Recording Studio PC Critique

[Saint Nick]

Hi folks. I've made a couple of these threads over the years, but never pulled the trigger. I am in dire need of a PC upgrade for my recording studio. Currently I'm running on an old Dell Optiplex workstation I got from one of my old internships. It has a ~3.4GHz Prescott (I think) and two gigs of RAM and some PATA drives. At this point, anything made in the past couple years will be a huge upgrade.

I can't say I am terribly knowledgeable about current PC technologies, but I thought I would take a stab at a PC build. The goal is to get the most powerful PC for recording audio at the lowest price. The PC will be utilizing two PreSonus Firepods (firewire interface) for audio. Eventually I plan on upgrading to a two monitor set up, but the on board video will work for now. I'll be using my old PATA HDDs as storage in the meantime. This build includes an SSD for my main stuff such as Windows and Adobe Audition.

I am unsure of the power situation with this build. I calculated that I would need about 300W for this, so ended up on choosing the Antec 380W.


https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=14668474

Case
HEC 6C11BB Black 0.8mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Motherboard
ASRock N68C-S UCC AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

RAM
Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory with heatshield Model PSD38G1600KH

Processor
AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HD96ZTWFGRBOX

Power Supply
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ...

SSD
OCZ Octane OCT1-25SAT2-64G 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Optical
LG 22X Super-Multi DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS90B - OEM

Total comes to $381.93 + $4.83 shipping = $386.76

 

[Blain]

Copy & Paste a list would be much better.

 

[Saint Nick]

Copy & Paste a list would be much better.

OK. Done and done!

 

[Zap]

Hi folks. I've made a couple of these threads over the years, but never pulled the trigger.

So does this mean you are finally going to do it? Or are you wasting our time again?

A few generic items of note.

WHEN do you plan to do this? New Intel CPUs will start showing up in maybe under 2 months (but not all of them). They aren't that much different than the current ones, but something to keep in mind. If you need it NOW then go for it and don't worry about the new ones. Like I said, very little difference.

Either ditch the IDE hard drives or use them with external USB enclosures.

Use onboard video that supports dual monitors, and don't worry about ever having to add in a graphics card (unless you get a sudden urge to game or to do CAD or something that actually can use GPU power).

Yes, ANYTHING you can buy that is current with the exception of Atom, AMD E-series APU or anything single core will be better than the old Prescott. Some stuff will be a bit better (like a dual core Celeron) and some will be a LOT better.

Do you already have an operating system to use? You'll need a 64-bit OS to take advantage of more than 4GB RAM, otherwise waste of $15.

I'd say either get a better SSD or don't bother. Also, you'll want Windows 7 if you use an SSD.

If you truly need the absolute lowest price for a complete system, then just forget about building your own and just go buy a Dell Vostro or some other nice business class desktop. Building your own is about customization and high performance, as well as saving some money on the higher end. It is NOT about saving money on the low end.

Here is one possible build.

Antec NSK3480 $100
Comes with Earthwatts 380W, plus is known to be easy to make a quiet system in this case.

Your optical drive and RAM choices are fine.

Intel H67 chipset motherboard $90
Can do dual displays, comes with Firewire.

Core i3 2XXX or Core i5 2XXX series CPU of choice.

 

[Saint Nick]

I would like to buy within the next two weeks. And yes...now that I actually have money I will be buying for sure . I've got a copy of Windows 7 64-bit I'll be putting on it. I guess I'll just buy a couple new SATA drives and use a USB converter to transfer my data.

Thanks for your input. I'll revise my build tonight and hopefully have more to post later. In the meantime, if anyone else has some advice, let me know, thank you.

 

[mfenn]

If you truly need the absolute lowest price for a complete system, then just forget about building your own and just go buy a Dell Vostro or some other nice business class desktop. Building your own is about customization and high performance, as well as saving some money on the higher end. It is NOT about saving money on the low end.

Agree 100%. A Vostro will be better put-together and quieter than some random build with a HEC case. Then just add a PCI(e) Firewire card and call it a day.

 

[Saint Nick]

Nevermind, looks like the Vostro 260 will probably do the job. Only $450 bones too. Hopefully will be able to upgrade RAM and throw in an SSD later on...

 

[General Kenobi]

Just a note on the PSU: if you plan to switch to a multiple monitor setup later, make sure that you add the future GPU (you are adding one, right?) into the wattage requirements before you actually buy the PSU now.

 

[mfenn]

Just a note on the PSU: if you plan to switch to a multiple monitor setup later, make sure that you add the future GPU (you are adding one, right?) into the wattage requirements before you actually buy the PSU now.

Any GPU that just needs to drive some extra displays will be very low power; low enough such that it doesn't significantly factor into power consumption calculations.

 

[General Kenobi]

Any GPU that just needs to drive some extra displays will be very low power; low enough such that it doesn't significantly factor into power consumption calculations.

I guess I focus too much on gaming to think about that possibility. But to be fair, the OP didn't mention anything specific beyond adding one.

 

[Saint Nick]

Well, it is for a recording studio. I'm not playing video games on it...

 

[General Kenobi]

TDP range would have been helpful in either case.