Music PC £1249

Angerer · 25 Jul 2018 at 21:04

Hi all,

A close friend of wants to build a PC for applications like Reason and Ableton and has been quoted this spec for £1249

AC-1 Core 3
Intel i7 8700 3.2GHz - 4.6GHz 6 Core 12 Thread
Asus Z370 Motherboard
Quiet Cooling
8GB DDR4 RAM 2666MHz
500GB SSD (OS/Applications)
500GB SSD (Audio drive)
Intel 630 GPU (VGA, HDMI, DVI) Dual output
550W PSU 85%+ Efficiency
DVD R/W +/-
Windows 10 64bit

Total = £1249

Upgrade to the 8700K 3.7GHz - 4.7GHz + £72

Is it worth it? Could he get better for his money?

Thanks in advance.

UnworthyBean · 25 Jul 2018 at 21:24

Angerer said:
Hi all,
Is it worth it? Could he get better for his money?

Thanks in advance.

Seems a bit pricey for what it is. Had a quick look just using OcUK pricing and the same system is under £1000 for parts.

Angerer · 25 Jul 2018 at 21:37

UnworthyBean said:
Seems a bit pricey for what it is. Had a quick look just using OcUK pricing and the same system is under £1000 for parts.

Ok mate cheers so basically £250 for labour or do it himself for less.

I'll let him know thanks mate.

orbitalwalsh · 25 Jul 2018 at 21:53

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209067649-Multi-core-support-in-Live-FAQ

Ryzen 2700X could play nicely , boards like X470 Aorus has best in class audio with WIMA caps etc

Also you don't need a z370 for non K chip, specially when Z370 is a half baked job from intel :/ B360/h370 and z390 are true coffeelake chipsets

Angerer · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:00

orbitalwalsh said:
https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209067649-Multi-core-support-in-Live-FAQ

Ryzen 2700X could play nicely , boards like X470 Aorus has best in class audio with WIMA caps etc

Also you don't need a z370 for non K chip, specially when Z370 is a half baked job from intel :/ B360/h370 and z390 are true coffeelake chipsets

Thanks mate will have a good look, cheers for info

orbitalwalsh · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:03

Angerer said:
Thanks mate will have a good look, cheers for info

Think for reason more Actual cores the better along with speed .

B450 boards out for Ryzen end of this month is costs need to come down etc .
Down side with ryzen , need a GPU card, even if it's £30 odd

JasonM · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:04

If its a music PC you won't silent as possible, so you want at least a gold rated psu that will run passive at regular desktop loads.

Also you don't want shared graphics as it could introduce temporal issues with mixing/playback as resources are sharing main memory.

orbitalwalsh · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:12

bequiet - case /fans/cooler/ PSU (silent wing)
Factual design - case
Seasonic Fanless PSU would be good (out of stock )

Angerer · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:13

I've sent my pal this bundle looks half decent for price.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...-team-group-ram-free-480gb-ssd-bu-01g-am.html

sideways14a · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:17

Angerer said:
Hi all,

A close friend of wants to build a PC for applications like Reason and Ableton and has been quoted this spec for £1249

AC-1 Core 3
Intel i7 8700 3.2GHz - 4.6GHz 6 Core 12 Thread
Asus Z370 Motherboard
Quiet Cooling
8GB DDR4 RAM 2666MHz
500GB SSD (OS/Applications)
500GB SSD (Audio drive)
Intel 630 GPU (VGA, HDMI, DVI) Dual output
550W PSU 85%+ Efficiency
DVD R/W +/-
Windows 10 64bit

Total = £1249

Upgrade to the 8700K 3.7GHz - 4.7GHz + £72

Is it worth it? Could he get better for his money?

Thanks in advance.

So very poor cpu,
only 8 Gb of ram (pretty much minimum windows 10 spec)
Two SSDs? ? whats the point of that, neither is massive.
Video system is as bad as you can get these days in a modern box.

And the maker is wanting 1249??? lol

Why not just go to Dell or Hp and get a boggo box, will be half the price of this and far better spec'd.

JasonM · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:47

Here is an outline of a computer to build

Gigabyte Z370M D3H (or any of the other mid range Gigabyte z370 boards)
16GB Kingston memory 2600 (2 x 8 GB)
Quadro NVS 310 1GB, or one of the passive Geforce 710/720 graphics cards. The Quadro NVS is prefered as the drivers are more stable and they can be picked up far below retail.
256 SSD to boot, Samsung is a good reliable make, western digital and Kingston also ok for SSD's. If you want to save money you don't even need an SSD, you could put your OS/Apps on the drive below.
2TB Western digital Gold drive for data (there super reliable, fast and surprisingly very quite)
i7 8700 (don't get the K as your not overclocking), the standard i7 8700 is very fast anyway
Arctic i32 CPU cooler (really quite)
Seasonic Focus Plus 550w, don't worry that it's not fanless, this computer has a peak wattage at around 150w, you will never draw enough power to hear the fan.
Good case, something sound proofed with good fan filters, don't cheap out on the case.

No pricing on above, but if you based a computer around the above you won't go far wrong.

Also you don't mention how is this getting his audio out of the computer?

sideways14a · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:49

I assume this is going to be a Midi type of environment, not one where someone is working on analog audio directly.
Nowadays midi is usually handled through usb or whatnot.

Dont really see the point of an expensive custom build for this to be honest.

Angerer · 25 Jul 2018 at 22:53

JasonM said:
Here is an outline of a computer to build

Gigabyte Z370M D3H (or any of the other mid range Gigabyte z370 boards)
16GB Kingston memory 2600 (2 x 8 GB)
Quadro NVS 310 1GB, or one of the passive Geforce 710/720 graphics cards. The Quadro NVS is prefered as the drivers are more stable and they can be picked up far below retail.
256 SSD to boot, Samsung is a good reliable make, western digital and Kingston also ok for SSD's. If you want to save money you don't even need an SSD, you could put your OS/Apps on the drive below.
2TB Western digital Gold drive for data (there super reliable, fast and surprisingly very quite)
i7 8700 (don't get the K as your not overclocking), the standard i7 8700 is very fast anyway
Arctic i32 CPU cooler (really quite)
Seasonic Focus Plus 550w, don't worry that it's not fanless, this computer has a peak wattage at around 150w, you will never draw enough power to hear the fan.
Good case, something sound proofed with good fan filters, don't cheap out on the case.

No pricing on above, but if you based a computer around the above you won't go far wrong.

Also you don't mention how is this getting his audio out of the computer?

Thanks for the spec mate I'll pass it on to him.

I'm guessing he'll go with on board sound, I'll ask him what his plans are in terms of sound. Cheers

JasonM · 25 Jul 2018 at 23:06

Angerer said:
Thanks for the spec mate I'll pass it on to him.

I'm guessing he'll go with on board sound, I still my old Xonar D2X in my rig so I have no clue what to suggest in terms of sound??

Don't go with on-board sound, I've just built an i7 8700 using a Gigabyte Z370 HD3P, it's a great board but the on-board audio is not good, loads of interference from it also.

LuckyBenski · 26 Jul 2018 at 01:02

If he's working with audio he ought to decide for himself on what his interface will be. Most people use USB devices now, or get a dedicated multichannel card if doing proper studio desk work.

For quiet, I'd say no hard drives and a low power CPU. So the 8700 is acceptable but the 8700k would only add heat and therefore noise if it was working hard.

I'm obsessed with silence and so far I've ended up removing hard drives from my two main builds. If microphones are being used I'd say it's worth doing. Get a 5400rpm drive if using a mechanical drive, not 7200.

I wouldn't worry about PSU Boise usually if the case is good, but if going all the way, a fanless PSU or a semi-passive one that's rated for high loads (600W+) would likely never make a peep.

I'd also go for 16GB RAM minimum depending on software expectations.

orbitalwalsh · 26 Jul 2018 at 13:17

Aorus H370 , if you want good audio (wima caps etc) paired with i7 8700 and DAC USB .
Aorus x470 7 would be quite costly but best onboard sound paired with ryzen 2700 .

Sound cards, haven't progressed as much as now most feature their chips on boards, unless we are talking industry cards which I'm guessing are a fare bit in price

LuckyBenski · 26 Jul 2018 at 22:06

orbitalwalsh said:
Aorus H370 , if you want good audio (wima caps etc) paired with i7 8700 and DAC USB .
Aorus x470 7 would be quite costly but best onboard sound paired with ryzen 2700 .

Sound cards, haven't progressed as much as now most feature their chips on boards, unless we are talking industry cards which I'm guessing are a fare bit in price

If you're using a usb DAC then the motherboard capacitors and audio stage are 100% irrelevant.

orbitalwalsh · 26 Jul 2018 at 22:08

USB DAC is for voltage and signal quality along usb 3, so if plugged into any mixing equipment etc - cables able to be longer without degrading quality etc .
Not as in audio DAC

LuckyBenski · 27 Jul 2018 at 08:51

orbitalwalsh said:
USB DAC is for voltage and signal quality along usb 3, so if plugged into any mixing equipment etc - cables able to be longer without degrading quality etc .
Not as in audio DAC

Oh right, so it's in the motherboard already?

orbitalwalsh · 27 Jul 2018 at 09:39

LuckyBenski said:
Oh right, so it's in the motherboard already?

Mobo has audio DAC and Wima caps and then they go and name their Specialised USB DAC which doesn't help haha .
Thought it might be useful if audio equipment is being linked to PC and maybe at distance. Pathways are isolated again from normal USB and other components show should limit any interferences