PC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MUSIC EDITING

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Brad-PC

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Mar 22, 2010
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Hello, I need a computer that will do a solid job with video and music editing, and some gaming (Halo 2).

My deal is that when I go to best buy, they try to push either a $2,500 apple, and say it has the best music editing software, and that macs operating system requires half the hardware to perform just as well as windows or they try to push a windows based computer with intel i7 processors.

My question is what do I really need? I don't mind paying that much if I really need it, but I sure don't like to waste money either.

Basically what I'm thinking is a few years ago intel core 2 duo's were the big dogs and people were saying they were flawless and if so why wouldn't it still be good today. What is the best base chipset out right now that would perform best to my needs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Hey, Brad,

I have a serious A/V project studio and have had (evolving) since 1987 (when it was all analog audio and video).

I am now 50yoa and staring at a 52" LCD, which is flanked by two 21U racks and two MACKIE 4-bus mixers.

Sure, you could literally go to your local GoodWill Industries PC recycling center and get the parts for a song or ressurect an old socket 478 Hyperthreading Single Core, like the one I am typing on (NorthWood 3.2(c)). It is *SO* nice that great pro audio takes almost no compute stamina at all !

On the other hand, even your time is worth something and life can seem short, so, I would recommend a nice, new AMD Socket AM3 Phenom-II x3Core (~3.2GHz) Proc with THE WORKS for, say, $550.

If you are TRULY interested ... and have the cash ... I would spec it out @ newegg for Ya.

= Alvin =


 
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BTW:

There are also so many really great CHEAP older music studio software packages (MAGIX products come to mind), that really work and do .mp3s and mix MIDI with Analog-in ... even synch to SD (DV-25) video. We are talkin $5 to $95 for world class recording and authoring.

Good point ... Pro Music Creation has become fully democratic and affordable, for anyone in the developing world. With onboard 8ch audio, as the modern mobo standard, there must be PILES of "almost free" sounblaster Audigy cards (I have an Extigy, and Pro-sonus XLRx2@1394 and SONAR Studio).

= Alvin =
 
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as alvin said, you don't require an extremely powerful PC, but the more you spend on the processor the less time consuming your work will be.

an Athlon II 620 would probably be a really good middle ground. 4 cores and a respectable clockspeed but at an affordable price.
 
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So is the processor the most important part for what I want, and will a better chipset help, an option of choice for intel and amd, I'm not real familliar with amd much, does the value hurt performance or compatibility?

Thanks, more questions to come, I want to get this right the first time round.
 
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compatibility isn't an issue, in fact compatibility is higher with AMD chips since they are not as fond of releasing new sockets all the time.

as far as performance goes, AMD are behind intel, but at a considerably lower cost. they are certainly the better choice for a budget build.
an i7 would certainly be better for the tasks you want, but you'd have to spend twice as much money and certainly wouldn't get double performance.
 
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Ok I will go with you on that, what kind of graphics card then would you suggest for the video gaming I'm doing, its halo 2 nothing fancy but would like to run it maxed out, ive tried it on a few friends computers and have always wanted that game to work on mine, but thats the extent of my gaming.

I'm assuming the game would be more taxing on the video card than music and video editing, and if you feel you need to bump up the processor recommendation for that game feel free.
 
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Gaming largely depends on the resolution of your monitor. For 1280x1024, just about any card released in the last year will be fine. For 1920x1080 and up, you will probably want to spend at least $150 (ATI 5770) or more on a video card.
 
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"Amen" to all advice, so far !

HALO ??? Nothing FancY ?? That makes a pretty big diff ...

For fps shooter games, "maxed out" at 1080 or 1200 ... You want a RADEON 5770 or a 5850 ... not cheap ! But worth it.

... AND ... beyond having at least 2 cores ... you want the fastest clock speed you can get ... 3.2GHz+ stock ... Grab a Hper 212 cooler ($34) and O.C. ! !

= Alvin =
 
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Wow thanks for all the helpful advice so far, my screen is 1920 x 1080p and I do like ati over nvidia, so that just leaves me with only a few more components to work out, I am shopping on newegg after the recommendations for that site. What do you guys think about the motherboard chipset (not the processor), there are so many choices for performance and budget chipsets.

I'm not even sure what it does, and how important it is to get a good one, my friend told me if you dont get a great chipset your other components will suffer. What do you think of that statement, he recommended the x58 chipset for intel but looks like since I'm going amd thats not an option.

Thanks again, Brad
 
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chipset isn;t that important really, you just want a newer one where possible.

if someone recomends a good motherboard, they are therefore recomending a good chipset.

personally id recommend to you the gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P. a very nice board, with good expandability and not too pricey.
 
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Well ... The mobo is a "platform" ... Like a breakout box for your CPU and GPU ...

... The overriding (pertinent) qualities are (1) Bandwidth (How much data can it move around per temporal unit) (2) What are the type, speed and number of I/O ports (i.e. USB2/3 .. SATA-II/III). (3) Modal and Administrative Features (i.e. O.C. facilities .. OnBoard RAID and VIDEO .. Memory Modes .. etc.

That's it ... The trick with "building" is to take advantage of overlapping product cycles and to guage cutting edge performance against trailing edge economy and utility ... all at "per cost".

Hey ??
 
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And ... Guys ... I'm thinking I'd (now-a-days) go with AM3 all the way up to 965 and then to jump straight to a 1366, if more is needed ... Perhaps a 750 or an 860, as a slightly cheaper games or edit, respectively, but why not go on up to 1366 and skip over 1156 altogether ??

I really do not see a lot of worth-while gradation, in there ... get a cheap 920 and step on up (at this point).

ATOM who?
 
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I have heard good things about gigabyte, now onto amount of ram, i'm going with these other specs

amd phenom II x4 965 Black Edition

ati 5770

still not sure on the motherboard yet, they are out of stock on that one, but i will get one with ddr3. Now knowing some components and what apps I am using it for, what is the optimal amount of ram and speed for what i'm using it for.

I try and do alot of research before I post stupid questions, but there just isnt alot of info on recommendations for the particular things I'm looking at.



 
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Minimum recommended RAM is 4 GB. That's also the maximum recommended RAM for gaming. Since your primary purpose is editing, however, you should consider 8 or 12 GB if it fits in your budget (and there's available room on the mobo).

The current sweet spot for DDR3 RAM is 1333-1600 MHz with CAS Latency 7.

This G.Skill kit is frequently recommended. Please ignore the Intel-focused marketing speak. It'll work on an AMD board just fine, they're just referring to the lower voltage cap on Intel boards.

This Mushkin kit is an especially good deal, $100 after MIR.

Or you could step up to 1600 MHz with one of these two G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 MHz or G.Skill Eco Series 1600 MHz.
 
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Also ... The Black 965 CPU is just a 955 that has had the multiplier upped by "1" ...

... SO ... it makes better sense to get a 955 and a Hyper 212 Cooler and clock it for all it's worth ...

... Not only will the cost difference help pay for the cooler ... BUT ... The 965 won't achieve any higher TOP CLOCK than the 955 (all else equal).

= Alvin = Those who go with 955 show they know what's up.

 
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alot of people seem to say this, but its not entirely true.

assuming you get the 125w TDP 965, you are actually getting a more efficient chip, that runs at a higher clockspeed on lower voltage. these gives you more OC headroom due to the lower stock heat output. given the marginal price difference, i would actually recommend the 965 every time (to an overclocker at least)

 
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ok so as long as I go with 7 or less latency and at least 1333 speed Im ok. What is that micron m9 ram that people are talking about, and should I get buffered/unbuffered, ECC/non-ECC?
 
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If you can afford it, an SSD will provide the most noticeable increase in system responsiveness. If you get one, use it as your boot drive and just put your most frequently used applications on it. You wouldn't want to actually store the files you're editing on the SSD, you'd want a separate traditional hard drive for that.

The 500 GB platter 7200 rpm drives compete with 10k (Velociraptors) at streaming/consecutive tasks, while the VRs are faster at random I/O. SSDs are an order of magnitude faster than the VRs. As in, average seek time for a VR is about 4 ms. Average seek time for an SSD is under .1 ms.

I'm of the opinion that if you're considering VRs, you should just spend a little more and get SSDs. If you can't afford the SSD, stick with 7200 rpm drives for now and get one later when the come down in price.
 
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The important thing about HDDs (at this juncture in the market) is to go with 7200RPM and ** 500GB Platter Tech **

Samsung Spinpoint F3 Series 500GB/7200RPM or 1TB/7200RPM ...
Seagate 1200.1
Caviar Black 1TB

Any others ? Folks ?

As far as SSDs go ... Highly recommended for any build ** IF ** you can afford it.

My blurb is that you want an SSD for a boot/apps drive and that, even tho they cost over $2/GB, the decrease in boot-time, apps-load, OVL swaps, and browsing (temp files) TOTALLY justifies the extra cost AND that they are more than 3x as reliable ... can be read, even after they start to degrade (5 yrs down the road) and that YOU WILL NOT WANT TO RE-INSTALL YOUR ENTIRE (tweaked and evolved/updated) OPERATING ENVIRONMENT AT A LATER TIME ...

.. DO IT NOW ... BE "DONE WITH" ... because you are doing a fresh OS install with this new build and you will be tweaking windows for performance and doing security updates and driver updates and other "customizations" and "preferred layouts" ... Will you really want to scrap all that effort, later ??

So ... YES! .. Choke up another $150 for a Kingston 64GB (rebranded INTEL) SSD ... Remember to always leave 20% space free (for TRIM MaNAGEMEnT) and that is a lot of space as I have 4 complete edit suites, OS, Browser, Comm-utils, a dozen Audio production suites ... all full installs ... even several x-indexed bible research suites in a dozen languages ... ALL of this and much more ON A 70GB Raptor drive and that boot/apps drive still has 46GB free space !!!

My content and archive HDD is a 300GB seagate and it is half full of HDV/DV-25 ingest and projects ... .mp3s ... gigabytes of hi-rez photos and 100s of saved web-reference pages, etc.

The main thing is to avoid "EXPRESS INSTALLS" with large games with a lot of Cinematic Transitions, etc. Just choose "Custom Install" and route the install to your (MUCH BIGGER) HDD.

= Al =
 
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