Music Production Build 1st draft

[Nobull]

Hi all, building a PC for a friend whose going to be using it for music production in his bedroom for the next 6-12 months before moving into a proper studio space so it needs to be up to the latter task when the time comes, even if that means by upgrading at a later date. It will need a firewire port for the audio interface. I would like to make it as quiet as possible also, but I have little experience of this requirement in selecting components...

CPU: Intel i7 930 £216 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Intel...io-130W-Retail

CPU cooler: unsure, want something quiet! perhaps this? Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B £42 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Proli...-%28Fanless%29 plus a generic fan

Mobo: Asus P6X58D-E £150 (for now!)http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-ATX

RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 (1600) CAS 9-9-9-24 £122 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/plus-6GB-%283x2GB%29-Corsair-XMS3-DDR3-PC3-12800-%281600%29-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24-165V

PSU: 450W Corsair CMPSU-450HXUK, Modular £54 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450W-...-year-Warranty Unsure on this component, I want reliable and quiet and not sure how much power he'll actually need seeing as GPUs are the main guzzlers these days and his is a low power one

GPU: 512MB XFX HD 5450 £37 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDMI chose this as its passively cool, hopefully it will run 2 monitors, can anyone confirm?

Case: Silverstone Precision PSO5B £41 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Silve...SU-Best-Seller went for this because I like the look and it has "Vibration dampening mounts for hard drives" which I imagine would reduce noise but I am unaware of its real world performance in terms of keeping things quiet, open to suggestions

1st HDD: OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD 2.5" SATA-II Read 285MB/s Write 275MB/s £130 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225415 Not sure if SSD is necessary but seems a great price for a great bit of kit

2nd HDD: 1.5TB Samsung HD154UI Spinpoint F2 £59 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/15TB-...ache-89-ms-NCQ is there a 7200rpm version of this?

Monitor: LG 21.5" W2246S-BF 16:9 Wide LCD Monitor 1920x1080 £115 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/196524 Only chose this cos its Hi-res, quite cheap and seems to have a thin bezel if he wants to add a 2nd one when he moves into the studio, but open to suggestions here if people know of any better (thinner bezels etc.)

Optical Drive: LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±R, 16xDVD±DL, DVD+RW £15 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-GH...M-inc-Software

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (student offer) £30

Total: £1011


Might also include some of these to keep noise down:
AcoustiPack™ ULTIMATE
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...sories/ap-kits

and some of these: QUIETDRIVE - Scythe "Quiet Drive" Internal HDD Silencer for 3.5" HDD on 5.25" bay http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Scyth...HDD-on-525-bay

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

[spoon_]

re HDD - you need to look for F3 version which is 7.2k rpm
GPU will run two screen assuming second one will have VGA or HDMI.

Music production without a sound card? Unless you want to use mentioned 1394...

[Nobull]

re HDD - you need to look for F3 version which is 7.2k rpm
GPU will run two screen assuming second one will have VGA or HDMI.

Music production without a sound card?

Ha, I was thinking of these options for soundcard, any input appreciated:

M-Audio Pro Fire £235

Echo Audiofire 4 £240

Lexicon Ionix £211

Monitors

Just for info, in case anyone has an opnion on the monitor speakers

Alesis M1 Active

KRK Rokit 5

Mackie MR5

Yamaha HS50

[Funkstar]

I've only picked up snippets about music production through spending a couple of days in a studio, but you are definitely right in looking at external sound devices. Internal consumer cards are pretty terrible for quality sound reproduction. Their drivers are generally pants too.

[Nobull]

I've only picked up snippets about music production through spending a couple of days in a studio, but you are definitely right in looking at external sound devices. Internal consumer cards are pretty terrible for quality sound reproduction. Their drivers are generally pants too.

Agreed. Definately opting for an external "audio interface"

Any thoughts on the main spec of the PC?

[Funkstar]

What software is going to be used on this?

I have a feeling that the general requirements for this kind of thing will be "add more memory, then when you can afford it, add some more".

If you are going to get heavily into ProTools and need some of their hardware cards, PCI slots are a must, I don't know if they have moved to PCIe yet. So it's good that motherboard has two PCIs along with 6 DIMM slots.

[Nobull]

What software is going to be used on this?

I have a feeling that the general requirements for this kind of thing will be "add more memory, then when you can afford it, add some more".

If you are going to get heavily into ProTools and need some of their hardware cards, PCI slots are a must, I don't know if they have moved to PCIe yet. So it's good that motherboard has two PCIs along with 6 DIMM slots.

I think he intends to use Logic and Reason. Don't think Pro-tools is on the cards, because as you say it requires specialist hardware and he hasn't mentioned that...

Do you think it would benefit from 12GB of RAM? I could sacrifice the SSD for a HDD and use the money saved to fund more RAM, I've been advised that an SSD might not be good value for money in a Music PC as you are mostly dealing with large (10MB plus) files. Anyone any thoughts on this? Equally if the SSD does seem beneficial, the budget is felxible so it could probably have both 12GB of RAM and the SSD


Anyone else got some input on the CPU Cooler or the PSU? These are the two potentially noisyest parts and the two I am most unsure of. Is 450W enough, especially if he wants to add more HDDs, a faster processor more RAM etc. at a later date? Still think a decent 450W might be ok due to the low power GPU...

[jetfire]

Ha, I was thinking of these options for soundcard, any input appreciated:

all crap try this.

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardwa...terface--57054

Just for info, in case anyone has an opnion on the monitor speakers

also crap try this.

http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipmen...ht-pair--57634

[Nobull]

all crap try this.

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardwa...terface--57054



also crap try this.

http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipmen...ht-pair--57634

All "crap"? Well I've read really good things about all of those monitors and soundcrads AT THAT PRICE POINT! Don't think he's got the 6 grand needed to buy the monitors and soundcard you've suggested atm. THink the plan is to get components that will be fine for a bedroom setup for now and then get some proper studio hardware when he moves into the studio space, he can probably sell the sound card and monitor speakers on without losing too much on them after getting use out of them for 6-12 months.

Thanks for the advice anyway Jetfire, I'll bear those in mind for when the time comes. Any advice at the price points I've stated? That is, £200-300 for a pair of monitors and £200-£250 for an audio interface?

Still no opinions on PSU or CPU cooler?!

Cheers

[jetfire]

well i cant recommend a sound card for that much tho there are plenty to choose from for that price range but you get what you pay for at the end of the day.

as for monitors for that price id rather use headphones.

http://www.dv247.com/headphones/senn...dphones--19557

[Nobull]

Thanks for the advice Jetfire. Not sure which way I'll g though, quite a lot of people on music production forums are less dismissive of monitors at that price so weighing up the options at the minute.

Does no-one else have an opinion on the PSU or CPU cooler?! Or the spec of the PC in general (ignoring the music production bit!)

[g8ina]

Alesis are pretty good (passive, not those cheap actives) as are the Macks. You might want to consider the Tannoys too if you can afford them http://www.westenddj.co.uk/Product/T...1A/GoogleBase/ £258 pair. Dont know the KRKs. Yams I found to be a bit loose and wooly, except for their hifi subs (I actually have a YST320 for sale soon).

There is only one way to select speakers TBH - go listen to them !!

[Nobull]

Alesis are pretty good (passive, not those cheap actives)

Do you mean these? They are cheaper than the ones I posted though?! Can you give me a link to the ones you mean if its not them?!

Could probably stretch to those Tannoys

Thanks for the input

[g8ina]

Yep, the alesis M1 passive are very good, but do need a good amp to drive them, not the most efficient !

But if, as you say, you *can* stretch to the Tannoys, then I sure would.