Hi all, I'm a bit unsure about the direction I need to go with my new build and was hoping someone could help. To be blunt, I have Crohns disease and, as the years progress and things worsen, when I'm not in hospital I'm finding myself more and more housebound. I'm looking to build a PC that will be able to cope with both my work with intensive pro-audio (and some video editing) applications but also be able to cut it as a high spec gaming rig to make my life when I'm unwell and stuck at home a bit more bearable. A friend of mine has offered to put it together, however his work schedule is incredibly intensive so I'm trying to spec it and order it myself so he can build it in one go with as little hassle on his part as possible. This is my existing rig: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz Asus S775 Intel P35 PCI-E ATX OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz (OCZ2RPR800C44GK) Radeon HD 5870 Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (WD740ADFD) RAID Array: 2 x Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB 7200RPM S300 32MB Cache 3.5" 1x Western Digital 500GB Caviar Green 32MB SATA 1x Highpoint 2680SGL OEM CARD RME Fireface 800 (External Soundcard) Gigabyte 550W ODIN PRO PSU Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) Xilence XPF120R Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan Xilence XPF80R Red Wing 80mm Quiet Fan Acer P243W 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor LG L207WT 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor It's built into a Compucase 4U Rackmount Case: http://www.compucase-hec.co.uk/ipc_4u_s411.htm that fits in my home studio rack. I'm more than happy to use whatever parts from this existing rig that may be suitable for the new one. Someone has already suggested the following set-up: X58-G1-Sniper S1366 ATX Mainboard 24GB of Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 memory Core i7 Extreme i7-980X Corsair H50 Water Filled CPU Cooler The only problem is, is that at least one FireWire port is essential for me to run my external soundcard. So, my questions boil down to the following: 1. Should I go for the 980x as the best balance between multi-threaded performance with audio recording software and gaming "power"? 2. If so, do I go for the G1 Sniper and just add a Firewire card or is there a better mobo that will have it in-built along with plenty of USB 3.0/eSATA ports for my many external HD's and other more fancy stuff like HDMI, Surround Sound/Home Cinema connectivity and the like (I also use the computer to play 1080p movies on our home TV). 3. Would it be worthwhile buying another Radeon HD 5870 and running them together to add power to the gaming side of things or would I be better off going for something completely different? Luckily my budget is high (for me anyway!) as I'd originally put aside funds for a power Mac so I have £3000 available. However, where CPU's are concerned, I tend to try to aim for getting something that's "one step behind" the newest model to try and get the best bang for my buck so to speak and ideally I'd like to try and find a bigger monitor. As far as overclocking goes I'd be happy to go down that route but probably with only a mild overclock. Alongside performance my prime concern is stability (something my current system has never seemed to achieve!). I'd rather go for a CPU that was powerful pretty much straight out of the box than to take a less immediately powerful CPU and have to push it to achieve performance. If anyone could help it would be very much appreciated.
Sandybridge is the way to go, I'd recommend an i5 2500K. Does pretty much what the i7-980x does for a few hundred less. Also what sort of space concerns do you have if any? Could go either Micro-ATX or full ATX, the later gives you more expansion options including a firewire card! Let us know and it'll be easy to specify a build for that money. On the monitor front a Dell U2711 is the way to go. I phoned the Dell small business line and managed to get one delivered for £570, so it's worth getting in touch direct with Dell to see what they can do. Explain that audio production is what you do and that you're self employed then they can usually cook up a better deal than is commonly offered.
From reading over the reviews of the Dell you recommended it definitely looks like a great contender, thanks for that. I must admit, my original impulse was to go Sandybridge but the chap who recommended the 980x seemed pretty adamant it was the way to go for my needs i.e. super fast gaming rig that can also be used as a pro-audio workhorse where stability is paramount...then again it could just be that that spec is what he has on the shelf (he builds them for a living and apparently that's his spec of choice). All in all it really threw me! Space is definitely not a concern. I was going to re-use the 4u rackmount case listed above but I'd be happy getting a new case and putting the old one to work as part of a media system for our lounge etc. Either way a rackmount case would be useful as I currently have plenty of space at the bottom of one of the studio racks (specifically the bottom so that the rear wooden frame can take the weight of the case rather than just letting it hang). Gaming aside for a moment, I was worried that the Sandybridge CPU wouldn't be able to cope with intensive audio recording (running multiple instances of individual guitar modelling VST's, sample heavy drum programs like Superior Drummer, realistic Orchestral VST's and a myriad of synths and effects all together that would make my current system weep at the very thought) and graphics/video editing as well as the 6 core 980x.
I can't speak from personal experience but I did read an article where the i7 2600K was compared to the 980X and there was very little to separate them in real world tests. However the i7 2600K is much much cheaper! It's worth researching further however to observe if your particular applications can take full advantage of the 6 cores in a 980X. Just to pick up on the graphics, a 5870 is way behind the times. For serious grunt and considering you have the money, if you wanted to go all out then an MSI 3GB GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition is the way to go! Just to be clear, this is wholly uneconomical but we're aiming for all out raw power for around £500. You can opt for a GTX 590 but these dual GPU cards can have bigger problems than SLI and crucially you are stuck with them! I have an SLI rig myself with two GTX 460 so I can choose to shut down SLI if I desire and run games from a single GPU resolving any issues with particular games. Of course two MSI 3GB GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition cards would be quite something to behold! A more moderate approach would be a couple of GTX 570 which would come under a single MSI 3GB GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition card money wise and offer very competitive performance. For that I would go for the MSI 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 Twin Frozr III Power Edition OC card. Although a very good case would be required to keep temperatures in check!
Find out if the software you use for your audio/video editing can use more than 4 cores. The rig that your friend has spec'd is very high end, a hex core rig with 24 gigs of ram maybe total overkill. That said as I dont have any experience of audio editing it maybe a better bet if it scales over the 6 cores than a standard quad core i5 2500 although several times more expensive. Games wise they will both perform similarly.
Thanks for the reply. Yes I've already checked the audio software and it can handle more than 4 cores. 6 cores with at least 16Gb of DDR3 RAM is now fairly standard for new pro-audio builds (if sourced complete from specialists) which seems to point in favour of going down the 980x route if I'm go ahead with the build now. I only say "if" as it's been mentioned to me that it might be prudent to wait until AMD's new Bulldozer processor comes out. To be honest, there's always going to be something new just around the corner though and although the 980x appears as if it might be overkill (certainly from a gaming perspective) after reading around the subject a bit more it's currently just edging it for me on the 6 core front. Blogins: thanks for the advice re: graphics cards. Yep, it's a shame to admit it but my 5870 is definitely looking a bit long in the tooth in comparison to some of the new gear available! The MSI 3GB GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition looks fantastic and is now on the shopping list. Do you think the Corsair H50 Water Filled CPU Cooler that has already been suggested in the same Compucase 4U Rackmount Case: http://www.compucase-hec.co.uk/ipc_4u_s411.htm would be sufficient cooling?
