First build for music production

Herbs_and_Spice

Herbs_and_Spice

Herbs_and_Spice

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Joined
25 Sep 2012
Posts
6
Hey guys!

I've been getting more and more into music production over the last few years, and my laptop just isn't cutting it anymore.

I want to build my first pc but am terrible at making decisions regarding hardware. My budget is around £1000 give or take, and I would like to prioritize processor power and ram, whilst making sure it as quiet as possible. I'm not too bothered about the graphics card (the most I need it for at the moment is dual monitor support) or the hard drive (1tb should suffice).

I had decided on the i7 2600K or 2700K, then got blown away by the choice of motherboards as I have little experience in regards to what things work well together, and which would best suit my purpose.

Would really appreciate some help speccing out a system

Thanks:)
 
Without OS,Monitor, Keyboard, mouse.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) £138.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £99.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK) £84.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £71.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
Total : £848.50 (includes shipping : £10.50).



With mouse, keyboard

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) £138.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £99.98
1 x OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (VTX4-25SAT3-128G) £85.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK) £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £71.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
1 x Steelseries Kinzu V2 3200 DPI Rubberised Black Gaming Mouse (62022) £19.99
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £8.99
Total : £1,048.36 (includes shipping : £11.25).



For sound cards i would go to these websites - http://www.esi-audio.com/products/
http://www.creative.com/emu/products/
http://www.m-audio.com/
 
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I'll be needing monitors and an os, but everything else is accounted for. I'm hoping to run dual monitors so i'll probably be buying two but these can be excluded from the budget.

Again suggestions for a decent pair which I could get for around £300 would be most welcome.

As for the os, I'm guessing windows 7 64-bit home premium would be alright?
 
Herbs_and_Spice said:
I'll be needing monitors and an os, but everything else is accounted for. I'm hoping to run dual monitors so i'll probably be buying two but these can be excluded from the budget.

Again suggestions for a decent pair which I could get for around £300 would be most welcome.

As for the os, I'm guessing windows 7 64-bit home premium would be alright?
Click to expand...

If you want more futures than go fo professional or ultimate. If you are a person who is starting in making music than HP should be ok.

Here are your monitors

YOUR BASKET
2 x Samsung S24B300HL 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £149.99 (£299.98)
Total : £312.58 (includes shipping : £10.50).



And 1 more thing get a cheap radeon off auction site with 2x hdmi.
 
IC3 said:
If you want more futures than go fo professional or ultimate. If you are a person who is starting in making music than HP should be ok.

Here are your monitors

YOUR BASKET
2 x Samsung S24B300HL 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £149.99 (£299.98)
Total : £312.58 (includes shipping : £10.50).



And 1 more thing get a cheap radeon off auction site with 2x hdmi.
Click to expand...

Thanks it looks good. I'll probably go for professional then. I used to be able to get windows for free through the msdnaa but now that I've left uni I think they've removed my login. Would you recommend getting an external or internal sound card?

I'll probably only be using minimal inputs and outputs at a time, as I work mostly with synthesis and samples.
 
Herbs_and_Spice said:
Anyone else got any opinions on this build?
Click to expand...

Well from better sound cards that my friend uses i can think of ESI maya 44 pci-e sound card. If i remmember any other great products will edit this message.
USB sound cards might actually have more options that might intrest you. I would have a read on the web sites i gave you.

TC Konnekt 24

ESI maya 040 is older version of the model i gave you previously.

E-MU 0404 - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep04/images/emu0404.l.jpg
 
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IC3 said:
I had samsung and seagate HDDs and they broke after 3-8 months. My WD is now about 2 years old or more and still works great.

WD black 750GB
Click to expand...

I've had Samsung/Seagate and WD drives.

All been fine.

WD Raptor 74GB
WD Black 640GB
Samsung F3 500G
Seagate 7200.11 1TB
Seagate Barracuda green 2TB

you were saying?
 
I've got a 2tb seagate external hdd so I may go for a cheaper 1tb one. Just to clear something up, do the hdd and ssd actually affect performance, or are they just chosen for their capacity and reliability?
 
Herbs_and_Spice said:
I've got a 2tb seagate external hdd so I may go for a cheaper 1tb one. Just to clear something up, do the hdd and ssd actually affect performance, or are they just chosen for their capacity and reliability?
Click to expand...

Than WD Blue 1TB would be a good choice

YOUR BASKET
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM £71.99
Total : £80.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).





Another great sound card for audio is E-MU 1212M



stulid said:
I've had Samsung/Seagate and WD drives.

All been fine.

WD Raptor 74GB
WD Black 640GB
Samsung F3 500G
Seagate 7200.11 1TB
Seagate Barracuda green 2TB

you were saying?
Click to expand...

How was the raptor ? Is it a good hdd? Worth the money ?
 
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It depends how much money you want to spend on the sound card.
Give a budget than i can find something.
The ones i gave are 80 pounds above if i remmember it correctly...
 
IC3 said:
How was the raptor ? Is it a good hdd? Worth the money ?
Click to expand...

At the time, yes it was, SSD's were just a tinkle in someones eye, unless you went SCSI, there was basically nothing better.

Think it was around £140 way back in the early 200* year.
 
Every now and then I take a look at these threads and nobody ever seems to recommend passive systems.

for a £1000 you can absolutely have a completely passive zero moving parts system ideal for anybody that does not game and particularly good for music.
 
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