Here’s what I built last week…I do not think I have ever experienced a faster or smoother music making experience thus far…(the audio and vid card are mainstays from the last machine)
• CPU: Intel Core™i7 3770K
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V
• Graphics: PNY Quadro FX380
• Audio: RME HDSPe Multiface II
• Memory: 16 GB Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3-1600MHz w/ Intel XMP
• Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x DVD-RW Drive
• HD1: Crucial M4 2.5in SATA III Solid State Drive, 128GB
• HD2: Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12
• HD3: Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200.12
• Case: Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced
• PSU: Corsair HX 650 Professional Series
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit SP1
It’s a lot more than 350 pounds - but if you are gonna build a new DAW - may as well build it to last a while.
Spend the best money on the motherboard and choose wisely so you can change out the CPU as money becomes available.
If you have a budget - that’s cool…we all do in some way, shape or form. But you should be able to string together my motherboard (ASUS P8Z77-V), some flavor of 1155 i5 and 8GB worth of memory for somewhere in the range of £300-350 - that should make for a decent little DAW that should serve you well.
2x Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333MHz CL9
Asus P8Z77-V Socket 1155
Generic case
Intel Core i5 3450 3.1GHz Socket 1155 6MB
Corsair 600W CX Series V2 PSU
WD 1TB Caviar Green SATA-III 6Gb/s Hard Drive - 64MB Cache
=£426.63
If you think this will be a big improvement over…
AMD Phenom II X4 965 - 3.4GHz
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Socket AM3
2 x Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
Corsair 600W CX Series V2 PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm 32MB Cache
Casecom KB-7760 Black ATX Midi Tower Case - generic case
=£282.38
Then an extra £100 pounds is an achievable goal.
On a difference note, with any previous systems, I’ve always picked a very basic motherboard, and so far I’ve never encountered any problems.
With regard to DAW’s, will I see any appreciable gain by buying a more expensive motherboard? Is there some particular feature I should be looking out for?
I always make my choice (on motherboard) based on reviews specifically from an audio angle and a lot from reading what others have built, what they chose and how’s it worked out for them.
As far as “gains” are concerned - I have never bought an el-cheapo motherboard but have never had any issues either - so you can take that for what it’s worth. If it’s just about money - then go ahead and stick a £99 board in there and see what happens. However - if it’s performance, longevity and most importantly - stability you are looking for - then a more premium board is worth the extra scratch.
I am firmly in the second camp and spending 199 CDN bucks on this board is money well spent for my requirements (stability being the most important). I cannot tell you how annoying it is dealing with DAW computer issues when all you really want to do is record.
When I selected this particular board - since this specific ASUS line is cluttered with variants - I selected the one with the right power and support but less bells and whistles than the other 8 boards in this lineup. While cost is always a concern - I simply picked what I felt was the most appropriate price vs performance ratio and left it at that.
I didn’t choose this board for anything special in how it relates to DAW activities or for any “feature”. I just know from years of building that ASUS is tried and true for audio and has always been a stellar performer. This particular board gave me one of the most pleasant “build” experiences in a long while…I simply hooked everything up, fired it up and everything worked straight away. Not one weird beep or oddball BIOS change or anything. I haven’t had that happen in a long time.
Overall - I think your build will give many a happy moment . Except for that “green” drive - which will most likely be a 5400 speed variant. If you are truly “live recording” 12 tracks at a time…If it were me - I would have a 7200 RPM drive in play for that kind of action.
Thanks again for your time, I feel by replying with so little, I am in some way being rude:
I will keep saving for this current build, and specifically this motherboard. Thinking about stability, If I using half the same hardware as your build which works very well, then I can hope mine will do so similarly.
With regard to hard drives, I chose the WD Green because of its large cache, and didn’t look further.
In another system of mine, I have a: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3
Which so far has been very good, so unless anyone disagrees, I’ll swap out the WD for another one of these
I also have forgot to mention that I will be using another 320GB drive for the OS, which is fairly average - 70/80 MBs
Am I right to think that the slower drive is normally the OS drive?
I’ve never been exactly sure what sampling is, but If I’m going to live record everything, then I won’t being using samples, is that right? So 2 hard drives will be enough?
Yup two HD’s will be fine, fastest one for streaming audio, the greens are Eco drives and performance is not top of the list for them and have various power saving “features” built in!
You can always add a third later if needed.
Large cache is good, hi spin speed is good, hi data transfer rates are good.
Definitely worth saving a few £/$ for a good system and getting it right the first time round.
Well - when pairing this chip with the ASUS board and Z77 - I was looking at Ivy Bridge specifically…3rd gen…slightly better performance (10-15%), lower power consumption and of course faster RAM support.
It also has better graphics but that’s not in use here - but might be someday when this processor gets demoted to the Home Theater or something
Also - with both being the same price (at least at my supplier) I couldn’t justify spending the money on a 2nd gen when a 3rd gen is the same price.
Great CPU so far for Nuendo/Studio One etc…it just flies with no signs of strain whatsoever…and my case fans are literally silent in this build…CPU is like 28C at all times…unbelievable when compared with my 2008 build that sounded like a freight train.
Can I ask (and please don’t hesitate to reply that you can’t say) what did this build cost for the partts? Also in day to day use , how many instantiations of a cpu intensive vst like Omnisphere or Massive could you run? If you dont have these then how many of a Steiny synth like Retrologue could this run?
I desperately need a new DAW. I was laid off from work 2 months ago and by chance some studio work has come my way. My current comp is a Dell Core2Duo and it just can’t hold up.Any info would be helpful
No problem - but please note - my general rule is to drain every last bit of use out of EVERYTHING…so when I list a build like this…it’s not like I bought it all in one day- brand new. A few items like graphics card and espeically the RME have been moving in and out of systems for a long while. But for kicks - let’s see here - suppose you had an empty Visa and an afternoon to shop - if you bought this rig today and you bought it all at once - from my main parts supplier (in CDN dollars) - here’s the damage report:
• CPU: Intel Core™i7 3770K $329.99
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V $194.99
• Graphics: PNY Quadro FX380 $169.99
• Audio: RME HDSPe Multiface II $900.00
• Memory: 16 GB Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3-1600MHz w/ Intel XMP $100.00
• Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x DVD-RW Drive $25.00
• HD1: Crucial M4 2.5in SATA III Solid State Drive, 128GB $109.99
• HD2: Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12 $69.99
• HD3: Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200.12 $79.99
• Case: Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced $109.99
• PSU: Corsair HX 650 Professional Series $119.99
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit SP1 $149.99
Total: $2359.91 CDN
Lots. I haven’t tested it extensively - and with the way I record - I would lay down an Omnisphere track and immediately bounce it down to audio. I am not one of those guys that has 42 midi tracks going with 42 unique VSTi’s in memory all at once
Retrologue would be a piece of cake. Probably no issue there at all running a ton of them.
Hope this helps - but yeah - unless you already have a decent audio interface - you are looking at 1500 + to get yourself into a reasonable 2012 sorta vibe…
The track and bounce method is the way I’ve worked as my vst’s have become more demanding and my daw stayed the same. I wouldnt mind if it were just me but for clients . I want to be able to use ,say 3 instances of Massive with a fully loaded instance of Masc hine and maybe 2 of Omnisphere. I basically have the Spectrasonics and NI full line of products. Working one track at a time really halts creativity. I’d be happy to shell out $1500, but I’m not a builder and don’t want to become one. I’m thinking I just might finally sell off some old gear I have such as a TB-303 and Echoplex and get something made.
Would you say the set up you have is current state of the art ,processor wise? I have a EMU 1820 interface (PCI slot) and I’m fine with that ,also I don’t think I really need SSDrives, I’d rather put that money toward internal processing power.
As a rule - I never look at “state of the art” when it comes to processors. I am all about the delta between performance and price - and usually find the sweet spot is the second or third from the top of the line. In this case - for my money at this point - this 3770K is what I feel to be the best in that category - for now.
Certainly one could spend a lot more on several other processors today- but twice the cash outlay would never translate into twice the amount of power gains.
