College/Home Recording Studio Build!

[Salt-City_Slasher]

I have a budget of between 1000-1300$, I mainly need it configured so I can run recording software like
Pro-Tools and Ableton, and since I am buying an external interface an internal sound card isn't that
important.
I actually already have two screens, mouse, keyboard, printer, monitors, and remember I already have both of the these ~Sound Card and Video Card~ and I also already have a heatsink for the cpu.
I would like to get either a i7 930 or an AMD 1090, or to save cash the 1055 or 965!

The case I want is the CM 690 2 advanced for 89$

Memory I prefer: Crucial or G.Skill
HD: minimum 500gb
PSU: Corsair HX series or TX series if I need to save a little more
OS: I would just get windows 7 oem,
DVD: any dvd burner

These are all preference and I am mainly having a hard time choosing an Intel mobo.
If i went with AMD, I got a mobo mapped out.

But I plan on buying this latest by the time Fall Semester starts, which I will use it for MS Word!

I plan on getting it from NewEgg because they have the best deals, plus I can finance it so I can
just make payments.

Thanks, don't worry about any of the music equipment because thats already taken care of already.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Well I keep seeing that people think that Mac is the better music production computer, but
besides for having logic and snow leopard, there is nothing great about a mac!

I took the specs for the 2000$ iMac and I have put together a build for 1000$ that
is at least 2x better in every department from memory to cpu.
So I could have a i5 750 or a X6 1090t, Gskill Flare 1800 @lat 7 instead of 1066!
Then I could get 6gb/s instead of 3 @ 1tb, plus my current GPU is way better than a 4850.

Plus ill hit them while there down, I could get a Crosshair 4 w/usb and sata 3, supreme audio integrated and tons of extras. Plus I would have a Corsair HX750.
And very easily I can just install snow leopard on this extreme machine if I had the desire, I just put it
on my current one just to do a test.

I think if your already making big bucks producing music, than getting a MAC Pro with raid cards and the whole shabam then it doesn't matter cause money ain't a thang.
But for home studios that are for pretty much hobbies(like me) then why pay double for half the
power??

 

[sinPCsin]

Don't MAC unless you have more money than you care to spend.

Get solid dedicated sound card and you will be set. I like Creative Labs SB0886 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi because I use optical, but there are other cards like ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express that support different inputs/outputs.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Yeah I am acutally looking through some right now, because I kept thinking i didn't need one because I was going to be using an external interface. But I didn't realize that things like my midi controller and monitors(speakers) are going to need crisp sound to!

I have Audiology 2 value from 4 years ago, so I will throw that out.

I know the Crosshair 4 had integrated sound card, but I will probably get something like the sound blaster again!

If I remember correctly, when I plug something usb in, it can be conrtolled through the sound card.

 

[sinPCsin]

I know the Crosshair 4 had integrated sound card, but I will probably get something like the sound blaster again!

I just finished researching for my build and was considering Crosshair 4, but reviews of sound are all bad. It is solid mobo in all other aspects, just not sound. Its ASUS, so they will eventually clean up their act, but for now its not all that.

Go with dedicated card. Plus consider picking up receiver, lot of people upgrading home theaters to HDMI so older (but still 100% good receivers) can be had for pennies off craiglist.

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For your budget - consider AMD build. Intel are expen$ive, and for a good reason - you are paying premium for fastest, but unless you are into "premium" market cost/perfomance ratio is heavily stacked into AMD favor.

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CPU+Mobo AMD Phenom II X6 +MSI mobo -$365.98 very future-proof combination, you will be able to upgrade to latest and greatest AM3 AMD chips any time down the line. Unlike Intel AMD doesn't change sockets that often, so BIOS upgrade for mobo is all you need to make it work.

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 $99.99

Sound: Creative Labs PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium $159.99

HDD1 WD SiliconEdge Blue SSC-D0128SC-2100 2.5" 128GB SATA II

HDD2: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Total: $900.94 plus you pick PSU that will match your video card.

You said you already have video card, case picked up.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Yeah I didn't think it could handle the sound for recording.
I am gona need a 24bit @96KHz or 192KHz, probably just something like that Fatl1ty one.

cause if I am going to spend 300$ on some KRK Rockit 5's I would like to have them sound as good
as possible! Not to mention the overall quality of my recordings!

I was debating on the Crosshair 4 and the Giga UD5, but I just figured I would get the CH4 for
all the little features, even thought the UD5 is a great solid board.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

actually I will be plugging the KRK's into the M-Box 2. But even still an internal sound card is a must!

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

I have researched more, and pretty much most my equipment is plugged into the external sound card(Mbox 2) or also
interface. But for whatever is plugged through USB and regular music, dvds, and for 5.1 surround(games, dvd)

I have compiled a sort of list:

1090
HX750
Caviar Black 1tb 6gb/s
Gskill Flare 1800 lat 7
Asus DVD Burner
CM 690 2 Advanced
Windows 7 64 bit
Asus Crosshair 4
Then I will just be using my current graphics card and and the stock cooler on the 1090.
This all equals=1065$ w/ship

Here is my main question that will decide on a lot of things, the M-Audio Sound Cards mainly the Delta 44 and 66.
Will these cards support the computers sound for things not plugged into the back of it, like dvd and music, or
for things plugged in usb?

 

[batuchka]

For DAWs/Audio workstation it's all CPU and when i do these up on AM3 i would instantly look atthe 880G as the best bang for buck solution hehe Rain recording does professional class DAWs/Audio workstation and check out their 6 core Rackmount specs
http://rainrecording.com/products/ion/

Processor
2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X6 6-Core Processor
Up to 3.2GHz AMD Phenom II X6 6-Core

Memory
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel SDRAM
Four memory slots for up to 16GB

Graphics
ATI Radeon HD 4200 [512MB]
Optional ATI Radeon HD 4650 [1GB]

In short : CHIV is totally overkill

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

I was looking through the Rain Products and they are so cool but I don't really have the money for any of them.

So an AMD 1090 is the cheapest solution for multi-tasking.
When finding parts for my build the only thing I have a hard time choosing is the mobo.
I think the Crosshair 4 has tons of great features and comes with good enough sound for dvd and 5.1 sound.

I will go check out the 880G's but my build is just as good as any Mac and pretty close to the Rain rack(excluding Xeon's)

Because having 1800 memory and a HD @ 6gb/s plus the psu from Corsair that is best of its kind, these all are way better.

I never thought about it but for what I am doing I should get a workstation videocard of some kind, but that will have
to be upgraded later.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Hey I looked into them 880g's and I found the Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H, which literally has everything that
a UD5 and UD7 has just minus the things that I don't need such as silent pipe, 4 pci-e slots, PRICE and so on.
From what I can tell it has the dual bios, supports fast memory and phenom X6's, 333, HD Radeon 4250,
usb and sata 3, S/PDIF input, 24bit @ 192KHz and everything that the UD5 has except for the NB and SB.

Plus they also have the 890GPA(890GX), which is 100$ cheaper than the Crosshair 4!
I will admit the CH4 is a little over priced but I read a review on toms that rated all the 890FX's and
the ch4 had the faster of everything, and was insanely good at multi-tasking.

I just want to look into these and see if it's worth the extra 100$.