Is this set-up overkill for music production?

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Milkshake

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Apr 11, 2011
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Preamble:
My computer (4 years old) has gone kapoot. The PSU, Motherboard, CPU and RAM need to be replaced.
My computer is solely for music production which is demanding on RAM, but not on graphics whatsoever.

Requirements
I am going to be ordering in the parts I need and assembling it myself.
I have decided to run an Intel processor because I have not used one before and would like to compare.
I need at least 4x SATA, but graphics card options do not bother me (i imagine most motherboards have PCIe nowadays anyway).

Potential Problem
I am currently making an album, which is in the old computers hard drives (and backed up on external hard drives, but not as recently). I was running Vista on a Raptor hard drive, with 2x 500GB hard drives, but i suspect that some of the music program's data is also stored on the raptor hard drive. Therefore I do not want to reformat this hard drive yet. My plan is to instead buy a new SSD hard drive which will run my new install of vista so that the album can be salvaged in its totality with minimal losses. Once this is complete, I will reformat the raptor hard drive and use it for something separate.

TLDR: Parts List, is this overkill for a music production set-up

The parts I have thought about are as follows...

Motherboard: Intel DX58SO
New Hard Drive running 32-bit Vista: Intel SSD X25
CPU: i7 950
RAM: Kingston 4GB DD3 (2x2GB) (From what i've read, there is no point getting more than 4gb in a 32bit system?)
PSU: Corsair GS 600
GPU: Do i need one? Do motherboards come with inbuilt graphics?

Is this too much for a music production set up? If so, what would be a good area to save money?
My reasoning for buying such a set up is that if I choose to update to a 64 bit system, it will allow for a good cross-over and a subsequent increase in RAM.

Sorry for the long post, but any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. My main concern is getting a solid computer up and running so that I can finish this album without too many hassles.

Thanks a million.
 
Get sandybridge CPU, the core i7 2600K because this is definitely faster than the i7 950 at the same price. The X58 is only better if you do dual graphics card since it has more PCIe lanes. But for music production, the i7 2600k is best.
 
I have to agree with the above poster. Get a 2600K with a P67 based board. I too use my system for music production/mastering and am using exactly what I am recommending above. I would seriously look into Windows 7 64 bit with 8GB of ram but that is just me. Don't cut back on the amount of ram you could be using because you want to be on an outdated OS. Check my sig for what I am currently using. Not mentioned in my sig is also 2 x UAD-2 Quad card and 1 x UAD-1 PCI card.
 
I would be more inclined to go for an i5 2500K instead of that i7 950, even at stock it will beat it on the majority of tests, it's cheaper and can safely overclock to have an even bigger advantage.

It's built in GPU will handle routine desktop work though I would be inclined to have a discrete card in so that it doesn't eat away any system memory or potentially affect IO performance accessing system ram for graphics calls while doing audio work. The lowest of the low Geforce or Radeon is enough if games aren't your thing.

I don't think the PSU is ideal, you want the highest efficiency unit you can get for audio work so that it generates less heat and thus less noise. If you aren't throwing high power graphics in it then 600W is also overkill. Go for a Seasonic Bronze S12II-520 or Seasonic M12II-520 if you can spring the extra for modular as keeping the cables well managed again helps cooling and keeps down noise.

There is little point in having more than 4gb in a 32bit system, and you can always chuck another 2x2gb in the future.
 
Two things to consider. Maybe it doesn't matter in your application. YMMV.

1) The latest H67/P67 chipsets do not support PCI natively. It's a third party bridge chip. The generation just before did. If you have a touchy PCI sound card, it might matter.

2) As with #1, check around to make sure your motherboard, chipset and CPU combination do not have any DPC latency issues. This is critical if you work in the analog recording realm.
 
Thanks for the quick replies

Here's an updated list

Motherboard: Intel® Desktop Board DP67BA
SSD Hard Drive: Intel SSD X25
RAM: Kingston 4GB DD3
CPU: Intel i5 2500K
PSU: Seasonic M12II-520Watt

I'm definitely going to consider updating my system to 64bit once my current project is finished. However until then, I don't consider it worth the problems i'll get with drivers and old recording equipment.

Furthermore, the DP67BA looks really good, but i'm concerned about the SATA numbers.
It says it has 2x 6 GB/s ; 3x 3GB/s and 1x eSATA 3GB/s
Can an SSD X25 and three SATA hard drives run on this set up?

Thanks!
 
Milkshake said:
Furthermore, the DP67BA looks really good, but i'm concerned about the SATA numbers.
It says it has 2x 6 GB/s ; 3x 3GB/s and 1x eSATA 3GB/s
Can an SSD X25 and three SATA hard drives run on this set up?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


With ease. Install the SSD on one of the 6 Gb/s ports and your other drives on the 3 Gb/s ports.
 
Does Vista format the partitions aligned to 2K? If not, remember to partition the SSD before hand with an applicable partition utility.
 
Milkshake said:
Thanks for the quick replies

Here's an updated list

Motherboard: Intel® Desktop Board DP67BA
SSD Hard Drive: Intel SSD X25
RAM: Kingston 4GB DD3
CPU: Intel i5 2500K
PSU: Seasonic M12II-520Watt

I'm definitely going to consider updating my system to 64bit once my current project is finished. However until then, I don't consider it worth the problems i'll get with drivers and old recording equipment.

Furthermore, the DP67BA looks really good, but i'm concerned about the SATA numbers.
It says it has 2x 6 GB/s ; 3x 3GB/s and 1x eSATA 3GB/s
Can an SSD X25 and three SATA hard drives run on this set up?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

One thing to consider is if you want to use the IGP for graphics rather than a discrete card the P67 doesn't support that. You need the H67 chipset which if you were dead set on an intel board would be the Intel® Desktop Board DH67CL

Also the H67 doesn't support multiplier changes so you wouldn't be able to overclock that 2500k
 
BigYoSpeck said:
One thing to consider is if you want to use the IGP for graphics rather than a discrete card the P67 doesn't support that. You need the H67 chipset which if you were dead set on an intel board would be the Intel® Desktop Board DH67CL

Also the H67 doesn't support multiplier changes so you wouldn't be able to overclock that 2500k
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply,

i'm going to just buy a cheap graphics processor. And I don't plan on overclocking my system at all, but thanks for the advice!
 
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