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My current computer is a P4

dado

dado

dado

Associate
Joined
27 Apr 2009
Posts
24
Hi guys,

I'll try keep this short and quick, hope someone here can help me.
As title suggests it's time to upgrade, and my mobo has literally started to fall apart. :o lol

Now I looked into what would be perfect for me but there is just so much stuff out there I need the advice of someone who's allready been there and this seems like the place.

I wanted to go for the i7 920 but someone suggested to buy a Q6600 and just overclock it but then I came across the Q9650 and said to myself wouldn't it be better to overclock that as it's not that much more expensive.
Then the dilemmas started kicking in......

The main thing the pc will be used for is electronic music and that means running a lot of virtual instruments and these days most good ones are processor hogs! Native Instruments for example.
The pc won't be used for gaming etc. or much else apart from internet.

The host program I use claims it supports the latest multiple core technology so there would be no issues there.

My budget is £500 - £600

What are your opinions?

Your input is much appreciated. :)
 
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Can't link competitors I'm afraid mate.

For £5-600 you'll want a quad core Core 2, 4GB of RAM. i7 is too expensive, but if you upped your budget a few more hundred, it would be OK.
 
dado said:
For example, I was looking at this and setting it up in my current tower plus putting up with the hassle of finding suitable components:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-i7...14&_trkparms=72:1690|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318


But then thought why not get this, it's fast and it comes with so much more:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hi-Perf-PC-DF...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:1|39:1|240:1308
Click to expand...

Welcome to OcUK forums...

I would remove those links to competitors websites (see Here), before one of the Mods/Dons has a word with you...
 
At work atm so I cant give links atm. Youll probally want to aim for 4gb of ram. I donno how inensive electronic music is on the processor but a quick search seems to suggest that dual cores should manage it.

i7 would be great if you can afford it (would be very close to upper limit of your budget) but LGA775 would be slightly better value for money atm. Q6600 are great chips but based on 65nm unlike the newer Q9xxx which is based on 45nm so itll run cooler and oc further.
AMD released Phenom II recently but only released its flagship model last week which is about the same performance as Q9xxx series. These should drop in price over the next month tho as AMD are aiming for value over top end performance.

Roughly tho

AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE (955 is new AM3 socket version but is backwards compatable with AM2+ boards)
mobo: biostar, gigabyte, Foxconn all seem to be good OCing boards

Intel route would roughly be the same only LGA775 version of those boards and a Q9650 should be within your price range

Corsier ram (2gbX2) is good value and great for OC'ing

If you want i7 then
920
gigabyte (cant remember its name) or ASUS P6T
got excellent reviews
corsair DDR3 (2gb x 3)
 
What exactly are you looking for? A complete new build? Or are there parts you wish to carry forward?

This bundle is pretty good for value

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-163-OK&groupid=701&catid=339&subcat=1333

As you can see I'm a pretty big core i7 fan :p

It also leaves some room in your budget for 3rd party cpu cooling (only if you intend to overclock) and a graphics card (very cheap since you dont intend to game.)

Also you said that the software you intend to use are processor hogs and also support multicore cpus. Well assuming that they can support running atleast 5 threads at once I see no better choice than the i7 with its hyperthreading :cool:

Edit: You will prolly need a new PSU too.
 
Killari that is really tempting!!
I have a slick tower already which I will keep, my psu says AC 230V I don't know if that's suitable but I'll find more on that later. I have a 70gig hard drive just to run the system on ( windows xp ) and 500gig external for all the good stuff. I have a cd/dvd rewriter and router, I have a 2 pro pci soundcards, mouse keyboard and monitor, so that's pretty much it I guess, only things I'd need are PSU, CPU cooler for when I wish to overclock it and a basic graphic card.
 
dado said:
Killari that is really tempting!!
I have a slick tower already which I will keep, my psu says AC 230V I don't know if that's suitable but I'll find more on that later. I have a 70gig hard drive just to run the system on ( windows xp ) and 500gig external for all the good stuff. I have a cd/dvd rewriter and router, I have a 2 pro pci soundcards, mouse keyboard and monitor, so that's pretty much it I guess, only things I'd need are PSU, CPU cooler for when I wish to overclock it and a basic graphic card.
Click to expand...

Cool Cool. The 230V means the psu requires 230volts at the mains ;)
Did you buy the PSU or did it come with a case? Chances are though that it is not up to par.

Heres a cheap and cheerful PSU which is excellent.
Thats right its a Corsair!

And heres a decent cooler:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-005-NC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Heres a fairly basic graphics card:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-132-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274

I think that comes around to about £600. Maybe a little over, but you can play about with it. You can easily go lower on the gfx card and get something cheaper. The CPU cooler is also pretty expensive, but its worth it as its a top end socket 1366 cooler.

The RAM is that kit isn't overwhelming, but it should be ok if you set up the dividers right.
 
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Yeah I bought a seperate psu but the way I did it is tell the guy at the pc shop which mobo I had lol. So I have no idea what watts it has....
 
I have a monitor but I also have a 32" TV right next to it and it's HDMI and has a pc connection on the back which supports the max resolution of 1,366 x 768 WXGA but I get much better resolution on the monitor so I use that instead. What I'm dying to know is could I get even higher resolution if I connect the tv to a hdmi graphic card?
The tv is 720p 1080i and 1080p but they don't specify resolution through hdmi? :confused:
 
If your TV supports 1080p then it will support a resolution of 1920x1080 through HDMI.

Reckon you should buy a new hard disk as well as the above parts - a 70GB drive from the age of the Pentium 4 will be very slow these days.
 
What is your host application dado?

I don't think i know of any DAW's that don't support multi-core processing. I myself run Pro Tools 8 with a Q6600 (@3.0ghz) and it's fast enough for an average sized project (4 VST'i, 20 audio tracks, elastic audio etc). However, given the chance, i would have absolutely gone for an i7 setup had the RAM prices been as low as they are now, and now that the D0 stepping is available for a near 4.0ghz oveclock.

For gaming purposes, i7 hasn't be all that yet (mainly due to lack of games) but should shine through in the next year especially. Thankfully, with audio there is no limits to what you can or can't run and so every bit of power is benificial.

If i7 is too expensive, then i'd go for a standard P45 setup with a Q9xxx series processor and 4gb of 1066 RAM. Any quad at 3.0ghz or more is a great starting point.
 
My host application is cubase sx3 so I'm not sure about that but I know cubase 5 is compatible and I've been meaning to upgrade to that for some time now. Also I'm a bit unclear on the d0 stepping I think that has more pottential to overclock right? but it doesn't seem to be specified on the adverts as I've not really seen it but only heard about it. All I seem to find is the general i7 920 chip, that's it.
 
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reflux said:
If your TV supports 1080p then it will support a resolution of 1920x1080 through HDMI.

Reckon you should buy a new hard disk as well as the above parts - a 70GB drive from the age of the Pentium 4 will be very slow these days.
Click to expand...

I'm really pleased to hear that, thank you. I don't record much so I will see at a later date if the hard drive is sufficient enough and go from there.
 
This setup should have more beef for overclocking.

Its a tad over your initial £600 tho. Like i said before everything is open to tweaking.

18185683.jpg
 
Can someone confirm the Quad core would be better than a dual core simply because of the audio software used allows full use of all four cores? As I thought it was fairly agreed upon that the quad cores aren't/don't offer the performances gains everyone thinks they are getting?
 
dude if u look around, save up a little bit more money u have a well good upgrade for a i7.

i got my system for £963

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping
Asus P6T Deluxe
Antec P193 Super Midi Tower
G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 NQ PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz)
Antec CP 850
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal
Gtx 260 SLi
Scythe Kaze-Master 5.25" Fan Controller - Black

im just waitin on parts
 
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