PC Build for music production

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kamalgajera

Commendable
Oct 4, 2016
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it's my first time building a pc
after some research ive choose
i7 6700k
asus z170 A
ripjaws v 2666MHz 16gb(2x8gb)
samsung evo 850 500gb ssd

i will manage to find cabinet(will probably have 4-5 120mm fans) and cooler but I've got confused in this PSU thing
did lots of reading and can't decide what and which PSU to buy.

please suggest me a good brand PSU with specific wattage

going to run ableton on it, does it need graphic card?

and please let me know if above components don't match with each other, had little time to decide them.

thank you
 
Solution
azaran
No worries, glad I could help. I'm gonna throw a lot of info at you here in RAM, but it should help sort out the details.

The RAM latency thing depends on a couple of things. The performance is a mixture of speed and latency. Speed is easy to figure out, 2666MHz/3000Mhz/3200Mhz and so on. Latency is a bit trickier. When you look at the details on a stick of RAM they'll list the CAS or CL number, for our purposes the terms are interchangeable, thats the latency of that stick of RAM. Thats where you'll see a stick advertised as DDR4-2666 CAS 15 or DDR4-3000 CAS 16. However just because one stick has a higher CAS number than another doesn't mean its actually slower, because the speed of the RAM also helps determine the overall...
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Are you going to be playing a lot of games? If not, you do not need that CPU. Also I would highly recommend that you do not skimp on your PSU because for audio production you want the best electrical filtering and steady electrical current that you can get. I like my Evga 550 SuperNova G2, and I highly recommend that to you.
 
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All the components will work together and are good quality. However you'd be better off first researching what the programs you intend to use need. An i7 is always nice to have, but if you don't need a CPU that strong you can reduce your build price. Which programs are you looking to use?

Also like Rocky said, make sure you go with a good PSU, it makes a big difference. For a good place to start for brands to look at this post. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

As for the video card, if you're not gaming and the software doesn't offer GPU acceleration, then the built in graphics in the i5 or i7 series should be just fine.
 
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Rocky : no, i don't think i'm going to play video game anytime. thanks for recommendation.
crosair cp series isn't reliable? they all have good reviews.
and you're saying i should stick around 550w psu, right?

azaran : okay i'm looking into i5 now, my current build is i3 with 4gb memory, but it really cant handle any pressure from ableton that's why I'm considering i7.
I'll be using ableton and Reason all the time. yeah I'm not going to play any game 😛

thanks both of you
 
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Assuming you mean Abletons Live software, it does use hyper threading but its multicore use is a bit confusing. It seems to assign individual tracks to single core usage, so presumably the faster the core speeds the better, but I'm not 100% on that. Here is a quick blurb from their FAQ
https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209067649-High-CPU-load-on-one-core-when-using-multi-core-machines

Reason software is multicore and hyperthreading friendly. So an i7 would be of great use for both software sets. And since you're not gaming, you can get by with the integrated graphics on the i7.

The CPU you have in mind would be great for the software you want to use. And since you're going with a k series CPU and Z series board you can always overclock.

Real quick on your proposed build, there are two changes I'd make off hand:
RAM - Change out to DDR4-3000. It's cheaper and has better performance
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/LhgPxr/gskill-memory-f43000c15d16gvrb

CPU Cooler: If you get the K series chip, you'll need to buy a cooler for it. I don't know what your case is, but if it has at least 145mm headroom for a CPU cooler I'd go with a Cryorig H7. Good all around cooling and you can get a good overclock out of it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/93Crxr/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h7

PSU: It's going to depend on your country, and since you use the term cabinet instead of case I'm guessing you're not in the USA. If you can, the EVGA G2 series is in general a great series, but I know availability can different depending on your country. A good 550w is not only fine for your system build, its actually more than you need. But it allows you the option of expanding your hardware without much concern. If you list off the vendors you're using we can see what kind of good PSU's can be recommended.

One last thing, the Asus Z170-A has some good reviews all around. But it has a slightly lower end onboard audio chipsets, the Realtek ALC892. For normal use, its fine for most people, but since you're doing audio work you might want to look in to it a bit deeper. The Asus Z170 Pro Gaming, while obviously marketed towards gaming, uses a their Supreme Audio (they're rebranding of the Realtek ALC1150) which may make a difference in your work. Not sure as I don't do audio work, but just something to think on. Of course if you're using 3rd party audio hardware already, disregard this entire paragraph.
 
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WOW mate, too much info

i've choose 2666MHz because many said it's the sweet spot and if i go higher the latency might increase
what do you say about that?

i haven't final any case as most cases available here in india are not branded and branded ones are too costly, i'm thinking to buy everything from newegg but they are charging too much for shipping the case.
these case are available here, suggest me the good one

http://www.amazon.in/Corsair-CC-9011052-WW-Carbide-SPEC-03-Mid-Tower/dp/B00J63LFTW?ie=UTF8&keywords=computer%20cabinet&qid=1475783394&ref_=sr_1_28&sr=8-28
http://www.amazon.in/Circle-CC-830-Professional-Cabinet/dp/B00OLKLEV4?ie=UTF8&keywords=computer%20cabinet&qid=1475783358&ref_=sr_1_14&sr=8-14
http://www.amazon.in/Circle-Gaming-Cabinet-Phoenix-without/dp/B01LYCIVNC?ie=UTF8&keywords=circle%20case&qid=1475783531&ref_=sr_1_19&sr=8-19
http://www.amazon.in/Circle-Gaming-Cabinet-without-SMPS/dp/B00QZF8E3O?ie=UTF8&keywords=computer%20cabinet&qid=1475783358&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.in/Circle-CC819-Professional-Gaming-Cabinet/dp/B01BTNT4UI/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1475783846&sr=8-20&keywords=cpu+cooler

Cooler : Cryorig H7 is not available in india, but i was thinking to get
Cooler Master Hyper 212X / EVO or
Cooler Master Sedion 120 V Plus
Corsair H100i GTX
Corsair H80i GT
Noctua N15 (which is too big)
and an user suggested me Noctua NH D9L which i think is a good one, but i'm still confused about coolers.

PSU: yes i'm going with EVGS SuperNova G2 but difference between 550w & 650w is like 600INR(roughly around $10).
should i update to 650w or go with 550w?
how good are corsair CP & VS series? they are cheap here, are they trusted?

Motherboard : they say its 'Crystal Sound 3.1' in Z170 A, didn't know about Z170 Gaming Pro onboard audio
as i'm going to start with stock speakers now so i'll use in-built audio jack, later i'll go with external hardwares
i didn't choose Gaming Pro because it's reviews on newegg are not good comparing z170 A
😵

edit : some people have problem in Gaming Pro
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?74188-Z170-Pro-Gaming-audio-popping-(Realtek-issue)
thanks for the help mate, wont forget this kind help :))
 
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No worries, glad I could help. I'm gonna throw a lot of info at you here in RAM, but it should help sort out the details.

The RAM latency thing depends on a couple of things. The performance is a mixture of speed and latency. Speed is easy to figure out, 2666MHz/3000Mhz/3200Mhz and so on. Latency is a bit trickier. When you look at the details on a stick of RAM they'll list the CAS or CL number, for our purposes the terms are interchangeable, thats the latency of that stick of RAM. Thats where you'll see a stick advertised as DDR4-2666 CAS 15 or DDR4-3000 CAS 16. However just because one stick has a higher CAS number than another doesn't mean its actually slower, because the speed of the RAM also helps determine the overall performance. To give a real metric to determine performance, you want to find out its latency in nanoseconds. Take the CAS rating of the ram, divide it by the speed of the ram and multiply it by 2000. So basically (CAS/Speed)*2000. So for an example,
a stick of 2666mhz CAS 15 RAM has a latency of 11.25ns. (15/2666)*2000=11.25
a stick of 3000Mhz CAS 15 has a latency of 10.6ns. (16/3000)*2000=10.6
So even though the 3000mhz stuff has a higher CAS rating, its actual performance is better than the 2666Mhz. If you were to have two sticks of identical Latency, the one with a higher speed would be the better performing stick. Ex.
DDR4-3200 CAS16 = 10ns
DDR4-3000 CAS15 = 10ns
In this case the DDR4-3200 would win out because it has a speed advantage.
So long story short, the "sweet spot" depends on how much the RAM is going for in your area. Where I live, there's a sizable enough difference in price that DDR4-3200 cas 16 is not worth getting over DDR4-3000 CAS15, but if you compare 2666Mhz and 3000Mhz pricing, the 3000mhz stuff is close enough in price vs performance that it becomes the 'sweet spot". Your area might differ so the 2666Mhz stuff may be the better option. If you apply that (CAS/Speed)*2000 formula to whatever ram you're looking for, you can figure out its NS rating pretty fast and determine whats best for you from there.

Ok now that thats over, cases:
I've only had experience with the Corsair of that listing. The Circle line looks alright, tho in general a bit bigger than the Corsair so they'll be overall a bit bigger and heavier but they all look to have fairly similar layouts. It looks like all of them only support a 120mm rear mounted water cooling option.

Corsair SPEC-03
It has a max CPU cooler height of
Its a little cramped to work in if your doing that water cooler as pictured (personal experience), but its a good case.

Circle CC 830
It has a max CPU cooler height of 155mm
Its going to be taller and thinner than the Corsair. Similar layout except it has drive trays for SSD's which is pretty nice. It has thoes HDD swap docks, which if you use hot swappable drives would be pretty handy, otherwise they'll be a spot for optical drives. It also has a fan controller on the front, which is handy if you need it.

Circle Phoenix
It has a max CPU cooler height of 155mm
I can't find any internal shots of it, so now idea on layout. it has more USB 3.0 front ports and fan controllers, so right off I like that front inputs more on this one.

Circle 821
It has a max CPU cooler height of 155mm
Looks to be a more striped down version of the 830. Very simple layout and simple one of each port front header.

Circle 819
It has a max CPU cooler height of 160mm
Looks to basically be a copy of the Corsair case.

Coolers:
Your going to need something, as your CPU doesn't come with a cooler.

The Cooler Master Hyper 212X / EVO you mentioned have a 158mm height, so you'd have to take that in to consideration. That would take away about half the case options you listed. On top of that, The Hyper 212 series overlaps the 4th RAM slot. So if you fill up all 4 slots of your motherboard with RAM, the RAM must either be under 37mm or you must raise the fan up to compensate for the height of the RAM. This will mean if you have to raise it up more than 2mm, none of the cases you listed will fit. The Ripjaw V you were looking at are 42mm, so if you only use 2 sticks, then you're fine. But if you use a 4 stick kit, you'll have problems with fitting it all in. The Corsair LPX RAM, while a bit more expensive, has a height of I believe 34-355mm.

The Noctua NH D9L is a very low profile cooler at 110mm, so it'll fit all the cases. It also doesn't have any RAM overlap so you can use whatever size RAM you like. The downside is its 92mm fan, so it may be nosier than the 120mm fan that comes with the Coolermaster 212 series. But its also a Noctua fan, and those are generally very quiet fans. Cooling looks good, tho you may not get extreme overclocks on it. But none of those cases will allow for the dual radiator or huge air cooling needed to go to that level.

The Corsair H100i GTX isn't an option with those cases. It's a 2x 120mm (240mm) cooler and those cases only support 120mm coolers.

As for the Cooler Master Sedion 120 V Plus vs the Corsair H80i GT, go with the Corsair H80i GT. Its a thicker rad and a better cooler in general.

PSUs:
If you can, stick to the G2 series. The Corsair VS is a poor series, not sure on the CP but if they're around the same price I wouldn't expect any better quality. As for the 550 vs 650w, if you think you might end up with a more powerful video card or need more juice for the extra sound system parts, then go with 650. Either will do fine so go with what fits your budget.

Motherboard:
Go with the Z170A then, no sense jumping in to more problems if you don't have to.
 
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Solution
Depending on the budget getting a good multi-core CPU with high clock speeds is recommended. For Music Production on an average user uses average of 4 applications running side by side which require single core higher clock speed performance. So yes i7 is recommended. Depending on how intense your work is and how many applications you use together you may be in need of i7-6800K depending on requirement and if your budget allows you. Why go for 6core setup over 4core, because while running that many applications side by side having two cores do improve the performance. If you are not planning to spend big amount then i7-6700K will also perform great.

Limiting out RAM capacity supported by CPU and motherboard is recommended. That doesn't mean you have to buy 64GB or 128GB of RAM at once. You can add it down the lane. Starting with minimum of 32GB RAM will be good. Why go for 32GB RAM instead of 16GB RAM, it is simple if you go for 16GB Kit it will contain 2 x 8GB sticks which will either limit the RAM capacity to 32GB on upgrade or will become useless if you upgrade to 32GB using 2 x 16GB sticks these 8GB sticks will become useless which is waste of money.

Is GPU required? I would say even there is no much use in music production I have seen some apps requiring a GPU for graphical support. So I would recommend you to get a low profile GPU like a GTX750Ti or GTX740. Depends on your budget.



 
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again
lots of helpful info
as you suggested i've found below ones after your detailed informatino
http://www.newegg.com/global/in/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232229
http://www.newegg.com/global/in/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231878


case : i've ordered Circle 830 as it looks overall good

cooler : i can get Corsair H80i GT in less money comparing Noctua N9L, so i'me thinking to go with corsair

PSU : Yes, i'll buy EVGA G2 650W

Motherboard : i'll buy Z170 A

sorry accidentelly selected King Dranzer's answer as solution
so kind of you, is there anything i can do for you? 😛
Thank you so much O:)
 
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6800k isn't available here and it will also cost me more, so i'll buy 6700k
as for memory, 16GB is quiet enough for now, and if i need memory then i'll buy another 16GB that is 32GB in total which is way too much for these softwares

for GPU, thanks for suggestion.
EVGA GTX 750 Ti looks great and alos doesnt cost that much, so but i'll buy that later

Yeah i've ordered case and already purchased have HP monitor, mouse and keyboard

Thanks for your kind suggestions 😀
 
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Either "should" work. I only say "should" because neither of those are on the QVL for memory. That being said, none of the 2x8GB kits on the QVL are listed on Newegg and the QVL isn't the last word in what does and doesn't work on the boards. They both have the right specs so I'd go with whatever fits your budget better. Just make sure you test out the RAM after installing to make sure you're not going to run in to any errors. Memtest86+ is the usual memory tester most people recommend.

And glad I could help with it all, I hope the build works well!
 
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i almost finalised the corsair 80i gt, but then i read all those leakage & pump failure problems from users
i don't want to run into any problem or don't want to get into any of this stuff after i complete my build so i'm not going to buy any liquid cooler
want to buy cooler from noctua but can't decide the model
 
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With your case having a max CPU height of 155mm, you have really only two Nocuta choices, the NH-U9S or the NH-D9L. Of those two, the NH-D9L is the better cooler.
 
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hey mate
thank you so much
just installed OS and required drivers
i decided to Thank you first after starting the pc

i really appericiate your kind help
Thank You Very Much

tho i made changes with RAM, i bought same memory with better timing CAS14,
and changed the mobo. i bought Gigabyte Gaming 5, because this series has quite a lot features for production stuff. other remains as it was.

i7 6700K
Gigabyte GA-Z170X Gaming 5
Gskill Ripjaws V 16GB(2x8GB) 3000Mhz(14-14-14-34)
Noctua D9L
EVGA SuperNova G2 650W
Samsung Evo 850 500GB
Circle 830 Case



at last, is there anything i can do for you? hope you get everything you want in life 😀

listen it and chill "Funkadelic - Maggot Brain"

Thank you. :)
 
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Glad to hear your build worked out well! The Gigagbyte Gaming series is a solid choice, so nice pick there. Hope everything works out with the build up!
 
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