Building computer need suggestions

A few thoughts:

• Invest in a decent Soundcard/Interface - DON'T rely on an onboard chip for this
• SSD drives are fine for your Operating System & Progs
• You might need at least 2 additional, traditional HDD's - 1 for your Audio projects and 1 for Samples, depending on your needs
• DON'T go for any variety of "green" hard drive
• Don't forget backups! get a BIG external hard drive for this
• The amount of RAM you'll need again depends on what you want from your system, what sort of projects will you be doing?

Dude... why are you buying that CPU? It's unnecessary to run X1 and the cost to performance increase ratio versus an i7 2600k is not worth the money. I'm sure you have your reasons but even if I was filthy rich I wouldn't buy that thing unless it was absolutely necessary.

As far as RAM 16GB will cover pretty much anything you can throw at it. I bought the Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 pack and it was only a little over $100.

I hear you man but look at the specs on that $1000 CPU versus the $300 one. You are not getting that much more power and the i7 2600k is WAY more than future ready. The one you are looking at is for extreme enthusiasts just trying to squeeze a tiny little bit extra out of their systems (usually gamers or people building servers). That is money far better spent on a wicked audio interface. It just isn't worth the money and you don't need it. If you take a look at ADK or the other audio system builders products you will realize that they don't even bother with those processors except for the extremely high powered rigs that a major studio would buy. Also by the time the i7 2600 stuff is out of date the one you are looking at will be SMOKED by the next generation CPUs anyway. I'm telling you, bro... it is a waste of money for what you said you want to do. Not trying to be harsh, just trying to let you know that money is better spent elsewhere. Cheers!

You definitely want an external. For that $700 you save you can get something super nice. I can recommend a few but this is where you'd want advice from the real pros around here. I will toss some general suggestions at you though in a bit. I'm currently in the middle of doing something and am not set up for proper typing/internet scouring. Cheers.

Okay... so I actually ended up screwing around with my own stuff a little longer than anticipated so I'm gonna just give you a couple links and basic advice. Also slartabartfaster has made some excellent points but they might be a little in depth to understand for someone just poking their head into the world of DAWs. I also kind of disagree on the point that you NEED a big studio to make a good recording happen. It is indeed preferable to get things recorded by the big multimillion dollar studios but by the time you spend a few days in one of those places you could have built your own system. So three days with guys trying to rush you out the door or years being able to really get things the way you want. That extra time means a LOT when writing/recording. Besides, you can spend the extra time tracking your stuff with your own gear and send it off to a studio anyway so you get the best of both worlds (just don't turn things up too much!!!)

So I realized I may have been giving you bad advice as far as where your money should go... well not BAD advice but if you have the money you really would be better off getting a pro company to build a system for you. They really aren't THAT much more expensive but it saves a huge hassle and they'll set things up properly for an audio computer. They know the parts to use. They know how to configure things. They just know. So that said you should check out what Cakewalk has to say and recommend on this topic (this is where I started over a year ago when my home built system was but a twinkle in my eye)....

http://www.cakewalk.com/PCResource/default.aspx

Here's the link to systems that are Cakewalk approved...

http://www.cakewalk.com/PCResource/buy.aspx

In the desktops section (and probably the other sections as well) you'll see systems built by a company called ADK. They seem to me the most likely to give a quality custom build for a DAW and offer the best support after. These systems get rave reviews anytime I see the name mentioned on various forums.

http://www.adkproaudio.com/

If you look through their audio computer sections you'll be able to at the very least see what goes into a proper audio rig. I learned a ton from that site and wish I could have afforded to spend the extra money to get them to build me one.

Anyway, as I said I will come back tomorrow and toss some more info your way and I haven't touched on interfaces yet but those resources are an excellent place to start and begin to realize exactly what you are going to be up against if you intend to build your own. For me it took over a year to research, purchase and build my system and it was a PAIN in the butt. But I loved it because I have nothing better to do and to me it's interesting. Anyone with a real life though will probably get extremely frustrated very quickly. I also had a super high end tech on my side to help me through the process which most people do not have. I would have been completely lost without my friend's advice.

Just giving you the heads up... it's a lot of work.

I'll be back tomorrow. Cheers.

i have to agree. the 3960 is a foolish purchase.
the 3930k is a smarter buy. based on your needs (i can pretty much guess) its still way beyond overkill.
the 2600 is more than enough power for your needs and even its overkill for tracking.

"""I look at this way, it's better to have it and not need it than it's better to not have it and need it.''''

its like saying hey my truck can pull my small 17' boat but i think i need to buy a full size mackie tractor trailer truck. seriously?

the fact you didnt realize you need a pro level interface tells me all i need to know about how heavy your workflow would be.

you are way overspending. buy less computer and then you can afford a decent interface. sounds like you need at least a 16 in interface.

I just built a new system with the Asus Sabertooth x79 and the i7 3930k, 8GB of Ram. This system screams. 12 CPU threads on 6 cores shows up as 12 cores in X1. Latency is an unbelievable .72ms at 32 buffers with 45 tracks of plugin laden audio and a few VIs. The system has more overhead than I will probably ever push.

I duplicated all my tracks to run it up to 90 total the average cpu load hovered at 40%.

Yes, there are no PCI slots on the P9 only PCIe and I need at least one of those slots for my Lynx Two-A audio card.
 
Also note. Some of these higher end ASUS boards come with ACHI set in the bios. I would bet your current systems is IDE if you are just swapping out Motherboards. Make sure you set the bios setting to IDE so you don't spend a couple of hours wondering why you are getting bluescreens.

That depends on your budget and your quality appetite.

that is plenty,you can build yourself a decent daw for sonar for about 450.00

amd phenom 2. 6 core.8 gigs,500watt psu

the place i go to if you buy a processor for about 150.00 the motherboard is 20.00 dollars..itsa a combo deal.
the case will run you about 80.00 because it needs to be insulated to dampen the sound.
go with a smaller hard drive..a 320 for windows and sonar install.
get a one tb or external hd for your projects and/ or sample library

Middleman


Yes, there are no PCI slots on the P9 only PCIe and I need at least one of those slots for my Lynx Two-A audio card.
 
Also note. Some of these higher end ASUS boards come with ACHI set in the bios. I would bet your current systems is IDE if you are just swapping out Motherboards. Make sure you set the bios setting to IDE so you don't spend a couple of hours wondering why you are getting bluescreens.

:::sigh:::
 
1) ACHI must be used for Win7
2) IDE mode is massively asking for trouble
3) a fresh install in the only right way
 
 

Hello again, August. So I'm guessing you have decided against purchasing a prebuilt audio system. If you aren't familiar with building computers I would strongly recommend you reconsider but if your mind is made up I can offer a few suggestions as far as parts and the route I took when building mine. First though I'll just toss out some general info on interfaces so you can have an idea of what your options are. Then hopefully others can add to the list and/or give more detail on the specific brands/devices. I'll be back.

Okay... so the reason you aren't really getting any answers about an interface is likely because it is a HUGE topic and it very much depends on your specific wants/needs. There are also so many different brands and options it can be overwhelming. So instead of making specific recommendations I'll just give you a breakdown of what is out there based on my past year of research. I will point out I am not a pro and still have a lot to learn so my opinions (when I offer them) aren't exactly expert.

So first let's look at the different ways interfaces connect to the computer and some of their benefits and disadvantages.

PCI: This is old school and PCI stuff is considered "Legacy" devices. You may see many new motherboards that say they have PCI slots (and they would) but quite often they are not able to handle intensive tasks such as audio or video production. The reason for this is the motherboard manufacturers decided to save money and likely space on the physical board by eliminating the chipsets which would normally handle the data going through the PCI slot. A board that has this chipset is said to have "Native" PCI support and a board that sends those tasks elsewhere on the board (I believe it usually gets sent to the PCIe chipset but I'm not sure) is called "Bridged" support. You can still get motherboards with Native PCI support but you have to look very closely at the specs. Sometimes they use terms like "PCI Sure" or "PCI Ready" but really you just want o make sure that it has a proper PCI chipset. Even then if the manufacturer used sub-par chips you could still run into problems. That said there is the fact that PCI is already considered a legacy device and will quite likely be completely phased out in the next few generations of motherboards so if you wanted to upgrade your system and use you PCI interface you would be out of luck. The point is you should avoid regular PCI interfaces.

PCIe (PCI express): These generally have native support and are definitely more modern. Most boards will have PCIe slots these days and I think it's usually done with Native support for the slot (not sure though). They are fast and can move a lot of data quickly. Again you'll want make sure your motherboard has a quality chipset to run it. PCIe will probably be around for a while but not forever and it may go the way of PCI in that it won't get as much attention as newer connection standards. You also have to physically install it and take up a slot you may want to use for other stuff. I personally wouldn't go this route either but it is a viable option.

Firewire: There are different kinds of firewire but I'm not too familiar with them all. I'm not sure if there is a specific standard that is preferred for audio interfaces. Firewire has been extremely popular for audio interfaces for many years because it can handle massive amounts of data at very high speeds and before USB 2.0 tech really came to maturity it was the best alternative to PCI interfaces. The only real problems with firewire is that again you need a quality firewire chipset for it to work well. In the past people would buy a specific firewire card for their computers but more and more motherboards started having firewire connectors right on the board. However again you NEED a quality chipset to handle the data or you might run into problems. It seems the general consensus is that if you want a quality firewire connection you should make sure your board has a Texas Instruments firewire chipset. I do not know how many different types of chipsets TI makes nor do I know which would be the best but if you decide on a firewire device it is something to look into. Also while firewire is still commonly used it is started to fall to the wayside in favor of USB connections. Firewire can handle much more data than USB but at the amounts of data USB 2.0 can handle these days it doesn't matter. From what I've read you would not be able to choke out a USB 2.0 connection no matter how many tracks or how much data you throw at it in an audio production setting... but I could be mistaken. So firewire is a good choice but you need to really keep an out out for the good chipsets and it may eventually become harder and harder to find a good motherboard to handle a firewire interface.

USB 1.0: There is no point getting a 1.0 device these days with all the quality/inexpensive 2.0 devices on the market so just ignore anything that says USB 1.0 or the other increments up to (but not including) 2.0. It is outdated and slow.

USB 2.0: Probably the simplest and most effective option. USB 2.0 is fast and powerful enough to handle pretty much any audio production task and it doesn't need any fancy chipsets or special considerations when purchasing computer parts. From what I understand it mostly comes down to the drivers so when looking at USB 2.0 devices do a bit of digging to see how up to date the drivers are and what people are saying about the drivers. For example I just purchased a Focusrite unit that many people had been having problems with until Focusrite fixed the driver for it. Now everyone seems quite happy with their products.

USB 3.0: Obviously this is high speed/high data transfer however there aren't many (if ANY) USB 3.0 interfaces. Some devices are able to use 3.0 connections but it is not recommended and you would only be getting 2.0 speeds out of it anyway. Will 3.0 take over at some point? I don't know and I'm not sure why it hasn't already but I'm sure there is a good reason for it. I still made sure I had plenty of 3.0 slots on my motherboard when I purchased it though just in case.


So I think that's pretty much all the types of device connections you'll be running into in your travels. I cannot stress to you enough that I am NOT an expert so this not definitive info. It is gathered from all over the internet and chatting with various engineer friends of mine. If I've left something out or made an error maybe some of the more knowledgable folks can chime in. Also please excuse any spelling errors or brainfarts.

Next I'll try to get a list of manufacturers together for you but I should get some of my own work done for now. I'll be back. Cheers.

Thanks for the info and the leads.  I will look at them and let you all know the direction I'm taking.