1st Build, DAW workstation, sanity check

[telperionflower]

Hello! This is my first computer build. I am mostly interested in hearing if there are any potential incompatibilities with my setup, and also if you think there are any bottlenecks, or places where I'm not getting a good value. Thank you in advance for your opinions and advice!

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: Up to $2,000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Low latency DAW performance, mostly time based plugins for electric guitar, some sample based plugins, internet use, media storage (I have a huge amount of high quality music, and also a decent amount of video), gaming (I want to leave my options open for high quality graphics cards and monitors in the future with this build, but gaming is not a factor currently)

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Do you need to buy OS: Yes. Leaning towards Windows 7 64 bit professional.

Preferred Website for Parts: newegg.com

Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1366 x 768

Additional Comments: I did not include a graphics card at all in this build. That is because I have to figure out whether or not I want to use this for gaming later on, and if I want to do 4k, an ultrawide monitor, etc. but for now I'm just going with a simple monitor. I would like a reasonably quiet PC, and I would like to occasionally move my computer for live performances. I realize most people would go for a laptop if using it live, but I don't mind the awkward setup if it means more power and lower latency for my money. Using Reaper or Cubase DAW, with plugins such as Ozone, Guitar Rig, Bias, Midi Guitar, Serum, Melodyne, Superior Drummer (some samples, and a lot of effects like EQ, panning, reverb, delay, compression, gain, etc.). I currently have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface, which could be upgraded. I use a pair of Samson SR850 headphones, and would like to buy a pair of decent monitors and/or FRFR cabinets. I also would like to use a few midi controllers.

Why Are You Upgrading: My current computer is from 2010, and seriously under powered (core2 duo, 4gb ram, 500gb hard drive) for what I am doing, and what I would like to do.

Build:

Intel Core i7-6700K processor
$319.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117559&ignorebbr=1

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler
$29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&ignorebbr=1

ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING motherboard
$149.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132567&ignorebbr=1

Corsair RM750 750W modular power supply
$119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139055&ignorebbr=1

G.SKILL Ripjaws V F4-2800C15D-16GVRB, 16gb DDR4 2800 RAM
$69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231933&ignorebbr=1

Samsung 850 EVO 500gb SSD, 2.5"
$156.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373&ignorebbr=1

HGST Deskstar NAS 4tb 7200rpm hard drive, 3.5"
$157.49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912&ignorebbr=1

Fractal Design Define R4 ATX mid tower
$89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352020&ignorebbr=1

Acer AOC E970SWN 18.5" monitor
$63.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160173&ignorebbr=1

Total cost:
$1,158.41

Other:
Keyboard, mouse, thermal compound, surge protector, etc.

 

[CTurbo]

I recommend the CRYORIG H7 or H5 instead of the 212.

The RMi and RMx 750w are very good, but the regular RM 750w is not.

The rest looks fine

 

[King Dranzer]

Here is the build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6800K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($419.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus X99-E ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($199.00 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk X400 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($134.99 @ Directron)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($61.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card ($249.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM 64-bit ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Sound Card: Asus STRIX SOAR 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card ($99.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: LG 25UM58-P 25.0" 75Hz Monitor ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: LG 25UM58-P 25.0" 75Hz Monitor ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $2049.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-28 00:51 EDT-0400

6cores with higher clock speed will help you run multiple applications side by side.
Don't know if you already have have one monitor but at-least 2-monitor setup can improve the work experience and productivity.
Having a good mid-range graphics card will not only be useful for gaming but will also give you overall smooth experience with two monitor setup.
I hope you have good speaker setup and headphones.
32GB RAM will improve your experience when you use multiple applications side by side.
Included a sound card to improve the quality.

 

[bambiboom]

telperionflower,

Over the years, I've kept a dedicated system for recording and editing sound, which included voice tracks for broadcast. The recordings were soft-synth from a YamahS90 and live from a Kawai KG-5D.

In my view, this kind of system should be better steered towards more workstation-centric hardware. For example, overclocking- the "K" in i6-5700K is not desirable for reasons of stability in recording and F/X processing. Also, large production software such as Sonar is multi-threaded in a number of processes, so having a wide memory bandwidth and the potential for more than 4-cores is an advantage. The i7-6700K has a superb Passmark single-thread performance of 2334 but only 16 PCIe lanes. As the GPU alone uses 16. the resources are shared for all the interface cards and other peripherals. For the best cost /performance and to save the fuss of researching, ordering, assembling, configuring, and testing from parts, and to benefit from proprietary warranties, and user support, how about:

HP Z440 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1650 V3 @ 3.50GHz 16GB Quadro K1200 SSD/HDD $1,315 or offer

That is based on the E5-1650 V3 6-core @ 3.5 /3.8Ghz, supporting 768GB of DDR4 ECC to 2133Mhz and with 40 PCIe lanes. the single-thread rating is 2116. With an (unnamed) 512GB SSD and 3TB HD, that system might be ready for your uses our of the box in a couple of hours. The Quadro K1200 4GB is perfect having 4X Diplayports.

To that one I would add:

1. +16GB of RAM to total of 32GB and

2. a pair of 21-24" monitors, a widescreen 25 or 26" or have one 25" and one 19" and take the smaller one when mobile.

I use two 27" monitors for the principal workstation and two 19" monitors for sound work, one for the waveform screen- large and clear so I can see the timings from a distance- and the other for libraries and controls.

While the speed of getting to work and complications saved are great benefits of a slightly used system, another is that the resale to purchase is already far ahead of building from new.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (Rev 2) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 40GB DDR3-1600 ECC) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) / 800W > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5322 / CPU= 19675 / 2D= 767 / 3D = 3544/ Mem =2337 / Disk = 12951 ] 8.15.16

 

[King Dranzer]

telperionflower,

Over the years, I've kept a dedicated system for recording and editing sound, which included voice tracks for broadcast. The recordings were soft-synth from a YamahS90 and live from a Kawai KG-5D.

In my view, this kind of system should be better steered towards more workstation-centric hardware. For example, overclocking- the "K" in i6-5700K is not desirable for reasons of stability in recording and F/X processing. Also, large production software such as Sonar is multi-threaded in a number of processes, so having a wide memory bandwidth and the potential for more than 4-cores is an advantage. The i7-6700K has a superb Passmark single-thread performance of 2334 but only 16 PCIe lanes. As the GPU alone uses 16. the resources are shared for all the interface cards and other peripherals. For the best cost /performance and to save the fuss of researching, ordering, assembling, configuring, and testing from parts, and to benefit from proprietary warranties, and user support, how about:

HP Z440 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1650 V3 @ 3.50GHz 16GB Quadro K1200 SSD/HDD $1,315 or offer

That is based on the E5-1650 V3 6-core @ 3.5 /3.8Ghz, supporting 768GB of DDR4 ECC to 2133Mhz and with 40 PCIe lanes. the single-thread rating is 2116. With an (unnamed) 512GB SSD and 3TB HD, that system might be ready for your uses our of the box in a couple of hours. The Quadro K1200 4GB is perfect having 4X Diplayports.

To that one I would add:

1. +16GB of RAM to total of 32GB and

2. a pair of 21-24" monitors, a widescreen 25 or 26" or have one 25" and one 19" and take the smaller one when mobile.

I use two 27" monitors for the principal workstation and two 19" monitors for sound work, one for the waveform screen- large and clear so I can see the timings from a distance- and the other for libraries and controls.

While the speed of getting to work and complications saved are great benefits of a slightly used system, another is that the resale to purchase is already far ahead of building from new.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (Rev 2) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 40GB DDR3-1600 ECC) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) / 800W > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5322 / CPU= 19675 / 2D= 767 / 3D = 3544/ Mem =2337 / Disk = 12951 ] 8.15.16

Got your point but I have seen improvement with increase in clock speed, so if OP over clocks processor to 4.3GHz wouldn't she gain in performance?

 

[bambiboom]

"Got your point but I have seen improvement with increase in clock speed, so if OP over clocks processor to 4.3GHz wouldn't she gain in performance? "

King Dranzer

The problem is that a number of workstation processes that rely on a lot of long, CPU- intensive processing- especially rendering and video-editing may crash overclocked systems. Many people do risk it, but I've poor image results and instability even trying to use a GTX in single-image rendering.

It's possible to use an i7-660K for it's extremely good single thread performance, but I would use it stockclock and it's still limited to 4-cores, 16 PCIe lanes, and a memory bandwidth 1/2 of a Xeon E5. Acceptable for games, but too many compromises and limitations over the multiple applications.

Above a fairly low threshold, I've found that content creation hardware simply has a different emphasis from content consumption hardware, that of the image quality as compared to image quantity- FPS.

After a lot of review and expensive experiments, I've become cautious about pushing speed as a priority too far above quality. There are now however a shift towards consumer /gaming hardware- particularly towards GPU rendering, but I never had acceptable single-image GPU renderings- poor, rainbowed color gradients, lower anti-aliasing factor, flat reflections, sometimes incorrect and hard shadows, and lifeless liquids. It's different for video processing as the frames flying by sort of blend the "good enough" image quality. Fro that reason, Ive often wanted to figure out a dual boot system where I could run a Quadro and GTX on the same system without driver conflicts.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[King Dranzer]

"Got your point but I have seen improvement with increase in clock speed, so if OP over clocks processor to 4.3GHz wouldn't she gain in performance? "

King Dranzer

The problem is that a number of workstation processes that rely on a lot of long, CPU- intensive processing- especially rendering and video-editing may crash overclocked systems. Many people do risk it, but I've poor image results and instability even trying to use a GTX in single-image rendering.

It's possible to use an i7-660K for it's extremely good single thread performance, but I would use it stockclock and it's still limited to 4-cores, 16 PCIe lanes, and a memory bandwidth 1/2 of a Xeon E5. Acceptable for games, but too many compromises and limitations over the multiple applications.

Above a fairly low threshold, I've found that content creation hardware simply has a different emphasis from content consumption hardware, that of the image quality as compared to image quantity- FPS.

After a lot of review and expensive experiments, I've become cautious about pushing speed as a priority too far above quality. There are now however a shift towards consumer /gaming hardware- particularly towards GPU rendering, but I never had acceptable single-image GPU renderings- poor, rainbowed color gradients, lower anti-aliasing factor, flat reflections, sometimes incorrect and hard shadows, and lifeless liquids. It's different for video processing as the frames flying by sort of blend the "good enough" image quality. Fro that reason, Ive often wanted to figure out a dual boot system where I could run a Quadro and GTX on the same system without driver conflicts.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

I think you mistook it we were discussing about Digital Audio Workstation(DAW). In which a GPU is not needed and CPU i7 vs Xeon only go for Xeon if you have budget to throw two CPU's in or stick with the one which has higher clock speed.
Ram should be upgraded in in future to max.
Dual monitor setup is essential as it makes work easier.
Still I would like to try finding more about CPU requirements for DAW.
Get back to you with more info