New Musicians PC

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Haych Jay

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Apr 21, 2008
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Hi

My brother recently decided he wanted a computer for doing his music on using Cubase. I got the envious task of building him a PC for the job. I'm a complete n00b to this game, so I've done as best as I could. Essentially, he wanted a kickass build and gave me £300 for the job. I'll happily concur with anyone that thinks it's an impossibility, but after doing some research I've already bought the motherboard and processor. However, before I go and fork out a load of cash on the rest of the build I'd appreciate some advice/critiques on my choices.

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H and not knowing just how many plug-ins and other programs he might be running, I got a AMD64 X2 5200+ (Windsor core.) It should be sufficient, I think.

The rest of the build is:

HDD1 - Western Digital Caviar SE 80GB = £24

HDD2 - Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB = £48

Case - Jeantech Phong II = £35

Memory - Kingston Valueram 2GB DDR2 800MHz = £27

PSU - Gigabyte GE-R460-V1 460W = £24


My main concerns have been trying to make sure the build is going to run as cool and quiet as possible. I'm not too certain about the Jeantech Phong II. I read good things but was also looking at an Akasa Zen which was much the same price range.

The Gigabyte PSU still has a question mark over it too. It's cheap enough and should provide enough power (don't quote me on that), plus it had enough SATA connectors for the two HDD's and an optical drive. But I couldn't find any reviews on how quiet it is, so I've also been looking at a Thermaltake 470W from their TR2 range.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
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sticks51412

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Why do you want to run 2 hard drives especially 1 80 gig and 1 320 gig?

I would personally get a little better memory if you can afford it the value ram isn't bad but I think you would be better with something else. Newegg.com has great deals on memory a lot.

What operating system will you be running? If he wants to capture audio you should get a diff sound card also generally onboard audio capture is ok but you can get better with a seperate card.
 
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Haych Jay

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I think that a seperate audio card would be better too, but my bro doesn't want to fork out for it unless it's necessary, so we're going to go with the onboard audio and see how it does.

It will be running on Windows XP Pro. I could get hold of a copy of Vista for nothing, but I've not heard anything about Vista that makes me want to use it yet.

Any suggestions as to what sort of memory may be better? I won't get it from Newegg because I'm in the UK and need the rest of the components asap, but it could be helpful.

As for the two hard drives.... I'm not a fan of partitioning.
 
oushi

oushi

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That's definitely a cheap PSU. Having a hard time finding a review on that particular one. The 550W version got an okay review from x-bit labs but that doesn't guarantee the 460W will work as well. The system shouldn't be too power hungry since he'll be using onboard graphics, so it'd probably work okay.

The lack of reviews makes me a little skeptical, so if the money's available I might be more inclined to get a more reputable brand of PSU like this Corsair 450VX (£44.05 with VAT). Or if you need to go cheaper, this Antec Earthwatts 380W(£32.71 with VAT).
 
psymanproductions

psymanproductions

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well, as a computer musician who builds his own machines dedicated to music i think your system is ok...

the only theing you NEED to add is a soundcard that supports ASIO. dont bother with a 5.1 surround sound piece of crap, theyre great for movies and games but for music get a stereo one with ASIO.

one of the cheapest soundcards good enough for professional audio creation is the m-audio delta 24/96. they sell for around £50 and that is a bargain. i have one installed now and can highly recommend it. (link below)

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/1142

the cpu will be ok, i have a 5200 @ 2.8ghz in my latest rig, when running cubase theres plenty of power, a bit noisy at load with stock cooler though.

also the hard drive set up seems like a bit of a waste, i have been making music for 3 years on my system wich has 1 320gig drive and i stil lhave 96 gig left. i could probably shave 50 gig off what i have there now if i got rid of the thousands of samples i dont use! considering your budget i would go for a single drive between 160 and 320gig and put the money saved towards the soundcard and a quiet set of fans and quiet psu... when creating audio there is no bigger distraction than a noticably loud pc.

and stick with xp, a lot of audio apps arent compatable with vista yet. i know cubase sx3 is not 'cos thats what i use. most audio apps run slower, and the buggieness reported in vista by so many people will just make your bro's life harder than it needs to be, especialy when starting out 'cos things will be confusing enough with learing all the ins and outs of cubase, or any sequencer for that matter.
 
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horendus

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THE BASICS OF A "Musican PC"

You dont need a massivly powered machine BUT the faster CPU get the quicker MIX down and AUDIO proccessing times.

For that reason alone id go Core2...but and AMD X2 would be just fine all the same ;)

U deffinelty need 2 hard drives for recording and scratch disk AND this is 2008.

Get x2 320gigs +

Theres a good chnace ull fill up 300gig in a few months depending on how much multi traking you plan to do with ur recording. Each track will be a High Quality 44000Khz wave file.... = MUCH SPACE NEEDED FOR STORAGE

And you dont want to have to buy another hard drive in 6months time. Its anoying. Deck it out with space NOW.




For recording...Its about the sounds card buddy.

(Asuming u good good quality mics and a good Pre AMP)

U want something with multiple inputs.

Most sound cards you will see are all about output.

(for uber Suround Soundz)

5.1 this...7.1 that...Creative this creative that...


DONT buy one of those.

At best they will have:

- Single Stereo (2 channel input) that can be split left and right
- MONO Mic-in with a trashy pre-amp onboard
- Uber output for u speakers...BUT WHERE RECORDING HERE!!

Thats not enough input's buddy.


What you want is somthing along the lines of an M-Audio SERIES Sound Card

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=PCIinterfaces

And there low and high end models to suit ur budget.


THESE come with as many as 10 input 10 output combos, with multi interface avaiable, as well as half decent pre amps onboard, but id still recomend spending a bit of cash on a stand alone Pre Amp.


You can run a studio on one of these mate.
Can Assign differnt outputs to differnt speaker sets for mixing accuralty, have some of the outputs setup for headphones only, the limit is your creativity.

You can even do a live recording, because u can plug so many things in at once.

Id even suggest when recording a cab u use 3 inputs on the sound card, have 3 mics in differnt locations of the CAB or Room, then mix them together to have lots of controll over the tone

Anyways ill stop now

Good luck

Jasper





 
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Haych Jay

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Apr 21, 2008
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Thanks oushi

I'd found the same review for the Gigabyte 550W myself, and I totally agree about the 460W possibly not following suit. The Corsair may be a little out of the price range, and presently it's muggins here that is going to have to stump up anything over the £300 limit, so I'm trying to keep the costs down as much as possible. I noticed the Antec on a different site but wasn't sure it would be enough juice for the job, which is why I'd considered the Thermaltake as I can get it for about £32 on Amazon with no P&P to pay on top. I'm looking at http://www.lambda-tek.com/ for most of my stuff so I don't incur too much in P&P costs, but I have visited ebuyer.com while researching this build, and scan is a 20 minute drive if I need to go there.
 
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Haych Jay

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Apr 21, 2008
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If your a music artist like me (a really bad one but, nevertheless) you'll want silence. I recommend the Antec Earthwatts 380w PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005 and this heatsink http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835106055. Remove the fan of the heatsink and stick this in http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835191006.

For a Motherboard I recommend the Gigabyte 780G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128090

Stuff your case with silencing foam and use rubber screws to mount your drives.

Happy singing!
Click to expand...


That's the second time the Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU has been suggested. I may have to give it another look. Thanks for the advice on the heatsink. I'll look into it and then make a decision once I find out how noisy the one that came with the processor is or isn't. The Jeantech Phong II comes with some nice sized fans, and -providing I can get the particular feature to work- they can be controlled via the case so they won't be noisy *she says crossing her fingers*. The case comes with rubber grommets for between the drives and such (score!!) and I think I can pick up some silencing foam for around £10.

Cheers! [:thegreatgrapeape:6]
 
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Haych Jay

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M-Audio series sound cards seem to be popular :D

But considering that both you and psymanproductions have mentioned the exact same card, I'll take it as a good omen. Well, not that good because I'll probably end up having to buy it him as an early Xmas present, lol. The Audiophile 2496 cards seem a nice price and if he needs anything better he can get it himself :p


[:thegreatgrapeape:6] Thanks horendus, and thanks psymanproductions [:thegreatgrapeape:6]
 
psymanproductions

psymanproductions

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is your bro planning to make recordingd of "real world audio", vocals, guitars etc or will it be all created internally? i ask because the soundcard i m-audio 24/96 cannot be plugged straight into a mic... youll need to buy a card with a pre amp or get a seprate pre amp for that.

i would really advise getting a dedicated soundcard... even if your bro doesnt plan to record any audio the onboard sound card will have high latency... meaning when a key is pressed on a midi controller there will be a noticable delay before the sound is triggered and heard.

a sound card is essesnsial, more essensial than a large haard drive i would say. the coice is obvousley yours but i think your bro will be dissapointed if you dont include a soundcard in this build... i made the mistake of thinking i could get away with onboard sound on my first audio rig, it waws barely usable before audio work before the m-audio 24/96 was added
 
njalterio

njalterio

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Personally I find it easy to do everything in garageband '06 so I do (kinda) recommend a macintosh (but I find them way too overpriced) its your call girl.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't think there is a mac available for even twice of what her spending limit is.
 
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Haych Jay

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Apr 21, 2008
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Hey Psyman

I think I'll have a talk with my brother about what he expects of the rig I'm building for him while it's sans-sound card. I really don't know that he's fully understood what it's going to cost for a setup that will do all he wants. He's played in a band for the last ten years or so now, and I think they use Cubase predominantly for mixing all the tracks down, so he'll have a good idea of that side of things. What I'm a little unsure of is whether he's planning to record direct on to the computer. I can't see it myself, as he doesn't have a studio at home and I'm pretty sure the neighbours would be a tad upset with him if he played everything live in his house, lol.

I'm guessing he has some knowledge on sound cards, but I'll certainly keep the M-Audio series in mind. All I know for certain at this point is that he specifically wanted a motherboard that had firewire ports. Not sure if that gives you a clue as to how he plans on doing things.

Thanks for the extra info ;)
 
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Haych Jay

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Apr 21, 2008
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I recommend the Antec Earthwatts 380w PSU
Click to expand...

I was just looking at prices for the Antec Earthwatts 380W and I noticed this:

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=1411820&viewSpec=y#productTop

Any thoughts on whether it would be a better purchase than the Jeantech Phong II? It would save money a little. Just not sure how it would be when it comes to making things quiet. At this point I'm guessing it can't be a bad idea because Antec are well known for their quiet cases, but this is definitely at the budget end of their models and standards might not be quite as high.
 
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Haych Jay

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It's a plain Jane of a case, but she'll do the job (and save me money at the same time). The Jeantech Phong II is probably a little more than my brother needs. And besides, this way I can have it when I build a new rig of my own in a couple of months.... mwuahahahahahahaha!!

Anyway, the Antec case has been bought now. Which leads me to thank amdfangirl and oushi for your feedback and the link to the cheaper deal. I'd hug you if you weren't virtual entities :na:
 
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