2013 Audio production/Gaming build help please

You're going to have to make some compromises. As you mentioned, when building a DAW you need to think not only on performance, you also want it to be as quiet as possible.

However, gaming video cards and overclocked systems tend to generate a lot of heat, and to move it out you need fans, and fans are noisy. Gaming cases tend to be very open in order to let the heat out easily, but noise will come out as well.

Of coure it's not as white or black in reality, but I think you're going to have to decide what's more important to you and lean a bit into it. If you decide you want it to be more a DAW, try to get parts that can work on passive heat dissipation (no fans).

You might also want to consider liquid cooling, it's less noisy than air-based coolers, although they also use fans to cool the radiator.

I think that you only need a quiet pc if you intend to record either voice or acoustic instruments. If you intend to only use virtual instruments, then a lot of memory is more important. Virtual instruments and multiple effects can use up a lot of memory. In this scenario, I would also go with the best cpu that you can afford because using a ton of instruments and effects will make full use of multithreading.

Hi - Cubase requires at least 1GB of ram and Native Instruments Maschine needs at least 2. Add some more effects or a few virtual instruments and I would recommend at least 8GB.

You might also want to take a look at AMD's APU line of processors, as some of their best models boast a significant amount of graphics muscle embedded into the processor. If you liquid-cool it, you'll have good and quiet performance as you won't need a discrete graphic card which tend to be noisy.

Just make sure you get one of the best ones as you're going to need strong processor power for multiple VSTs and low buffers for low latency with your DAC's ASIO drivers.

Good luck!

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Appreciate the help.. I have two potential builds in mind and already ordered the case. I'll post the links and lemme know what you think. build1- http://pcpartpicker.com/user/jnassbeats/saved/1nPG ..build2- http://pcpartpicker.com/user/jnassbeats/saved/1nRS

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Here are my comments:

- The processors you're selecting are good and powerful (Xeon is for servers), however I would still invite you to take a look at something with 8 cores. In gaming, Intel outperforms AMD since most games are not optimized for multicore CPUs. But DAW software is VERY well optimized to take out the best out of multi threading, so in this case, more cores is better. AMD's 8xxx family is something you might want to take a look at.

- The cooler you selected is way too noisy. It's very efficient regarding air cooling, but it will make some noise, and you want to avoid that. Are you planning on overclocking? I don't think you should (overclocking almost always means more heat and thus more noise to cool it off), and if you don't, you don't really have to get anything more than the stock coolers, which are perfectly suited for factory clocks. If you still want to get an aftermarket cooler I would still recommend closed-loop liquid cooling. Quiet and efficient.

- I see you won't give up a powerful discrete video card. It's not ideal but I understand. However, the Radeon 7970 is known for running hot and loud. Nvidia on the other hand has been successful in keeping it's 6xx family running relatively quiet, I'd take a look at some GTX 670s if I were you, there are plenty of reviews and you can pick the most quiet (and performance is awesome). If you want to stick to the 7970, please take a look at this editorial: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/deepcool-dracula-radeon-hd-7970-cooling,3246.html

- I'm not seeing any DAC (the single MOST important part of any DAW).. I'm assuming you have one already?

EDIT: - I was forgetting about your PSU. The one you're selecting will do, but to go the safe way get something with 80+ Gold or Platinum certified. It'll be more expensive, but the certification is about power efficiency. The more efficient the PSU is, the less energy will be wasted as heat (and less cooling will be required = more quiet).