Building my own PC for Music Production & Gaming

[Cog]

Hello. I'm after some help really. I'm an absolute newbie when it comes to building my own PC and to be honest I have no idea what I need to buy to actually build one.

I want a PC for producing my own music (using software such as Cubase) and playing games like Microsoft Train & Flight Simulator and Half-Life 2. My budget is around £700. I guess the things I know I need is a decent sound card and a graphics card which can handle the above games without any problems. But everything else I'm not too sure on...

I was wondering if anyone could give me a guideline as to what things I need to buy to build my own PC so I know what to look out for...

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Kind regards
-Alex.

 

[Cog]

Wow, thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it!

With regards to semi-pro-waster, no I don't already have a monitor, keyboard etc so I guess this is already going to up my budget by a fair bit.
Also, seeing as I'm building a PC from scratch, does that mean I'm going to have to buy Windows XP seperately?

Yeh, looks like I'm going to have to infest in a external sound card. The thing is, I'm not really going to be recording any instruments, I'll mainly be using (when I get the cash to buy them) hardware samplers and modules. Will I have to buy a mixer to connect all these up? And where would I connect my mixer to, the external sound card?

Exscuse my lack of knowledge, I'm starting a Music Tech course next year so I should know a fair bit more soon, it's just I want to get a head start before the course starts!

Thanks again,
-Alex.

 

[Cog]

Tascam US122 external sound card
Fantom XR Module
Akai MPC1000 Sampler
Yamaha MG12/4 Mixer

This is just a basic idea, some of the equipmemt may change.

Thanks again for all your help!

-Alex

 

[Cog]

It's going to be used as a sequencer studio (in my bedroom for now ). The MPC will also be used as a sampler to trigger sounds off etc yes. Yeah the sounds I get out of the Fantom I want to use in Cubase too so I guess I'll be bouncing down the audio. The only thing is, how would I go about re-wireing the Fantom in Cubase? Say there was a nice bass sound in the Fantom which I wanted to put over the top of the drum loop I already arranged in Cubase, how would I do this? Would it work as soon as everything is connected to the mixer etc?

Sorry if thats confusing at all! I really appreciate all the help dude!

-Alex.

 

[Cog]

Again, thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it!

OK, so this is what I've come up with, if you could just let me know if this setup is OK or if you think I should change anything? Thank you

MOTHERBOARD - Intel DP965LT 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-011-IN)

CPU - Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)

RAM - GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)

PSU/CASE - Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN)

HARD DRIVE - Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-087-WD)

OPTICAL DRIVE - NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-035-NE)

GRAPHICS CARD - BFG GeForce 7600 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-024-BG)

SOUND CARD - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM (SC-043-CL)

EXTERNAL SOUND CARD - Tascam US122

Is there anything else I need or is that everything I need to build me own PC?

Kind regards,
-Alex.

 

[Cog]

Just a couple more questions then I'll leave you people alone!

With regards to the sound card, what do you mean by the 'onboard sound will be good enough'? Does that mean leave out buying a sound card and just buy the external one?

And when I order all these parts online, will the cables etc that I need to build this PC come with the parts or will I have to buy the cables and that seperately?

Thanks again for the kind help, I'm sorry to ask all these questions!

-Alex.