is a must-have. But of all possible purchases, it's probably the best, even if it's only to reduce some IDling time in production.
 
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Also, to add to everything that's been said here, do not buy anything that's not based on an Intel processor. Sad but true: AMD can't compete anymore and Intel chips run circles around it, even with fewer cores, especially on multimedia workloads where you need fast floating point math. I have one machine with an AMD chip (a file server), but in another year or two it too will get an upgrade to Intel.
 
Get a 256GB (or more) SSD for system drive (Samsung or Intel only). Get a Seagate 4TB hybrid drive for large files. 1TB is peanuts nowadays, and spinning drives SUCK except for storing a ton of data that is mostly read sequentially (audio, video, photos, that kind of thing).

Minotaurean said:
Lel my bad.

Here's my build;

-BUSlink CD/DVD Combo Drive Black IDE Model RWD-5216B

-GIGABYTE GZ-ZA1 Black ABS / 0.6mm SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

-Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM

-120mm Computer Case Cooling Fan LP4 Adapter Silent Smoke Rosewill

-EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

-EVGA 600 B 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified 600W Active PFC ATX12V v2.31/EPS 12V v2.91 3 Year Warranty 100-B1-0600-KR Power Supply

-Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150 BX80646I74790K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600

-GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Guise pls let me know if I'm an idiot and picked a bunch of incompatible parts lololol. Thanks.
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