Dear fellow geeks Meeting a different junction from my pc "over heating" problem yesterday, today a new thought entered my head of building my own "dream music production daw computer". Yes, I am going to be lazy and ask for how much you think - it would cost to build a high spec system for music (I already would have soundcard covered). The kind of specs I am looking at are the following; high powered dual xeon - 800mhz fsb @ 3.6GHZ 2GB ram (preferably a single module) with mb expansion slots 80-100GB sata *spec ^_^ rpm @ good throughput basic and realistic case, good cooling etc. decent components in which // I will look into but for now, you think it's a good idea? would 800 buy me any of that? willing to pay 200 on motherboard.
go 4 an AMD there better, and hopefully they will bring out something to beat the new intel core 2s n duos n all, im not too familiar with intels, remember though, clock speed isn't everything
What programs do you use? Do you use hardware synths? People use the dual xeons on proper top notch studios. You can get a xeon for £150ish I think now, not a 3.6ghz one though. Heres a little guide, not so much recommending hardware but what you consider when choosing your bits. DAW Components :: Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH The soundcard is something worth throwing a wedge of cash at, none of these creative labs jobbies are worth considering. 15k rpm scsi harddrives are something people go for when building music PCs too, they are needed for recording. I almost forgot, dual monitors cos you always run out of space. Your probably looking at at least £5k Though if you use stuff like reason you can probably get away with a decent "normal" PC with a fast HDD and decent soundcard. This is all persuming you want windows, Macs are more popular with pros.
Heres a decent lowdown on soundcards, it was written 2 years ago but gives you an idea of the makes which are worth going for. Personal Computer Audio Interfaces
Hey I use Ableton live 5 as my only production environment. I have hardware synths, virus b, k-station, korg ms-10, but also use shed loads of cpu power for effects and vsts such as arturia's prophet 5. Ableton is amazing. Soundcard wise I was thinking a delta, or emu****, perhaps m-audio. I need a rough price range, then I can consider investigating. Saying that, Nusystems are amazing for ableton...
You've got the full kit then! I wasnt sure how seriuos you were into music production. I cant speak from experiance when it comes to kit like that. The only people I know who were really into it all had macs. I wouldnt really want to throw prices at a music PC, Im struggling to keep up with desktops, Ive totally neglected the music thing. To build one of those computers from Nusystems yourself will probably be cheaper than they sell them for but you get the headache of troubleshooting if anything goes wrong. I cant even find somewhere that sells 3.6ghz 775 2mbL2 xeons! Ill keep looking though.
$200 on a Xeon motherboard? Not for a new one, not for any new server board that you'd be intrested in. Under $300, yes, you can snag one for Xeon or Opteron. If you look at the new Woodcrest Xeons, those hand the Opterons their head on a platter, however, older Xeons get spanked. You'll also want to purchase 2 sticks of RAM instead of 1 2GB stick, given how practically all motherboards these days make use of dual-channel memory setups. It won't kill you if you don't, but you will miss the full potential by not doing so. Xeons and most server-class motherboards require Registered DDR, as opposed to the Unbuffered that your typical desktops have. This helps with data integrity, but costs extra. You're looking at around $300 for 2GB here. The new generation of Xeon's come in an LGA771 packaging. Older Xeon's used an mPGA Socket 604. Realistically, to get the proper parts, at least for a Xeon/Opteron box, you're looking at closer to $1500-2000. If you can only drop $800, then forget a dual Xeon/Opteron rig and buy a box. To illustrate what you're looking at: Motherboard: Tyan Tiger K8WE $249.99 CPUs: Opteron 246 ($185x2=) $370 RAM: Kingston PC3200 DDR Registered ECC 1GB ($149.99 x 2=) $299.98 Video Card: XFX GeForce 6800XT PCIe $99.99 Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 150GB, 10k RPM $289.99 Optical Drive: Pioneer 16x DVDRW $31.99 Power Supply: FSP FX700-GLN 700W $169.99 Case: Enermax CS-10182-BA $86.00 Total: $1,597.93 + shipping (+tax for CA, NJ) You'll find similar pricing on Xeon CPU's and motherboards...and that's the low-end stuff. For $800, you'd be better served with a dual-core CPU.
Its £s hes talking not $. Nearly double the difference these days. £1=$1.88 I cant find a decent Uk based place on the net which has a decent range of stuff. Other than Nusystems which you pointed out.
