Upgrade for a Music Production PC

Robe$h

Robe$h

Robe$h

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24 Sep 2006
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205
Hello there :)

I'm about to start my second year of University and I am looking to upgrade my PC. I would like it to be as future proof as possible as I doubt I will come across this money again for a long time. My budget is £700 but could be stretched if deemed fit. But obviously cheaper the better :D

My current PC rig is:

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency Dual Channel
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache
Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-5170 18x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter
Lian-Li PC-7A PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Silver
Belinea 2225S1W 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor
Windows XP SP2

I don't need to upgrade my case or monitor but I would like two new hard drives. One to run all of my Operating Systems and Music Software on only, and one to back up all my files etc.

I am currently using Windows XP but I would like to take the opportunity in using a 64bit OS. I have no idea what I should buy though... Is it easier to stick with XP or I should I move on now?

If anyone could point me in the right direction as to what components I should be looking at that would be much appreciated, thank you!
 
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What programs are you using? Things like Logic will only run on XP. Also, ditch the e4300 and chucking a e5300, much cooler therefore quieter. Your board need to be rev3.3 tho...

Also, a 8800GTS is pointless in a music production PC, get something with a passive cooler like a 4750 instead.

These two upgrades will give you a quieter PC which really helps when making tunes. Out of interest, what sort of music do you produce?

Also, consider a 2nd monitor, a soundcard like the Emu 1212m, and some studio monitors if you don't have any already.
 
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I use Ableton Live mainly, and a bit of Photoshop as my course sometimes requires us to use it.

At the moment I'm making ambient, dub type music but I want to concentrate more on recording instruments (I play drums) and bands. Mainly because that's what I do at Uni...
 
You should to consider some sound card with ASIO drivers (for example Sound Blaster X-Fi and selected Sound Blaster Audigy series sound cards is a rock-solid ASIO driver with low-latency performance down to <=2ms). You can buy MIDI on USB too and plug some instruments/racks (like electronic drums) if they sound poor on pc.
 
What do you guys think of this spec?

speciq.jpg


TOTAL = £699.40

As you can see this is at the top of my budget. Can anyone change it around and make it any cheaper? :D
 
you'll defo want an ASIO capable sound card, and if anything you'd want the quietest pc going. the more ram the better, and a modest cpu to handle very busy tracks. ableton isn't the most demanding software out there, but if you build really deep tracks you'll need that extra grunt. an i7 will be more than enough - if anything overkill, i used to run ableton rewired into cubase with about 15 tracks in ableton and 20 in cubase on an athlonx2 6000 and it didn't break sweat...
 
@Robe$h

The i920 really needs a triple channel kit (3G or 6G), not a dual channel kit which would be more suitable for an LGA1156 board.

I would have thought that loading as much memory as you can into the system would help for music production, but it would depend on the software (which I know nothing about, it's years since I did any amatuer music production on my PC). With that in mind, if you do go for the i7 920, I'd recommend 12G of RAM (And a 64bit operating system).
 
Yeah I was suggesting the large amount of memory so that samples could be cached in memory, and cut disk thrashing. You need a 64bit OS to take advantage of >4G of RAM whether or not your music app is 32bit.
However if the music app is a 32bit app, you might want to see if it's possible to set up a RAM drive for your samples using the remaining system memory. Of course all this really depends on the number and size of samples you want to throw around as close as possible to real time.
 
I would like to take advantage of a 64bit operating system. What is the best OS for this? XP Pro, Vista or Windows 7? I have no idea what to get...

And yes I am planning to go i7 as that will keep me going for a long time no doubt, and I will get 6GB RAM. The only thing I'm debating over is what Graphics Card I should get and what fast Hard Drive to run all my software on...

Thanks all for the help so far!
 
I wouldn't personally recomend XP 64bit, but others might disagree, I'm using vista 64bit, and I like it, but will probably move to Windows 7. I think it would really depend on compatibility with the music software you intend to use.

Disks is a trick question, what is the priority, blazing speed, acres of space, or somewhere in between?

As for the GPU, unless any of your music apps take advantage of GPU ofloading (which I doubt), then you don't need anything particularly fancy, how may displays will you need?
 
Is Windows 7 64bit? Because on the pre-order page it doesn't say anything about whether or not I'm ordering 32 or 64bit...

With Hard Drives, I want one that is fast so I can load my OS onto it and lot's of VST's within my music software. And another Hard Drive just for storage of samples and back ups.

I have one display at the moment but I am looking to buy another one very soon. 22 inch
 
Robe$h said:
Is Windows 7 64bit? Because on the pre-order page it doesn't say anything about whether or not I'm ordering 32 or 64bit...

With Hard Drives, I want one that is fast so I can load my OS onto it and lot's of VST's within my music software. And another Hard Drive just for storage of samples and back ups.

I have one display at the moment but I am looking to buy another one very soon. 22 inch
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It has both on the disk IIRK. server 2008 R2 (win7 server) is only 64bit though, unlike server 2008 (vista server) which had both.
 
biuro74 said:
You should to consider some sound card with ASIO drivers (for example Sound Blaster X-Fi and selected Sound Blaster Audigy series sound cards is a rock-solid ASIO driver with low-latency performance down to <=2ms). You can buy MIDI on USB too and plug some instruments/racks (like electronic drums) if they sound poor on pc.
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LoL, a Soundblaster X-Fi for recording music???

They work yes, but they aren't very professional tbh.

I used to record stuff on my old PC that had an Audigy 2 soundcard, but when I compared the sound quality of my recordings to the stuff I had recorded in the College studios it sounded terrible!

The Asio4All driver really helped me to get lower latencies though.

@Robe$h, I don't know why the shop hasn't listed Win7 as 32bit or 64bit, I would contact someone via customer support to see what the deal is with that.

There are both 32 and 64bit flavours of Win7, so you would be best checking with them to see which one they have listed.

Like someone else has mentioned in this thread though, a lot of audio applications will only work well under XP.

I remember the hassles I had when I first tried Vista, all the stuff I was using at the time wasn't supported in Vista, so I had to go back to XP again.

I was running Cubase SX3, Guitar Rig 2, EZDrummer with the Drumkit from Hell plugins, and some other bits and bobs.

I don't know how well support will be in Win7 for audio apps, but it would be a real PITA if you were to order it, only to find that none of your apps were supported.

As for HDD's, you should maybe consider buying an SSD for your OS.
 
Robe$h said:
I use Ableton Live mainly, and a bit of Photoshop as my course sometimes requires us to use it.

At the moment I'm making ambient, dub type music but I want to concentrate more on recording instruments (I play drums) and bands. Mainly because that's what I do at Uni...
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Ahh, Ableton Live, that's one of the only DAW's I really haven't tried yet, good news is that it seems to run on everything, even macs! :)

The spec looks fine, I'd drop down to 1 HD tho, unless you need to play back lots and lots of channels of live recordings at 24/96.

Don't even let an X-fi near your computer, they're junk.

Is the i7 920 a dual or quad core? If it's quad then you may be better going dual core also, I've got both a dual and quad core rig, and I use the dual more as it's quieter, and I rarely exceed the amount of plugins my CPU will do, but if I do, I can either bounce or switch on the quad!

A quad isn't a bad choice tho, it will probably last you until ableton live v11 as they seem to realease a new version every few months! :p

Finally, what PSU will you be using?
 
DavyBoy said:
LoL, a Soundblaster X-Fi for recording music???

They work yes, but they aren't very professional tbh.
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I've had a small home studio for several years and couldn't agree more with the above comment.

Also, from experience I would highly suggest you go for external audio interfaces by manufacturers such as M-Audio or Presonus to name only a few. Have a read of Sound on Sound, or visit their forums for a lot more info and specialist advice.

Your spec does seem fairly sound, possibly the e5300 v3.3 as has been suggested and as for graphics just go with something with a passive cooler, fewer fans the better!


As for which OS - I think you'll get the best results under XP 32bit for now but keep an eye on 7 64bit as thats the point developers should be aiming for. I personally run a Presonus Firebox audio interface, Cubase 3 for track recording and midi (amplitube, spectrasonics and other various VSTi's), Reason and occasionally Fruityloops depending what I'm doing. I've just finished building the spec in my sig so will be giving those a go in 7 32bit..... should be interesting!


Just on the last comment by Mike - agree as a recording interface they're rubbish, not bad for general audio playback though once you can get away from the popping and crackling! (Another reason why external is better!)
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Finally, what PSU will you be using?
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I will be using a Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply which is in my current rig.

I guess I will stick with XP for now and see what the music community are saying about Windows 7 and if it's worth the upgrade in the future then I will do. So far feedback seems to be positive. They got rid of all the memory hogging stuff that is in Vista...
 
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