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Which is the better choice for me?

Soldato
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OK,I had a think about what you need.

Firstly the games,you are running are not very intensive so an HD7770 GDDR5 is enough. Also,you need an ATX motherboard as smaller motherboards will have the PCI slots blocked with a graphics card.

Also,having 4 RAM slots is useful if you wish to increase the amount of RAM. I think 8GB of RAM with decent latencies should be enough,currently but you might find another 8GB useful if you are running more complex stuff I suspect.

An SSD is also useful for loading samples,etc as that should reduce one bottleneck I suspect. The new Samsung 840 non-PRO is actually is not as good as the 830 AFAIK.

MrAnthonyPCBuild.png


The build is tad over budget as you need a monitor. The CPU and motherboard enable overclocking,but you will need to add a better heatsink at a later date.

If you CBA,I would get the following CPU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-443-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

You will save £24,and you could go for a B75 or H77 ATX motherboard although,at least on OcUK that means only around £5 to £10 less.

Also,this PSU would also suffice:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-XF

So you could save upto £40 going for a non-overclock capable build.

The Merc Alpha is a good budget case:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4913/bitfenix-merc-alpha-how-much-can-39-can/3

Also,make sure you shop around too,to get the best deals. With the IPS224V,the build should be around the £700 mark,although you do need a keyboard and mouse.

Edit!!

The HD7770 comes with a copy of Far Cry 3 which you can sell for around £15 on the famous auction site.

Of course,the budget does not include a soundcard. However,I suspect the pro ones are not very cheap and you will need to do some research on what is the best one to get.

I assume M-Audio is a good company to start looking at??
 
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Soldato
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This is also another CPU,which you can hunt around for! It is the Xeon E3 1230 V2 which is around £170 to £180. It is basically a slightly underclocked Core i7 3770K without an IGP and cannot be overclocked. OTH,it has 8 threads which might prove useful.
 
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Shouldn't be a problem. I'm in no rush to purchase, most likely by the end of January or even end of February as it'll help stretch the budget.

Would the Xeon be on the X79 chipset?

Thank you for your help, seems like a nice set up. I'm all set for shopping around, nothing against OCUK, but if it's cheaper elsewhere, I'd rather it hurt my bank less.

- Anthony.
 
Soldato
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The Xeon E3 1230 V2 is a socket 1155 CPU. I use a Xeon E3 1220 myself which is basically a Core i5.

Either way the E3 1230 V2 is a massive upgrade from an Athlon II X2.

Edit!!

Its a bit of a shame there seem to be hardly any audio benchmarks of the new AMD PD based CPUs.

Both the FX6300 and FX8320 look good value for money.
 
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Soldato
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Ahh I see! And at roughly the same price, it should offer better performance in such software I use than a 3570K/3770K?

The Core i5 3570K can be overclocked,the Xeon E3 1230 V2 cannot. However,if you are not overclocking,I would get the Xeon E3 1230 V2. Lightly threaded performance should be the same,the Core i5 3570K having a 100MHZ clockspeed advantage,but the Xeon E3 having the more L3 cache(like the Core i7).

However,if you start to use more threads,the Xeon E3 has 8 due to HT which the Core i5 lacks.

OTH,even a normal non-K Core i5 for around £130 to £140,would be a big upgrade over what you have now. Even an FX6300 or FX8320 would be too,but they are more of a unknown quantity for the audio stuff IMHO.
 
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Not currently using an interface no, however will be in the new year. The software is mainly Pro Tools and Sibelius, however this while build is mainly in anticipation of what I'll be doing next year which is audio production, working heavily with the software whereas at the moment I'm just introducing myself to it to get a feel of the way it works, but it's problematic on my current machine as it seems as though it simply can't keep up, no matter what I'm using it for.

If I have to push my budget up a couple hundred pounds, then so be it. As stated above, I'm in no rush as its not a necessity right this minute.
 
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Ok, you may want to take a look at this, it might give you an idea of the types of components that work correctly with the software.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/en422315?popup=true

Ideally you want to keep the latency down when your are performing so I would recommend checking out gear****z forums and the GPUs they use (I shouldn't think this would be a problem for most but you never know)

I can't rally comment on AMD CPUs as I have never used them, but they obviously do work. From my understanding you should make sure its a new chip.
 
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I think an nVidia card is a given, and in regards to the CPU, seems they favour Intel.

If it does the job I need it to do, then I've no complaints. I just don't won't to go setting myself up for a failure.

Of course, I could just buy a Mac, but why bother when I can probably do better for half the price? ;)
 
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I think in the short term, AMD should be the better choice as price-wise I'll likely be doing myself a favour. However, in the long term, Intel in theory is the better choice performance/compatibility wise.

If I stretch the budget as far as I can, I'll go Intel straight away, because if I buy AMD I can't help but think in 6 months time I'm only going to have to swap it out anyway.

But, with technology these days it's impossible to predict the future.
 
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I bloody well hate computers!

Question is, which Intel? Advantages of Ivybridge is for now I can save money on a GPU and just use onboard, but on the other hand either the 2011 socket or Xeon on the 1155 may provide better performance when bouncing/rendering.

Not a lot in the price considering my budget, but it's not an easy decision.
 
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I bloody well hate computers!

Question is, which Intel? Advantages of Ivybridge is for now I can save money on a GPU and just use onboard, but on the other hand either the 2011 socket or Xeon on the 1155 may provide better performance when bouncing/rendering.



Your system would benefit from an SSD in this scenario, come to think of it.
 
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Ok, after a wee look on avid, i would say NOT to use integrated graphics at all, use a gpu. I also think you'd be fine with 1155 i3 or i5 coupled with a GPU. The 2500k is pretty good value for money and will handle you games nice as well - it's a bit less expensive for you than the 2011 platform I previously suggested.

Also to note, my mate has a 1156 system at home, i5, and has an M-Audio interface (can be used with Pro Tools) and we could not get the USB interface to work at all with his chipset (can't remember the mobo) which may factor in to your choice. Yet it was fine with his laptop.
 
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Alright, well thanks for that information, should certainly factor into the final outcome.

Currently looking at the i7 3820, and I see in your signature that you have that specific processor. Might I ask how you find using it? Performance wise, overclock wise, and will the 2011 socket require a larger case?

The reason I'm considering the 2011 socket is the option to bump up the processor further down the line to the 3930K if need be.
 
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I have an M-atx motherboard, so I can fit it in a m-atx case. The airflow in the fractal is pretty good, as is the overclock @ 4.5Ghz for my system. The chip is a nice overclocker indeed. Maybe not as simple as 1155 CPU (which clock 4.5ghz + too) to overclock as the multiplier on the 3820 is locked but you can increase BCLK: 125 with a mulitplier: 36 - but I have seen it go to a higher multiplier. With the 3930k you get the extra power, unlocked multipliers and therefor you can set up skews to lower your voltage when idle and save power.

Personally, the CPU is more than I need just now and I won't be looking to upgrade it for a few years. Compared to my previous core 2 duo Sony/ i7 asus notebook, running Ableton 8 and Cubase 4 and Wavelab are light years ahead. Considering my work flow (Electronic and audio recording, multiple effects processing with lots of mulitple synths/voices and not much bouncing down) it runs cool and quiet and hasn't really been fully stressed.

At stock speeds, I've got a living room temp of 21C - 22C just now and the CPU runs 31C idle and 58C load.
 
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Soldato
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The problem is though going with socket 2011,would mean spending around £60 to £70 more for the motherboard,plus another £50 for the i7 3820 over a Xeon E3 1230 V2. The Xeon E3 1230 V2 also is IB too,which means in performance its most likely to be similar to a SB-E Core i7 3820.

Then there is the fact you get no stock cooler with a Core i7 3820:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXIt5LGYqYQ

The six core SB-E CPUs are fast and so will IB-E when it comes out but you are looking at around £400 I suspect. You are looking at around £400 to £500,if you consider the extra expense of going socket 2011(I am assume you will sell the Core i7 3820 when upgrading).

The problem is that by 2014,Broadwell will be out and you could probably buy a Broadwell Xeon E3,new motherboard and RAM(if you cannot re-use what you have now),for that sort of money easily. Haswell will be introducing TSX,and it will be interesting to see what happens when software starts using it.
 
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