PC for Music Production

[thepianoman77]

Hi guys I am looking to buy a computer straight from scratch for music production. I have found a few articles but i don't think they give you every single component you need to have a working computer for the total price. My budget is about 1k. I need every single component so i can be sure not to go over 1k. For example, mouse, sound card, keyboard, ram, hard drive, video card, monitor, etc.

I don't mean to sound rude, but when i see computer builds I see that they include a few of the components for a certain price but don't take into account that people might now have a monitor or speakers or whatever not.

If I could get help with this task I would be forever grateful... I was thinking of getting a MAC but you know how that goes. Too expensive.

thanks guys!

 

[Black Rack]

Here's an active listing on Ebay for a Precision, looks like great value if you're willing to go for a used PC:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-QC-Xeon-E5-1620-3-6GHz-16GB-RAM-250GB-HDD-Quadro-600-H310/131702116300?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D34493%26meid%3D454bdce27ac34156a6d9efbfcc52a416%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D141826623451

Only $500 and is a much higher spec than what I suggested once you add a SSD. That CPU is only slightly weaker than a modern $300 i7. The GPU is pretty poor but it should be OK for your usage and they're easily upgradable anyway.

Again it is just a trade off in terms of whether you'd prefer more performance or new parts with warranties.

@imsqam - That's very gracious of you, glad you didn't take any of that as a personal attack like so many on this forum do sometimes.

jmsellars1,

The Dell Precision T3600 linked would be a very good choice. That particular one has a PERC H310 SAS/SATA RAID controller 8 port (supports 32 physical SAS drives) -probably a $400 option new that is very good when combined with fast drives. I have an H310 in a Precision T5500- originally 3GB/s and it changed it to 6GB/s and the Passmark disk score from 1940 to 2628 on a Samsung 840 250GB. It was somewhat difficult to configure but the results are worth it.

There 12X T3600> E5-1620 / 16GB / PERC H310 / Quadro 600 systems on Passmark the best of which is:

Rating= 3332, CPU=9363 , 2D=782 (excellent), 3D=855, Mem=1646, Disk=3967

-very good results. For comparison, my 2013 HP z420 with an E5-1620:

Rating= 3815, CPU=8985 , 2D=767, 3D=2044 (Quadro 4000 2GB), Mem=2523, Disk=2486. You can disregard the difference in 3D due to the higher level Quadro 4000, the memory is higher as I have 24GB instead of 16GB, and the overall higher rating and concentrate on the higher CPU score and much higher disk score thanks to the PERC H310. The TX600 series Precisions were very good.


Cheers,

BambiBoom

didnt wanna start a new thread so i'll ask this here...thanks for ur help
Just came cross this pc and was wondering if it will be good enough for video editing using sony vegas and audio produciton using fl studio? its Dell precision T5400...

x 2 CPU Xeon E5405
RAM 16 GB DDR2 ECC
500 GB Hard Drive 7200 SATA II
SATA II Optical Drive DVD RW
Video Card NVidia Quadro dual output DVI/VGA
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
$150

is it worth it? will be building a pc for december but wondering if this pc can get the job done till then? or these other options

Dell Precision 490 or HP xw6600

Nvidia 8800 GTS,
4 cores, 2 Xeon 5150 CPUs,
160GB hdd,
8GB ram,
700W power, DVD drive, audio, USB, ethernet
1000BT, extra fans,
Win 7 Pro,
$178.95.

Dell Precision T3500 or HP Z400

Nvidia 260 GTX,
250GB hdd,
Win 7 Pro,
Intel, 2Tx4cores, Xeon W3520 or E5540 CPU,
8GB ram,
600W
power, DVD drive, audio, USB, ethernet 1000BT, extra fans,
$258.

 

[bambiboom]

Here's an active listing on Ebay for a Precision, looks like great value if you're willing to go for a used PC:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-QC-Xeon-E5-1620-3-6GHz-16GB-RAM-250GB-HDD-Quadro-600-H310/131702116300?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D34493%26meid%3D454bdce27ac34156a6d9efbfcc52a416%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D141826623451

Only $500 and is a much higher spec than what I suggested once you add a SSD. That CPU is only slightly weaker than a modern $300 i7. The GPU is pretty poor but it should be OK for your usage and they're easily upgradable anyway.

Again it is just a trade off in terms of whether you'd prefer more performance or new parts with warranties.

@imsqam - That's very gracious of you, glad you didn't take any of that as a personal attack like so many on this forum do sometimes.

jmsellars1,

The Dell Precision T3600 linked would be a very good choice. That particular one has a PERC H310 SAS/SATA RAID controller 8 port (supports 32 physical SAS drives) -probably a $400 option new that is very good when combined with fast drives. I have an H310 in a Precision T5500- originally 3GB/s and it changed it to 6GB/s and the Passmark disk score from 1940 to 2628 on a Samsung 840 250GB. It was somewhat difficult to configure but the results are worth it.

There 12X T3600> E5-1620 / 16GB / PERC H310 / Quadro 600 systems on Passmark the best of which is:

Rating= 3332, CPU=9363 , 2D=782 (excellent), 3D=855, Mem=1646, Disk=3967

-very good results. For comparison, my 2013 HP z420 with an E5-1620:

Rating= 3815, CPU=8985 , 2D=767, 3D=2044 (Quadro 4000 2GB), Mem=2523, Disk=2486. You can disregard the difference in 3D due to the higher level Quadro 4000, the memory is higher as I have 24GB instead of 16GB, and the overall higher rating and concentrate on the higher CPU score and much higher disk score thanks to the PERC H310. The TX600 series Precisions were very good.


Cheers,

BambiBoom

didnt wanna start a new thread so i'll ask this here...thanks for ur help
Just came cross this pc and was wondering if it will be good enough for video editing using sony vegas and audio produciton using fl studio? its Dell precision T5400...

x 2 CPU Xeon E5405
RAM 16 GB DDR2 ECC
500 GB Hard Drive 7200 SATA II
SATA II Optical Drive DVD RW
Video Card NVidia Quadro dual output DVI/VGA
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
$150

is it worth it? will be building a pc for december but wondering if this pc can get the job done till then? or these other options

Dell Precision 490 or HP xw6600

Nvidia 8800 GTS,
4 cores, 2 Xeon 5150 CPUs,
160GB hdd,
8GB ram,
700W power, DVD drive, audio, USB, ethernet
1000BT, extra fans,
Win 7 Pro,
$178.95.

Dell Precision T3500 or HP Z400

Nvidia 260 GTX,
250GB hdd,
Win 7 Pro,
Intel, 2Tx4cores, Xeon W3520 or E5540 CPU,
8GB ram,
600W
power, DVD drive, audio, USB, ethernet 1000BT, extra fans,
$258.

Black Rack,

My suggestion is to consider upgrading a used workstation with the Xeon E5.having the highest single-thread perofrmance that's affordable: See the Passmark "CPU Mega Page and enter a search "Xeon E5-16". With some careful shopping, you can have a really good video editing system complete for the $1,000. It would be preferable to base the system on an E5 v2 if at all possible- even if it meant running on 16 or 32GB RAM and a GTX 780Ti for awhile- a strong single-thread performance, fast memory, and disk is essential, the systems you listed are all SATAII 3GB/s disk, USB 2, and using DDR3-1333, whereas the Xeon E5-v2 system will have SATAIII 6GB/s disk, USB 3, and DDR3-1866.

How about:

HP Z420 WORKSTATION Hexa Six 6 CORE XEON E5-1650 V2 3.50GHz/32GB/250Gb/Win 7 A2D > $399

To that, add RAM to 64GB, either a GTX 1080Ti or pair of GTX 1070's, a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB and 2TB HD. Have one good sized monitor at the highest resolution you'll be using, plus a second monitor of lower quality of at least 21" for menus and other applications.

The E5-1650 v2 is a rare Xeon E5- (as far as I know,there are only four 6 and 8-core E5-1600 v2's) that can be overclocked using Intel Extreme tuning Utility. Buy an HP z420 liquid cooler- they're about $55 now- and set up the E5-1650 v3 to run on all cores at say 4.0 or 4.1GHz- maybe 4.2. I'm running an E5-1660 v2 at 4.1 on all 6-cores with the stock fan/heatsink.and an E5-1680 v2 at 4.3Ghz on all eight cores using a z420 liquid cooler.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z620_2 (2017) (Rev 1) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB + Intel 730 480GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / ASUS Essence STX PCIe sound card / 825W PSU /> Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) / Logitech z2300 2.1 Sound
[ Passmark Rating = 6322 / CPU rating = 17178 / 2D = 852 / 3D= 9012 / Mem = 3032 / Disk = 14227 / Single Thread Mark = 2339 [7.3.17]
[ Cinebench R15 = cb1214 (CPU) / 153 (Single Threaded) / 150.77 (OpenGL) MP Ratio 7.92x / Accuracy 99.6% ] 7.21.17

 

[Black Rack]

@BambiBoom

i already bought the t5400 last night and so far its running vegas and flstudio no problem....for the price =no complain but i'll consider ur offer for my next/1st build....thanks tho...u the reason why i even consider an old workstation in the first place

 

[bambiboom]

@BambiBoom

i already bought the t5400 last night and so far its running vegas and flstudio no problem....for the price =no complain but i'll consider ur offer for my next/1st build....thanks tho...u the reason why i even consider an old workstation in the first place

Black Rack,

As it happens, today I was working on my T5400 - 2X Xeon X5460 4C@ 3.16GHz / 16 GB /Quadro FX4800 / Western Digital RE4 HD - state of the art in 2010. I'd forgotten how heavy these are. That's being sold along with several other systems. The T5400 was 100% reliable- purchased when I changed to 3D CAD and my main system from 2010 to 2014.

Keep the cooling in top condition- that DDR2-667 is hot, hot, hot. there was a fellow on eBay US only a few days ago offering 32GB of RAM for T5400 for I think $26 or $27.

When the system is all set up, give it a run on the free trial of Passmark Performance Test and follow the progress of upgrades. You can also look up the results from all the other T5400s tested and see which GPU's and drives have the best performance.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Black Rack]

@BambiBoom

i already bought the t5400 last night and so far its running vegas and flstudio no problem....for the price =no complain but i'll consider ur offer for my next/1st build....thanks tho...u the reason why i even consider an old workstation in the first place

Black Rack,

As it happens, today I was working on my T5400 - 2X Xeon X5460 4C@ 3.16GHz / 16 GB /Quadro FX4800 / Western Digital RE4 HD - state of the art in 2010. I'd forgotten how heavy these are. That's being sold along with several other systems. The T5400 was 100% reliable- purchased when I changed to 3D CAD and my main system from 2010 to 2014.

Keep the cooling in top condition- that DDR2-667 is hot, hot, hot. there was a fellow on eBay US only a few days ago offering 32GB of RAM for T5400 for I think $26 or $27.

When the system is all set up, give it a run on the free trial of Passmark Performance Test and follow the progress of upgrades. You can also look up the results from all the other T5400s tested and see which GPU's and drives have the best performance.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

good looking bro