Core i7 DAW

I need to put together a new PC.
My current PC is really annoying me...(Windows Media Center Intel Dual Core Hp...)

This is what I'm considering:

CPU - Intel Core i7 920
Mobo - Gigabyte ex58-UD3R ( Cheapest i7 mobo w/ TI Firewire chipset that I could find...)
Memo - CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Vid - GIGABYTE GV-NX96T512HP GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
H/D - Samsung Spinpoint 1Tb (2 1 for O/S & App, 1 for Audio)
DVD - LG Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM
Case - Sonata Plus 550 w/ 550 watt p/s
H/S - Whatever will fit in the case...
O/S - Vista Home 64bit


Essentially a 6Gb Ram Core i7 system w/Bluray for creating HiDef movies...

My interface will be Audiophile 2496.
In the future when money is available i plan on upgrading this...

Are there any obvious problems with this combination?

Primary use...
Recording music w/

• Sonar 8
  
• Dim Pro
  
• Rapture
  
• Zeta
  
• ez Drummer Toon Tracks
  
• Audio tracks ( ~1-16 tracks of vocals & guitars per project)
  

Secondary use...
Some simple video editing of Hi-Def videos of soccer games etc...
probably using Sony's base video editor (I have a Sony HiDef vide camcorder so why not)
I've tried doing this on my wife's laptop, but it is so... slow...

Currently this system will cost about 1,500 at NewEgg



Thanks for any input...

ORIGINAL: craigb

You're going to use a 1TB drive to put that tiny amount of stuff on??

(Referring to your O/S drive.)

I use an 80gb drive for my OS. It's 30% full (70% available).

Hi def videos of my daughter's soccer games and other sporting events add up real quick...
Before I mix down, I convert all tracks to audio so I typically have about 20 tracks of audio per song each song about 3-5 minutes long. Currently I have about 30-40 halfway finished songs...
Because I am not a very good musician, each song typically has about 200 audio takes. Most audio takes are only about 8 measures long, many only a couple...

The differerence between 250Gb and 1Tb is about $50 so why not...

I am researching using something like an OCZ SSD drive strictly for booting up and applications so that I can turn my PC on and be doing music within 30 seconds!!!

Thanks for all your input.


The video is definitely Hi-Definition. The video recorder is Sony HDR S-10 with a 40 or 60 Gb hard drive.

The video format is AVCHD. I transfer it to my wife's laptop via USB.
I attempted once to do some simple cropping and and joining but it was so... slow.
Then I attempted to render it. (24 hours later it was about 95% complete. My daughter unplugs the laptop takes it to her room, sees that is busy doesn't plug it back in and voila! battery runs out, all that effort for naught

My goal with the Video is to simply create High-Light videos of a soccer game and then put it on a site like VIMEO which accepts hi-def to share with the rest of the team...

My current PC is so pathetic that I typically have to do the following for a project.

1 Load EZ Drummer and find a pattern that works for most of the song if not all of it. Basically this pattern is a glorified metronome.
2 Freeze this synth. My PC really struggles with more than one synth at a time.
3 Record rough draft of guitar parts
4 Load Yellow Tools (Free) synth and lay down a bass part. (I like their bass!)
5 Freeze that Synth
6 Record acoustic & electric guitar parts. (Good versions...) usually about 4 tracks
7 Add synth parts via Sample Tank, Dimension Pro, Rapture, Sonik Synth and or Z3ta. As I add parts I generally have to freeze each synth so that I can play the next one...
8 Add vocals. Usually about 4-8 channels.
9 Now I create an independent audio track for all the synths, transfer the "Frozen" audio to these tracks and archive the synths...
10 Now apply effects, V-Vocal, compression etc to whatever...
11 If I need to change anything, it is a real cumbersome... (Unfreeze synth, redo parts, freeze transfer and archive...)

But hey I can produce some music that to me sounds great! (I have very poor hearing so maybe it's not so good ).

As to the SSD, I can't possibly afford X25... For that price I'd rather get a top end PC from ADK or Jim???

But I am trying to stick to a budget of about 1500 dollars.
I have built PC's in the past (10 years ago...) and it wasn't a terribly difficult process.