Building my own PC for Music Production & Gaming

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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.
 
Welcome to the forums, do you already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and software or does that need to be included in the budget.

Excuse this part if you already know but I'm not sure of your level of knowledge. The basic parts you will need are motherboard, CPU, Ram, PSU, case, hard drive, optical drive, graphics card(the games you list aren't hugely demanding), soundcard(since you are trying music production otherwise onboard is probably fine for most). I think that covers it all, if you can clear up exactly what the budget must cover then I'm sure someone can give you a firmer recommendation about the individual parts :)
 
Like video production/etc, I'm sure a dual-core processor will be suitable. So something like this...
  • Intel DP965LT 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-011-IN) £74.95 - supports the soon available-here Intel Core 2 Duo (A.K.A. Conroe) CPU :)
  • Intel Pentium 4 930 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.0GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-112-IN) £121.95
  • BFG GeForce 7600 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-024-BG) £75.95
  • Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £43.50
  • NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) £21.95
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM (SC-043-CL) £48.50 - wait/get second opinion on this excellent sound card, in regards to music production :D
  • Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN) £34.95
  • GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) £109.95
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) £51.95
  • Subtotal £583.65
  • Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
  • VAT £104.06
  • Total £698.66
hp7909 :cool:
 
hp7909 said:
Like video production/etc, I'm sure a dual-core processor will be suitable. So something like this...
  • Intel DP965LT 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-011-IN) £74.95 - supports the soon available-here Intel Core 2 Duo (A.K.A. Conroe) CPU :)
  • Intel Pentium 4 930 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.0GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-112-IN) £121.95
  • BFG GeForce 7600 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-024-BG) £75.95
  • Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £43.50
  • NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) £21.95
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM (SC-043-CL) £48.50 - wait/get second opinion on this excellent sound card, in regards to music production :D
  • Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN) £34.95
  • GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) £109.95
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) £51.95
  • Subtotal £583.65
  • Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
  • VAT £104.06
  • Total £698.66
hp7909 :cool:
Click to expand...


my opinion on a creative soundcard for music production is DONT! buy a audiophile 2496 or similar. creative have messed up drivers for music production and are regarded by those in the music industary as a joke.
 
nO}{8 said:
my opinion on a creative soundcard for music production is DONT! buy a audiophile 2496 or similar. creative have messed up drivers for music production and are regarded by those in the music industary as a joke.
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree here - source a good quality sound card thats dedicated to music production, not a gamers sound card that can 'do it on the side'.

I'd personally look from the perspective of the software - what works best with Cubase/gives you the most options.

Any half decent mid-range Video card will do you for gaming - my 6600 still plays the current crop of games, if not at maximum details/all the eye candy.

Build a system round the Sound card and you won't go too wrong.
 
X-Fi and other consumer cards are for games! Soon as you try serious music with them you run into latancy issues. You will get tracks that become unsyncrosied and when you use a midi keyboard there may well be a 1/8 second deleay - which will destroy any chances of good music making!

Look at M-audiophile, Edirol, EMU etc.

Problem is that most pro cards aint great with games....

So here's one way round it...

Use onboard sound for games/movies and buy an external sound card for music. When its not plugged in it reverts back to onboard sound.

I bought a 24bit Tascam US122 external USB card for my Laptop the other day for £109. Its got midi in outs, mic and line in's (also phantom powered), RCA line out, inderpendant Headphone out. I comes with Cubase SE and Gigasampler 3 SE - the later is a superb software sampler that uses hard disc space instead of ram! So instruments can be any size - It comes with a 500mb piano!!!


Two other musts! Lots of ram - 2 gig - but 4 gig even beter :D And WD Raptor Hard drive - ideally 2 of them! It helps when you recording multiple tracks as PC splits recording between Harddiscs!

Also look at dual core CPU.

Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU £34.95

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - £152.69

Intel DP965LT 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £74.95

2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache £244.28

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £129.19

NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £23.44

External USB sound card £150 max! eg Tascam US122 £109

Graphics card of your choice!

I know this comes to a little over £800 - maybe you can not get the 2nd Raptor and get it later?
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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! :D

-Alex
 
nice kit there, are you using it live or as a sequencing studio? will the mpc be used for playing live or as a sampler to trigger sounds from? will you want to bounce down the fantom onto audio to be used from the sequencer, im assuming your using cubase. the mg12 would probably be at the centre of your studio.

Id do it like this for sequencing:

computer>us122>mixer in>amp
fantom>mixer in>mixer out>us122 in (for recording)
mpc>mixer in>mixer out>us122 in (for recording)

midi it all up by daisy chaining them together. youll be able to trigger the mpc from cubase, and assign hits to the pads to improvise in real time, then record those hits in cubase as midi. also the phantom will have several outs maybe use one for the u122 and one for the mixer.
 
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.
 
cubase will recognise the fantom as a midi device, so just select the output on the designated midid channel to the fantom on cubase. incase you dont know cubase can play audio and midi at the same time:) so when you have got the sound you want sequenced record it in audio then just keep adding to it track by track.

creating your own work flow is the key. see here for some guidance by the master:

http://www.cosmosis.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=40

depending on what music your creating youll be using different methods.
 
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.
 
If the budget is limited I wouldn't bother with the X-Fi as onboard sound is more than good enough for most games. Other than that all parts are compatible but with the money saved by not going for the X-Fi I'd get a case with at least a 400w+ PSU, maybe the Antec Sonata II (which has some soundproofing) and depending on how much you have spare you could get another hard drive.
 
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.
 
Don't worry for a second about asking questions, it is better to get it right now than try to fix it later :)

What I meant by onboard is good enough is that you can play games using the onboard soundcard and use the external one for the music production. I doubt most people could tell much(if any) difference between the onboard currently available and a dedicated soundcard like the X-Fi for games without high end speakers and great hearing. If you find that onboard isn't good enough then you can buy an X-Fi later but I think the money is better spent elsewhere at the moment so rather than having a soundcard that might be redundant you try the onboard solution and work from there.

With a retail boxed motherboard you will get all the IDE/SATA cables etc that you will reasonably need. They might not be as fancy as aftermarket ones but they will work fine.
 
you might need some screws for the dvd drive and the like, the case should come with some but incase it doesnt then buy some spares.
 
nO}{8 said:
you might need some screws for the dvd drive and the like, the case should come with some but incase it doesnt then buy some spares.
Click to expand...
Not necessary really :mad: My NEC DVD±Writer came with screws plus CoolerMaster case came with loads of screws, etc :cool:
 
Yeah ditch the X-FI, You find most onboard soundcards are good enough for standard playback of games and DVDs. Even if you had the x-fi you would still end up using the tascam for music play back as its a better card! Anyway, you dont want Creative drivers hogging your system!! Put the money towards a second harddrive which is important for music making - often when installing music programmes it asks you to sellect parths for 2 different harddrives...

You dont have to get another Raptor - just something fast with a low seak time. Keep raptor for OS, Progs, Storing Gigasamples (needs fast hardrive) and Audio hardrive 2! The second harddrive as audio recording 1, Games and docs. Maybe a WD 16mb 250 gig?
 
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