[Solved] Building Professional Audio PC

Just got a $20,000 small business loan to improve my studio. We just bought a new Sony DMX-R100 console (its freakin' sweet!!!) and 2 PCI cards to get the full 36 channel interface.

Now its time to build a PC from scratch to accommodate the new console. So I can drop a few thousand on a new PC and I know we want it to be a 64-bit OS system. The main need for this new PC build is for it to be able to process a lot of DSP and VST plugins in real time and retrieve data very very quickly. We will have situation where there will be up to 36 audio files at about 40-50mb a piece being played simultaneously. So I need a computer that will retrieve the data quickly and processing power that can handle about anything we throw at it with no lag.

Suggestions?

Good points! Here's the scoop:

The quietest possible system
Budget ~$2500-3000
I'd like to stay within system spec, but if OC'ing is possible without lessening the life of the computer, then go for it.
Enthusiast video card is not necessary, but i may end up breaking into video production in a year or two beyond the audio setup this will be intended for

Wow, you pretty much did all the research for me. I've done quite a bit of research myself but i thought I'd get a complete objective second opinion uncolored from my thoughts on what I've looked at. I was also thinking about 2 SSD's in raid 0. I don't think i need to mirror the drives since they will be for active projects and will be eventually stored in the 1TB hard drive. The audio setup we have will take care of all sound applications, so no on board sound card will be needed.

I'm definitely tech savvy when it comes to assembling the computer itself, so this setup seems easy to put together. I'll probably throw in an OEM version of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate.

Just thought of something else that might be a problem. If you do want to go with a Radeon 5870, they are huge by graphics card standards. The ASRock has a very good motherboard layout so no issue there, but I think the Antec P183 may be too small front to back to fit it. I chose the Antec P183 because of it's excellent acoustic properties, but you may need to go with something else to fit larger graphics cards.

The review on high end gaming cases a few days back on Tom's Hardware is a good resource to look at for current best cases. the Antec P193 is an updated version of the P183, and should have no problem with the long graphics cards. Here's the results from the review: http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 420-7.html

The other cases they reviewed are also nice, but crazy expensive. The only other "reasonably priced" case I'd choose is the Panzerbox, but it isn't optimized for quietness so not a good option for your application.

Well if you have an isolation case already, I don't think you could get much quieter than that. Everything else is pretty well covered. You probably have already checked this, but before you commit yourself to a 64-bit OS, I'd make sure your equipment has drivers that support 64-bit, and that any required software also runs in 64-bit. My company has started rolling out Windows 7 64-bit to our laptops, and we had nice little surprises like our VPN client doesn't work with 64-bit, so I wasted a few days on finding a work around.

good evening..There are some systems already out there you can look at for reference,like Sweetwater's music PCs..The reasons are many,yet mostly,the average PC is just not optimized for music/audio,and the operating systems need to be pared down and tweaked,so you dont have unwanted things like screensavers and power settings going on and off during recordings and sound design.Secondly,you do want the PC quiet,efficient,cool,and preferably NEVER online.Your projects should be sent directly to your hard drive and an external drive,and if you can afford it,even tape as well.Yeah,yeah,people still talk that mess about digital/new stuff is better yet that fact is,many major studios still use tape,which has PROVED itself,along with magneto-optical drives,to be quite robust and lasting.Anyway,there are some things about your music computer to consider...

lots of RAM...helps with those plugins and multiple tracks

sound card....the Creative Lab's stuff was ok,yet the RME,MAudio,and Lynx cards are known for their awesome converters

Operating systems?...XP is fine and if you want,go with the 64 bit version..Vista/Win7 will NOT make your music sound better or help you work faster..as a matter of fact,the more bloated the operating system,it can tend to work AGAINST you in the studio,which is why Macs usually rule in the music world...not that I care,because whatever works,works,and i have PCs,Sun,and SGI machines..

software...
Ableton Live7/8 if you want realtime control
Reason.Native Instruments,and there is a 'new' one on the scene..Reaper
ProTools is the industry STANDARD,so please dont allow people to tell you that you wont need to learn and get nice with it,unless you dont plan on selling your music and making money...

the rest,Cubase,Sonar,Samplitude,etc,etc...you just have to try them and pick the ones that work well for you..

The folks that speak more about application,efficiency,quiet cases,voltage regulators,UPS devices,basic video cards,and keeping things simple are on point.You are making music,not a movie,not Toy Story 4,and if you are going commercial,it makes more sense to spend just enough to MAKE MORE money,so you can pay bills,have the computer pay for itself and the software,and expand your studio as needed..

tapher - great post!

As for video card, we do have 2 monitors we'd like to hook up with DVI cables, so some research will certainly go into which card in particular.

I didn't even think about the liquid cooling option. I was looking at it more like we don't need that kind of cooling yet that would make things fan-less, good suggestion!

The iso box the computer would be in is pretty remarkable. It has underside ventilation so it wouldn't become an oven if the CPU is in there. As for the power supply, I'm not sure if that's going to be an issue. The machine doesn't necessarily have to be dead silent, after all the computer would be in an isolation case that is off to the side in the control room, while the microphones and everything is isolated off to the live room. Any issue of bleeding sounds in the microphones is negligible. You'd be more likely at that point to pick up the breathing of the drummer before the computer itself! :-)

Thanks again for some great suggestions!