Inta-Audio - any opinions on this PC?

That looks similar to my recent build (see my general spec's below):

jcschild


take a look at Scan UK first

Thanks, I have looked at them. Their headline prices are quoted ex-VAT so they look cheaper at first but once you configure to a similar spec (you can't make it exactly the same) and add the tax prices are in the same range.
 
I get the impression that INTA audio and Carillon specialised Audio PC builders and SCAN is a more general PC maker that happens to make a DAW configuration. However being a bigger company there may be other advantages.
 
INTA-Audio gets me closest to my ideal configuration

I've got a Carillon (this is my second I've bought through them)

I can tell you this - I will NOT be buying from Carillon again in the future. Their build quality has gone downhill in my opinion.

My latest machine (specs below) suffered with the following faults:

Bad RAM chip
Bad PSU
Wrong Graphics card

They have also stopped mounting their hard drives inside special acoustic sleeves due to "heating problems".

I think it's more down to "Cost problems"

jcschild


Glyn,

quality, support, compatibility... you get what you pay for..
(well some of my competition you dont)

i didnt recommend Scan due to price

I just realised who you are . I will take that as a positive recomendation and put them on my shortlist.
 
It seems Scan are keen on over-clocking. Defuly options are generally overclocked. whats the risk/reward ratio here.

Based on Scott's recomendation I had a good look at Scan and I have added a 3XS SI77 PowerDAW with the configuration below to the shortlist. 

As long as I can find space I will probably drop the dual boot idea and retain my old DAW for "office" use and use something like a Belkin OmniView USB Soho Series 2-Port DVI KVM Switch so I can share keyboard, mouse and screens between the two computers.

I still have a couple of questions.

Is the 750GB Seagate ST750LX003 MomentusXT Hybrid Solid State system drive a good option or would I be better with a conventional Western Digital Cavier Black, possibly with a cache SSD drive?

Is the 520 watt power supply OK or should I go for the 650W be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 BN201 option?




System overview System Overview

Custom Coloured Cases: *No Custom Colour Required*
Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence One Anthracite Ultimate Low Noise PC Case USB 3.0
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K
Overclocking - CPU: Intel® Core™ Ivy Bridge CPU professionally overclocked by our 3XS engineers to 4.4Ghz
CPU Coolers: Prolimatech Armageddon Ultra High End CPU Cooler 6 Heat Pipe Intel Socket LGA 775 1366 1156 1155
Memory: 32GB (4x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance 1600Mhz
Power Supply Unit: 520W Seasonic M12II-520 87% Efficiency
NVIDIA Graphics: 1GB Asus GT 610 Silent PCIe 2.0 (x16) 40nm 1200MHz GDDR3 GPU 810MHz 48 Cores LP Passive
System Drives - SSD or Mechanical: 750GB Seagate ST750LX003 MomentusXT Hybrid Solid State 2.5" SATA 6Gb s 7200rpm 32MB Cache
Storage Hard drives: 2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 3 6GB s 7200rpm 64MB Cache , 2 selected
Solid State Drives - Data: 240GB Corsair Force 3 Read 550MB s Write 520MB s SF-2281
Solid State Drive - SRT SSD Cache Drive.: *Cache SSD Drive Not Required*
Optical Drive 1 - DVD Blu Ray: Samsung SH-224BB - 24X DVD Writer

with the over clock i would go to the 650W
also you can always email or call Pete @ Scan to ask his opinion.
he will not upsell you unless needed

I would be interested to hear how you get on with Scan, I am lookng at them also.

spark240


Did you get it yet?

No - estimated delivery 4 Feb. A bit slower than I would have hoped but full marks to Scan so far for communication on estimated delivery and status both at the time of order and since.

spark240


You get it yet ?

No, its all taking longer than anticipated. -1 for that, but +1 for good communication.

spark240


Still nothing?

No. There is a backlog in the QC department according to the person I talked to. Its starting to get frustrating as my understanding is the system was assembled the OS installed a week ago. There was a 24 hour burn in, which was completed now its waiting on the 88 point QC check.
 
I am going to be away from next weekend so it it does not arrive soon it will be several weeks before I get my hands on it.

Guys.....this is indeed an eye opener !

I thought order today, arrive within a week max...considering people were trying to tell me it's easy to build and takes a few hours.

Is there really that much demand for music PC,s  ?

Well, Scan finally delivered. My inital impressions are very good. The build appears to be of the highest quality.

There were no issues setting up the Quad capture and A-800 pro with the new Win-8 drivers. X2a and the other Cakewake stuff is installed. Komplete 8 is going on now.

jcschild


Glyn,

quality, support, compatibility... you get what you pay for..
(well some of my competition you dont)

i didn't recommend Scan due to price

scan = THEIR "support" for me has been woeful , to a point where I'm blacklisted .. remember when there was the mess up with the sandy bridge boards?  I sent them back a none working machine.. even took video of it!!!.. they said it worked.. wanted to ship back the CPU *BUT* without a MOBO!!! and I would have to wait a month for that due to "quarantine"


I stick to companies like ebuyer , which I have used for years (I thought I'd try scan for a change and regretted it) .. and I used to use scan the odd time.. scan dragged their feet and it took AGES to get my money back.. and even then it was only for PART of the order.
   
To the OP... if you can built ya own.. pay Jim to give you advise for parts instead. 

I've built machines over the years, maybe not as optimised as they could be.. but work for me.

Inta have been around a long time.. scan "exs" brand, maybe hasn't been around as long ? . DV even do their own machines or did.

scan cost me a fortune in phone calls also, and didn't think it was important to call customers back or even email  for DAYS later..  even when they were "out to lunch".. customer service?... I think not

from buying to refund.. it almost took a month for them to sort out.. and I had to chase them up repeatedly.. AND left a message on a forum for the owner of the company.. which normally does the trick , but didn't in their case.

ebuyer , for parts = no problems for YEARS

Well I have run out of time, I have to leave the beast for now and go off and earn some money. I will be away for several weeks.

I have installed just about everything major except the Toontrack stuff which will take a little while! The only snag is a problem with IKMuliimedia's authorization manager which I will have to sort out when I get back.

The PC is pretty impressive, very solidly built and quiet. The case is BIG, check the dimensions if space is a premium. As to be expected its very fast and loading the big 3rd party Kontakt libraries off a SSD cached 1TB hard disk has removed the load time frustration I was having with the old system.

 I think Im gonna go Inta Audio.....I really dont want to spend the extra cash on Scan or Rain.

Nobody seems to be able to do the Inta spec for less than £1k.