New Rig for Audio Production

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   Budget: $6,000 - $7,000

Expectations and Usage:

I am a soundtrack producer for games/films/trailers, blablabla. Most of the industry uses Macs, but some use PCs. The software I use (Cakewalk Sonar) is written for PC only. It's great and I don't want to switch to anything else.

Currently I own a PC manufactured by the now integrated-into-HP, VoodooPC. It is an OMEN desktop - which I got just before they were purchased by HP. It's still really great, but at 3 and a half years old, it's starting to show it's age. 

I was originally going to shop here: at Visiondaw but I've been left a little underwhelmed by their setups and frankly I think I'm more impressed with the computers here. Plus, VisionDAW's computers are not exactly sexy, and I'm a sucker for looks I'm afraid. Every director I've worked with comes into my place and asks me a ton of questions about my computer that looks like a piece of alien technology. It's always a great ice-breaker and creates a positive impression. I've already won before I even play them any music! Anyway.....

- I expect my computer to run exceptionally fast. (Duh...!)

- The more RAM and faster disks the better. Music software requires that sampled instruments often be loaded into memory (usually 2-10% of the size of the instrument). A piano I use for example, might call on 80GB of sampled material, thus it needs to have at least 4GB of RAM available. The computer also needs to stream said samples from disk, and as you can imagine that's a lot of data.

The best configuration is to have a lot of really small fast hard drives, not one really big and fast hard drive.

- I need at least 2 TB of space.

- 2 drives should be SSD (one for system / programs drive, one for my most used samples (maybe even two)). The rest, I could care less - the faster the better, but it's not essential.

- I don't need to play games at a great resolution. But I do need to play games and more importantly, test the games I am working on. 1920x1080 will be awesome, and so will 1600x900. In addition, 2 monitors is essential. 3 would be amazing. I could probably even find a use for 4 but it's not essential.

- I don't need an audio interface.

- Do I need liquid cooling? Will a big overclock make a difference? (I imagine it would as music processing is very CPU intensive, as well as rendering).

- Finally, my system needs to be quiet. Not uber-quiet, but not making this amazing humming sound that my Voodoo (which is liquid-cooled) currently makes! It doesn't need to be completely dead, but I wouldn't mind a respite from the drone of my current computer!

My knowledge of computing is at a medium level. I'm no expert, but I'm not a dummy either. I'm at the stage of my career now where I can go from simply just being another guy in his room to actually having a proper studio in his house. I'm not at the stage yet where I can have my own recording studio with crazily high-end gear.

(I am also aware that having a great computer won't enable me to write better music, but it sure will speed up the process!!!)

There are so many options here on this website and I can make a great computer for $7k. But I really want to know about the cooling options/overclock options and what difference they make and how noisy they are.

Anyway, I'm fascinated by what Digital Storm has to offer. This is not a time-sensitive matter right now, but I'm looking to upgrade sometime in the summer.

Edited by garethcoker - 08 Feb 2011 at 4:41pm

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garethcoker Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 08 Feb 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5	Quote Reply Topic: New Rig for Audio Production Posted: 08 Feb 2011 at 4:14pm
	Budget: $6,000 - $7,000 Expectations and Usage: I am a soundtrack producer for games/films/trailers, blablabla. Most of the industry uses Macs, but some use PCs. The software I use (Cakewalk Sonar) is written for PC only. It's great and I don't want to switch to anything else. Currently I own a PC manufactured by the now integrated-into-HP, VoodooPC. It is an OMEN desktop - which I got just before they were purchased by HP. It's still really great, but at 3 and a half years old, it's starting to show it's age. I was originally going to shop here: at Visiondaw but I've been left a little underwhelmed by their setups and frankly I think I'm more impressed with the computers here. Plus, VisionDAW's computers are not exactly sexy, and I'm a sucker for looks I'm afraid. Every director I've worked with comes into my place and asks me a ton of questions about my computer that looks like a piece of alien technology. It's always a great ice-breaker and creates a positive impression. I've already won before I even play them any music! Anyway..... - I expect my computer to run exceptionally fast. (Duh...!) - The more RAM and faster disks the better. Music software requires that sampled instruments often be loaded into memory (usually 2-10% of the size of the instrument). A piano I use for example, might call on 80GB of sampled material, thus it needs to have at least 4GB of RAM available. The computer also needs to stream said samples from disk, and as you can imagine that's a lot of data. The best configuration is to have a lot of really small fast hard drives, not one really big and fast hard drive. - I need at least 2 TB of space. - 2 drives should be SSD (one for system / programs drive, one for my most used samples (maybe even two)). The rest, I could care less - the faster the better, but it's not essential. - I don't need to play games at a great resolution. But I do need to play games and more importantly, test the games I am working on. 1920x1080 will be awesome, and so will 1600x900. In addition, 2 monitors is essential. 3 would be amazing. I could probably even find a use for 4 but it's not essential. - I don't need an audio interface. - Do I need liquid cooling? Will a big overclock make a difference? (I imagine it would as music processing is very CPU intensive, as well as rendering). - Finally, my system needs to be quiet. Not uber-quiet, but not making this amazing humming sound that my Voodoo (which is liquid-cooled) currently makes! It doesn't need to be completely dead, but I wouldn't mind a respite from the drone of my current computer! My knowledge of computing is at a medium level. I'm no expert, but I'm not a dummy either. I'm at the stage of my career now where I can go from simply just being another guy in his room to actually having a proper studio in his house. I'm not at the stage yet where I can have my own recording studio with crazily high-end gear. (I am also aware that having a great computer won't enable me to write better music, but it sure will speed up the process!!!) There are so many options here on this website and I can make a great computer for $7k. But I really want to know about the cooling options/overclock options and what difference they make and how noisy they are. Anyway, I'm fascinated by what Digital Storm has to offer. This is not a time-sensitive matter right now, but I'm looking to upgrade sometime in the summer. Edited by garethcoker - 08 Feb 2011 at 4:41pm
	http://www.gareth-coker.net

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 09 Feb 2011 at 1:37am
	Here you go Ticket# 485296 --- $3693 (To see this build click here) Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X58 (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s) System Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance) Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: 1x (2TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD2002FAEX) (SATA 6Gbps) Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology) Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua NH-U12P SE Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red) Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended) Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD) Virus Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: - No Thanks Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty this is what you need to do gaming on 2 monitors, and etc. As you see I'm not near your budget, now if we want to get faster and flashy: Here you go Ticket# 485297 --- $5832 (To see this build click here) Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS HailStorm Edition Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 970 3.2GHz (Six-Core Gulftown) Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X58 (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s) System Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance) Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: 1x (2TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD2002FAEX) (SATA 6Gbps) Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Player (Play Blu-Ray and Play DVDs) Optical Drive 2: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology) Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 6: Sub-Zero LCS Dual Loop: CPU & Dual SLI/CrossFire Video Cards H20 Tube Color:Green Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive) Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (UV) (Creates Glowing Effect for H20 Tubes) Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks Boost Processor: Stage 3: Overclock the processor between 4.2GHz to 4.6GHz (Requires i7 980X Processor) Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: Memory Fan Kit Only (Does not include memory overclocking service) Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD) Virus Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: - No Thanks Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty and then if you really want to get flashy we go tec: Here you go Ticket# 485298 --- $7785 (To see this build click here) Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS HailStorm Sub-Zero Liquid Chilled Edition Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 3.33GHz (Six-Core) (Extreme Performance) Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X58 (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s) System Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance) Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: 1x (2TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD2002FAEX) (SATA 6Gbps) Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Player (Play Blu-Ray and Play DVDs) Optical Drive 2: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology) Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: Sub-Zero CPU Liquid Chilled System & Chipset + Dual Video Cards Liquid Cooling H20 Tube Color:Green Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive) Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (UV) (Creates Glowing Effect for H20 Tubes) Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks Boost Processor: Stage 3: Overclock the processor between 4.2GHz to 4.6GHz (Requires i7 980X Processor) Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD) Virus Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: - No Thanks Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty you can read about tec cooling here
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New Rig for Audio Production

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