Ableton Forum

I am going to run these programs
Ableton 8.1 studio
sound forge 9
cubase 5
komplete
waves sound design plugin bundle
avox
all antares synths

and thats it

no video editing, no games:

this is the system specs i was considering

MB: $199 GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R
RAM: $260 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9T-12GBRM
CPU: $294 Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
HD: $229 OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
HD: $169 x2 Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$169
GPU: $100 SAPPHIRE Ultimate 100289UL Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
PSU: $139 ENERMAX PRO87+ EPG500AWT 500W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Power Supply
CASE: $109 Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
FANS: $75 Noctua NH-U12P SE2 (CPU)
DVD: $20 LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer
OS: $99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

1,869.88



i was wondering if this seems reasonable or overkill or could use some improvement, my main concern is a quiet pc that has very fast responce (ie 20 millisecond latency or better) and i want to be able to have as many plugins running on ableton at one time as possible

-thanks -
jeremy

That is pretty close to what I just received and I don't cosider it overkill. Better over than under. Instead of smaller, 10Krpm drives I went with 7200rpm and upped the size to a 1TB for OS and 3 x 2TB for samples and music. I always run out of HD space. Spreading sample libraries across drives helps with the speed.

What I don't see, and I may have looked over it, is your sound card.

no overkill IMO, but...

I'd go with a 128GB SSD for system and Apps + 2x 1TB 7200s (as software raid 0) for data

additionally I'd check for a better DVD+-RW drive. these lite-on/whatever/you-name-it drives are pretty useless when it comes to mastering. watch out for a used Plextor PX-716A on ebay.

just my 2ct.

i didnt pick any sound card cause i plan on getting a mackie onyx board, the small one, i think its 824 or something like that, thanks for the advice on harddrive space but i dont think i'll need it, i've been working with 2x100gb for years and i think 700 will suit me for quite a while.

you can always upgrade the drives

any other burner besides the plextor that you can recomend, i dont mind spending 100 bucks on a burner or more if its worth the investment, i just thought that a burner was aburner was a burner

-jeremy

I had some problems with CD master writing on an external LG model. the thing turned out to be crap.
there are huge differences between burners.

you might want to open a new thread with a subject "Recommended CD-Burners" or similar. I'm not a pro when it comes to recommendations. got mine from ebay base on a recommendation by subfunk (one of the forum 'celebs').

I have pretty much the same system and it's a beast!
Although I'm no fan of the 10k RPM drives. They tend to be very loud and are way slower than the SSD you already have. The WD Caviar Black series is a better choice imo.

that plextor drive is IDE, it's slow, and the technology is from pre-2005.
save your money. it can be better spent elsewhere. go with the lite-on or a sony drive. personally, i chose an Asus drive. first had a plextor but was having issues with it on a SATA connector so i had to get an IDE converter for it. super lame! plextor was over-priced. the Asus drive came with Live Lite, Sonar, and some good utilities. Didn't need any of them, but had them if i wanted to.

as for the specs... video card might be a little more than you need, power supply might be a little less than you need. especially when your CPU is taking up 1/3 of it to begin with. 500 watts is barely scraping by. i'd go with something around 800 watts. it won't use it unless it needs it. better safe than sorry, though. try a PSU calculator.

also, you're gonna want more than 2 data hard drives at that capacity. i'm running 4 velociraptors and i still needed an external 1tb drive for my backups. Komplete 7 alone will take up almost half of a velociraptor. better off going with a a couple caviar black 1tb 6gb/s 7200 rpm drives or 2x600gb velociraptors.