Well my old DFI Ultra Lan Party motherboard has finally died on me, so it seems like a good time to spec myself a new CPU, motherboard and RAM bundle. I built my old system primarily for flight-simulation purposes back in 2006, and overclocked an Opteron 2Ghz up to 3Ghz, but will now be looking to rebuild the computer for primarily music recording user Reaper (or Tracktion) . I've been out of touch with the hardcore computer malarkey for a while, so am not up on the latest CPU and RAM combinations etc.
Can anyone recommend what I should be looking for as a replacement.. My price limit is about £500.
(pronounced: equal-sequel) "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
Comments
I have just put together an Asus M5A97 R2.0 MOBO plus AMD 6300 3.5G 6core Amazon offer for £145.00 . I had 6G of DDR3 ram about anyway but I intend to up that to 8G once the plastic is back in shape!
I also bought the retail Win 7 64 bits because I was upgrading an old P4 XP jobbie.
Not the cutting edge of music PCs I know but should be ok for our limited needs. Beware if you do go for that MOBO... No VGA support! Had to spring another 30 quid for a graph card at Maplins.
I know there are some knowledgeable guys here but www.soundonsound.com will definitely know te top bllx.
Dave.
After @ecc83 and @Heartfeltdawn's recommendation of the AMD multicore processors, I've opted for what appears to be the best bang for the buck..and give me a little bit of future proofing. (I may need to go the Pro-Tools route at some point as my daughter is being taught how to use it as in integral part of her college course)
So I'm looking at (so far)
AMD FX8350 Black Edition 8 Core Processor
I like the Asus board cos it's got some room for overclocking, but also include two PCI slots and a Firewire connection. I did considered the Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0, but as Amazon are hoisting the price daily on this one (up by £8 overnight), and it's twice the price and I'm looking for stability and therefore not planning any heavy overclocking it seems a bit overkill. It also means I can save some dosh to get solid state drive.
Bit more info.
I would belay buying a specialist CPU fan. The one supplied with the 6core is very quiet. There is a Maplin case fan and one more 80mm "Be Quiet" from 'zon in the case* and I have just set my Maplin cheapo SPL meter 1/2 a meter from the (open!) case and get 25dBSPL(C) . I can hear the kettle going in the kitchen 18feet away (doors open) but I can't hear this PC! The Asus MOBO software lets you setup for "silent" fan op'.
I had intended to fit the MOBO in a Dixons Special 3G P4 xp jobbie but it was too big! The PC repair guy down the frog had a gash case to fit (no sides, cross that bridge...!) PSU 350W and quiet!, Optical drive, 30 quid!
Don't forget you need a VGA card but you do not need anything blinding for music so anything passively cooled off the net will do. Of course you might want multiple screen options?
SSD? I would have HAD I any money left! As it is I am very happy with the 1TB SATA spinner, never had much trouble with HDDs. The drive is a bit "clicky" when working hard and I need one of those acoustic drive sleeves but having trouble sourcing one. Anyone gone SSD and have one for sale?
*Maps only had the Asus HD-5450 graph card at any sensible monies and no fan. Works fine but got hotter than this old 'tronics geezer liked so I have slotted in a fan to blow it. I can now keep finger on heatsink, before, about 10 secs. "Ouch!" Over 50C.
All up this is a very quiet PC and could be made virtually "Is the fekker on???"
Dave.