First build in several years, looking for input

[Frags10]

Hey guys, I'm finally starting to realize that my current P4C 3.0 system from 2003 just doesn't cut it anymore. Its had a long and very admirable run but its time to move on to something new.


1) What will you be doing with this PC?

The main use will be music production with Ableton Live 8, along with VSTs. Perhaps some other DAWs in the future as well. Secondary use will be gaming. Also, general web browsing, etc.

2) What's your budget?

Budget is around $1000. This is somewhat flexible though, if I can achieve what I want for a little less, great.....if i need to go over by a little bit, its not the end of the world.

3) Where do you live?

Near Boston, MA. I live close enough to a Microcenter, if that matters.

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

CPU, motherboard, memory, case(I could reuse my current ATX case if I need to save some money, though), video card, power supply(probably, see below), SSD. I also need to get a good sound card, but this is NOT included in the $1000 budget.


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

I currently have a 450 watt Rosewill power supply, model number RD450-2DB. I think its from around 2005 or 2006. I am assuming I am not going to be able to reuse this, but if i can, great. Also I have several IDE hard drives that I use for storage, as well as some external USB ones. And IDE dvd burner as well.

6) Will you be overclocking?

maybe, but probably not right away.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

Right now I use dual 1280 x 1024 LCDs. Will probably get something better eventually.

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

Probably sometime in early/mid July.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

Firewire, USB 3.0, and onboard wifi would all be nice but are not absolutely needed. Probably will not be doing a dual video card setup.

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

Already have windows 7


Some more things:

I would like this machine to be relatively quite. Doesn't have to be silent, I would just like to get it as quiet as possible while still maintaining an adequate level of cooling/performance. I have also been considering micro ATX motherboards as they seem to suit my needs, and the Antec p180 mATX case has caught my eye, but I am not dead set on this. I definitely would like the case to be small or medium sized... no full towers.

I am pretty sure I want an i7 CPU, or maybe an i5 750 (I am open to AMD cpus but these intel's seem to be the best buy at the moment). I am kind of having a difficult time choosing between LGA 1366 and LGA 1156, though.

for a video card, I have been looking at a Radeon 5770, and perhaps something better if there ends up being room in my budget.

As for the SSD... I am somewhat clueless in what to look for. I have seen the Intel X25M G2 80GB recommended a lot online, but its quite pricey. Is it worth it, or could I go for something a bit cheaper?

Looking for any input you guys might have. Thank you!

 

[lt_shiro]

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $100

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $70

Intel X25-V SSDSA2MP040G2R5 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $115

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL $110

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case and G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL combo $145

Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power $65

ASUS PCE-N13 PCI Express Wireless Adapter $29

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor Model HDT55TFBGRBOX and XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card combo $315

Total before S&H $950

I picked x6 1055t after checking the ableton forum, that app scales well across multi-core setup.

 

[engiNURD]

If you can find a sandforce drive, Vertex2 or Agility2, 60GB for around $155, that would be a good choice. Cheaper than that would be the Indilinx drives (Vertex, Agility, etc) that are priced similarly to the X25-V shiro listed. The indilinx drives have faster sequential speeds, but the X25-V has higher IOPS and faster small random writes. The vertex2, agility2, and corsair.force are sanforce-based, and outperform the x25-v/m and indilinx-based drives.

 

[Shalafi]

Just to give you another option, if you're willing to increase your budget by $500, you can have a rather nice i7 rig, and given how long you made your previous PC last (a fuckin long time at that!!!)

You could justify the extra expense. That's up to you though, but remember, for every extra $100-$200 you spend, your options and performance increase by a good amount.

 

[engiNURD]

... until you reach the point of diminishing returns.

And just to give you an idea of how much an i7 build would be...

$200 - Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz
$210 - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
$160 - G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ
==========
$570 - $410 (cost of X6 parts) = $160 more for an i7 quad core with HyperThreading.

 

[E4g1e]

... until you reach the point of diminishing returns.

And just to give you an idea of how much an i7 build would be...

$200 - Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz
$210 - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
$160 - G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ
==========
$570 - $525 (cost of X6 parts) = $50 more for an i7 quad core with HyperThreading.

The problem with this comparison is that the configurations will never be comparable in terms of the amount of RAM. This is because no AMD platform can run 6GB of RAM in proper dual-channel without mixing completely different-sized DIMMs while no LGA1366 platform can run 8GB in full triple-channel mode no matter what. As such, you're comparing an LGA1366 platform with 2GB less RAM than the X6 platform used as a basis for this comparison.

On the other hand, the above X6 CPU/mobo combination with only 4GB of RAM would have cost $410.

 

[Shalafi]

... until you reach the point of diminishing returns.

And just to give you an idea of how much an i7 build would be...

$200 - Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz
$210 - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
$160 - G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ
==========
$570 - $525 (cost of X6 parts) = $50 more for an i7 quad core with HyperThreading.

i'm not arguing what you mean by diminishing returns

but he can of course get a better video card, a better SSD, and a better proc/mobo/RAM combination for a little more, and given how long he takes between system builds, he can easily justify added expense. That was my overall point.

At least my response is better than just the same old reply, I like to think a little out of the box. If his budget isn't absolutely what he says it is, then yeah it's good for him. If not, then your suggestion is the best.

I'm presenting another option.

 

[engiNURD]

On the other hand, the above X6 CPU/mobo combination with only 4GB of RAM would have cost $410.

ahh, my bad, that was a combo price on shiro's list. fixed the math above.

... I'm presenting another option.

Indeed, I just wanted to point out the minimum extra cash needed to jump to an i7 LGA1366 build (since the way you worded your post seemed to imply he'd need $500 more for the jump), which wouldn't be a bad idea since he's near a MC. I also agree, judging from how long he kept the P4C, I'd spend the extra cash on an SSD. I wouldn't bother upgrading the vidcard until he gets new monitors, though.

 

[lt_shiro]

I am just wonder if anyone look at benchmarks for the apps he will be using?

 

[engiNURD]

nah, i was waiting for the DAW peeps to jump in, but I haven't seen them around lately, lol...

@OP: have you looked into benchmarks for your apps? If not, you might want to have a mod add "DAW" into your thread title.

 

[quidproqu0]

I just bought the rest of my parts for my build today. i'm gonna just paste part of my excel sheet that helped me organize it here

GPU XFX Radeon 5770 149.99 TigerDirect sale

CPU I7-875K 199.99 Microcenter

Mobo ASUS P7P55D-E Pro 179.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621
PSU Corsair HX 650W 119.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
Combo bonus -30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.418893
Mail in Rebate -20

Case Lian Li PC-K62 89.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112239

HDD Samsung F3 1 TB 69.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

OD Sony Optiarc black 19.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118039

RAM G.Skill ECO 4 GB CAS7 109.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231321

Cooling CM Hyper 212 21.13 http://www.provantage.com/cooler-master-rr-b10-212p-gp~4COOL077.htm

Thermal Arctic Cooling MX-2 8.88 http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Cooling-mx-2/dp/B000WVM0PU

Total $920

NOTEs:
1) No SSDs
2) you can combo the antec 300 illusion with some pretty good g.skill ripjaws ram to save ~$50
3) If you plan on following the above build, but want to do research, buy the i7-875K ASAP. When i went to Boston's MC on Sunday, they had 15 or so left, but I think the $200 price may end this weekend. Buy it, then if you don't like it, then return it.
4) the non-Pro version of the mobo has the came combo bonus, but costs $30 less, though has worse SLI support. Might cut money there to get a better GPU
5) If you really want to "future-proof" it, got for i7-930 and the more expensive x58 mobos and then pay ~$50 for that extra stick of RAM
6) If you must cut costs, you can downgrade to the i3-530, though I suggest against this. just saying it's a possibility. You could also go the cheaper AMD route, though those routes are supposedly better for games, worse on other apps. just read the reviews - easy enough to find.
7) For case, if you kinda like the case I posted, also look at the Cooler master 690 II (standard and advanced) line. I personally didn't like them, but many people do. For cheap end, look at Antec 300 (Illusion for added blue led fans/airflow). Many choices, not worth discussing it here.
7) Just a SMALL way to save money, but go to bing's cashback program to log into newegg for the 2% savings. 2% is small, but every dollar counts when you're on a budget

 

[Frags10]

Thanks for the responses guys! Finding decent benchmarks for Ableton is difficult, especially for windows machines. It is clear that it uses multicores very well, though.

Here are some parts that I have been looking at:

i7 860
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214

MSI H55M-E33 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130256

Antec Mini P180 White Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129044

in response to the Phenom X6 build: My understanding is that the X6 and an i7 should perform about the same in Ableton, but the i7 would perform far better in games, and any apps that don't take advantage of the 6 cores. If this is the case, I would rather spend a bit more and get the i7 over the X6. It does seem like a great CPU for the money, though.

EDIT: Wow, i875 for 200 bucks....i think i will head to microcenter tomorrow and try to snag that, thanks!

 

[Dangman]

If the i7 860 costs $200 at Microcenter, get that CPU over the i7 875K since it doesn't look like you're overclocking much. Not to mention that the i7 875K does not come with a HSF.

Also note that the i7 route will not let you get a SSD within your $1000 budget.

 

[E4g1e]

If the i7 860 costs $200 at Microcenter, get that CPU over the i7 875K since it doesn't look like you're overclocking much. Not to mention that the i7 875K does not come with a HSF.

Also note that the i7 route will not let you get a SSD within your $1000 budget.

Actually, the i7-860 now costs $230 at MC. This makes neither CPU as good of a deal as many people think.

 

[Dangman]

Actually, the i7-860 now costs $230 at MC. This makes neither CPU as good of a deal as many people think.

Huh, damn. Gotta redo a few other builds then. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[quidproqu0]

Already said this elswhere, didn't know about the 860 price increase. However, check with your local microcenter (just a phone call). When I went to grab my 875K, the guy next to me had an 860 order sheet for $200, which might have been old, or he was lucky.