Jump to content

building a new computer..


chile

Recommended Posts

So I'm gonna invest in a new computer mainly for music production and a little video editting.

 

 

Optical drive + DSP card + Soundcard + Monitor

[salvaged from last build]

 

-----------------

Motherboard

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabertooth-Motherboard-Express-Thermal-ASUS/dp/B00667B8O8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376879193&sr=8-1&keywords=motherboard+atx+lga+2011

£250.97

-----------------

CPU

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BX80619I73930K-i7-3930K-6-Core-Processor/dp/B00681D9ZI/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046907&sr=1-1&keywords=Intel+Core+i7-3930K+LGA2011

£451.99

[QVL listed]

-----------------

RAM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ripjaws-PC17000-2133MHz-Channel-Platforms/dp/B00687MGVK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376950700&sr=8-1&keywords=f3-17000cl9q-16gbzh

£130.80

[QVL listed]

-----------------

Graphics card

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-gtx670-pe-power-edition-915mhz-core-boost-980mhz-gddr5-6008mhz-memory

£172.40

-----------------

HDDs

SSD 256gb [OS drive]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDSSDP-256G-G25-256GB-SATA-Internal/dp/B0093HMLJ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377046710&sr=8-1&keywords=SanDisk+Pulse+SSD+SATA+III+2.5%22+256GB+Solid+State+Hard+Drive

£114.96

 

HDD 1tb project/sample storage

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377134132&sr=1-2&keywords=wd+7200rpm+1tb

£49.97

-----------------

Case

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Carbide-Series-CC-9011017-WW-Windowed/dp/B008B6ONXA/ref=sr_1_11?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377145205&sr=1-11&keywords=atx+mid+tower

£70.97

-----------------

PSU

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-HX850-Professional-Series-Modular/dp/B008O0RTFC/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377971661&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+professional+series+850+watt

£120.96

 

End cost: Approx. £1472

 

 

Any advice, suggestions or links on stuff would be cool. i was wondering too if theres such a thing as motherboards with multiple cpu slots? also for a music production harddrive is a fast rpm count the only thing to take into account? ive heard SSDs can go faster than harddrives too..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Symatic

nvidea quadro are pretty standard for video editing as far as i know. their quadro 4000 is qualified for use with Avid's Media Composer editing software and you can use them for adobe premiere too

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right, but considering the price of that card, it is rather puny and ancient in tech terms. I know that Quadro cards have some very specific features that consumer cards do not have, but personally I wouldn't drop £200+ on a card like that just to do "a little video editing".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah i was having trouble last night finding a graphics card. Ive been going through the devices QVL list for the sabertooth x79 motherboard, which most of the time only names the model number for the card so i end up searching a model number and a card comes up thats like £3000 or some other ridiculous figure. That was the only one i saw at a resonable price range but its overspeced and above budget for me. I was looking through some budget list on pcadvisor and theres some decent ones there but they werent on the qvl list. I found this one earlier http://www.amazon.co.uk/PNY-nVidia-Quadro-Graphics-Card/dp/B0049TWCTU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376894811&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=leadtek+quadro which is also quadro, but a more reasonable price so maybe its worth the risk to try it on that motherboard. Im not deadset on quadro anyway, id just like something that will be compatible and good enough for sony vegas use. On my last PC build I had a lot of problems with the graphics card I chose (i didnt look to see if it was in the QVL list or not so I'm guessing it wasn't) so im trying to reduce the risk of that happening again. Was a bit of a nightmare, the screen would start flashing when I used cubase and sometimes I'd get blue screens after a notice popped up saying there was a problem with the monitor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I would start with a consumer grade card. If you have issues with it, you can always return it for a refund and get something else. If you buy from Amazon, their returns are particularly hassle-free.

 

As for hard drives, the areal density is also a consideration as higher density means that more data is packed in "per inch", which usually always means faster speeds. The buffer size makes a difference too. I really like the Hitachi 7K3000 and 7K4000 drives because they offer great performance at a decent price and they're only consistently bettered by the WD Raptor drives, although they cost considerably more.

 

An SSD gives considerably better performance than even the fastest HDDs, but obviously the price per GB is much higher too. A lot of people do what I do and have a small SSD for the OS/software and a large, fast HDD for data, which is the best compromise unless you're fecking loaded.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was able to use sony vegas fairly well with an AMD radeon hd 6370m on this laptop. Preferably im after something that speeds up rendering times i had though and below £150 price range.. ive been going through more of the qvl list searching stuff but a lot of the grpahics cards arent available anymore or end up being crazy expensive.. still going through the list anyway

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think im gonna go with the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 S. it seems quite powerful and £153. Its not on the QVL list but ive seen a video of someone using it for a gaming pc build with a x79 sabertooth mobo.

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce-GDDR5-Graphics-Card/dp/B0099AOD50/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376948250&sr=8-2&keywords=GTX+580

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a bargain for £19 more: -

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-gtx670-pe-power-edition-915mhz-core-boost-980mhz-gddr5-6008mhz-memory

 

It comes with a free game that you could sell to get that £19 back. :d

 

Here's a review on TechPowerUp where it gets 9.7/10 and the editor's choice award: -

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_670_Power_Edition/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Go for this for your OS: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/solidstate/128gbandabove/sdssdhp-128g-g25.html (I've got one, it's rapid) and get bigger harddrive like Steve says.

 

Otherwise you're looking at this kind of price: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/solidstate/128gbandabove/sdssdx-480g-g25.html (Just for 480GB!)

 

Go for Corsair for your (modular) PSU and don't buy anything made by OCZ.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

nice one frost an steve.. yeah im major overbudget but thinking of buying it in parts over a few months which gives me time to plan a bank robbery. i have acquired win 7 professional so the OS is out the way for now. Im not too fussed about windows 8 at the moment although is there any advantage to using windows 8?.. i think i may go the hdd route for now then as i need a lot of space for the synths im after.. east west quantum leap symphonic orchestra takes up about 30 gb on its own so would eat almost a quarter of the memory on that 128 gb ssd..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you'll have to change some parts then mate. The CPU is actually £40 cheaper if you buy it direct from Amazon rather than the third party seller you've linked to, but even then, that leaves you only £213.84 for the rest of the parts.

 

If you had chosen a different CPU, I would have said to forget the GPU until later when you have more cash, but the 3930K doesn't have a built-in GPU like the 3730K (for example) does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah im looking at this now too which was a related link to add, which eats up most of the remaining budget - http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/solidstate/128gbandabove/sdssdp-256g-g25.html

 

oh just found that for cheaper (£114) on amazon though

 

 

 

id rather wait though still than downsize. oh thanks for spotting slightly cheaper amazon direct cpu,, will have a look

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok so i think i can do it with the new budget.. just dont know much about psu's.. is there a way to work out how much wattage i'll need? I checked a video on modular vs non modular last night and modular seems cool, but then semi modular i think might be more appropriate for me? this one seems ok and its corsair (600watt)

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Builder-Series-Modular-Certified/dp/B00ALYOTTI/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377126819&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=semi+modular+psu+corsair

 

i went with a 500gb velocoraptor drive as i can always stick another larger but less expensive drive in for storage when i have the cash

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The advantage of modular is that you can connect just the cables you need, which helps a lot with cable management. Ideally, you want to route all of the cables through the case so they're pretty much hidden, which helps with airflow. Also, if you have a big bunch of spaghetti hanging about above the main board, it can help collect dust. But it also depends on the case. If you have a full sized, well laid out case, you can use a cable tie to bundle up the unused cables and stuff it into the corner out of the way.

 

The PSU you linked to is OK. This doesn't apply to that Corsair PSU, but the main reason to avoid cheap PSUs is because the power they deliver may fluctuate too much which can cause system instability. Also, more expensive PSUs last longer and have longer warranties - some of the high end ones have 5 or 7 year warranties. I actually had a Corsair PSU die after 4½ years and they sent me a brand new one that was a much better spec as a replacement. Another reason to go high end, at least IMO, is noise. My PSU has a fan in it, but it doesn't even spin up unless the system hits 20% load, which is about 150 Watts, so if I'm just browsing the web, watching a movie or listening to music or whatever, it's absolutely silent. Even when it does spin up, I can't hear it at all - it makes no difference to the overall noise of my PC, which I specifically built to be as close to silent as I could reasonably make it given my budget and (lack of :p) knowledge.

 

If you Google for "power supply calculator" you can find sites where you can put in the components you're going to use and you'll get a rough idea of the power draw. In your system, the biggest power draw would be the GPU under load. At idle, that GPU consumes only around 12 Watts of power, but if you were to really max it out, that would push up to around 185 Watts. You want to make sure that you choose a PSU that can handle your system under full load with a chunk of headroom in case you want to add new parts later on, particularly if you ever plan to add a second graphics card.

 

Oh yeah, and the ratings (bronze, silver etc.) are related to how efficient the PSU is, which might also be a consideration for you: -

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

Link to comment
Share on other sites

oh sick thanks for the info steve. yeah they mentioned the cable issues in the video i saw but didnt cover ratings systems or warrentys or the power calculators.. im going through one now with the specs ive listed :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...