Budget Build for Audio Manipulation and Encoding

[Jherek]

Hi all,

Current 6 year old, antiquated rig to be replaced:

Athlon 64 3200+ (90 nm)
Biostar MB
Soundblaster Live (yeah, I know it's junk)
Dual 120 GB EIDE drives
Onboard video
HEC 430 watt power supply (I don't trust this with a new build)
IDE DVD drive

Case to reuse for new build (the rest is going):

*Lian Li PC 65 case, modded to hold 120 mm rear fan.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

I need an upgrade to do quicker audio manipulation of lengthy (usually 1 to 3 hour) spoken word audio files, extracting the best possible sound from the original medium. I spend hours, often, working on a single file, honing it to audio perfection (as far as that's possible).

Audio manipulation: editing, stripping audio from video files, de-noising, cutting, pasting, EQing, encoding, etc., using Audacity, Acoustica, etc.

Also, general web surfing, smooth 1080p video watching, video conferencing using Skype, etc.

Need to be able to do basic internet stuff while audio encoding (minutes ticking by) is taking place.

I don't play computer games, aside from a bit of old school low resolution stuff, like the original Civilization.

I'd like to get a good motherboard, and go cheap on the processor, so can upgrade next year to an unlocked Ivy Bridge quad core/ 64 bit OS/ and more RAM.

It's vital to have two hard drives to mirror all important files.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

*~$350, including tax/shipping.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Central Missouri, USA.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

*CPU, MB, RAM, Power Supply, DVD Burner, Hard Drive, sound card (possibly use onboard sound or reuse SB Live, if budget won't allow upgrade this year).

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

*Lian Li PC 65, modded to take rear 120 mm fan (very solid and quiet case).
*Soundblaster Live - if budget will not allow new card (yeah, it's pretty sad.)
*Monitor
*Keyboard/Mouse

6) Will you be overclocking?

*Not unless the multiplier is unlocked.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

*1280x1024, 17 inch IBM LCD.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

*Sometime in November or December, before Xmas.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

*SATA 6 would be nice.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

*Windows XP Pro, 32 bit, SP2.

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Here's what I'm thinking:

CPU: Pentium G860 (3 GHZ x2): $74.99 (+ 0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116405&name=Processors-Desktops

MB: ASRock B75M-DGS LGA 1155 $54.99 (+ 6.98)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157335&name=Intel-Motherboards

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) $24.99 (+ 0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427&name=Desktop-Memory

DVD: ASUS 24X DVD - $19.99 (+ 4.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204&name=CD-DVD-Burners

Hard Drives: Western Digital WD Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB x 2 $129.98 (+ 0)

Power Supply: Antec VP-450 450W - $35.99 (+ 3.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371045&name=Power-Supplies

Total:$353.16

What do you think? How will this stuff gel, and is there something that wouldn't work with an unlocked Ivy Bridge quad?

 

[Dangman]

It's vital to have two hard drives to mirror all important files.

Why?

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

*Sometime in November or December, before Xmas.

You're planning your build too early then. Our hardware recommendations can change in as little as a week let alone 1-2 months from now. If you want an up-to-date build list, please come back when you're 1-2 weeks away from buying the parts of the PC.

What do you think? How will this stuff gel, and is there something that wouldn't work with an unlocked Ivy Bridge quad?

If you were buying today, that's a really poor setup for the money. At $62 shipped, that mobo is a bit pricey for what it offers. Not to mention that there would be no point in using an unlcoked Ivy Bridge CPU with that mobo considering that A) it can't OC and B) even if it could, it is not of high enough quality to OC all that well. Either way, if you really want to OC, you're gonna need a Z77 mobo at the least.

That RAM is a poor choice no matter what since $10 more gets you twice as much RAM. So a 4GB RAM should not cost more than $18 to $20. Any higher and you're just wasting money. Not to mention that your mobo only has two DIMM slots which means that you would be maxed out at 4GB of RAM if you use that mobo and RAM together. Not to mention that you would effectively have to ditch or throw away the RAM should you want to upgrade to 8GB of RAM or more later on when you get a 64bit OS. So in other words, find a single 4GB stick of RAM that does not cost more than $18 to $20 and you'll be set in terms of best bang for the buck value.

The hard drives are stupidly overpriced at $65 a piece since $5 to $10 more right now gets you a significantly faster and larger 500GB drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769&name=Internal-Hard-Drives

At $40 shipped, that PSU is overpriced considering that the slightly higher quality and larger amperage (means more power for more parts) Corsair CX430 costs only $5 more.

With all of that said, by the time you buy, there might be better prebuilt Dell PC deals around that time. Especially if you check out Dell Outlet.