The time has come. I've been wanting to build a custom PC specifically for music production for a long time and I think I'm about ready to pull the trigger. This is my first time building one on my own (I'll have a friend who's done it before help me actually assemble it). I've put together a list of parts using PCPartPicker and I was hoping people more knowledgeable than me could give the list a look over and let me know if anything looks off to you. This computer will be connected to the internet for the sake of updates and iLok stuff, etc., but I will only use it for composing and mixing music in SPlat. I intend to use two monitors and I already have an USB audio interface. I guess my biggest question is whether I need a better graphics card for my purposes. Also, will the 250GB SSD be large enough to host both Sonar and Windows 10? The other two larger SSDs are for sample libraries. The HDD will be for saving my projects and audio. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Here's the link:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/skitch_84/saved/csyhP6

Looks pretty nice, and certainly should be powerful enough. The first thing that occurred to me was checking the power consumption of those components and verifying that you have the proper power supply for your new rig. There are a number of online calculators that should be able to help you with that. 750w may fine, but its worth checking just to see.  All components contribute to system stability, but to my mind, one of the most essential things is a good, solid power supply that is properly rated for the system you're using. The Corsair 750w does look like a nice unit, and I've had good luck with the Corsair ones (in fact, a Corsair is powering this system I am using right now, and its pretty solid). So its probably fine, but now is the time to check.

Amicus717
Looks pretty nice, and certainly should be powerful enough. The first thing that occurred to me was checking the power consumption of those components and verifying that you have the proper power supply for your new rig. There are a number of online calculators that should be able to help you with that. 750w may fine, but its worth checking just to see.  All components contribute to system stability, but to my mind, one of the most essential things is a good, solid power supply that is properly rated for the system you're using. The Corsair 750w does look like a nice unit, and I've had good luck with the Corsair ones (in fact, a Corsair is powering this system I am using right now, and its pretty solid). So its probably fine, but now is the time to check.

Thank you for the tip. Is it possible to have a power supply that is too powerful? Would it be bad to buy one that's a higher wattage just in case, or is it important to have one that closely matches what you actually need?

Also, I haven't been able to get a clear answer on whether a powerful graphic card is necessary for music production. As long as the graphics card can support dual monitors, should pretty much anything be fine? 

Well, I usually figure out what my system will use at peak consumption, then get a power supply that delivers a bit above that. I've been told by others that a power supply that is too powerful for the system may not run very efficiently, as power supplies are built to work best within a specific power range.
 
I don't actually know if that's true, or how much of a problem that would be if it was. But I have had success buying the best quality power supply I can get, that delivers a bit more than I'll actually ever need. I usually don't spend extra money on a unit that is way overpowered for my system.
 
That's what I've done in the past, and its worked out ok for me. YMMV.
 
In regards to video cards, I'm honestly not sure. I imagine if you are working with video files, or something, it might be a potentially big factor. I have a fairly decent card that used to be in my gaming machine, and I use it because it has three outputs, and I like to work with three monitors. But beyond that, I am really not sure what the best approach would be.

Amicus717
Well, I usually figure out what my system will use at peak consumption, then get a power supply that delivers a bit above that. I've been told by others that a power supply that is too powerful for the system may not run very efficiently, as power supplies are built to work best within a specific power range.
 
I don't actually know if that's true, or how much of a problem that would be if it was. But I have had success buying the best quality power supply I can get, that delivers a bit more than I'll actually ever need. I usually don't spend extra money on a unit that is way overpowered for my system.
 
That's what I've done in the past, and its worked out ok for me. YMMV.
 
In regards to video cards, I'm honestly not sure. I imagine if you are working with video files, or something, it might be a potentially big factor. I have a fairly decent card that used to be in my gaming machine, and I use it because it has three outputs, and I like to work with three monitors. But beyond that, I am really not sure what the best approach would be.

Thanks for the clarification. I'll be sure to figure out my power needs before making any final decisions. Hopefully a few more people will chime in and offer some advice regarding the graphics card. 

If this is primarily a DAW, I would look for a more modest video card that can stay cool without the fan. It does not require massive graphics processing to animate a meter display, and generally the less fan noise the better. You can cut your cost substantially without losing any meaningful performance by using cheaper mechanical drives instead of the SSD's or the black hard drive. The only likely benefit from an expensive SSD is if you are using a large sample library server that loads from the disk. Most standard desktop 7200 rpm mechanical drives are more than enough for recording and editing audio data. But if you picked these components, I assume you are not interested in cutting costs. 

slartabartfast
If this is primarily a DAW, I would look for a more modest video card that can stay cool without the fan. It does not require massive graphics processing to animate a meter display, and generally the less fan noise the better. You can cut your cost substantially without losing any meaningful performance by using cheaper mechanical drives instead of the SSD's or the black hard drive. The only likely benefit from an expensive SSD is if you are using a large sample library server that loads from the disk. Most standard desktop 7200 rpm mechanical drives are more than enough for recording and editing audio data. But if you picked these components, I assume you are not interested in cutting costs. 

Thank you for the suggestions. I should have mentioned in the original post that 99% of the time I'm using exclusively sample libraries, which is why I went with the SSDs. However, I am considering getting only one and just installing the most RAM hungry of my sample libraries onto it and installing all the smaller ones that only take a few seconds to load anyway on the HDD. The reason I went with such a large HDD is because I plan on using this computer for as long as possible and I foresee having a lot of large projects over the next five to ten years. I'd rather just go large now and not have to worry about more storage for my project files later on. 

Regarding the graphics card, I may or may not get some film work down the road, so I kind of want a semi-decent graphics card that can at least run video within SPlat without much problem. The fan noise doesn't bother me too much since I don't record anything via microphone (again, 99% sample libraries) and, since I unfortunately live in an apartment complex, I'm forced to wear headphones almost the whole time as well (so they'll block out any little fan noise there may be). 

Why don't you try customizing something similar here and compare the price? 
 
http://studiocat.com/open...9_60&product_id=53
 
These machines are built specifically for audio, the components are top notch and work well together, you get the added 2-year warranty and you can get some tech help if things don't work the way you want them too.  I've bought 3 or 4 DAW's from Jim Roseberry over the years and they rock - very quietly -- for years.  Jim is also extremely responsive on the customer service end.
 
Worth a look.

BRainbow
Why don't you try customizing something similar here and compare the price? 
 
http://studiocat.com/open...9_60&product_id=53
 
These machines are built specifically for audio, the components are top notch and work well together, you get the added 2-year warranty and you can get some tech help if things don't work the way you want them too.  I've bought 3 or 4 DAW's from Jim Roseberry over the years and they rock - very quietly -- for years.  Jim is also extremely responsive on the customer service end.
 
Worth a look.

I actually did contact Jim, and he helped me out by giving me an approximate cost on shipping, but since I live in Japan it just wasn't going to be worth the cost. I won't disclose how much it was, but let's just say shipping a fully packed DAW PC, completely insured from the U.S. to Japan is not cheap. Jim has chimed in on my various forum posts and offered advice though, so I agree that he's a very awesome guy.

By the way, I built my rig last night! It turned out great and I'm currently in the process of installing everything and transferring all of my files and licenses over.

<<By the way, I built my rig last night! It turned out great and I'm currently in the process of installing everything and transferring all of my files and licenses over.>>
 
Great, Skitch, that your new rig is working.  I'm always relieved and happy when that happens.
 
I know some of your pain on the shipping.  I live in Hawaii.  I pay between $2 and $3 hundred to get my StudioCat DAWs over here, but it saves a lot of stress and anguish - plug-and-play as they say.  Love that Amazon Prime free shipping on the components, though.  Does that work to Japan?
 
Aloha and Enjoy.
Bill