Hey guys, this is my first post on bit-tech and whilst I'm not new to computers, I am new to them when it comes to building a custom rig (this is gonna be my first one!). My budget is £1000 (Or Slightly over) and I've got a list sorted out already, would just like some feedback on the parts I'm looking to purchase. I will overclock the GPU & CPU at some point too. Main use will be for music production and some pretty hardcore gaming @ 1920x1200. Will probably crossfire the GPU at some point in the future aswell -----Owned----- Motherboard: Gigabyte X58a UD3r -----Ebuyer----- GPU: XFX HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Dual DP Out PCI-E Graphics Card £219.99 OS: Windows 7 64 Bit OEM £74.20 Speakers: Logitech Z506 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers 75W RMS £75.98 Hard Drive 1 Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache £39.99 Hard Drive 2 Western Digital WD5000AADS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - £29.99 -----Scan----- Case: Cooler Master 922 HAF £78.95 CPU: Intel i7-940 Quad-Core Processor £179.00 Optical Drive - Sony AD-7263S-0B - £16.67 PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750HXUK HX 750W Modular Power Supply £110 Ram: Corsair Memory XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 Mhz CAS 9 Triple Channel Desktop £63.79 Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems £43.18 Fans: 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 RPM Cooling Fan x2 £12.84 Each Fan Clips: Prolimatech Megahalem 12025 fan wire clips £3.47 Total £960.89
For a x58 build you want triple channel memory and if you're overclocking I'd get 1600Mhz RAM, 6GB/s hard disk aren't worth it, I'd get a better quality pair of stereo monitors if you're into music production. Some people'll say go sandybridge or wait for lga2011 and maybe get a nvidia card but i haven't been keeping up with all that, so I'll let someone else help you there.
I have to agree about the speakers. The ones you have selected simply won't give you accurate sound. Also, I'd recommend you go even further and get something like a Xonar card.
Hey there recently built a system for similar things but before sandy bridge and this is what im running CPU: i5-760 @4ghz MOBO: GIGABYTE P55-USB3 RAM; 8GB CORSAIR XMS 3 DUAL CHANNEL @1600MHZ PSU: OCZ 750 MODULAR GPU: NVIDIA GTX 260 HDD: 1X 1TB BARRACUDA 1X 500GB BARRACUDA BOTH @ 7200RPM (REDUCES LATENCY) AUDIO CARD: M-AUDIO 2496 (FOR USE WITH M-AUDIO PROTOOLS) MONITORS: 1X ALESIS M1 ACTIVE MONITORS (£200) 1X LOGITECH SPEAKERS (ABOUT £40) - GOOD TO HAVE BOTH SO YOU CAN HEAR THE MIX ON A 'NORMAL' SET OF SPEAKERS AS WELL AS MONITORS. Then a normal optical drive for general burning. Its a good 'home' system but by no means pro. It will run around 40 plugins in rpotools before i start to get signifact latency on the audio.
thanks for the feedback, yeah i know about the studio monitors, those are coming from elsewhere and arent included in this budget . I'll change the HD for something cheaper. Mainly sticking with 1366 at the mo just because I have that specified motherboard for free. I hear triple channel isnt "THAT" much faster than dual channel, would go with 4gbx3 but i hear overclocks with 12gb ram can be less stable. Planning on buying Pro Tools LE with MBOX Pro, is it then necessary to get a Xonar card?
The LE interface you will have to get with your copy of protools will run but a proper audio editing sound card is advised to stop any latency in the sound. The m-audio one is around £75-80 and is nice and clear and even has a midi connection if you want to use it. Plus they then use phono connections rather than jack style ones.
cheers russell. do you mean ANY m-audio soundcard, or the m audio sound cards that you need with pro tools m-powered?
I believe if your using the LE version of protools any m-audio (or top quality music procduction soundcard) will do the trick and give you a very good sound quality without and delay. Im just used to what the m-audio ones are due to running m-powered pro tools but the card seems to be good value and other people i know who edit always reccomend the 2496 as good price for performance. I also use one of THESE to switch between monitors and pc speakers so you can see if youve added too much or too little into a mix. good for quick reference and saves having to plug things in and out.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i7-940-s1366-bloomfield-293-ghz-qpi-48gt-s-8mb-cache-22x-ratio-130w-oem Saving £40 there. And you need tri channel RAM
@russell, cheers mate, think I'll probably buy a 2496 aswell when I get my monitors and pro tools. Another question in regards to pro tools is that should i cop the mbox pro 2 (just because it has firewire) or stick with a mbox mini although it still runs on usb2? @mucgoo, saw that today after searching for 930's and 940's . I dont mind going tri channel but i've seen that it costs more and I hear its harder to get a stable overclock since I want more than 6gb ram (preferably 8) . Is dual channel really THAT bad?
updated my first post with a few changes . Should I just buy two Samsung F3's, people really seem to love them
Dramatik, The latest version of Pro-Tools (9) now runs on all audio interfaces, so there's no need to buy an m-box for compatibility, as you'll get a subpar interface with a subpar software bundle. It would be more advantageous to buy something like the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 (or 40 or 56 depending on budget) series, RME Fireface, echo audiofire 8, Presonus Firestudio 8 etc. The whole point of Pro Tools versus other DAWs is the multitrack recording strengths, so getting a piddling 4 channel interface is severely 'underkill'. To reiterate, there is no point buying Pro Tools LE (bundled with most Mbox's) now that Pro Tools 9 is out. There are far better DAWs than LE, and far better interfaces than the MBox. I am only adamant because I went through exactly the same process as you (although I ended up buying a Mac and Apogee Duet w. KRK RP5 G2s and Wharfedale SW150 for my DAW rig, running Logic Studio and Ableton Live 8 w. NI Komplete). With regard to the actual computer, I'd definitely recommend the Spinpoints, as they are fast and cheap and quite reliable. For samples that's what you need. An SSD is out of your price range but in the future I'd recommend a 256GB for your DAW apps and most used sample libraries as working with large files will become so much quicker!
^^^^ cheers for that bro, think ill look at PT 9 and a decent interface. yh ill buy an SSD when the next paycheck rolls in edit: any advice on the ram?
XMS3 is pretty decent for the price, I use it in my gaming rig (the 1.5V version as I have Sandy Bridge). You could go for some Corsair Vengeance but it's not really that much better than the XMS3 stuff (and a little more expensive)
hmm i'll give them a look. just always worried about ram when using the megahalems and space requirements lol
@Dramatik - i dont use an interface as i get the multitracks i mix from a seperate desk and mix at home so i use my soundcard purely to plug my monitors into so im not much help on that front but nchhabs seems to have some great suggestions on that front. Im also stuck running an old version of prtools which i got very cheap and does the job for me and with my rig i get no latency problems either
Thanks for all the help guys. Ordered everything yesterday evening. Parts (from scan) will be here by 5:30pm today ohhhh the joy
