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Kanthonyjr

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I've been doing research over the past few days and having been trying to solidify some info. I would really like to build an mid level, decently priced ($800-$999) computer. I'm a total nube but here's a list I put together. Can anyone help me figure out what should be different and what I should change. Also if I could make it cheaper somehow without sacrificing too much power. I would like to play Battlefield and Mass Effect smoothly. I don't need insane graphics but i do want them to be on the higher end of things. I do a lot of music recording (pro tools, and I use an MBox which i think is an external sound card maybe?) too, so this computer would also be used in my studio (sound card advice?).

Also, is the following compatible? (I apologize for the total nubeness)

Case - Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Drive - PLEXTOR 24X Internal DVD Super Multi Drive Black SATA Model PX-L890SA LightScribe Support - OEM

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda Green ST1000DL002 1TB 5900 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Bare Drive -Bare Drive (comes with - HighPoint RocketU 1022A PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Low Profile USB 3.0 Controller Card)

Motherboard - ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Network - StarTech ST100SLP 1 Port Low Profile PCI / PCI-X 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Network Adapter Card

Video Card - HIS iCooler H777F1G2M Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Audio Card - ASUS Xonar DS 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Audio Card

Power Supply - SPARKLE 85+ Green 700 R-SPI700ACH5B 700W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Processor - AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX

Cooling - CORSAIR H70 Core High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

I'm willing to throw this list away if anyone has a better list for my price range ($800-$999)
 
The case you've chosen looks very cheap, get something like a Fractal Design Define R3 as it's sound dampened, which is nice for music recording, I guess

Personally I'd get a WD caviar black over the seagate drive or try to squeeze a SSD in and get a Caviar green.

You don't need a network card, you mb has that

If you want to get an AMD cpu get a quadcore, it will be enough

No need for a 700w psu, 500 is more than enough, get one from a decent brand (Corsair,Seasonic,...)

For the cpu cooler I'd get a Cooler Master Hyper 412S or something similar
 
Go for an intel build.
Dont bother with the all in one water cooler, get like a CM 212 evo or something.

Go for an i3, an MSI Z77-G45 and a Corsair CX600. I'd try and push up the graphics card to a 7850 too.
As for the ethernet card...the motherboard has one built in so you dont need that
 
I think for running pro tools like i want to I'll need a powerfull processor. Is the i3 gonna be good enough? My laptop has an i5 from two years ago and its almost good enough. Is there a "generational" difference? between a current i3 and an i5 from two years ago?
 
Ummm - if you want a powerful processor, wave goodbye to the AMD anyway. Try and push out a 3570k i5 in the budget and it will outperform any AMD system
 
Ive done a nice cheap base here, if you can afford it then bump up the hdd/sdd and gfx + asus zonar

case
COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227

hdd
Seagate Barracuda ST250DM000 250GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148765

gpu
ZOTAC AMP! ZT-50302-10M GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196

psu
XFX 550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013


ram
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

mobo
GIGABYTE GA-P67X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128488

cpu
i5 2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Sub 800 with rebates.
 
Last edited:
He has $999 you may as well go up to that and get a 3570k, A better motherboard and a far far better gpu like in the build I posted
 
Definitely ditch the network card and 100% absolutely ditch the sound card. Your M-Box does indeed function as a sound card and will perform better for your needs than an internal card if you're using a decent monitor setup for your mixing. Plus, you can't use 2 soundcards at once in any game I'm aware of. If you're looking to upgrade the soundcard and still record, there are plenty of firewire/USB interfaces out there; you'd be looking for good A/D convertors and pre-amps, primarily and then whatever extra functionality you need on top of that.

If you can stretch to a 7850 rather than a 7770, it's worth doing as far as I can tell; apparently the 7770 is a bit underwhelming unless run in crossfire (in which case, you'd have to buy 2 of them) but I have a 7850 and it's run everything I've thrown at it great with a 4100FX Bulldozer (nobody's going to recommend you one of those round here, though :) but with good reason. I'm swapping this rig for a new 3750k build and making this one my new music production rig).

Also, that power supply is not good occording to http://www.overclock.net/t/936561/psu-rating

and I can't really find any more reliable reviews about. So yeah, get something else. Everyone will recommend Corsair, with good reason. See what you can afford from them.

Water-cooling's great and all but at this point IMO, the difference in performance isn't a whole lot but the difference in price is pretty astronomical compared to air cooling, so it's become much more about looks. Just think about it and consider an NHD14 or something. The GPU should be fine with the stock cooler.

The RAM is solid and it'll be fine for ProTools plugins and sessions.

Now, you'll see a lot of talk about how the speed PER CORE is more important than many cores because applications tend to be programmed to use fewer cores. With music production applications, this is especially true; because everything needs to be in sync, the host controllers do not often use multiple threads and basically primarily only use a single core on your processor, regarlesss of how many you have but will take up a lot of RAM (8 gigs should be plenty, though). If you run a lot of exernal tools at the same time (HUD for the M-Box? Do they have that yet?), these may run on seperate threads but your DAW and all your effects will not, so you want a processor with 2, or at most 4 cores with a really good speed on each core and preferably, not hyper-threaded. The 8120 is NOT it. And you'll want to OC it, probably. I'm somebody else can recommend something that fits the bill.
 
That PSU is more than capable of running that system. I agree with Seamus' suggestion apart from the case, which is personal preference. I would also grab some Mushkin RAM, which again is personal preference :)
 
Kanped said:
Also, that power supply is not good occording to http://www.overclock.net/t/936561/psu-rating
Click to expand...

The guy who posted that had no testing or anything he just posted the thread. Also Phaedrus2129 said it (the list) was crap and he was the psu editor for OCN. So yeh that guy is one of the biggest fools on the best overclocking forum.

The XFX 650 would be a far better PSU to have and its at a great price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014
 
Last edited:
Fair enough. I would have liked a decent review of the PSU to see what it's like but a couple mins googling didn't turn up anything other than that, so I ran with it. Probably should have pointed out that I didn't really know but I cited my source so it could be judged accordingly, and it has been.
I have worked with a tonne of music production systems before, and have a fair bit of experience with ProTools and the hardware that goes with it. Less cores, more RAM is a good thing is my main point, basically.
 
andrewmchugh said:
Nice work, want a medal?

far far lol.

Why the shity channel well psu?
Click to expand...

The guy who posted that had no testing or anything he just posted the thread. Also Phaedrus2129 said it (the list) was crap and he was the psu editor for OCN. So yeh that guy is one of the biggest fools on the best overclocking forum.

The XFX 650 would be a far better PSU to have and its at a great price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207014
Click to expand...

What is your problem? First you insult a trusted member here and are frankly very rude to him, and then you list other forums and say they're better than the forum you are posting on...

As for the power supply itself, we recommend the Corsair units here as it seems everything Corsair makes is reliable... XFX units have caught fire while being tested at OC3D so I'd say go with the Corsair unit.
Also take a look at the Silverstone PSUs, as you can get a fully modular strider for a very reasonable price, and they are also very reliable.
 
andrewmchugh said:
Ive done a nice cheap base here, if you can afford it then bump up the hdd/sdd and gfx + asus zonar

case
COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227

hdd
Seagate Barracuda ST250DM000 250GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148765

gpu
ZOTAC AMP! ZT-50302-10M GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196

psu
XFX 550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013


ram
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

mobo
GIGABYTE GA-P67X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128488

cpu
i5 2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Sub 800 with rebates.
Click to expand...



Ya I really like this build. Is this all that I might need need (plus an OS)? Like if I buy all of this I'll have a complete computer? (I know it's a totally nube qustion)

Does anyone have any advice on this set. I'm looking at the ZOTAC ZT-50313-10M GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 448 Cores (Fermi) 1280MB as a substitute. Is that unnecessary?
 
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