Hi all, I am building a PC for a friend, usually this would be no problem, however my expertise is more about building a good PC for gaming, the one my friend wants is music focused - he does a lot of recording of music onto his machine. He will be using Cubase 6, so I am trying to work out what is best for him. I currently assume 4 cores is enough so an i5 will be perfect - or am I wrong, with Hyperthreading from an i7 be any real use? I will likely be going with 8gb of RAM and assume that is plenty...or is it excessive? I don't have any experience with music reording and editing etc. so really not sure if 4, 8 or 16 is enough. Obviously he is not planning on gaming so the GPU will not ned to be flashy, however, any advise on how budget a card it should be? Finally, the most important part is the soundcard, I have no idea what kind of soundcard is best, so advise here would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks for any and all advise
At the moment I am looking at about £1k, that includes monitor and Windows 7. Depending on soundcard an i5 2500k build fits in this nicely (based on a random £150 soundcard)
i5 with 8gb should be good to start, just get 2x4gb set so if it needs more later you can pop in another set. i doubt more will be neccessary unless using a heap of vst plugins that eat ram. soundcard will be mostly dictated by what they are recording. are using synths? then you'll want stuff more focused on midi. need to record multiple instruments at once? need multiple inputs, etc. esi maya44e is a good entry card. another way to go is an external mixer that outputs over spdif for larger multi track work, like when recording a full band at once.
If your not OCing, I'd go for an i5 2500 and a lower end motherboard, maybe an Intel reference board. 8GB (2x4GB as mentioned above, so expansion is easy) and then a cheap graphics card like a GT 430. I'd definitely go for an SSD in the build, as some of these sound applications can take a while to load especially with tonnes of samples and filters installed, even a cheap C400 would do. I'd assume he'd also need a good bit of storage space, so a couple of 2TB HDDs in RAID1 could be good.
Ok, thanks for the advice. Any suggestions on dropping price? £1k may be a bit much. My understanding is Cubase 6 is where all the connections of instruments etc. go and then that will presumably connect to the soundcard. In the main I would assume bagpipe music is what he will be playing and recording as that is his specialty
Then can i suggest a decent pair of ear defenders be added to the build, maybe not for him, but definitely for his neighbours!
just as a soloist then? if thats so you can probably crank it down quite a bit and still have enough headroom as a single input and editing won't be nearly as taxing. could probably do with an i3 and 4gb. which is double the requirements for cubase 6. final mixdown to mastering might take a little longer to encode than on i5, but shouldn't be a big issue. pair it up with a midrange h67 board and skip a sperate gpu to save a little more there. the esi maya44e is no more expensive than something like asus xonar. the soundcard is going to be really the most important component. so any extra budget could go to getting a better one instead of other things. also since its primarily going to be used for recording acoustic instument via mic, unless in seperate room you'll need to ensure it is REALLY quiet pc.
Yeah, quiet is good. I am thinking of going the H way for mobo for integrated GPU as that saves money. I am looking at the ESI, looks like it may do the trick. Anyone have other suggestions and a reason why it would be more or equally suitable to the ESI? Feel free to suggest a card even if it is more expensive. The budget is not confirmed et, so a variety of choice is good Silence is going to be pretty important, no GPU fan is a good start, what about the CPU cooler, anyone have recommendations for one? Rembember this is not some gaming machine which is going to be OC'd to death, so while a good budget cooler is the Hyper212+, something cheap that is very silent but less effective at cooling is a better choice Thanks for all the help guys
i3 would probably serve as mentioned above, a H67 board would be fine if no oc is intended, but remember to grab a non-k cpu (save a few bucks) If you want to do a moderate oc then maybe a H68? have integrated gfx so no need for seperate gpu and also able to oc, but it will cost you more. If your friend is a student check online for cheap windows 7...just need a .ac.uk email address. Monitor - rarely will i ever recommend a tn, but for simple music media use its all you really need, make sure its led backlit for best colour performance - can pick decent ones up for £100 region - keep an eye out these sorts of monitors are always on offer - stick to known names...might cost more but worth it for longevity. If not oc then stock fan should do....if oc then really any standard cooler will do, just check their reviews first...heat shouldnt be a problem with the usage you intend. Case - Antec 100, Silverstone PS03 ? either is good and cool, plenty of room for expansion and if you select low rpm fans for them they will be very quiet. PSU - CX430 should be fine at this level. cheap but more noisey - look to bequiet models for quieter performance, but you will pay for it....no need for anything over 500w - but dont cheap out here! this is the one part you cant afford to fail! Ram - 8GB is excessive! 4gb all you need - 6gb max - but if you must snap up the deal for mushkin 8gb over on aria as its very cheap.
Fractal Design Define R3 for case? Comes with sound proofing material all around the case and is well known for its silence.
While the stock fan is fine for cooling they tend to be noisy buggers, so something quiet is good - also I prefer one that screws over the horrible push in design. The R3 are a bit steep but I will certinly give him the option.
I did think about the price but i thought you/he budgeted for a grand and seeing as that has dropped a nice quiet case shouldn't be too much. You could of course always grab a cheaper case and fill it with foam For fans i think Gentle Typhoons with a fan controller might be a good idea. Are these the type of screw/mount/whatevers that you didnt like? They serve the purpose of removing vibrations.
The push pins are what I don't like (like the stock cooler has) If I can screw it in I am happy. I have guessed at the budget of £1k, but obviously the less the better and it may be steep for him. http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/529a02656c1c441ab72f8d973f5037bb As a starting point I have thrown this together as a higher cost, with flexibility to go cheaper as required (dropping RAM or buying it from Aria), getting a weaker PSU, cheaper case etc. Things like the Firewire card and Media reader are just parts he wanted for the wife which is why they are there. Though some mobos tend to come with a slot for that so maybe it is not needed. Obviously the build is still missing the Soundcard which I need to decide on I assume all H67 mobos have integrated graphics? I know the one I have picked states no onboard graphics. What connection options do they have for a monitor? I've never actually had a PC without a dedicated card
The GPU is integrated into the CPU for H67. Your's doesn't appear to have any back panel connections for a monitor. Pick one that does, (it'll be in tech specs or visible in the preview pictures). They should all have DVI, probably VGA at the low end and HDMI for the higher end.
Thanks, I thought i was being crazy when i could not see any connections as i thought they all had it. Why would anyone have an H67 that couldn't connect to a monitor
Looks pretty sound although I'm not sure how quiet Coolermaster PSUs are. I think Corsair or Seasonic are generally good for silence. Maybe a fanless PSU if its that important. Dont get an Antec PSU. Mines so loud
Plus thats quite steep for a coolermaster, not a terrible make but not one I'd choose personally. As I said BeQuiet will suit your needs better, corsair are ok...but the cheaper ones...i.e.cx430 do tend to make a high pitch whining noise ...whether its the conductors or the fan bearing who knows... but not all of them do to be fair. Still think 8gb of ram is excessive but your choice....1.5v ram would be better for the sandybridge cpu, not gonna make a lot of difference as you arent oc'ing but its what is recommended. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-h67m-d2-b3-intel-h67-s-1155-pci-e-20-(x16)-ddr3-1333-sata-6gb-s-raid-matx-vga Good H67 board. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb-seagate-st3500413as-barracuda-720012-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-16mb-cache-85ms-ncq Good HDD - Bit cheaper http://www.scan.co.uk/products/thermaltake-contac-29-heat-pipe-cpu-cooler-lga1366-1156-775-am3-am2-am2plus-939-754 Is meant to be very quiet but couldnt comment on its comparison to the one you selected.
