7/20/2014
noldar12
Although perhaps it could have been phrased a bit more "polite", Scott is correct.  I remember back in the day trying to do audio with a coupld of Dell generic boxes.  I had nothing but trouble, a key program crashing, etc.  Some parts simply don't play nice with others, and the needs for audio are very different than the needs for gaming.  That isn't to say it can't be done, but it is less straight forward than one might think.
 
As far as what your friend needs, more information would be helpful.  What he wishes to accomplish will largely dictate what would work best for him.  Particularly if he uses lots of VST's with heavy disk streaming, coupled with lots of effects, or something like MIR Pro, than as powerful a machine as you can put together would be wise.  For heavy VSL use somethin like a 4930k, 32 gigs of ram, and most samples placed on SSD's would be helpful. 
 
What sort of soundcard will he be using?  How many parts does he wish to record at once?  Is he recording just himself one part at a time, or is he recording an entire group?  Or, is he doing everything ITB?  If ITB, or only recording himself, a soundcard with fewer inputs will be enough, while if he is recording an entire band, a more sophisticated card will be helpful.  Also solid drivers, and the ability to track at low latency will help.  As far as soundcards go, RME is as good as it gets, unless one spends much more, and their drivers are a known good thing.  Having a great computer coupled with a poor consumer grade type of soundcard rather defeats the purpose.
 
What sort of speakers is he mixing on?  Is the room he is working in treated or untreated?  What are the dimensions of the room?
 
It might be that spending a bit less on the computer, and budgeting a bit of money for other areas might be helpful.
7/21/2014
jcschild
::sigh::::
more polite perhaps,  you know I help dyi'ers all the time. but when some guy comes in here building a system for some other guy who asked him and he is not an audio guy.. sorry not helping.. I know the potential for the outcome. when you have guys who build boxes but not for audio/video they are already set in their ways.
just like when I hire a builder
I would much rather hire someone who never built before so I don't have to "break them" of their bad habits and wrong thinking. (which may have worked fine elsewhere)
 
7/27/2014
DW_Mike
When I built my DAW both Scott and Jim were extremely helpful.
They answered questions about my component's and gave tips on how to go about setting everything up to play nicely.
PC is rock solid and has had zero issues since the first time I fired it up.
 
So yeah, this is a great place to come for advice.
And I strongly agree with Scott's post above.
 
Mike 
7/27/2014
DW_Mike
michael_S
 
Does he need more then a quad core i7?  I was thinking the e-series 6 core, but that is twice as much so if it isn't needed i won't do that.  Also will more then 16gb of ram be needed?  I already have plans for an ssd drive, but would two be needed?
 

A quad core i7 is plenty to run Sonar X3 as is 16gb of RAM.
For audio work most perfer 3 HD's. One for OS and Programs, one for samples and sound banks and one for storage (ie: the projects you're recording and working on).
 
As far as SSD's, when I was building I was advised that a PC is only as good as it's weakest part. So using a ssd for the OS and programs may make them open quicker the information on the other spinning drives will only move as fast as those drives will allow.
So I decided to use 2 ssd's and a 7200RPM spinning drive for storage.
 
Hope some of this helped a little.
 
Mike 
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