I posted about the laptop I've been using as an audio w/s and I also asked for your recommendations on an upgrade.  Thank you for responding.  You know the last time I assembled a pc, the big decision was whether to go with AMD's or Intel's 486 cpu:)
 
Anyway, I thought I'd post the list of the components I chose, good, bad, right, or wrong.  I sure hope they're all compatible....
 
AMD FX-8350 Black Edition 4.0 GHz, w/Wraith Cooler http://a.co/filLEXA
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ http://a.co/82bcYai
Samsung EVO 250GB SSD http://a.co/fpcsCKO
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3 http://a.co/bbUCeqF
MSI GT 710 Nvidia GeForce 2GB http://a.co/gDQpDRD
Fractal Design Define R5 Case http://a.co/6g5BBLb
SeaSonic G Series 550-Watt PSU http://a.co/7PbvVm3
 
Still have to pickup Win 10 and a wireless card.  Already have a 1TB HDD @7200rpm and display monitors.

My 2 cents (sorry if I am ignoring your budget on the items that will actually affect performance):
 
1.  Why, why, why AMD?  If you are going to spend money for a powerful new workstation that you want to last, get an i7 5820K with an X99 Motherboard and use DDR4 RAM.  (Yes, its all pricier but, dude!)
 
2.  I'd get a little more power for future drive expansion - 750 watts
 
3.  You can get a slightly cheaper 5450 video card that will work just fine - https://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-5450-DVI-I-Graphics/dp/B01CN1F1ZM/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1489404951&sr=1-2&keywords=5450+video+card
 


3.  Several reviews I have read rate the Fractal R4 as being superior to the R5 (I have 3).  Its cheaper too -- under $100 bucks at Best Buy (free shipping to a store near you).
 
4.  Yes to the Samsung EVO 250

I actually have used AMD CPU's for the last 3 desktops I built, and they all worked just fine for Sonar.
 
YES, Intel chips are faster, however, my performance is plenty good enough with the AMD chips, and I was able to use the money I saved (a couple of hundred for each computer), to buy things like additional hard drives or more memory.
 
I do see that AMD's newest CPU may well give the i7 a run for its money, and my above comments do not include that CPU's performance.
 
I have been VERY happy with the performance of the AMD processors.
 
Bob Bone
 

Fair enough, Bob.  If the AMD CPUs  work fine for you and save you money, what can I say.  My AMD experience has been pretty bad.  I have had 2 AMD DAWs and had trouble with both processors after about 6 months (this was circa 15 years ago).  On the other hand, I have had 8 or more Intel DAWs since 1995 as well as dozens of Intel office workstations and 4 Intel laptops since 1989 with only 1 bad Intel processor out of all of them.
 
As far as AMD's new Ryzen processor, maybe they are finally going to force Intel to up its game.  As you have probably read, Jim Roseberry's has done some testing and made comments in the recent threads.
 
Aloha,
Bill

At least for now, Ryzen isn't quite ready for (low-latency) prime-time.
Once 2nd generation motherboards are available (after several BIOS revisions)... it'll be interesting to see if low-latency performance improves.  If not, that would suggest the issue is architecture related.
 
Video rendering with Ryzen shows great promise.
Of course, in this application, low latency isn't a factor. 

I think my next computer would likely also be AMD-based, but as Jim indicated, I would NOT want to get stuck with some cutting edge nightmare - I would likely stay with the A10 7850k or 7870k - both of which are really great bang for the buck - quite stable, and quite inexpensive - they even have bundles of CPU's and motherboards for super cheap.  These both allow for overclocking, but I choose not to use that feature.  (heat is not good for longevity of CPU's)
 
My AMD A10 7850k computer literally runs 24 hours a day, and has never crashed, other than a power failure, since I built it almost a year ago.  Everything runs quite smoothly, including Sonar, and that's that.
 
Bob Bone
 

BRainbow
1.  Why, why, why AMD?  If you are going to spend money for a powerful new workstation that you want to last, get an i7 5820K with an X99 Motherboard and use DDR4 RAM. 

 

robert_e_bone
I actually have used AMD CPU's for the last 3 desktops I built, and they all worked just fine for Sonar.

I appreciate the discussion.  It wasn't an easy choice, but there seem to be several experienced Sonar users on both sides of the debate.  In the end I went with the $90 cpu.
 
As of this afternoon, all the parts have arrived except for the power supply which is due here Monday.

Assembled this evening.  No issues or problems.  Up and running with Win 10 Pro installed.  Will update this thread after I get latest drivers, SPlat, UCX, and vst's installed etc. 

Wireless is a known cause of audio dropouts, noise, etc.  If you experience any issues, disable the wireless.  Only use wireless if absolutely only choice.
 
 
 

Just a thought on Power supplies.... DO we really still need 750 watt PS? With all the power saving we get with SSD and whatnot I would think 550 Watt is more than enough. 
It might even be overkill. 
I was surprised when I opened this HP desktop I inherited that it only had a 200 watt PS... It is a fairly top of the line HP with i7 and advertised as gaming ready. I put a SSD drive in it and kept the original 1TB drive as a data drive. I also put a 500 GB data drive in it.. No smoke or crashes so far. And it has enough USB 2 and 3 ports to light up a city.