Need help with $1000 audio production PC

[gunthersun]

Hey gracious helpers! I have never built a computer before, and I wanted to build an audio production PC with a budget of $1000. Is there anything I should be wary of as a first time builder?
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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: June 13 - 22 BUDGET RANGE: $1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: audio production (sonar, reason), I also want to be able to play left 4 dead and starcraft 2.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: USB Mouse, keyboard, speakers, 19" screen, audio interface

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: no preference. There is a Fry's Hardware about 15 minutes from where I will be for the next month though.

PARTS PREFERENCES: I would like to have 6 - 8 GB of memory with as much cpu as possible.

OVERCLOCKING: Yes (I've never done it, but I think I am capable of following a guide. Are these parts good for overclocking and getting my money's worth?) SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe?? I don't know a lot about this.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1280x1024

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Reasonably quiet

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Here are two builds I have looked at so far. Also, I am wondering about AM3 and DDR3?? Should I be getting an AM3 Phenom II with DDR3 compatible motherboard and DDR3 RAM instead?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131381

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157156

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220353

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003



SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L - OEM


Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail


ASUS M4A78 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail


ASRock A790GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail


SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail


PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply compatible ... - Retail


Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM


Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory + 2GB Xporter Razzo USB w/Futuremark 3DMark ... - Retail


AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail


XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail


Nippon Labs 15 ft. USB2.0 A/male to B/male cable Model USB-15-AB - Retail


Total price $734 rebates to $640



The other computer I "made" on the HP website was this one -
m9600t series total price $899

# Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
# • Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-920 processor (2.66GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache with QPI Technology)
# • FREE UPGRADE! 6GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs] from 3GB
# • FREE UPGRADE! 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GB
# • 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]

 

[computersss]

here is an i7 build for 1000$ that would beat the 2 build above

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137 $79.99
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009 $109.99 ($79.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Retail

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-EX58U3R $178.99 | $163.99 after rebate
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R Core i7/ Intel X58/ DDR3/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=I7-920 $271.99 Free Ground Shipping
Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1366 CPU, OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 $39.99
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154003 $4.99
Tuniq TX-2 Cooling Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830 $219.99 ($204.99 after $15.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.199037 Combo Discount: -$7.00 Combo Price: $167.98 $20.00 Mail-In Rebate
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030 $26.99 Free Shipping*
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - OEM

Total: $1,100.89 | $1,020.89 w/mail in rebates

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-nvidia-sli-motherboard,7463.html <--- Gigabyte: Enable SLI On X58 Boards

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx?ITPID=mscomsc <--- Save yourself some money on an o/s until March 2010 and dl the 64 bit version of Windows 7

Orginally posted by Why_Me

 

[gunthersun]

Another question: Is getting this thing running as simple as putting all the parts together assuming nothing is broken? Also, what is the time commitment for a moderate overclocking?

 

[fedtmusen]

Re: Another question: Is getting this thing running as simple as putting all the parts together assuming nothing is broken? Also, what is the time commitment for a moderate overclocking?
-
Putting it together is straight forward. Manuals included.
If using EasyTune6 (included on the drivers disc cd) or higher with a "new" gigabyte motherboard, the OC will take around 2 minutes, including the restart.
OC should be made with care. Read about the art, in Toms forum.
Happy days

 

[gunthersun]

the i7 2.66 is faster than the phenom 3.0 correct? Thanks very much guys

 

[gunthersun]

is the 2.66 i7 faster than phenom II 3.0? When overclocked?

 

[gunthersun]

I was checking this stuff over, and this motherboard has huge DPC latency issues which is a nogo for audio production. Is there a different motherboard I can swap in this build?

 

[Greg_77]

For that monitor, you could probably save money on a lower end graphics card. A 4670 would most likely be fine unless you plan on upgrading your monitor. You may want to get a i7 920 for audio work. I understand that it is really fast for audio encoding. I do not what you require in terms of cpu power for your line of work, but if it involves encoding, I would get an i7 and save on the gpu.

 

[gunthersun]

thanks greg. I got everything ordered. I substituted the power supply from the build above, the dvd burner, went for a slightly better motherboard (more ram slots), and a less powerful graphics card. I don't really play video games although I might have toy with SC2 when it comes out.


1 x ($259.99) MB GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P 1366 X58 R - Retail
$259.99



1 x ($26.99) DVD BURNER SAMSUNG | SH-S223L % - OEM
$26.99



1 x ($279.99) CPU INTEL|CORE I7 920 2.66G 45N R - Retail
$279.99



2 x ($12.99) FLASH 4G|OCZ FLDRV OCZUSBDSL4G R - Retail
$25.98



1 x ($79.99) CASE CM|RC-690-KKN1-GP BK RT - Retail
$79.99



1 x ($14.99) ROSEWILL RC-6-HDMI-MM-BK-2 HDMI 6FT - Retail
$14.99



1 x ($4.89) CABLE NIPPON|USB-6-AB-BK R - Retail
$4.89



1 x ($99.99) VGA SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI HD4850 512M - Retail
$99.99



1 x ($79.99) PSU OCZ|OCZ700SXS 700W RT - Retail
$79.99



1 x ($99.99) MEM 2Gx3|OCZ OCZ3G1600LV6GK R - Retail
$99.99



1 x ($74.99) HD 640G|WD WD6401AALS % - OEM
$74.99



1 x ($4.99) THERMAL GREASE TUNIQ|TX-2 R - Retail
$4.99



1 x ($39.99) CPU COOL XIGM|Dark Knight-S1283V R - Retail
$39.99



1 x ($-12.99) DISCOUNT FOR AUTOADD #2470
$-12.99



1 x ($-4.89) DISCOUNT FOR AUTOADD #2264
$-4.89



1 x ($-7.00) DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #199037
$-7.00



1 x ($-14.99) DISCOUNT FOR AUTOADD #2817
$-14.99



1 x ($-12.99) DISCOUNT FOR AUTOADD #2620
$-12.99

Subtotal: $1039.90
Tax: $85.79
Shipping and Handling: $36.63
Total Amount: $1162.32