Building a relatively high spec computer. Can u offer some help?

[Parkinm]

Hello, Im new XD

Im building a new high spec computer at the moment, its going to be used for music production.

so far here are the specs:

MOBO: Lanparty nF4 SLI-D
CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core
RAM: Platinum EL Dual Channel Kit 2x512MB DDR400 PC3200 CL 2-2-2-5 Revision 2
CASE: Thermaltake Tsunami
PSU: Type R 580W Modular PSU Blue
Monitor: Viewsonic VX724

What do u think so far? good pick of components? I want to check before i pay for it all.

I need some help picking the HDD, 300GB would be good preferably sataII can anyone reccomend one? I dont want to spend loads more money, its costing enough at the moment anyway Also i need some help with picking the graphics card. I want to be able to play games with it like halflife 2 doom 3 etc etc. But i dont want to spend megabucks.

Thanks alot

Mike

 

[PurdueRy]

Never heard of that power supply...maybe its good...

Why not just get a seasonic or a PCP&C one?

I would get a Seagate 7200.8 300 GP hard driver if I had the choice. They are around $150 I think.

What about a video card?

 

[mezrah]

If you are using this for music production you are definitely going to want to get a sound card...might as well go for the x-fi

 

[kleinwl]

That EL memory is a waste of money. Just go for some value ram... same with the X2... the 3800X2 can be overclocked to 4400X2 speeds fairly consistantly.


For a video card, I recommend a 7800GT... or if that's too much, then drop down to a x800xl or x800 pro.

edit: For music production you MAY want to have 2GB instead of 1GB.

 

[Sunrise089]

Downgrade to the X2 3800+

Upgrade to 2 gigs

Buy any A list brand HD

Buy a sound card, X-Fi if you can afford it

Buy a x800xl or a 6600gt if you want to save

 

[stlcardinals]

If you are going to be doing music production I would get the X-Fi Platinum edition so you can get the MIDI connections.

 

[bob4432]

what type of music production? are you making electronic music from inside the computer or are you using the machine to bring music from a mixer board?

get the correct sound card that the industry you are intending to go with suggests.

also, are you sure the software you are going to use is smp/smt aware? i would first find what software i was going to use, then read up on it and see what it takes advantage of.

as far as the gpu, the best bet is a 7800gt which is ~$350, or for $180 ati just put some more "refurbs" w/3 year warranty on their site - x800pro.

unless you are going to o/c i wouldn't get a dfi board, sure they are fast but you need to do more tweaking usually and the epox boards are coming almost as fast for o/c but seem to be more stable out of the box.

also, why get a sli board? sli is kind of a waste unless you are building a serious gaming computer and want to play bf2 @ 1920x1440 w/ high details and max AA & AF settings.

type r psu? never heard of it. get a fortron, antec, seasonic, enermax or pc&p. the brands i have mentioned have been tested around here for a long time and are good, known brands.

here is some info on sataII - educate yourself.

too many people suggesting hardware that, in theory, is probably specialized and they don't know anything about.

 

[theMan]

take sunrise's advice. you should get a pc power and cooling 510w sli.

 

[i1o0i]

Hiper 580Watts from xoxide.com
2x1GB OCZ Platinum RAM
2x74gb raptors
and the rest are awesome..its will blow your mind, dude!

 

[kitkat22]

I've actually been speccing out a Audio PC for a friend of mine. It will cost between 1600-2100, but is a much, much better deal than the Carallon or Sweetwater PC's. Anything here can be tweaked or adjusted for your own tastes and budget.
Mobo ASUS A8N-E ATX 116
CPU Athlon 64 X2 4200 479
Memory Corsair Value Select 2GB 186
Hard Drive 2x WD 250GB 7200rpm 16MB 244
Case Antec Sonata II 120
Optical NEC DVD-RW DL ND-3540 50
Sound EMU 1820 Digital Audio 400
Video ATI X800 256MB 180
OS Microsoft XP Pro 75
Total 1850

This was more proof of concept to show that he could build one for about $800 cheaper than the Carallon folks. He is a student so XP is reduced and the sound is easily adjusted to fit whatever needs you want. Have fun!

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: cscpianoman
I've actually been speccing out a Audio PC for a friend of mine. It will cost between 1600-2100, but is a much, much better deal than the Carallon or Sweetwater PC's. Anything here can be tweaked or adjusted for your own tastes and budget.
Mobo ASUS A8N-E ATX 116
CPU Athlon 64 X2 4200 479
Memory Corsair Value Select 2GB 186
Hard Drive 2x WD 250GB 7200rpm 16MB 244
Case Antec Sonata II 120
Optical NEC DVD-RW DL ND-3540 50
Sound EMU 1820 Digital Audio 400
Video ATI X800 256MB 180
OS Microsoft XP Pro 75
Total 1850

This was more proof of concept to show that he could build one for about $800 cheaper than the Carallon folks. He is a student so XP is reduced and the sound is easily adjusted to fit whatever needs you want. Have fun!

I'd drop the CPU to the 3800+....price vs. performance isn't worth it for the 4200+.

What type of music production? Electronic? Or "Live Audio". Does he need Midi?

 

[kitkat22]

Originally posted by: Nutdotnet

I'd drop the CPU to the 3800+....price vs. performance isn't worth it for the 4200+.

What type of music production? Electronic? Or "Live Audio". Does he need Midi?

Like I said it was proof of concept and was ultimately put together in five minutes to prove a point

 

[Parkinm]

Hey everyone, thank you very much for the advice! I will give you some more infomation about what it is i will be doing and why i chose what i chose...

Firstly I produce using logic 5.01 My keyboard is USB so Midi connections arent an issue. Secondly Im not doing any real life sound, so i dont need a hard box to plug guitars and stuff in etc etc. (so I only need a soundcard that will give decent audio latency not one with an expensive expansion.) Ive got enough knowledge in the music side to pick the sound card, thanks for the helkp anyway!

The reason i went with two sticks of 512 is that there is a bug with logic which causes problems when the system has over 1GB of memory, so getting over a gig is not really worth it. (dont argue this one with me! just believe it!) Are you sure its worth getting the cheapy memory? I was going to get the expensive stuff so that i know its going to work efficiently. it will lose heat better etc etc (im not a believe in sticking a ram cooler thing on your ram)

People are reccomending downgrading to a 3800+ and overclocking it to 4200+ I was thinking get a 4200+ and o/cing it to a 4400+. Because most applications i use arent multithread yet I still need the processor to be really quick. and when applications start becoming more and more multithread it will still be a fast enough processor.

I thought i may aswell get an SLi mobo now, so that in 4 years time, when games are better i can just buy another graphics card of the same type and stick it in. (prob not the best idea to buy something to use tommorrow, but thats the way i was thinking) Also the chipset on the mobo is new and it has everything else on it that i want.

I like the DFi mobo aswell, so im happy to pay the money for it.

Can i just ask 4 questions and as many people as possible answer them!! Please give links to them aswell so i can read more about them, and know im looking at what you have suggested!

1. is it worth getting better ram, if i can only get up to 1Gb.
2. What graphics card will be best to play doom 3 at a decent resolution? (around £100 or $180 would be good!)
3. What PSU would you get?
4. Which 300Gb HDD would you buy?

Thank you very much,

Mike

 

[imported_Frallan]

Ure getting a DFI MoBo... Goto www.dfi-street.com and read up on what memory U want. Value as someone suggested is a cheap and good way of buying problems. That Hiper is ok otherwise Id recommend the OCZ Powerstream 520W or the Fortron Blue Storm 550W...

 

[bob4432]

as far as the ram, the increse speed in timings is not justified by the large price. like Frallan said, go do dfi-street and get whatever value type ram they recommend. there is no way faster ram will make up for the fact that you can't use over 1GB.

as for the cpu, you might want to read around and see what your chances are of o/c a 3800 to 4400 speeds, which may be possible with the correct hsf, not sure.

don't bet on the sli, in 4yrs the technology wil have changed so dramatically you will be better off changing the gpu out then. it would be like if you currently had a gf4ti4200, and then added another, you would still be low and not able to play the current games now with 2 gf4ti4200s (this is just an example, i know the ti4200 are not sli capable) but would be much better off going with something new.

as far a decent gpu, i think ati has the pci-e x800pro for $180 again in their clearance section, it comes with a 3yr warranty so there is a good chance it is new. either way it is a good deal.

for psu i would go seasonic, pc&p, forton (their green series are supposedly 85% efficient) with 400+W.

for a hdd i would probably go seagate since you get a 5yr warranty, or even one of the maxtor maxline III series, again with a 5yr warranty.

 

[Parkinm]

*bump!

anyone else?