Upcoming PC Upgrade - In Need Of Suggestions.

[zoobooboozoo]

Hi all,

My 4.5 years old PC kinda died on me,
and it was a limiting DAW back when it worked perfectly so I decided to upgrade my system.
I'm a musician and use the PC as a DAW - for recording, producing etc.

I'm pretty low on funds, so I figured I can stick with my
1. old case
2. PSU(520W)
3. Graphics card(Nvidia 9500GT) [or use intel graphics that will come with the new CPU]
4. Hard Drives
5. Burner, Screens, Keyboard etc...

and just buy a new MotherBoard, CPU, and RAM.
What would you suggest to get for a budget of about 350$-400$ ?

 

[ASHISH65]

Are you gamer?

 

[ASHISH65]

Go with intel i5 3570 + gigabyte or asus b75 mobo + gskill 8gb ram 1600mhz ddr3.this would be best.

 

[zoobooboozoo]

As I said I'm a musician, My gaming is limited to a Civilization scenario every few months

 

[ASHISH65]

Then go with that i5 rig.

 

[zoobooboozoo]

Thanks man. do I need any extra components for the upgrade like a CPU cooler? or that package will do?

 

[ASHISH65]

That package is enough.you do not need anything.

 

[zoobooboozoo]

Thanks again for the info man, here's my current system(so you'll guys know exactly what I already have)

PC:
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz
PSU: Core Elite ATX-520W
M-Board: Gigabyte G31M-S2L
RAM: 2X2GB DDR2 400Mhz
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 9500GT
Hard Drives: Western Digital: 1TB Black(WD1002FAEX), 500GB Green(WD5000AACS), 160GB(WD1600ADFD)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

Audio Hardware:
External Audio Interface: PreSonus FireBox
Amplifier: InterM PA-2000a
Mics: Shure SM57 & KSM27

 

[zoobooboozoo]

A real dilemma is whether to go amd or intel, most ppl suggested i5, but there's some suggesting amd.

I think that's the no1 question for me to solve...

I think a good L3 Cache is important for my kind of uses(music editing)

 

[zoobooboozoo]

(Hope I'm not dping... there's more questions coming up as I go, and with the info I get)
Because the prices where I live are a lil' higher, I decided to go with i5 3470
since I don't intend to overclock, and the 0.2GHz differnce doesn't worth the 65$[where i live] from 3470 to 3570k.

So now I have a few more questions(Low noise is important):
1) The motherboard. I looked at the differences and could see features differnces,
non seemed crucial, but still I'm being told there will be a PERFORMENCE DIFFERENCE between different boards.
is that right?
2) Which PSU brands/models can I trust?
3) Which CPU fan brands/models can I trust?
4) Which RAM brands/models can I trust? (although if I go 2X4GB DDR 3 1600 and choose a good brand like kingston or crossair, it doesn't really matter that much exactly which I choose right? BTW - it doesn't matter if I get 1X8GB or 2X4GB right? almost no price differnce so I figure why not?)