PC Build for Music Recording/Production 2K ish

Dalliard

1. What is your budget? [€2000-2200ish excluding GFX Card to be added a little later]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Primarily for Music Recording/Production. Using E-drums triggering Superior Drummer 3 in Reaper DAW. Software Synths and capacity for heavy plugin demands e.g. Convolution Reverb etc. Some video editing down the road also. No Gaming]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes, happy to try the second-hand key purchase]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [No]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [Possible future upgrade to 3 Monitors 2560 X 1440 32”.]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.] [No]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [For RAM possibly. I am seeing that undervolting the CPU might be worth trying in order to drop temps of latest Intel CPUs]

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Debit Card]

9. When are you purchasing? [In the next week or so]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Yes, Dublin Area]

Hi

New territory for me but I am interested in learning home studio recording/production and want a PC build that will be very responsive with minimal latency/bottlenecks. Higher clock speeds are recommended but also decent core count will be utilised by the DAW. Also I understand that software synths and certain plugins can become very resource hungry and if the PC can't keep up you can get drops in the audio or pops etc that would ruin the live track recording. Having a quiet build is also important as I will be recording guitar/bass amps and occasionally vocals in the same room.

I have read that some people have been getting up to 10 degree C drops in core temps under load with a minimal drop in performance by undervolting the latest few gens of Intel CPUs so that seems like something worth considering for this build. I will be using a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 audio interface as part of my setup as opposed to an internal sound card.

Initially I was planning on buying a system something like this from paradigit.ie:

CPU: i7-14700K

MB: Gigabyte Z790 AERO G

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A Chromax 2X120mm fan tower. Could consider a few Noctua Case Fan upgrades also if needed.

Primary Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB (Have a second SSD for Sample Library storage already)

PSU: Seasonic Prime TX850 or TX1000 (headroom for a more power hungry GFX future upgrade)

Case: Fractal Design Define 7

OS: Windows 11 Home

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64GB (2 X 32GB) DDR5-5600 CL28 (not available from Paradigit)

I will have to wait another month to get the GFX card, thinking of something like Asus Dual OC RTX 4070 or the Super version.

If someone here does system builds I would be happy to go that route.

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks for reading

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker Part List: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/hj2LN6

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor (€434.96 @ Caseking)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Frost Commander 140 95.5 CFM CPU Cooler (€56.33 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€199.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL32 Memory (€117.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€129.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€129.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Zotac Trinity Black Edition GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card (€655.99 @ Caseking)
Case: be quiet! Shadow Base 800 ATX Mid Tower Case (€134.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 12 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€146.93 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €2005.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-02 02:25 CEST+0200

K.O.Kiki

Upgrade PSU to 850W+ if you want, but it's not really necessary. Straight Power 12 are Platinum-certified PSUs.

You could also consider Core i7-14700T under a Noctua NH-P1 passive CPU cooler in one of these cases: https://ncc.noctua.at/recommended/NH-P1-68/cases but it's already relying on case fans so the Frost Commander at lowest RPM would still outperform it anyway.

Dalliard

Hi K.O.Kiki, thanks for the response.

Good price for that spec. You managed to include the GFX at my base budget!

I am in the process of researching the trade-offs versus my original set of parts, cost notwithstanding. Might be a middle ground to shoot for.

The reason I chose the Aero G was because it was the least expensive MB that I had come across that supported a future PCI Ex 5.0 M.2 upgrade (when prices come down and there has been time to iron out the creases etc) and I like the fact that it as a substantial looking heat spreader covering all of the M.2 slots.

As I have been reviewing MB specs I am confused by the way that some boards will have a higher Overclocked RAM speed rating than a competitor while the default speed rating is actually lower than a cheaper competitor for example. Would have expected the two ratings to increase in tandem, as in if the manufacturer is confident enough to support a higher OC rating I would have expected that confidence to be reflected in a higher default speed also. Not sure what to make of that.