Home Studio Computer

[g-paw]

My son wants a new compute within the next several months for producing, editing music. He'll be working with 8 or more tracks. He has no problem with onboard video given he won't be doing anything but music with it but I don't know how resource intensive what he's going to do is and if onboard video would affect this given my understanding that it does use some system memory. He said he didn't need a sound card because he'll be getting an external card with multiple inputs. he'd like the keep the machine at less than $800 which includes case and all the innards. I know he'll need a lot of storage but he can add hdds as necessary I'm thinking of a 60GB to 80GB for the OS and programs and a 350GB for storage to start. My questions are: Is their any reason for not going with onboard video? Also given his budget what would be the best CPU? I know Intel is ahead on most performance measures but AMD is less expensive. This is not just a hobby for him, he been doing this for years and plays in several bands but works a regular job for food and shelter. Thanks

 

[PC_Side_Line]

if ur going to be putting xp pro on it then u can start with a 100gb hdd

if vista is going on then start at 300 gb hdd

 

[milwsysbuilder]

if ur going to be putting xp pro on it then u can start with a 100gb hdd

if vista is going on then start at 300 gb hdd

Holy crap, vista uses 200 gb?

Seriously though, the main issue with onboard video for nongamers, as you mentioned, is the use of system memory. You could get a cheapo card with a rebate for $30 probably to avoid this. Just make sure it doesn't use any system memory as many of the cheapo cards do.

With a budget of $800 and no need for a highend graphics card, my vote is for a core 2 duo e6300. What components, if any, do you plan on recycling?

 

[g-paw]

Unless there is some benefit to using XP Pro over XP Home for specifically what he wants to do, Home would save about $30. I would advice against Vista at this time and wait for at least SP 1 if not SP 2. Right now I don't think they'll be anything recycled. If necessary, I have an old CRT monitor. I would agree with the Core Duo 6300 but it is $891 vs $827 for the AM2 Dual Core 4200. Not sure if the 4200 is that much better than the X2 3800, which would save even less. One problem with Intel is that the boards are more expensive. The above prices are with onboard video but even if I change this, the difference would pretty well be the same.

 

[pmr]

Intel BOXD945GCLL LGA 775 Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - $84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121079

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - $185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005

SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM - $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151133

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) - $69.99 x 2 (2Gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820134216

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

TOTAL - 529.95

Recycle case and psu.
Need more than this? I Think not.

 

[g-paw]

Intel BOXD945GCLL LGA 775 Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - $84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121079

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - $185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005

SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM - $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151133

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) - $69.99 x 2 (2Gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820134216

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

TOTAL - 529.95

Recycle case and psu.
Need more than this? I Think not.

Looks good, the 945 board and the DDR2 667 won't significantly affect the performance?

 

[pmr]

I have a p945 chipset myself, and if not overclocking, the numbers keep up with the 965 and 975 chipsets no problem.

But look, the system is below the $827 you first pointed. If you want to put that baby at 3Ghz or more, go with the Gigabyte S3 for $110 and a cheap $40 videocard. I would do this for sure

533-667-800 memory debates and performance increases are just for enthusiasts. You only need 667 to Overclock to 3Ghz, because if you don´t do, 533 is just fine. Sometimes, enthusiasts from here mislead people to buy expensive components that they don´t need. Believe me.

 

[g-paw]

I checked out the 945 boards on newegg and the only problem I saw was that none come with onboard firewire, which he'll need. He said the mixing board he's getting uses a firewire connection to the computer and with only 2 or at most 3 PCI slots it's best to have onboard firewire. Bugs me that firewire isn't more available and limiting boards to 2 or 3 PCI slots when there just isn't that much PCI Express hardware out. Also don't get why generally AMD boards are cheaper than Intel boards. Finally, tomshardware CPU chart doesn't include the Core duo 6300. All this crap is driving me to drink so I think I'll get a beer. Given he's not doing anything for a couple months, hopefully the Intel prices for both CPUs and boards will come down.

 

[pmr]

I checked out the 945 boards on newegg and the only problem I saw was that none come with onboard firewire, which he'll need. He said the mixing board he's getting uses a firewire connection to the computer and with only 2 or at most 3 PCI slots it's best to have onboard firewire. Bugs me that firewire isn't more available and limiting boards to 2 or 3 PCI slots when there just isn't that much PCI Express hardware out. Also don't get why generally AMD boards are cheaper than Intel boards. Finally, tomshardware CPU chart doesn't include the Core duo 6300. All this crap is driving me to drink so I think I'll get a beer. Given he's not doing anything for a couple months, hopefully the Intel prices for both CPUs and boards will come down.

The cheaper mobo with firewire is what I have, the Asrock ConroeXfire e-sata2 for $80 I think, you just have to buy a cheapo video card.

 

[pmr]

ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $83.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157096

MSI NX6200LE-TD64E GeForce 6200 LE 256MB(64MB on Board) 128-bit PCI Express x16 Low Profile Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127270 $30.99

It won't get better than this at the price you want...

But I didn´t get one thing. You were aiming to a $800 build, I showed you a 500ish and you even want a cheaper one with everything that a premium motherboard have???

Here's the deal: Get an E4300 (OC to 3Ghz), Gigabyte S3, 2Gb of Kingston, Western Digital 320Gb, Samsung dvd-rw, MSI 6200LE, and a SYBA pci firewire card
Total: $585- Want spend less? Take $69.99 from 1Gb of ram - Best system money can buy

Not happy? Go to ebay.

 

[pmr]

Finally, tomshardware CPU chart doesn't include the Core duo 6300. .

There are hundreds of sites with E6300 reviews. Google is your friend.

 

[Mondoman]

I'd stay away from the AsRock for something your son will rely on to work 100% all the time day in and out; something like this isn't much more expensive, has Firewire, and seems quite solid:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131142

 

[spet3r]

Understand your pain... this is the problem I found. Its tough to find a board that supports IEEE1394 with more than 2 PCI slots on the newer boards. The socket 939 and Socket 478 had more availability.

If you're willing to spend $115 for an Intel compatibable board... the one I would buy is this Intel P965L It has a onboard firewire and 3 PCI slots... The other manufacturers are a tough find if you want a good number of PCI slots... others that have the IE1394 port only have 1 or 2 PCI slots.

Another thing to watch with Intel boards is memory... seems like there is an issue with DDR-800?? its worse with some compared to others...


If you're interested in AMD, I have a few boards on my list that I'm watching. If I were building today, it would be a X2 3800 with an MSI K9N Platinum ($123) Watching the price to fall on that motherboard... would be plenty fast, even has optical ins and outs. Not to mention, it seems like AMD boards are able to run DDR-800 easier from what I've been reading but don't quote me on that, I'm biased toward AMD.
A cheaper Asus AMD board but only 2 PCI slots ($96)
An older AMD Gigabyte GA-M61P-S nForce 4 board ($78 ) but it has 2 onboard firewire and 4 PCI slots!! Would work fine...

P.S. Get this LITE-ON DVD COMBO BURNER... it includes PowerDVD and Nero 7

 

[KaiserZr]

if he plans on using a lot of plugins with his recording software I would recommend thinking about going to 2 gigs of Ram, but that comes from what I was taught in a recording class I took in college. If he is just using patches for EQing and maybe reverb 1 GB of Ram would be ok.

 

[g-paw]

Thanks for all the replies, very useful in clarifying my thinking. I found the following comparisons of AMD and Intel.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795&p=1

There appears to be very little difference between the Inel 6300 and the AMD 3800 and 4200, especially for video rendering, which I guess would be the closest thing to what he will want to do. Given current budget constraints today AMD seems to be the better choice, obviously this could change in a few months. There is also the issue of how these numbers translate into real world performance, e.g., video rendering takes a long time and a fewe seconds on teh various benchmarks really wouldn't make much difference. I assume that working with multi track wav files would also take a lot of time. I would think RAM and storage would ultimately be more important. Again, really appreciate all the feedback and any more thoughts would be appreciated. As an aside, thankfully, there seems to be a lot less Intel/AMD fanboy garbage in these discussions.

 

[spet3r]

If you get a good CPU Cooler with that, an AMD system will work just fine for a long time. Usually a system dies because of heat... due to a failing fan. I've built several AMD systems without much trouble, one of them is going on 6 years old ( with a video card upgrade ).

 

[g-paw]

I'll keep the cooler in mind. Currently running 3 AMDs, 2 939 and an AM2. The stock HFS on the AM2 is running slow according to the Abit EQ, 600 rpm but heat is not a problem, so not sure what is going on