Recommendations for a new desktop DAW system?

If I were to buy instead of build, I'd probably get one of these: http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/

I just priced a customized ADK system and it came to exactly $2000.00, lol. Anyone have experience with those?
 
I'll also check out the other suggestions, thanks for those.

From Studio Cat, I get the following:
 
- Case: Silent Mid Tower
- Power-Supply: 600w quiet
- Haswell CPU: 4790k @ 4.4GHz (8 threads)
- RAM: 32GB DDR3/1600
- OS drive: 250GB SSD
- Audio drive: 3TB HD
- Burner: 24x DVD/RW
- Video: GTX-760 (2GB, 4 monitors)
- Operating System: Windows 8 x64
 
For $2030 shipped. Not bad.

I'll second (third?) the Jim Roseberry suggestion.  Went with him and couldn't be happier with my DAW.

If you live near a MicroCenter, they have some great prices.  I got my i7 4790K for $250 and the Gigabyte mobo for $99 during the holidays.  I got a great deal on 16GB DDR3 2300 from Newegg, and another great deal on a 256GB Toshiba ssd from Best Buy.  I think everything including a soundproof NZXT full tower case from Newegg (on special), Corsair water cooling, and donated hard drives from another system was less than $600.  If I had to buy the hard drives would have been a $800 build.
 
Shop around for parts and you can still build it yourself for big savings.   
 
 
 
 

I just built my own , I went with an i5 as I could't see needing more with what I do. 
Anyhow all in all with a new copy of W8.1 it was around $800 
 
Gigabyte Z97X-SOC ATX LGA1150 Z97 DDR3 PCI-E16 PCI-E8 XFIRE/SLI SATA3 USB3 HDMI DVI Motherboard 
Intel Core i5 I5-4460 Haswell 3.2GHZ Processor LGA1150 6MB Cache
Patriot Viper 3 8GB 4X4GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 10-10-10-27 1.5V Dual Channel Memory Kit Black Mamba  16 Gigs RAM 
Samsung 840 EVO Series MZ-7TE120BW 120GB 2.5in SATA III Internal SSD Single Unit
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
 Cooler Master HAF 912 Combat ATX Mid Tower Case Black 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT 4X2.
Cooler Master Extreme 2 Power Plus 725W ATX  
 Windows 8.1
 
 

sharke
I don't think that's characteristic of Jim though - the times I've called for help I've always heard back from him pretty quick and he always seemed to spend as long as it took on the phone to get the issue sorted. You can tell the guy has a LOT of DAW building experience and truly wants you to get the best advice (even if it means a smaller sale for himself). I think I ended up buying higher specs than he recommended in some cases.

Here's an interesting story. I ordered my system in December and it arrived on the 24'th via Fedex. Extremely well packed and secure. I was so sure all was ok so I set up the system under my Omnirax desk and wired everything up. Pressed the power button and nothing - no fans spinning up lights or anything. Checked the power cable and different outlets and nothing. I was pretty bummed since I wanted to set it up over the holidays.
So I opened the machine and was surprised to see how neat his cabling and work was. I could barely see any wires besides the main cable from the PS. The thing looked like a spaceship with the watercooling system and pipes :)
Anyway I tried pushing down the main power connector and made sure the video card etc was seated ok. Everything looked pretty solid so I tried again powering on this time with the case open. Again nothing no lights or anything. Damn...  So I decided to call Jim. Its Christmas eve so I didn't expect anyone to be there. Left a voicemail for him. A few minutes later I got a callback and he was very apologetic and asked me to try a few things. We did all the usual tricks of reseating connectors etc but nothing seemed to help. On powering on all I would hear was a faint click and thats it.
Then we decided to do a skype call so he could look at the PC remotely. So I held the cam so he could take a look at the inside and advise me what to do. After about 45 minutes of trying everything we came to the conclusion that it was possibly the Power supply that was bad. So he offered to the choice to ship him back the machine, ship me a new PS or reimburse me for the cost of a new one if I could buy it locally. 
 
I started looking into where I could get a PS on Christmas eve, and I happened to come across a great article on power supply troubleshooting which showed how you could test it with a fan. While investigating that I began disconnecting some of the connectors from the PS. With most of them disconnected, for kicks I turned on the computer again. To my surprise the PC turned on and fans started and lights on MOBO all activated. Whoa! So I turned it off again and started reconnecting the PS connectors one by one and powering on again.
It all worked until I put back one of the connectors when the system went dead again!
 
So I called Jim back with this info and we had another debugging session. Trying to trace that connector. Was hard for me to spot since his cable management was so neat :) Anyway it turned out to be connected to the SSD. I pulled out the SSD power cable and reseated it again and this time everything worked and the system booted up just fine! So it was a faulty connection to the SSD that was somehow causing the PS to not turn on. I guess these newer PS's have some sort of short circuit protection. Somehow in transit via Fedex it must have gotten loose - no fault of Jim's of course.
 
Anyway I was super impressed with his professionalism and desire to help even on a holiday. He spent a good hour and a half troubleshooting this with me. Attached is a pic of my cat inspecting the machine :)
 

I can't begin to describe how happy I am with the Machine Jim built for me. I remember turning it on the first time and I did not hear anything, I was panicking because I needed to get a machine back in service. Then, I realized that the lights were on and windows was already up on the monitors.
 
The machine is so quiet that I could not hear it actually turn on like my old machine. When he says 'Whisper Quiet' believe it. He is Great to work with and has a special ability for listening and then giving a solid honest answer.
 
I don't think you could go wrong purchasing a machine from Jim and, as a bonus, you get a bunch of the really good bubble wrap to pop. 
 
Next time I need a Machine I already know who to call.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

sharke
I don't think that's characteristic of Jim though - the times I've called for help I've always heard back from him pretty quick and he always seemed to spend as long as it took on the phone to get the issue sorted. You can tell the guy has a LOT of DAW building experience and truly wants you to get the best advice (even if it means a smaller sale for himself). I think I ended up buying higher specs than he recommended in some cases.

Here's an interesting story. I ordered my system in December and it arrived on the 24'th via Fedex. Extremely well packed and secure. I was so sure all was ok so I set up the system under my Omnirax desk and wired everything up. Pressed the power button and nothing - no fans spinning up lights or anything. Checked the power cable and different outlets and nothing. I was pretty bummed since I wanted to set it up over the holidays.
So I opened the machine and was surprised to see how neat his cabling and work was. I could barely see any wires besides the main cable from the PS. The thing looked like a spaceship with the watercooling system and pipes :)
Anyway I tried pushing down the main power connector and made sure the video card etc was seated ok. Everything looked pretty solid so I tried again powering on this time with the case open. Again nothing no lights or anything. Damn...  So I decided to call Jim. Its Christmas eve so I didn't expect anyone to be there. Left a voicemail for him. A few minutes later I got a callback and he was very apologetic and asked me to try a few things. We did all the usual tricks of reseating connectors etc but nothing seemed to help. On powering on all I would hear was a faint click and thats it.
Then we decided to do a skype call so he could look at the PC remotely. So I held the cam so he could take a look at the inside and advise me what to do. After about 45 minutes of trying everything we came to the conclusion that it was possibly the Power supply that was bad. So he offered to the choice to ship him back the machine, ship me a new PS or reimburse me for the cost of a new one if I could buy it locally. 
 
I started looking into where I could get a PS on Christmas eve, and I happened to come across a great article on power supply troubleshooting which showed how you could test it with a fan. While investigating that I began disconnecting some of the connectors from the PS. With most of them disconnected, for kicks I turned on the computer again. To my surprise the PC turned on and fans started and lights on MOBO all activated. Whoa! So I turned it off again and started reconnecting the PS connectors one by one and powering on again.
It all worked until I put back one of the connectors when the system went dead again!
 
So I called Jim back with this info and we had another debugging session. Trying to trace that connector. Was hard for me to spot since his cable management was so neat :) Anyway it turned out to be connected to the SSD. I pulled out the SSD power cable and reseated it again and this time everything worked and the system booted up just fine! So it was a faulty connection to the SSD that was somehow causing the PS to not turn on. I guess these newer PS's have some sort of short circuit protection. Somehow in transit via Fedex it must have gotten loose - no fault of Jim's of course.
 
Anyway I was super impressed with his professionalism and desire to help even on a holiday. He spent a good hour and a half troubleshooting this with me. Attached is a pic of my cat inspecting the machine :)
 

Oh there is nothing worse than buying something new and powering up and getting nothing....glad you got it sorted quickly though. You never know what's going to happen to something in transit. I too was very impressed at how neat and tidy everything was inside when I opened it up to put a couple of extra drives in. Mind I was coming from a Dell which was a train wreck inside...

I have a Sweetwater Creation Station and it's working out really well for me.  I have a two space model, a Focusrite 40 audio interface and a Furman power conditioner in a 4 space rack.  It's totally portable.  I use it in the studio, take it to gigs, and do remote recording sessions with it.  Portability was really important to me, and even though it's a little bigger and heavier than a laptop, it's really nice to have the whole thing in a rack, because it's really easy to set up and is all contained in one nice package.  It has enough under the hood to meet my needs, too.  I just love it.
 
edit to add that I have to take along a 24 inch tv along as a monitor when I'm out of the studio. 
 
edited again to acknowledge the OP was asking about Desktop systems...    sorry, bout that. 
 

SilkTone
I just priced a customized ADK system and it came to exactly $2000.00, lol. Anyone have experience with those?
 
I'll also check out the other suggestions, thanks for those.

I bought an ADK computer (see specs below) and have had very good luck with it. The support is second to none.
 
Walt

Just my 2 cents.... I have bought my last 2 DAWs from ADK.  From frequenting the CW forums, I kept hearing stuff about some guy Jim Rosenburg or something.... so I googled him and found out his name was really Jim Roseberry (sorry about that Jimbo).  Anyway, there is a new Platinum system in route to me here in NC (we got snow today so nothing).  Should be here tomorrow.  Based on all the good press, I expect nothing but perfection or at least, professional follow up.
 
I think ADK is fantastic too, I just wanted to try another avenue for this build. 
 
Jim