Building Your PC

[clydesdale]

back to the original purpose of this thread, my hard drive continues to give me heartburn as it spins and spins and churns and spins and I'm just imagining the thing melting down inside my computer like Paul Atreides' hand in the reverend mother's pain box. Extra credit if you understood that reference.

Holy obscure reference Batman! Even a guild navigator wouldn't have seen that coming.

Depending on the OS you're running, you also might consider downloading and running Performance Test from Passmark. It's free for 30 days which gives you plenty of time to make some comparisons. It'll give you a benchmark on your cpu, ram, disk and graphics which you can then compare to the current selection of devices to see where you can improve. If your cpu and ram rank well enough then at least you know that you can spend on the SSD and have it be a boost to your setup. Graphics performance is meaningless for Live. You haven't mentioned a budget yet, but the Samsung EVO SSD has good performance for the price. What disk controller does your PC have? Hopefully not a SCSI-- that would limit your selection (but there are some good prices too), SAS/SATA would be more consumer friendly.

[jcwillia]

back to the original purpose of this thread, my hard drive continues to give me heartburn as it spins and spins and churns and spins and I'm just imagining the thing melting down inside my computer like Paul Atreides' hand in the reverend mother's pain box. Extra credit if you understood that reference.

Holy obscure reference Batman! Even a guild navigator wouldn't have seen that coming.

Depending on the OS you're running, you also might consider downloading and running Performance Test from Passmark. It's free for 30 days which gives you plenty of time to make some comparisons. It'll give you a benchmark on your cpu, ram, disk and graphics which you can then compare to the current selection of devices to see where you can improve. If your cpu and ram rank well enough then at least you know that you can spend on the SSD and have it be a boost to your setup. Graphics performance is meaningless for Live. You haven't mentioned a budget yet, but the Samsung EVO SSD has good performance for the price. What disk controller does your PC have? Hopefully not a SCSI-- that would limit your selection (but there are some good prices too), SAS/SATA would be more consumer friendly.

lol on the obscure reference - I love my sci fi...

I haven't mentioned a budget because I don't have one. I was hoping to spend something in the $100 range for a drive replacement but I wanted to be sure I was getting top value - I keep bouncing back and forth between the WD Black and WD Blue but everytime I go down the research hole I come back with a number that's like $800!!! and then I just take a couple pepto bismol and go sleep it off.

[kitekrazy]

I can't afford an i7 and I'm a hobbyist (and a beginner at that) not a professional. It all sounds the same when it's rendered anyways.

There are some nice Intel Xeon processors http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819117285
Good bang for the buck.


As for AMD which offers better value vs. performance

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819113286
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819113284

As for motherboards go with an Asus board. These things last forever. I still have some socket A boards in a closet that boot up.

What most people neglect is not having an audio interface and using onboard sound ASIO4ALL. You can get a Focusrite Scarlett.

I'm not one to trust SSD yet as for longevity.

[clydesdale]

Samsung EVO $85. The larger drives are actually faster, the 250GB EVO is a better choice but runs $135.

All drives fail eventually. I've had enterprise SAS drives crap out in less than a couple of years.

[eyeknow]

SSD is terrific for the rich (which I'm not but bought one anyways)

I'd concentrate on CPU/mobo and get a reliable ram company (but no reason to overpay) some prebuilt computers are not horribly expensive and have the same kick ass chip I have (4770)

Get win7x64 (because it's reliable and stuff runs well with it)

I overpaid for my computer (see specs below) but I believe you can get same/similar for much less now.

[jcwillia]

well you all succeeded in twisting my arm.

my hard drive pooped itself this weekend as I was trying to update the metadata for 4,000 mp3s and Newegg sent me a particularly well timed email advertising a Kingston 120GB SSD for $60 so I bit and then I got a Blue 1TB to go with it. I also 2 other 2GB NAS in my house so I'm in good shape.

Now I still have to solve the longer term issue of this hulking monster (XW4600) sitting on my desk. I have a deal alert on slickdeals watching for deals - we'll see what happens. Not as urgent as it was before since my hand was forced on the storage side.

[jestermgee]

I have built literally dozens of studio PC and Gaming PC builds over the last 15 years and here is what I can add (though you seem to be on your way and most seem to have covered things nicely)

BACKUP SOLUTION
Invest in a good backup solution FIRST. This could be an automated server, NAS system or just a simple USB drive but always make sure you have your backup solution in place and that you can maintain a regular backup schedule (automated is always best). Try and think in terms of if you switched on your PC and your drive was completely dead would you miss anything on that drive?

I would also then suggest unless you have a good RAID setup as your backup to consider a mirrored backup solution so you never have anything in just 1 place. In a digital world we trust too much to storage devices and even cloud systems are not immune so never rely solely on these either.

COMPUTER HARDWARE CHOICE
There are so many options and choices that it can be a struggle to figure out which way is best. Often if you price up a full system from scratch you come out with a cost that appears to be higher than an "off the shelf" system with pretty much the same components. The difference is you know that your components will be exactly what you want.

If budget is of concern the first area you can save is on your MOBO. I would recommend a good brand name (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASROCK etc) but look at their smaller boards which often just lack a few expansion ports or an extra LAN/SATA controller which you probably don't need. You just need a solid vehicle to run your CPU that will support the RAM you would like.

Next the CPU is something I often like to select "top of the line" BUT not the absolute latest as these often cost huge amounts. Look at some benchmark comparisons and often a model or 2 from the top is a good option. The CPU will be your audio "engine" and will be doing all your work. If you need to be getting the most out your soft synths and don't want to be limited too early then you want as much power as you can throw at it. If your tasks are simple or simply don't need lots of plugins then a lower power option could save you money but I would say this part will be one of the highest costs of the build.

The CPU can be upgraded in a few years when the really expensive CPU options drop so keep that in mind and you can sell the CPU easily online if cared for.

If the CPU comes with a fan put it aside with the box (for resell) and get a decent quiet cooler. Some small water coolers that are now available are quiet and cheap but this will help your PC to run more quiet and efficient as stock coolers are rubbish.

If you are not going to be into gaming at all then a lower end card should be fine. It won't be processing anything intensive and a small card means you also don't need a big power supply either.

RAM should be a fast and decent brand name of 8-32GB matching. It doesn't have to be the high end stuff with massive heat sinks. Most ram hardly gets warm and you won't be thrashing it anyway so just something that gives the memory you need.

HDD is an area where if you CAN go for an SSD for your main OS and software hard drive then do it. There are a lot of benefits from loading software faster to transferring samples to ram quicker to not requiring defragging. Also less noise, less power and less heat. Just be cautious as often there is no sign it will die until it dies (which is why you need your backups).

If you just want a HDD option then any HDD will be fine. The "high end" drives will operate a little better but most your work will run from RAM so your drive just needs to hold data and unless you polan on your machine being on 24/7 there is no need for a NAS/Server type of drive. Save the cash there.

POWER is another area you just need to spend the cash on good quality. There is a BUT though. There is simply no need in a modest studio PC to have 1000w of power. In fact if you don't have a high end graphics card or heaps of hard drives then a 450-650w supply will be fine. A typical high quality PC will consume roughly 200w MAX not including the monitors. Hell, my 10TB server with 8 HDD and 4 massive cooling fans runs only 150w constant (200w when booting).

If you were also considering to use this system for Gaming then I would make the suggestion to:
- pick a higher end more capable MOBO that offers SLI/Crossfire as an option. Also consider options for overclocking as this can be of benefit.
- Choose a robust CPU that offers overclocking (even if you don't want too). These often have high headroom for running faster which means at their factory speeds they should be rather solid.
- Be sure your case has lots of room and air flow. Gaming systems produce a lot of heat and need a lot of power.
- The GPU will now probably cost as much if not more than your CPU. Look at a lot of benchmarks and choose something with 2-4GB VRAM keeping in mind a lot of games now are being developed for 64bit systems and also may REQUIRE 2GB VRAM min (Wolfenstein New Order needs 64bit system and will only allow "Ultra" graphics quality on a 4GB VRAM system).
- RAM should be good higher end stuff and for gaming you may need some basic heat sinks as you load a lot more stuff in and out.
- Power needs to be a top consideration. 650w is about the minimum I would consider if you run a high end GPU.
- Be sure to select a CPU cooler at the high end and shows cooling benchmarks. Water cooled are great as that gets heat from CPU to outside quick and helps the GPU card run cooler too.

Test / Test / Test.

Use bench test software once built to be sure everything runs correct and find issues early. I have had RAM, GPU and MOBO issues out of box before and these may not even show until you put intense software in action. Setup the PC with just its drivers and bench test software (Prime95 / Furmark etc) and spend a day just testing.

Loads more things to get stuck into but Google can fill in the gaps. Have fun and remember that unless you are professional and need it NOW! then take the time to just do it properly and you can even save up for a few bits here and there and take a break from producing and build your machine over a couple of weeks/months. Just be sure to keep receipts and buy only from places you can get warranty on items.

[clydesdale]

Excellent advice. I can add one small twist to the comment about power supplies. I built my PC with the intention of it being silent or near silent and for this purpose a larger power supply (1000W) was helpful since it runs in fanless mode up to 40% of capacity, so I can get 400W without the fan ever turning on.

POWER is another area you just need to spend the cash on good quality. There is a BUT though. There is simply no need in a modest studio PC to have 1000w of power. In fact if you don't have a high end graphics card or heaps of hard drives then a 450-650w supply will be fine. A typical high quality PC will consume roughly 200w MAX not including the monitors. Hell, my 10TB server with 8 HDD and 4 massive cooling fans runs only 150w constant (200w when booting).

[jestermgee]

Excellent advice. I can add one small twist to the comment about power supplies. I built my PC with the intention of it being silent or near silent and for this purpose a larger power supply (1000W) was helpful since it runs in fanless mode up to 40% of capacity, so I can get 400W without the fan ever turning on.

POWER is another area you just need to spend the cash on good quality. There is a BUT though. There is simply no need in a modest studio PC to have 1000w of power. In fact if you don't have a high end graphics card or heaps of hard drives then a 450-650w supply will be fine. A typical high quality PC will consume roughly 200w MAX not including the monitors. Hell, my 10TB server with 8 HDD and 4 massive cooling fans runs only 150w constant (200w when booting).

Yep, that can certainly be an advantage if you are shooting to build a quiet system (though if on a budget then this isn't normally a luxury you can focus on). A lot of quality supplies offer intelligent fan control and even software monitoring of power. I use a corsair 820w intelligent supply in my monster with the same silent fan setup and USB monitoring. Funnily when I built the machine I thought the supply was faulty because the fan never seemed to ever spin until I realised it was just never getting warm enough.

One thing to note is that most quality power supplies have a high efficiency supply and also the cooling fan is a large deep blade pitch and often now digitally RPM controlled so even when running it runs so slow you cannot hear it. The big noise makers are always CPU Fan, GPU fan, HDD Vibration and crappy case fans. All can be addressed if you have some extra budget.

There is also some useful software around such as "Fanspeed" and the likes which you can setup to lower any monitored fan speeds under low load to lower noise. I use the corsair utility that came with the power supply to control the PS, Case and GPU fans to make it silent for studio use but higher performance on the gaming system.

It's easy to get online and compare models and pricing and even place orders. My latest machine was researched and ordered from several places on my lunch break at work over a couple of days, delivered to my office and built at my desk between calls and quotes. The very first PC I built took me days of bus rides to IT warehouses to read boxes and ask questions.