New home recording pc advice

natnifnolnacs

Hi folks,
I built a pc about 3 year ago and it has been great. however I'm reaching the limits of what is capable of the current processor. It would cost me €200ish quid to upgrade the CPU on it's own, but I reckon I can put together a new system, sell the old one and it still only cost me maybe €300, so that seems like a no brainer. I have some bits I will be repurposing as well.

1. What is your budget? €600ish

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? home recording studio

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Yes. SSD, HDD, 16GB DDR4 RAM (leaving 8GB in the machine to sell). I also have a 750W PSU which is only a few months old so that is covered as well.

5. Do you need a monitor? No

6. Do you need any peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Not at the minute

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] Card/Paypal

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

So I have some rough specs that I've been looking at. I'll probably go with a Ryzen 5 3600 so my 2 main questions are:
*Motherboard - If I'm spending roughly €125 on a board, what am I looking for when comparing them, or is there one that stands out? I'm trying to avoid MSI which I'll explain below.
*Graphics card. I know there are big issues with these at the moment. I want the cheapest way to run dual monitors. I don't really play games and am currently using a 7/8 year old Asus Nvidia GeForce GT 640 2GB. This card will go with the old machine, but can be used for a while to get me up and running if there is a delay getting a new one sorted. I do some very basic video editing, but as I mentioned the current card does me fine for now.

One of my main reasons for building a new machine is that I'm having an issue with the current one. The machine itself is fine, but I've got a conflict of some sort between my audio interface (Behringer UMC404HD) and....something else. I haven't been able to figure out what and it may just be windows itself, but I'm going to try and go with different manufacturers to what I have where possible so mobo and graphics card.

Any advice/observations welcome!

natnifnolnacs

Right, I have settled on an Aurus B450 Elite V2 along with a Ryzen 5 3600.

The remaining question is a graphics card.

A few options:
https://www.maxburns.ie/afox-geforce-gt730-4gb-128bit-ddr3-low-profile-pci-e-graphics-card.html

there are cheaper ones too as really I just wnt dual screen capability and after that I'm not worried.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-GT710-SL-2GD5-GeForce-GT-Graphics-Efficient/dp/B07489XSJP/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=VisionTek+Radeon+7750+SFF+2GB+GDDR5&qid=1614509358&sr=8-2
https://www.maxburns.ie/asus-gt710-1gb-ddr5-pcie2-vga-dvi-hdmi-silent-low-profile-bracket-included--90yv0al2-m0na00.html

or any other recommendations? I'm hoping to place orders today....any input appreciated!

K.O.Kiki

Just be aware that those GT710 / GT730 have very old, weak chips - they wouldn't be able to drive a 4K 60Hz monitor: https://www.gpuzoo.com/GPU-ASUS/GeForce_GT_710_2GB_-_710-2-SL.html

I'd look for a GT 1030 2Gb GDDR5: https://geizhals.eu/?cat=gra16_512&xf=131_05+-+GDDR5%7E9810_04+13+-+GT+1030

ALTERNATIVELY

Go Intel!

Core i5-10600 (200eur) or i7-10700 (310eur)
Asus PRIME Z490-P motherboard (160-180)
Heatsink (anything by Scythe, be quiet or Noctua - 35-55eur)

No need for an extra GPU with this setup.

natnifnolnacs

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Just be aware that those GT710 / GT730 have very old, weak chips - they wouldn't be able to drive a 4K 60Hz monitor: https://www.gpuzoo.com/GPU-ASUS/GeForce_GT_710_2GB_-_710-2-SL.html

I'd look for a GT 1030 2Gb GDDR5: https://geizhals.eu/?cat=gra16_512&xf=131_05+-+GDDR5%7E9810_04+13+-+GT+1030

ALTERNATIVELY

Go Intel!

Core i5-10600 (200eur) or i7-10700 (310eur)
Asus PRIME Z490-P motherboard (160-180)
Heatsink (anything by Scythe, be quiet or Noctua - 35-55eur)

No need for an extra GPU with this setup.

okay thanks. I think what I'm going to do is build the new pc and use my old graphics card to start with. If it works, then I'll just buy something to get tthe old pc working for sale. If it throws up the same conflict, then I'll know its those sets of drivers and can replace the card with a different make.

rat_race

You're building a PC for home recording so you'd be completely fine with any cheap or CPU-integrated GPU.

You also don't need super modern/powerful computers even for intensive home recording. People love to say you do because either they work in sales, or they don't know any better.

I've used Reaper/Protools on laptops that are 11 years old, recently, just fine. I currently develop software and do home recording on a Xeon Dell Precision desktop (i.e., a business machine) bought in 2013. The point is, if it was a "good" computer back then, it's probably still good -- just keep the operating system clean. Murphy's Law is long gone.

Regarding your "conflict", this is most likely software-based and the solution lies in software. If you do a fresh install on a new build, the problem will probably go away, of course. But really, you probably don't need a new system.

rat_race

rat_race wrote: »

You're building a PC for home recording so you'd be completely fine with any cheap or CPU-integrated GPU.

You also don't need super modern/powerful computers even for intensive home recording. People love to say you do because either they work in sales, or they don't know any better.

I've used Reaper/Protools on laptops that are 11 years old, recently, just fine. I currently develop software and do home recording on a Xeon Dell Precision desktop (i.e., a business machine) bought in 2013. The point is, if it was a "good" computer back then, it's probably still good -- just keep the operating system clean. Murphy's Law is long gone.

I agree on the graphics card - in fact I just ordered a new build from pcspecialist.ie with CPU integrated graphics.

On the power required, it really depends what you are doing. If you have high track counts and lots of effects and VSTis, or are recording multiple simultaneous tracks at 24 bit/96KHz with monitoring through the audio interface, you can get to audio glitch land pretty quickly

natnifnolnacs

rat_race wrote: »

You're building a PC for home recording so you'd be completely fine with any cheap or CPU-integrated GPU.

You also don't need super modern/powerful computers even for intensive home recording. People love to say you do because either they work in sales, or they don't know any better.

I've used Reaper/Protools on laptops that are 11 years old, recently, just fine. I currently develop software and do home recording on a Xeon Dell Precision desktop (i.e., a business machine) bought in 2013. The point is, if it was a "good" computer back then, it's probably still good -- just keep the operating system clean. Murphy's Law is long gone.

Regarding your "conflict", this is most likely software-based and the solution lies in software. If you do a fresh install on a new build, the problem will probably go away, of course. But really, you probably don't need a new system.

Thanks for the reply. As for graphics card, I'm probably fine as you say with any cheap one - my main question is do they all have the capability of dual output to monitors?
You are absolutely correct that most of the software will run on older machines. I run Reaper and it is very lightweight. However when you start to get into more advanced plugins, they do put pressure on the cpu. I was maxing out mine and running into issues - I'm not just upgrading for the sake of it!

Regarding the conflict, I probably should have said that I did a clean install of Windows on my existing machine about 2 months ago. The problem reappeared within a week of having everything reinstalled. I couldn't pin it down to one particular piece of software unfortunately. Between that issue and the cpu, I figured I'm as well off to change and sell on the old machine (once I test it without the interface and make sure it's working as it should)

Deleted User wrote: »

I agree on the graphics card - in fact I just ordered a new build from pcspecialist.ie with CPU integrated graphics.

On the power required, it really depends what you are doing. If you have high track counts and lots of effects and VSTis, or are recording multiple simultaneous tracks at 24 bit/96KHz with monitoring through the audio interface, you can get to audio glitch land pretty quickly

Yep! Multiple tracks, some demanding plugins and it all starts to go south.