Looking to build a budget PC for music production

leesochka

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Mar 29, 2017
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Hi, everyone! This is my first time posting here. I'm a complete amateur but am determined to build my own PC. I was wondering if there is any way to do this on a very tight budget, say $400-$600.

I will be using Ableton Live. The minimum system requirements (for Windows) are:
-Windows 7 (with SP 1), Windows 8 or Windows 10
-Multicore processor
-4 GB RAM
-1024x768 display
-DVD drive or broadband internet connection for installation
- 3GB free disk space for basic installation
- 12 GB free disk space for the standard version

I won't be using this for gaming or anything else. Are there any builds you can recommend?
 
Solution


leesochka,


It's possible to do a quite good, basic system with that specification.

Possibly:

Home...


leesochka,


It's possible to do a quite good, basic system with that specification.

Possibly:

Home Office / Streaming _2.13.17

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor > $95.98 @ Newegg < There are going to be some new AMD Ryzen 3 4-core's for not much more that will be worth waiting for.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T2 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler > $16.89 SuperBiiz

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard > $69.99 @ SuperBiiz

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory > $49.99 @ Corsair

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard > $49.49 SuperBiiz

Video Card
: XFX Radeon R7 250X 2GB Core Edition Video > $86.99 @ SuperBiiz

Case: Thermaltake Versa H25 ATX Mid Tower Case > $37.99 @ SuperBiiz

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply > $46.98 @ Newegg

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer > $17.98 @ Newegg

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM > $94.00 @ Amazon

____________________________________________________

TOTAL = $559.31



However, unless you're determined to build for the experience of building, a better cost/performance approach to this kind of situation is to buy a good, used workstation. These will include an OEM Win 7 Pro OS, are designed for the task, are made to run a long time under difficult loads, and are typically very quiet, and you get all the user/ service manuals drivers, etc, at hp.com. How about:

HP Z420 WorkStation: Xeon E5-1620 3.6GHz - 8GB - 500GB - K2000 2GB (D3J36UT#ABA) > $357.31 shipping included

That's a 4-core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz, up to 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC RAM, has USB 3.0 and SATAIII 6Gb/s disk system. That particular one has a Quadro K2000 2GB- and you can run two monitors in comfort. We have two of these in our office and they are ultra-reliable and extremely quiet.

As that has a good amount of budget left over: add:

A Samsung 850 Evo 250GB > $95
+8Gb of RAM fro a total of 16GB > $60
A 1TB or 2TB WD Blue> $50 or $70

= $550-$580


Cheers,

BambiBoom

Today's experiment:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 4) Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5212 / CPU= 14566 / 2D= 710 / 3D = 5022 / Mem = 2557 / Disk = 14210 ] 3.25.16 Single Thread Mark = 2021

The system I'm thinking of setting up as a dedicated music system, running off a Yamaha S90:

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 > 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]

The interface will probably be a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB
 
Solution