Optimal Audio Recording/Gaming/ Minor Video Editing Maybe PC, Raid Use?

[USAmaverick]

I'm looking to buy a multipurpose PC, I use primarily Cubase 7 for audio recording and this is the main focus of the system, but I also game a bit as well, with an interest in some video editing in the future maybe. Anyways So far the things I have picked out are:

GPU - EVGA GTX 980
RAM - 32 GB Corsair
PSU - Corsair Modular 750 Watts or greater
Case - Undecided
MOBO - Asus motherboard of some kind prolly spending around 150-225$
Heatsink - some sort of cooler master heatsink of some sort not sure.
SSD - thinking around 500 GB or Samsung 840 evo ram ??
HDD - Red Western digital 2 TB??
Optical Drive - undecided, but blue ray compatible
CPU - I7-4790k or hopefully better?

My goal is to keep it under 3,000 dollars for just the computer parts. 99% of my focus for this PC is for audio recording production, I don't want to even have a hint of performance drop due to hardware issues. I have heard that using RAID can drastically improve read and write times. Is this true? And if so what would I need in terms of SSD and HDD to make this work correctly. The other big question I have is what CPU to get, I don't want to spend 500 dollars on something that is only slightly better? I compared the 4790k to the 5820k and the 5930k, and I have no idea which is better, on cpu boss it says the 4790k is, but idk if that is just for gaming or if having 6 cores helps with what I would be doing more? I am clueless on this. Basically what can make my system run CUBASE super fast, with as little latency as possible is a big part of what I'm wondering, will RAID help it? Will having a boss of a processor help? is 32gb Ram gonna help? Is there a faster optical drive than most that I should be getting for burning CDs for audio recording? A thorough answer would be greatly appreciated from an experienced person Thanks!

 

[getochkn]

Latency has 99% to do with your audio interface and not the CPU. the CPU and RAM will allow more plugins and VSTi's and RAM specifically will allow more open tracks without lagging during editing.

What kind of audio are you doing? 16-32 live tracks at once being recorded? Then you need a good HD system. All electronic music with VSTi's and plugins?

If your not really doing any gaming, that GPU is way overkill. You can get by with built in video for audio work. Even most video editing is CPU and RAM and not on the GPU.

 

[USAmaverick]

Latency has 99% to do with your audio interface and not the CPU. the CPU and RAM will allow more plugins and VSTi's and RAM specifically will allow more open tracks without lagging during editing.

What kind of audio are you doing? 16-32 live tracks at once being recorded? Then you need a good HD system. All electronic music with VSTi's and plugins?

If your not really doing any gaming, that GPU is way overkill. You can get by with built in video for audio work. Even most video editing is CPU and RAM and not on the GPU.

My setup is specifically for home work. I play the keyboard and have just used it as a midi controller via usb. That is why I figured that the pc was going to have to be good in order to avoid latency. I decided to set it up on a laptop I have before wanting to purchase a new pc and that how I arrived at where I am now. I have a small midi interface that I could have used if my keyboard had no direct usb out, but it does and I have just used the interface for my monitor speakers. I have no audio interface yet, because I have had no need as I see to have one for my setup(plans to get one eventually though). I use Cubase with VST almost entirely. I noticed that the problem I was having on the laptop was that it couldn't handle very many tracks at all without lag spikes and clipping. The meter one the transport bar for computer performance would jump to 100% when it came to a busy part in the song. And, as you may know, that makes it impossible to record.

 

[getochkn]

Latency is all going to come from the audio device. If you keyboard is sending midi via USB, and you just have your monitors plugged into your soundcard or motherboard, then no amount of a good PC will get you better latency, built on soundcards just don't go low enough.

The VSTi's is all CPU and RAM. Better computer will help there, but I would look at a dedicated audio card or USB device with ASIO driver support. Steinberg made ASIO and cubase loves ASIO compatible cards. RME stuff you can get down to 2-3ms latency, plus whatever overhead plugins and VSTi's add that is.