Audio Recording PC

[Vegeta]

Looking for some recommendations for a low budget audio recording PC,

would like to run pro-tools and have multiple monitors (at least two)

also do the standard web browsing, etc. Gaming is not important.

Let me know if anyone can recommend some basic hardware such as CPU MoBo and Graphics card if needed.

 

[vorticalbox]

You said low budget but how much were you looking at spending?

If I was doing it I would go for an i7 4770 k or fx 8350 cores for processing the music, 16 GB of ram and cheapest card the will do multi monitors.

And would need to be quiet, you can get sound dampening cases. Tom did a review of one not long along be I can't remember the name.

 

[jamesriley94]

You're going to want a soundcard on that too I presume?

Look at the fractal R4 for a case. Graphics card, pretty much anything would do what you want to do. Most will handle it on on board graphics even, but I would suggest going for something like an Nvidia 610 or something along those lines.

 

[FlamingBeatz]

You want your pc to be as quiet as possible so I would go for a passive videocard, a powerful cpu to be able to handle your mix plugins, a quiet case with sound dampening material, a SSD for your OS, optionally another SSD for your audio files so loading files & skipping in your mix is more quickly, a large low speed storage drive for your recordings, optionally a mobo with firewire if you use a firewire audio interface, and as vorticalbox said plenty of ram since protools uses some of it as a ramdisk.

Some suggestions:
CPU: i7 4770k
Case: Fractal Design Define R4
GPU: XFX HD6570
Harddisk: Western Digital RED 2TB
PSU: Seasonic S12II-430GB
SSD: Samsung 840
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H

 

[Vegeta]

I only wanted to spend around $500-600 dollars US

I think the i7 cpu's would be awesome no doubt, however

It may be a little over kill, and costly for me.

I was wondering if the AMD chip with the APU graphics could handle the tasks?

I have used Pro-tools 8 in the past on a Laptop with 2 Ghz CPU and 2 gigs of ram. It was sufficient enough to use on a daily basis without frustration.

I'm not sure about the demands for the newer versions of Pro-tools.

Think the basics I need would be:

Quite power supply

Cheap Mobo

CPU w/ or w/out graphics

Cheap video card if needed

Silent case

Faster ram or More Gbs of ram? (not sure about this one)

SSD's or mechanical Drive's?
(not sure about the effects of writing/rewriting so much on an SSD)


Now that I look at my list i'm not so sure I can pull this off for 500-600 US$

If anyone has any incite on the Ram, Drives, or CPU as they relate to Pro-tools or other audio recording software, please let me know.

 

[Vegeta]

I do like that Fractal case too James, I saw the video guide for it, and it looks like it would be perfect for the job.

 

[jamesriley94]

If this is for audio recording - I'd be insisting on a soundcard really.

CPU - any cheap i5 is what I'd go for. Doesn't have to be a K variant as you'll want it running cool and therefore quiet.

I'd probably look for for something second hand if I'm honest. You won't need the latest tech, and saving money on a Sandy/Ivy i5 and 1155 motherboard will allow you to spend money elsewhere.

Look for an MSI Z77-G45 with something like a used 2500k, or 3330.

 

[NeverBackDown]

If this is for audio recording - I'd be insisting on a soundcard really.

CPU - any cheap i5 is what I'd go for. Doesn't have to be a K variant as you'll want it running cool and therefore quiet.

I'd probably look for for something second hand if I'm honest. You won't need the latest tech, and saving money on a Sandy/Ivy i5 and 1155 motherboard will allow you to spend money elsewhere.

Look for an MSI Z77-G45 with something like a used 2500k, or 3330.

He could get the k variant just so he could clock at stock and drop the volts to find a stable point. Less power and heat; therefore more quiet.

But he's better off going second hand for such a low budget. I'd even go as far to say AMD is the better option here(should research this) with cheaper cpus but better at multi-threaded apps.

 

[jamesriley94]

He could get the k variant just so he could clock at stock and drop the volts to find a stable point. Less power and heat; therefore more quiet.

But he's better off going second hand for such a low budget. I'd even go as far to say AMD is the better option here(should research this) with cheaper cpus but better at multi-threaded apps.

You can undervolt non-K processors as much as you like? It's on the multipliers that are locked?

 

[vorticalbox]

You can undervolt non-K processors as much as you like? It's on the multipliers that are locked?

i would assume so, i can't loer the volts on my i3 though i assume thats a BIOS things rather than the CPU.

the amd APU's (fm2 socket) is what i would go for, if you went for the A10-6800 you could get a 6670 and cross it.

 

[NeverBackDown]

You can undervolt non-K processors as much as you like? It's on the multipliers that are locked?

Or go to the k varients turbo clock and then find a very low volt to get stable on and get better performance while still mainting same heat output and noise etc(depending on lottery).

 

[Rastalovich]

Just as if someone was asking for a gaming computer, the avice would be decent-everything-else and splash the money on the graphic card. I'd think the same for an audio recording computer. Splash on the audio card.

You don't need a major computer for it, just something nice and solid, and keep in mind storage depending on if you're compressing after recording or not. Memory.... everyone would get 8g (even 16g) as standard now, even tho they'd not use half of it - ever.

 

[Drakkonen]

The main thing really is to get as good a cpu as you can. Extra cores tend to help quite a bit with audio work. Next would be RAM 8gb is enough for most stuff but 16 is always nice.

However, as it has been mentioned the main thing is the audio interface, I would recommend an external one an personally I wouldn't spend any less than £100 on it. You might think "this one has all the features I need and is cheaper than the others that also have all the features" but the difference in quality is the reason the others cost more. I went from an Alesis iO2 and I always thought the preamps weren't quite up to scratch, I just didn't realise how bad they were until I upgraded to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Not a huge price jump but a MASSIVE quality improvement.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I'd look into an 8320/50 and see if it performs better with the software you are using because of the extra cores and better multi-threading capabilities it has. Also cheaper