Help System Build: Quiet Music Production PC

[Tom_209]

Hi guys,

Here's a list for a build that I want to put together in the next month or two. Any help would be much appreciated!

This is my first build. My budget is £800-£900. This PC will be running Cubase 5 (dinosaur I know) and not much else. I've already got a dedicated external sound card. And I don't think I need a dedicated graphics card, but please advise if you disagree!

I'm pretty set on those parts, so I'm wondering if they are all compatible and how I can keep the system quiet and cool. I've been told aftermarket CPU cooler and lots of case fans are the way to go? Please advise.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£205.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£69.48 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£64.41 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£56.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.80 @ Alza)
Monitor: BenQ GL2450HM 24.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor (£106.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard (£9.95 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Windows 10 (£80.00)
Total: £794.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-20 02:05 GMT+0000

Thanks

 

[bambiboom]

Hi guys,

Here's a list for a build that I want to put together in the next month or two. Any help would be much appreciated!

This is my first build. My budget is £800-£900. This PC will be running Cubase 5 (dinosaur I know) and not much else. I've already got a dedicated external sound card. And I don't think I need a dedicated graphics card, but please advise if you disagree!

I'm pretty set on those parts, so I'm wondering if they are all compatible and how I can keep the system quiet and cool. I've been told aftermarket CPU cooler and lots of case fans are the way to go? Please advise.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£205.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£69.48 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£64.41 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£56.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.80 @ Alza)
Monitor: BenQ GL2450HM 24.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor (£106.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard (£9.95 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Windows 10 (£80.00)
Total: £794.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-20 02:05 GMT+0000

Thanks

Tom_209,

Your listed system should have good performance for music production in general. Have a look at the Silent PC Review site for detailed reviews of cases with quiet operation in mind. Consider for example, the Thermaltake Suppressor F31 or the Cooler Master Silencio series.

One other approach to the new system:

HP Z420 - Intel E5-1620@3.60GHz, 32GB DDR3, 450GB 15K, ATI FirePro V5900, W10Pro > sold for £285.00 on 9.3.17

There are several reasons for this option, in that the system is designed for long slogs at high processing load, the LGA 2011 Xeon E5 has a wide memory bandwidth, these are among the quietest systems around, and, importantly, the low price releases a lot of the budget for important items:

1. have a more modern version of Cubase to be able to use current plug-ins. Since 2015, Cubase is able to use all available cores, depending on the process, but for example you can run separate effects/ reverb on separate tracks.

2. run an external USB 2TB drive that can be situated well under the desk and might be run only when necessary- backing up or loading project files,

3. have a 500GB SSD -Samsung 850 Evo that is completely silent as the only drive inside the system, and

4. the budget might also provide the chance then too of having two monitors. For the dedicated sound system at home, I use two elderly 19" Dell LCD's and would rather have those two than a single 27" given all those windows running at once.

5. Also, look for a really quiet keyboard, and

6. add RAM for a total of 32GB if it doesn't already have it.

7. The final reason to consider a used workstation is that you don't have to build it, only add components such as the SSD as they arrive. With the right choice, you could be working two or three hours after opening the box- and still have £500-600.

We have two HP z420's and a, HP z620 in the office and these systems are amazingly quiet and in three years of very hard running,3D CAD, simulations /analysis, and rendering not a single failure or loss of data. The z620 is inaudible from a foot away (except when the Tesla M2090 6GB is running at full tilt) and that system has two 8-core Xeons, two GPU's, and three drives. The z620 was purchased used when four years old for only $270 and upgraded. With any of these systems, consider keeping it well under the desk and run an external USB DVD /Blu-Ray writer to the desktop.

Again, your listed build should work well, but it's possible to redirect the budget so that the system has more capabilities and is more future-looking, especially a more current version of the important software, and should you branch off into the world of video, having a GPU and two monitors is ahead of of the game.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > 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 + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16] Single-Thread Mark = 2341
[Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1031cb / Single Core = 142 cb / OpenGL= 127.39 fps / MP Ratio = 7.24x] 3.2.17
[FryBench: 3:24 /Efficiency 2177.13] 3.11.17

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card + Logitech z313 2.1 speakers / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16 Single Thread Mark = 1903
[ Cinebench R15: CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / OpenGL= 119.23 fps / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16

Sound:

Dell Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.46 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i + Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > M-Audio PCI 24/ 192 duplex /MIDI recording card > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751> CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]

This is a quite simple two-track home system. The T3500 was purchased for $53 and upgraded for a total of $160. the T3500 is not nearly as quiet as the HP's but still acceptable even though it's quite close by. This runs Cakewalk Essentials and recording is live using 2X Oktava MC012's to a Peavey VMP2 valve microphone preamp or MIDI with a Yamaha S90. Playback is a 1974 Marantz 2275 receiver to Infinity 360 speakers. I'm thinking of changing from the M-Audio card to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface which has better DAc and S/N ratio.

 

[sadams04]

CPU - You won't notice the minor clock differences between the i5-7500 and i5-7600. The 7500 is the better purchase.
MEM - The B250 chipset supports DDR4-2400 modules.
SSD - No. Too slow. Look toward SK Hynix, Sandisk X400, Crucial MX300 or the WD Blue.
PSU - The EVGA GS below is priced nicely.
MONITOR - Changed to an IPS panel for better viewing angles.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£187.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£68.29 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£102.45 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: SK hynix SL308 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.97 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.49 @ Eclipse Computers)
Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case (£46.91 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS UK 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£73.48 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Asus VC239H 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor (£123.92 @ Aria PC)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard (£9.95 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Windows 10 (£80.00)
Total: £810.45

 

[Tom_209]

Hi guys,

Here's a list for a build that I want to put together in the next month or two. Any help would be much appreciated!

This is my first build. My budget is £800-£900. This PC will be running Cubase 5 (dinosaur I know) and not much else. I've already got a dedicated external sound card. And I don't think I need a dedicated graphics card, but please advise if you disagree!

I'm pretty set on those parts, so I'm wondering if they are all compatible and how I can keep the system quiet and cool. I've been told aftermarket CPU cooler and lots of case fans are the way to go? Please advise.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£205.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£69.48 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£64.41 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£56.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.80 @ Alza)
Monitor: BenQ GL2450HM 24.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor (£106.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard (£9.95 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Windows 10 (£80.00)
Total: £794.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-20 02:05 GMT+0000

Thanks

Tom_209,

Your listed system should have good performance for music production in general. Have a look at the Silent PC Review site for detailed reviews of cases with quiet operation in mind. Consider for example, the Thermaltake Suppressor F31 or the Cooler Master Silencio series.

One other approach to the new system:

HP Z420 - Intel E5-1620@3.60GHz, 32GB DDR3, 450GB 15K, ATI FirePro V5900, W10Pro > sold for £285.00 on 9.3.17

There are several reasons for this option, in that the system is designed for long slogs at high processing load, the LGA 2011 Xeon E5 has a wide memory bandwidth, these are among the quietest systems around, and, importantly, the low price releases a lot of the budget for important items:

1. have a more modern version of Cubase to be able to use current plug-ins. Since 2015, Cubase is able to use all available cores, depending on the process, but for example you can run separate effects/ reverb on separate tracks.

2. run an external USB 2TB drive that can be situated well under the desk and might be run only when necessary- backing up or loading project files,

3. have a 500GB SSD -Samsung 850 Evo that is completely silent as the only drive inside the system, and

4. the budget might also provide the chance then too of having two monitors. For the dedicated sound system at home, I use two elderly 19" Dell LCD's and would rather have those two than a single 27" given all those windows running at once.

5. Also, look for a really quiet keyboard, and

6. add RAM for a total of 32GB if it doesn't already have it.

7. The final reason to consider a used workstation is that you don't have to build it, only add components such as the SSD as they arrive. With the right choice, you could be working two or three hours after opening the box- and still have £500-600.

We have two HP z420's and a, HP z620 in the office and these systems are amazingly quiet and in three years of very hard running,3D CAD, simulations /analysis, and rendering not a single failure or loss of data. The z620 is inaudible from a foot away (except when the Tesla M2090 6GB is running at full tilt) and that system has two 8-core Xeons, two GPU's, and three drives. The z620 was purchased used when four years old for only $270 and upgraded. With any of these systems, consider keeping it well under the desk and run an external USB DVD /Blu-Ray writer to the desktop.

Again, your listed build should work well, but it's possible to redirect the budget so that the system has more capabilities and is more future-looking, especially a more current version of the important software, and should you branch off into the world of video, having a GPU and two monitors is ahead of of the game.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > 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 + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16] Single-Thread Mark = 2341
[Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1031cb / Single Core = 142 cb / OpenGL= 127.39 fps / MP Ratio = 7.24x] 3.2.17
[FryBench: 3:24 /Efficiency 2177.13] 3.11.17

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card + Logitech z313 2.1 speakers / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16 Single Thread Mark = 1903
[ Cinebench R15: CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / OpenGL= 119.23 fps / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16

Sound:

Dell Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.46 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i + Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > M-Audio PCI 24/ 192 duplex /MIDI recording card > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751> CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]

This is a quite simple two-track home system. The T3500 was purchased for $53 and upgraded for a total of $160. the T3500 is not nearly as quiet as the HP's but still acceptable even though it's quite close by. This runs Cakewalk Essentials and recording is live using 2X Oktava MC012's to a Peavey VMP2 valve microphone preamp or MIDI with a Yamaha S90. Playback is a 1974 Marantz 2275 receiver to Infinity 360 speakers. I'm thinking of changing from the M-Audio card to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface which has better DAc and S/N ratio.

The HP pre-build looks interesting! Would there be any long term issues with owning a pre-build though? What would it be like replacing parts, say for instance if the PSU packed in after a few years?

Cheers

 

[bambiboom]

The HP pre-build looks interesting! Would there be any long term issues with owning a pre-build though? What would it be like replacing parts, say for instance if the PSU packed in after a few years?

Cheers

Tom_209,

Having used upgraded workstation does present a bit more risk but has been completely successful for our office, not only in having higher performance for far less cost but in terms of reliability-.all the problems have been software or configuration. The upgrade process has also sharpened skill in choosing parts for performance

We have workstations from as long ago as 2007. Only two systems- the two hp z420's had a warranty when purchased as they were "open box" purchases.

Dell Precison: 390 (2007), T5400 (2008), T3500 (2011), T5500 (2010)
HP: z620 (2011) z420 (2013), z420 (2015)

Workstations are designed to run at full performance for long periods- that's why they are locked from overclocking, plus they run quietly- the fans are in the center of the interior in specially designed shrouds, so they are very quiet. None of these systems have had a component failure or loss of data. The z620 did have a used RAM module that was not working on arrival and that was exchanged. Of course, all were subject to periodic upgrades for performance enhancement, but on some examples the drives and GPU's were pass down the line to another system where they are still functional. Our server has a Quadro FX580 from 2004 still working perfectly and the Precision T3500 has the PERC 6/i RAID controller and SAS 15K drives that were new in the T5500- which has the Samsung 840, WD RE4, and Quadro 4000 2GB from the 2013 HP z420. the WD BLue 500GB oringially in the 2015 z420 is the external backup drive. The Dell Dimension E520 business sytem is form 2007 and still runs on it's 2007 SATAII drives.

Besides the unbeatable cost /performance ratio - and not having to build it- the great feature of buying a pre-built system like a x420 is that there is a user and service manual. The user only needs to go to one site to find all the drivers and specialized advice and parts. When we upgraded the HP z620, the BIOS and all the drivers were updated from that single source, plus we bought a complete of the case plastic parts for $56 from HP so it looks like a completely new system externally. If you do need something, Ebay almost always has a selection of both new and used parts. The proprietary stuff is often more expensive however and the most powerful power supply for a system is in that category. Still, we recently bought a motherboard for the z620 that supports Xeon E5 v2 processors in excellent condition but that was $150. New ones are sold for $350 or so, but that is less than a high-end workstation board from Supermicro or ASUS as a limited number of systems can use the HP and workstation parts typically run a very long time.

Cheers,

BambiBoom