DAW setup for potential overclocking

socreative

socreative

socreative

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I'm going to build a DAW to run Cubase mostly loading it heavily with audio and VSTs

The specs I have in mind so far were

e6700
Asus P5W DH
2Gb Corsair Dominator PC8500 or PC6400
150Gb WD 10K Raptor
500Gb SATA II anything really
x1950xt as guys kindly suggeted here. thanx
Can go for watercooling

I want to build a machine, overclock it and keep it ready for when quad-cores go down in price and I get one of those. So for now it'll be my overclocking test lab :)
I'm not 100% sure on the CPU and memory choice so any input will be much appreciated.
 
I would say go with the E6600, it will clock upto x6800 speeds and has the same amount of cache as the E6700, so you can save a bit of money there and perhaps put that to good use somewhere else :D, as for the HDD I would say Samsung or Seagate. RAM I'm not too sure about but the dominator is good stuff from what I hear....

Kiz
 
hmm for that kinda tasks you'd probably need 2* raptor in raid 0 :D

I'd agree with the E6600 if you are going to OC.

Yes the dominators are good but not the best value ones, get the PC6400 as that is more than enuogh to keep up with your OCed 6600.
 
I'm also going to get x1950xt but i heard they're quite loud and the noise is not something you want when you produce.. do you think that the silent pipe version is going to be a lot better ? does it clock well too ?
 
All stock coolers for X1800 upwards get very loud when operating @ 100%. But in normal load it should not exceed 50% unless you overclock or override the fan speed. Stock fan noise @ 50% is bearable, to me anyway.

I'd suggest the HIS 1950XT, which uses a silent cooler that cools a lot better than the stock one, which in turn allow you to OC higher.

I woun'ld recommend pure heatpipes heatsink with no active fan for this kind of high power consuming card, don't think there is any available anyway.
 
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thanks for an advice. i'll have a look around.

sorry to be buggering you guys but i wanted to ask about the case and PSU
I want them th be all as quiet as possible :p

I was thinking about Antec P180 but I don't quite like the access to drives at the front. Any suggestions under 150-160 quid ? Thermaltake seem quite nice especially if i'm going to with watercooling.. Are they quiet enough ?
As I'm not gonna be running an SLI what PSU will I need ? will 500W be enough or shall I get something more powerful and quiet as well ? thanks in advance ;)
 
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No PSU is quieter than Seasonic I'd say. I have a Tagan and I can say it is very quiet too.

Depends what you are SLIing really; if it's 8800GTX you are planning to SLI then prepare to pay £150 for a decent 800W or a 1GW even.

If you want to crossfire the 1950XT then a decent 600W should do, I'd recommend the Corsair HX620, powerful, quiet & value for money modular PSU.

Not sure about the case if you want to use with watercooling kit but the Akasa Eclipse 62 seems really nice.
 
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