Build Advice New build for music PC

I’ve been out of the PC loop for about 6 months, though keep fairly up to date on here. I had a nice build planned last summer, left it too late and we all know what happened next.

I work in a recording studio full time and I use my PC at home for editing sessions and also doing recording/mixing related tasks at home on the side. It doubles as my general PC also, though the only things I really do are watch x264 HD videos, listen to music and play the COD series, Far Cry, C&C when I get a rare day or two off.

I’m trying to base my build around the E7400 and the Corsair 4GB XMS2 kit. I plan to use my OCZ GameXStream 700w PSU in the new build and a couple of my SATA2 drives though will be getting more.

I’m wondering if anyone can help me out with the rest of the components, I’ve checked all the articles and it makes my choice worse, as I don’t want to skimp on a motherboard but I don’t want to spend £120 on something that is just over the top. I don’t do overclocking or anything likes that, I’m a boring stock person I’m afraid.

I usually spend about £80 on a motherboard and £140 on a CPU though I plan to spend a £100 max on each and stick to that budget before people recommend Q6600’s etc. With regards to a GPU I thought about a HD4670 even though I know £30 more gets me a better one but I never play new games and only play games that have a nostalgic value to me from years ago.

My main points I’m after are; decent power, memory and rock solid stability. If I can settle on a good motherboard (6 SATA ports), I can usually get the rest together myself but you guys know more than me here. Ideally I want to stick to about £400-£450 budget wise. So far I have

• Intel C2D E7400 £100
• Corsair 4GB XMS2 £50
• ATI HD4670 (or less if possible for my requirements) £65
• Akasa AK965 CPU cooler £15
• Couple of Hard Drives £80
• Undecided on sound card

 

Hey,

From what you've said above, i assume you're not too concerned about SLI/CF graphics, so this board may be something like what your after.

I picked one up for myself, and i'm more than happy with it. Managed to squeeze another 600mhz out of an E5200 without much effort at all, using cheaper memory than you're listing. IT's got plenty (6) of SATA ports, RAID if that interestes you, and enough PCI-E 1x slots and PCI slots to allow for plenty of upgrading. It also has optical and co-ax audio outs, which may or may not interest you .

The only compromise is the single PCI-E x16 slot, but thats only a problem if you want to get your dual GPU's on...

There are a few reviews around, see what you think...


edit:

Also, i'm only running a 512mb 3850, and cod4 flies at full details, as does Left 4 Dead...

 

Either stick with the 4670 or pick up an old 3870/3850. The jump down from 4670 to 4650 is about a 50% performance drop, which you obviously don't want.

If you don't care much about surround EAX while gaming, the Asus Xonar series is probably your best bet on the sound side of things. A Xonar DX would work wonderfully. If you do most of your audio work on headphones and can afford the (greatly) increased price, the Xonar Essence STX is about the best consumer-level sound card you could possibly get - but at almost £166, you'd probably be pushing your budget a bit there...


- Diosjenin -

 

Firstly, thanks for all the advice and thoughts so far. I’m not concerned about SLI and CF, I checked out the ASUS P5QL-E and it falls right into my sweet spot. I noticed the SE edition for £60 but that seems to miss a few features.

I’ll stick to the 4670 as it’s in my price range in terms of my gaming needs.

I like surround sound when gaming but I won’t miss EAX. I do most of my audio work at home on Digidesign 003’s and separate monitors so that’s not much of an issue. I’ll only use the PC soundcard for x264 videos, referencing music and other little bits. No need to spend £150 on one when I have superior external ones for my needs.

With regards to the HD4670, are the cards still dual slot and mega long still? I’m assuming the HD4670 is single slot as not seeing otherwise on most models.

 

Do you plan to record through it? If so then you'll need the right soundcard.

 

I don't plan to record through the PC soundcard. I have a separate setup for all my recording and mixing at home.

As for my build now, I've got so far

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400, Corsair 4GB Kit PC2-6400, Akasa AK965 CPU Cooler, ASUS PSQL-E, ATI HD4670, ASUS Xonar DX, Arctic Silver 5 Paste, ArctiClean Cleaner/Purifier.

 

You may want to go with a quad core. Some audio apps are going multi-threaded. FL studio is the first I believe. Not exactly the most popular, but a powerful program none the less.

Audio software likes a fast CPU, regardless of the software.

 

I've ordered the build. A quad core would have sent me over my budget, which I like to stick too. It's something I will do down the line once I know all my programs are stable and fully utilize quad cores.