New PC time - overwhelmed! 1150 socket, x97 motherboard intel i5 future proof PC

S

SENATE

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2011
Hi all

Il try keep it short.
Saved up to buy new pc that will run reason/ rewired with 100+ tracks/fx/processing etc lots of mixers and sends, multi-band compression on many tracks yadda yadda yadda
( for making drum and bass ) has to run smooth, no cpu issues, no over heating, needs parts that can be replaced if breaks ( as I'm sure it will break ) all in all a "gaming PC", hope to spend less than 500, ideally less than 400 ( dream on pal? )

pcspecialist.com - great idea but after building a few, soon realized that I know nothing that I need to know and blimey, that charge a LOT of cash! and i worry that I am missing parts out or certain things that they wont tell you.

ebay - fantastic, much cheaper, well more choice but, either has i5 chip and a shit mother board, or a good motherboard and a good graphics card (which I don't need ) do I? see what I mean? pre built for specific things, lacking this or that, or having too much power and sick graphics etc ( waste of money )

Could by one with i5 chip for 360ish and get back on reason tommorow but my predicament is - I NEED it to last, I NEED it to have universal parts?
( i think, for repairs when it breaks, do pcs have universal parts? or do they just stop making them forcing you to keep buying NEW ones? )
I NEED an intel chip ( again, I think, going off performance )
Do I sound like a lunatic? or is this what you guys consider when forking out for a rig that you can happily make beats on and not worry about it it blowing up after a year.

Thanks.
Very short...
 
ideal reply would be -
Senate, what you need is xxx motherboard and xxx ram and xxx cpu in your price range
Parts break so with this set up, you can replace faulty parts easily and in expensively -
Stay away from xxx product and xxx product
I got mine for xxx price from xxx and its lasted me xxx years
you dont need a graphics card, just a vga connection for your monitor ( so any cheap one )
get windows 7 64 bit coz reason runs 32 and 64 so might aswell.
don't buy from pc specialst unless you yourself are a specialist and understand what your buying as if you don't, your pc wont work after yo'uve spent ££££.
:D
 
is the motherboard 1150 (or 115x) socket X97 or Z97 motherboard? if so you'll be able to upgrade to an i7 4Ghz haswell quad in the future, maybe higher in 6-18months time, you wont have many projects that will max that out


not all i5's are the same, you want Haswell ideally rather than ivy-bridge or anything else, haswell the latest ones, and they have hyper threading, which doubles the number of threads you can use (more power, if threads dont mean anything to you), so a dual-core becomes quad-thread, quad-core = octo-thread



been running windows 8 for about 6 months now, can allot more power out of it than I did on 7 tbh, new interface is brilliant, if you have a touchscreen
 
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easy answer , i7 , as much ram as your price allows , SSD for your OS and DAW - High rpm HDD for all your samples etc - dont touch windows 8 ,

Its like windows 7 with aids , go for 7 64bit - The best idea is to have a dedicated machine for production , dont torrent on it etc ... better yet dont even connect it to the www
 
Why don't you wwant a solid state HDD for samples, just because they're more expensive and the samples are going to take a lot of space?
 
lmao at the original post, you will have to excuse me.
Just been checking up on pass mark -
Old gaming pc I had, which ran reason with no issues what so ever had this "Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz Quad Core"
Intel i5 4570+ out performs that by about 4 times!
So why is i7 necessary? does it last longer?
 
I've ditched harddrives for SSD completly myself, def worth the extra cash, improves sample load times and reduces hard-drive under-reads massively (no glitching with large sample based projects)

SENATE said:
lmao at the original post, you will have to excuse me.
Just been checking up on pass mark -
Old gaming pc I had, which ran reason with no issues what so ever had this "Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz Quad Core"
Intel i5 4570+ out performs that by about 4 times!
So why is i7 necessary? does it last longer?
Click to expand...

the i5 4570 is quite an old chip now, nothing wrong with it, but you may eventually find it is a little underpowered with only 4 threads and 2.33ghz, i7's offer much faster chips and 8 thread quads, if you want future proof technology, its worth paying for it, but it'll cost less than £150 to upgrade in the future if you wanted from an i5, I would still get a haswell i5 however, rather than an older one
 
I've got an old H55 chipset mobo and a Socket 1155 i5 with 8GB of RAM and a really old M Audio 1010LT soundcard and it runs Reason like a dream with shit loads of audio and midi tracks open. I've never had 1 bit of jitter.

£61 Mobo http://www.scan.co.uk/products/giga...-ddr3-pcie-30-(x16)-2-way-crossfirex-hdmi-atx

£136 Haswell i5 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...hz-34ghz-turbo-1100mhz-gpu-32x-ratio-84w-reta

£65 1333Mhz 8GB RAM http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...0-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v

£50 120GB SSD for your Apps http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120g...lc-flash-read-450mb-s-write-450mb-s-85000-iop

£35 430W Power Supply http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w...certified-single-rail-1x120mm-fan-atx-v23-psu

That's just under £350. All you need is a case and a mechanical HD for samples.
 
Intel® Core™ i7-4960X Extreme Processor (6 Cores, 15MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.3GHz w/TurboBoost)
Windows® 8.1, 64Bit, English
Dell UltraSharp 30 PremierColor Monitor - U3014
Alienware Aurora with ALX Chassis
Alienware Aurora with Premium Liquid Cooling
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX TITAN Z with 12GB GDDR5 - Dual GPU Card
32GB (4 X 8GB) Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
6TB RAID 0 (2 X 3TB Hard Drives)
Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability

All this for only $7,370.99. or 4,530.57 pounds.
 
IV4 said:
Mac: all you need.
Click to expand...

I used to think the same thing. I have a mac pro intel i7 with 8 gigs of ram and still bog down large projects. Ive been looking into building a gaming rig for the last few months and found that once you understand a pc, and build for your needs, it can be a powerhouse for much less money. Not to mention, macs sound cards suck and don't allow for any reconfiguration at all.

I just recently ditched the gaming rig idea, and I'm going for a new production build. I already bought the sabertooth z97 mark2 and I'm putting more money into the sound card and processor than the gpu, for now. by the time its complete ill have twice the rig as my mac for half the price. (unless its a monster with dual Titan Z's like DarkYsidros build haha)
 
DYSRUPT said:
I used to think the same thing. I have a mac pro intel i7 with 8 gigs of ram and still bog down large projects. Ive been looking into building a gaming rig for the last few months and found that once you understand a pc, and build for your needs, it can be a powerhouse for much less money. Not to mention, macs sound cards suck and don't allow for any reconfiguration at all.

I just recently ditched the gaming rig idea, and I'm going for a new production build. I already bought the sabertooth z97 mark2 and I'm putting more money into the sound card and processor than the gpu, for now. by the time its complete ill have twice the rig as my mac for half the price. (unless its a monster with dual Titan Z's like DarkYsidros build haha)
Click to expand...

Honestly, I know nothing about computers. To me they are things of amazement built by idiots. I had a pc my father gave me who has been programing since the 70's. According to my brother, that pc was a powerhouse, the only addition I added to it was a sound card that cost a shit ton of money. The sound card in all reality sucked and it would crash while running Reason 4. One day I called my brother over to fix it because it just kept crashing, he said it was an easy fix and a couple of hours later the computer was back to its normal, piece of shit status. When I asked my brother what was wrong he gave me an explanation that made my eyes glazed over and I knew I would never understand. Then he asked me a question, "How can you make music on this program but not understand the computer." I said something to the effect of, "How is it a machine that runs completely off on and off switches can not turn off when I press the power button?" He said, "It is not that simple, you don't understand. I will trade you this computer for a Mac." He was right, the sound card standard in macs are of professional quality. If I turn off the power switch the computer turns off and the drag and drop works perfectly every time. The computer never crashes and I have never once had a virus due to being on the dnb forum, or simply connected to the internet.
I guess what I am trying to say is, Mac allows me to worry about music without being a computer nerd. Somewhere in that company once upon a time, somebody had the idea that programs should function the way they are supposed too, period. I am the person who need that kind of computer. Hell, I am even willing to spend the extra cash to have that computer built for me.
I guess it is like cars. Some people can by a piece of shit car and turn it into a powerhouse of a machine with knowledge, others want a car pre-built to all the functions they paid for with intuitive response.
 
miszt said:
I've ditched harddrives for SSD completly myself, def worth the extra cash, improves sample load times and reduces hard-drive under-reads massively (no glitching with large sample based projects)
Click to expand...

Careful with this, whilst SSD's are wicked and you can literally do no wrong as a boot drive, they will fail over time from many read/writes. Shifting large amounts of data around on the regular leads to a shortened life span. Whilst I have no proof of this, keep regular backups!

I built a production rig for myself a while back with a 3GHz i5 and 8gig of RAM. The things a beast, no slowdowns, stupid amounts of VST's, all live, as many tracks as you can shake a stick at. All for £600 (including monitor & peripherals).

As a side; For a production rig, you do not need a GFX card. The latest Intel chips have onboard graphics that will be more than capable of making your monitor work at high resolution.
 
Thanks for the reply's guys.

I'm never buying anything Apple ever again, hate the company. They can piss the fuck off.
Pardon my french..
So the intel i5 470whatever is an old chip now? But the gaming pc I used to have was 10 years old! And even after 10 years, It was more than enough to run reason flawlessly.
MSI H81M-E33 uATX Motherboard - now you will tell me this motherboard is crap? Comes with the one I am looking at.

How/ why is it crap? no 1150 socket? which means it cant be upgraded from i5 to i7?
The one thing lacking is RAM that comes with it, but you can buy ddr3 sticks for penny's now right? so just...buy "x"gb sticks and swap.
Also, Im looking at intel i5s really but no where does it say what generation or "haswell" it is.
 
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Howitzer said:
Careful with this, whilst SSD's are wicked and you can literally do no wrong as a boot drive, they will fail over time from many read/writes. Shifting large amounts of data around on the regular leads to a shortened life span. Whilst I have no proof of this, keep regular backups!
Click to expand...


SSD read/write redundancy has moved on a long way in the last few years, millions of operations are possible now, their life expectancy is on par with any hard drive. but, of course, anyone who doesn't backup is an idiot!

- - - Updated - - -

SENATE said:
Thanks for the reply's guys.

I'm never buying anything Apple ever again, hate the company. They can piss the fuck off.
Pardon my french..
So the intel i5 470whatever is an old chip now? But the gaming pc I used to have was 10 years old! And even after 10 years, It was more than enough to run reason flawlessly.
MSI H81M-E33 uATX Motherboard - now you will tell me this motherboard is crap? Comes with the one I am looking at.

How/ why is it crap? no 1150 socket? which means it cant be upgraded from i5 to i7?
The one thing lacking is RAM that comes with it, but you can buy ddr3 sticks for penny's now right? so just...buy "x"gb sticks and swap.
Also, Im looking at intel i5s really but no where does it say what generation or "haswell" it is.
Click to expand...

if the shop doesn't say what version of i5 it is, then its probably not a good shop - use Scan.co.uk, cheapest on the net

yes if you do not get a 1150 socket, your upgrade possibilities in future will be limited. (unless you are looking at 2011's...but these are significantly more expensive systems)

for RAM, get as many sticks as you have cores, so if you get a quadcore, get 4 X 4GB minimum, dual core, 2 X 8GB (one stick per core)...you can get away with 8GB for production if you don't use allot of samples, but I've never regretted getting 16GB in my laptop

no you cant just buy a stick and put it in, they need to be compatible with the motherboard firstly, and also the same as whatever you already have in (if you are adding to, rather than replacing it all) - your current memory should have a sticker on it saying exactly what it is, 1333 non-EEC unbuffered etc etc...just make sure you buy exactly the same type, and don't be tempted by faster ones, they may not be compatible and offer little benefit to music production
 
Intel i5 4670 Quad Core 3.4Ghz Processor - 6572 passmark ( compared to 2988 which was more than enough )
8GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM --4gb per core
Intel HD 4600 Graphics - vga
1TB SATA Hard Drive - yep
DVD-RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive - yep
MSI H81M-E33 uATX Motherboard - 1150 and up gradable

How does it sound? SSD and windows 7 to come later
 
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SENATE said:
Intel i5 4670 Quad Core 3.4Ghz Processor - 6572 passmark ( compared to 2988 which was more than enough )
8GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM --4gb per core
Intel HD 4600 Graphics - vga
1TB SATA Hard Drive - yep
DVD-RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive - yep
MSI H81M-E33 uATX Motherboard - 1150 and up gradable

How does it sound? SSD and windows 7 to come later
Click to expand...

that will keep you going for a long time...ram is cheap these days, I would up the ram to 16gb myself, also you should get a second 1TB drive, and make regular backups/disk images ;) ...not worth loosing months or years worth of work for the sake of 30-40quid (don't keep the backup running all the time tho, the chances of them both failing within days of each other, if switched on all the time, is scarily high!)


If you don't want to use 7 or 8 just yet, I would highly recommend using Windows XP 64bit, I used all the way up until 2012 myself, it was rock solid with Ableton, protools and Cubase - I really would not advise using 7, I used it for 18months, and it drove me up the wall...i nearly went back to XP, but went with 8, solid OS.
 
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miszt said:
that will keep you going for a long time...ram is cheap these days, I would up the ram to 16gb myself, also you should get a second 1TB drive, and make regular backups/disk images ;) ...not worth loosing months or years worth of work for the sake of 30-40quid (don't keep the backup running all the time tho, the chances of them both failing within days of each other, if switched on all the time, is scarily high!)
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Thanks dude, Yeah Im able to upgrade RAM to 16gb - I've had this happen 3 or 4 times now where Im putting hours in, making tunes, then the PC/ laptop dies suddenly with nothing backed up, so believe me, I'm going all in backing everything up 47 times ( jk lol ) Surge protect plug, even then, I'm unplugging EVERYThing when not in use, going OTT because if any of my stuff breaks again like this, maybe I will give up ;)
 
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