Help my build an i7, 16gb RAM PC? (Hardwareversand?)

musicformedia

Hi guys,

Just got my first royalty cheque from my music and want to re-invest. Want to buy a 16gb ram pc and hopefully an i7 core if possible.

I've put together the following PC, but I don't need a good graphics card and don't know if that is the right motherboard to use?

Someone advised that I need a good cooling option for the RAM aswell - any ideas?

HV25LN10DE Linksys LNE100TX, 1x 100Base-TX, PCI ready for dispatch
8,98 €
1
HVSE7HH6DE OEM Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit inkl. Vorinstallation ready for dispatch
74,90 €
1
HV207S81DE Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1681S schwarz, bulk ready for dispatch
14,44 €
1
HVR750HXDE Corsair 750HX, 750 Watt ready for dispatch
126,58 €
1
HVZPCDE Rechner - Zusammenbau ready for dispatch
20,00 €
1
HV20T786DE Intel Core i7-860 Tray 8192Kb, LGA1156 ready for dispatch
262,75 €
1
HV13W25SDE Western Digital Caviar Western Digital2500AAJS, 250GB 7200, SATA-II ready for dispatch
30,44 €
1
HV20LACBDE Lian Li Aluminium-Cardreader CR-36B ready for dispatch
20,42 €
1
HV20CO32DE 16GB-4x-Kit Corsair PC1333 CL9 Dominator ready for dispatch
294,77 €
1
HV203L29DE Lian Li PC-B25FWB - Midi-Tower - black windows, ohne Netzteil ready for dispatch
173,25 €
1
HV1022WEDE Gainward GeForce 9800GT Green, 512MB DDR3 ready for dispatch
71,50 €
1
HV30AC04DE Arctic Alpine 11 GT 775/1156 ready for dispatch
4,71 €
1
HV23CSBXDE Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio (bulk) - 30SB079200000 ready for dispatch
34,98 €
1
HV0239176501DE Special item: MSI P55-GD65, Intel P55, ATX, DDR3

Thanks guys

Emmett

Tea_Bag

We need more info.

Total budget?
Monitor (s) setup? (and resolution fwiw)

you dont need the first item, the MoBo will have an onboard ethernet.
the GPU might need to be changed (if you are running more than 1 monitor)
the HDD should be changed. go with a Samsung F3 (500gb or 1tb, your choice)

what programs would you be running, maybe to concider an SSD.


EDIT: also, if you could just give us a screen print of your basket in future, it'd make reading that so much easier.

Solitaire

For a pricey build a SSD would make a wonderful boot drive but in some cases they're not so good for apps, particularly ones of a databasing nature; web servers, poker machines and some sound packages can tear through an MLC-flash SSD and kill it dead within years or even months. They're really far better suited to read-operation-heavy scenarios such as operating systems and most games.

Anyway if this build is oriented at music production you'll need less graphics and much, much more money invested in sound

the untitled user

Also, take noise levels into consideration. Is the PC going to be in a recording environment? If noise is a concern, you'll possibly want to rethink your case for something with a layer of sound insulation. And some of those stock coolers make a high pitched whine when under load, so an aftermarket heatsink might be worth considering. And possibly some low noise case fans.

Don't know much about sound cards tbh, but Creative ones are geared towards playback, probably wouldn't be all that great for capturing sound.

And some general advice with my musician hat on: powerful computers are great and all, but if this is an investment are you sure you can't get a better return through recording equipment/instruments etc.? i7's a great and but their productivity hinges entirely on the scalability of the software. I'm sure you have already but look into the performance benchmarks for the software you'll be using and whether they'll utilize all those extra threads and memory you'll be investing in.

musicformedia

Tea_Bag wrote: »

We need more info.

Total budget?
Monitor (s) setup? (and resolution fwiw)

you dont need the first item, the MoBo will have an onboard ethernet.
the GPU might need to be changed (if you are running more than 1 monitor)
the HDD should be changed. go with a Samsung F3 (500gb or 1tb, your choice)

what programs would you be running, maybe to concider an SSD.


EDIT: also, if you could just give us a screen print of your basket in future, it'd make reading that so much easier.

Sorry I always forget that. I have two 22" Samsung 222BW monitors.

Budget up to 1200 euros I suppose.

I was considering an SSD as I will be using it for music production, but they are fairly expensive as I would need a 500GB SSD which I'm not sure exists and if it does, its prob way too expensive.

Thanks for the tip - should have screen printed

musicformedia

Solitaire wrote: »

For a pricey build a SSD would make a wonderful boot drive but in some cases they're not so good for apps, particularly ones of a databasing nature; web servers, poker machines and some sound packages can tear through an MLC-flash SSD and kill it dead within years or even months. They're really far better suited to read-operation-heavy scenarios such as operating systems and most games.

Anyway if this build is oriented at music production you'll need less graphics and much, much more money invested in sound

Yea I just want the most basic graphics card - don't want to be tempted to play games on this. It will be for music production. I have all the sound side done - I have all of the equipment I need for that - external sound card, monitors, keyboard, software etc. Do you think I need a better sound card on the PC though? I won't be using it as it all goes through my keyboard soundcard.

Here is one of the pieces of software I will be using:

http://www.soundsonline.com/Hollywood-Strings/

Click on specifications to get an idea of the requirements

Solitaire

You still haven't said exactly what you'll be doing and what software you'll be using...

Hell, that €1200 could easily become €700 once you add a studio-grade sound card to the mix...

musicformedia

the untitled user wrote: »

Also, take noise levels into consideration. Is the PC going to be in a recording environment? If noise is a concern, you'll possibly want to rethink your case for something with a layer of sound insulation. And some of those stock coolers make a high pitched whine when under load, so an aftermarket heatsink might be worth considering. And possibly some low noise case fans.

Don't know much about sound cards tbh, but Creative ones are geared towards playback, probably wouldn't be all that great for capturing sound.

And some general advice with my musician hat on: powerful computers are great and all, but if this is an investment are you sure you can't get a better return through recording equipment/instruments etc.? i7's a great and but their productivity hinges entirely on the scalability of the software. I'm sure you have already but look into the performance benchmarks for the software you'll be using and whether they'll utilize all those extra threads and memory you'll be investing in.

PC noise won't be an issue. I use virtual instruments, but have sank a huge amount of money into them. You'd be very suprised how good they are nowadays. The reason I need such a heavy system is that the software is very RAM intensive - 16gb recommended and 330 gigs size for some of the software

musicformedia

Solitaire wrote: »

You still haven't said exactly what you'll be doing and what software you'll be using...

Hell, that €1200 could easily become €700 once you add a studio-grade sound card to the mix...

I'll be using the following software:

Hollywood Strings
LA Scoring Strings
Reason
East West Composer Bundle
Cubase 5 Studio
Access Virus Ti Keyboard
KRK 5 Monitors

Don't need a top of the line output soundcard as the output will be through my keyboard soundcard (which is amazing) into my monitors and my input will be just software or through an external soundcard

musicformedia

Solitaire wrote: »

You still haven't said exactly what you'll be doing and what software you'll be using...

Hell, that €1200 could easily become €700 once you add a studio-grade sound card to the mix...

The basics of it are that I just need as much RAM as possible and the best processor out there. A good soundcard would be nice too, but not a necessity as advised, I use an outboard sound card

It will be only used for composing - no gaming or anything at all else happening on it Lots of very high end software and incredibly intensive programs requiring as much RAM as possible

Emmett

musicformedia

OK, I've made a new shopping list now - 100 euros less lol. Any ideas on this one?

Ryan451

Is 160GB enough for your Hard Drive?

massy086

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1136 i7 will be better and 12gb of triple channel ram will be as good as 16gb of dual channel ram final price is 990 with them building too sorry could not fit final price in snap shot lol

the untitled user

musicformedia wrote: »

I'll be using the following software:

Hollywood Strings
LA Scoring Strings
Reason
East West Composer Bundle
Cubase 5 Studio
Access Virus Ti Keyboard
KRK 5 Monitors

Don't need a top of the line output soundcard as the output will be through my keyboard soundcard (which is amazing) into my monitors and my input will be just software or through an external soundcard

Virtual instruments? :eek: Give me a tape recorder and an out of tune upright any day of the week :P Seems you have a very nice setup already, so yeah can't go too wrong with an i7.

Tbh I'm finding it impossible to get any reliable information on the scalability of the above software. Massey may be onto something though with the triple channel RAM though, you'll get better throughput this way which is generally a good thing when operating over long linear signals. It's only I can't be sure because there's no real reliable information to compare.

slave1

Given the prices now I'd go for a bigger hard drive, 1.5TB minimum or two if you feel inclined to have some level of backup, for €60+ well worth it

musicformedia

Thanks guys - that seems a lot better.

I already have the following PC:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ASUS P5Q SE2 iP45[/FONT]
OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, two 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15
OCZ StealthXStream Powersupply ATX/EPS, 600W, 120mm Fan, 4/8pin CPU, 20/24pin
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 500M 640MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP, 320-bit
Thermaltake Armor Black, Aluminium Front

I'm wondering now would I be better to just upgrade my current PC rather than shelling out for an entire new one?

Is there a huge difference between the q6600 and the i7 cores? Also, would my current mobo be ok to put the 12gb ram onto?

Thanks for all of your help guys, really appreciate it

massy086

musicformedia wrote: »

Thanks guys - that seems a lot better.

I already have the following PC:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ASUS P5Q SE2 iP45[/FONT]
OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, two 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15
OCZ StealthXStream Powersupply ATX/EPS, 600W, 120mm Fan, 4/8pin CPU, 20/24pin
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 500M 640MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP, 320-bit
Thermaltake Armor Black, Aluminium Front

I'm wondering now would I be better to just upgrade my current PC rather than shelling out for an entire new one?

Is there a huge difference between the q6600 and the i7 cores? Also, would my current mobo be ok to put the 12gb ram onto?

Thanks for all of your help guys, really appreciate it

tbh its not a bad system you could ad 16gb of ram but it would have to be in 4gb sticks ddr2 and there very hard to find anything i could find was 5-600 euro and in my opinion if you ever go to sell your pc you will never see that money back what i would do is sell your current pc on adverts.ie and then go with the build i suggested

musicformedia

massy086 wrote: »

tbh its not a bad system you could ad 16gb of ram but it would have to be in 4gb sticks ddr2 and there very hard to find anything i could find was 5-600 euro and in my opinion if you ever go to sell your pc you will never see that money back what i would do is sell your current pc on adverts.ie and then go with the build i suggested

Yea was actually just looking at it now and thinking I'll sell it and just upgrade. Slightly off topic, but do you think I might get 400 or 500 for my current setup maybe? Would take the sting out of the new one for sure.

massy086

musicformedia wrote: »

Yea was actually just looking at it now and thinking I'll sell it and just upgrade. Slightly off topic, but do you think I might get 400 or 500 for my current setup maybe? Would take the sting out of the new one for sure.

no i would of thought 3-350 tbh but try 4 ya never know lol

musicformedia

lol cool thanks man!

decko69

SSD is no good for a DAW the have a limit on multipil in and out streams , so any DAW software will chew it up and spit it out , wait a while on that until they progress a littel with the technoligy , maybe a western digital do a sata 3hdd called the veloca raptor that is suposta be faster even than scssi hdd but be sure that your motherboard supports sata 3 as regards the motherboard im looking at the asus rampage 3 extreme , it supports the latest i7 chips so when the i7 extreem gets a littel cheeper you could upgrade to one of them , at the moment they are over a grand , chose this motherboard and you have a super fast pc that is also future proof for the next good few years