Music production build - Advice please!

garyfl · 31 Dec 2010 at 00:58

biuro74 said:
And last, but not least - your soundcard with ASIO drivers should have lowest possible latency. I presume you record some stuff there, not just rework samples given. You may consider buying used entry-level M-Audio soundcard (Delta 2496 Audiophile model) which gives you that, for extremally low price (20 quids on Eb*y).

hes right here, sound card is the MOST important thing IMO, because, if you are creating music, if you aware of mixing down and mastering and EQ, you will need a good card thats capable of an accurate flat frequency response not the hyped creative cards( no offense). you will want a no nonsense low latency card like M audio.

and as lakeland says, what you listen to them through is just as important, you need the sound to be reproduced as accurate as possible, i use beyerringer DT150, if you are looking into speakers then id suggest KRK rockit 5, cannot go wrong

hexagonsun · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:00

Wow, thanks for the replies!

Right biuro74, you've definitely thrown a spanner in the works with the suggestion of the i5.

So, according to that PassMark chart I linked to earlier in the thread, the i5 760 @ 2.80GHz only scores 4,555, whereas the 1090T @ 3.2GHz scores 6,056. Now it seems that the i5 760 is easy to overclock, in which case I may be able to push it to 3.2GHz with some decent cooling, how would it then compare to the 1090T?

I have read that hyperthreading effectively gives you half an extra core per core, does this mean that the i5 with 4 cores plus 2 "effective" cores is essentially like having 6 cores? Also does that mean even if the software isn't programmed to take advantage of 6 cores, the i5 would make it behave like it is?

What about in the future when most software is programmed to make use of 6 or more cores? Will the i5 still then outperform the 1090T? Or will the 1090T finally come into its own?

I am considering getting an SSD in the future, but not right now, one thing I would like to know though; is it possible to reinstall Windows 7 on the SSD if/when I buy it, or would I need another license? The read/write lifespan of SSD's concerns me to be honest, I don't really want my main drive failing within 3-4 years if I can help it.

I have an external sound card already, it's not great but it does the job for now and I will probably upgrade that after, having a decent computer is my main priority right now. I also have a pair of Tapco S8 monitors and HD25's, would maybe like to upgrade to some ADAM A8X's one day but damn are they expensive!

Lakeland · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:15

I use a 3 year old Q6600 with 2gb ram and I have never once ran out of power.

If your win7 is OEM it's tied to the motherboard so yes you could re-install

The life of an ssd is more like 10 years iirc

Liquid_Entity · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:16

My flat mate has ADAM A8Xs and they are the dogs danglies mate !! Epic sound !!

I am quite jealous of his music production capabilities. He uses a Mac Mini running a shed load of VSTs and it barely scratches the CPU.

My old AMD x2 falls over after adding maybe 3 or 4 VSTs in.

I need to upgrade and fast !!

Lakeland · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:23

Liquid_Entity said:
My flat mate has ADAM A8Xs and they are the dogs danglies mate !! Epic sound !!

I am quite jealous of his music production capabilities. He uses a Mac Mini running a shed load of VSTs and it barely scratches the CPU.

My old AMD x2 falls over after adding maybe 3 or 4 VSTs in.

I need to upgrade and fast !!

If you've got a PC that can only run a few vst then create the sound you want and bounce it to audio

Liquid_Entity · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:26

I'm still a noob lol

Just going through the Cubase tutorials, once I know how to set everything up how I want, then I can start bouncing down.

I don't think it's quite as bad as I said. I can usually have a couple of vstations, predator, stylus rmx and sylenth going. I think it's just when I chuck everything together it starts to die.

One day I'll lay it all out properly.

hexagonsun · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:49

Lakeland said:
I use a 3 year old Q6600 with 2gb ram and I have never once ran out of power.

If your win7 is OEM it's tied to the motherboard so yes you could re-install

The life of an ssd is more like 10 years iirc

I bought a retail copy of Win7 in anticipation of this build a couple of months ago, does that mean I won't be able to reinstall it on an SSD? As biuro74 said, production is probably going to be quite intense on the reading/writing so I assume that will shorten the lifespan?

What would be a good motherboard to go with the i5 760 anyway? How about this one:

Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-248-GI

Lakeland · 31 Dec 2010 at 11:29

Retail is the best to have, you will have no problem re-installing your copy on any computer any number of times, as long as it is only on one PC at a time.

The wear on an SSD is writing not reading, so it would be low usage in terms of samples etc though I'm not sure on the DAW that you will be using, I can't imagine it would have a high write rate. In terms of bang for buck, I'd probably have the SSD at the end of your want list with fast cpu/lots of ram as the benefit is negligible once inside the DAW, I personally wouldn't be without one though. My spec is Q6600, 2gb ram, intel ssd, m-audio 2496 and krk rp6, if I was going to upgrade, it'd be better monitors, then better soundcard, then a bigger screen, then if I had money to burn, I'd get a new motherboard/cpu/ram.

I'd suggest speaking to a few more people who are into music production, see what their spec is and ask what they recommend.

I'll leave the guys in the know to spec a montherboard

hexagonsun · 31 Dec 2010 at 16:29

Ah that's good to know.

(On the Win7 Retail thing)

As for the SSD, I didn't know that, I can't imagine it does a lot of writing to the drive unless saving?

P55 is the better of the two chipsets for socket 1156 right?

kristmace · 31 Dec 2010 at 16:48

hexagonsun said:
Ah that's good to know. (On the Win7 Retail thing)

As for the SSD, I didn't know that, I can't imagine it does a lot of writing to the drive unless saving?

P55 is the better of the two chipsets for socket 1156 right?

Yes P55 > H55

Don't forget that new motherboards are out next week (sandybridge) replacing 1156. Worth a look.

hexagonsun · 31 Dec 2010 at 17:39

Cool, thanks for the heads up, will probably a few weeks at least before I do this build. I assume the new motherboards will be more expensive though, any idea by how much?

hexagonsun · 2 Jan 2011 at 10:52

I see that sandybridge will require new motherboards and CPUs, which I guess will be more expensive, but does that mean the cost of the current motherboards and CPUs will drop? Any idea if this is likely to happen and, if so, any idea when?

garyfl · 2 Jan 2011 at 13:02

it will drop, but when is the discretion of intel etc. theyre probably going to try and clear most of their stock, then when it becomes end of line when ever that may be itll be reduced price. im just speculating though, i honestly dont know how it worls.