quiet build for recording, maybe gaming

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   Budget: $1000 - $1500 is sort of my expected range, but if I can spend less and still meet my criteria, super; conversely, if I end up getting excited about an SSD or whatever, I could see maybe going over a bit if that's what it takes to get the right machine for me.

My needs:

1.)  General purpose: Windows, Office, web surfing, music/movies, etc...  My current computer is an 8-year-old frankenstein I put together myself.  It's loud as a jet engine, has required several repairs and fixes over the years, and it's just sorely out-of-date (2.07 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP, 512Mb RAM, MSI mobo bus clock 166Mhz, Radeon 9600 video card).  

2.)  Music recording: I'm hoping to get as quiet as I can w/o totally busting my budget.  In a perfect world, I'd be able to record on an open mic in the same room as my pc without the mic picking up any noise from the pc.

3.)  Gaming?:  I'm a big-time console gamer, but the last pc game I played was Warcraft 3.  However, I was a big fan of Diablo and Diablo 2.  I don't want to blow up my budget just for one game, but it would be nice to play Diablo 3 whenever it finally comes out.

It's going to be at least several months before I can buy, but I'm starting to research now.  Currently, my top burning thoughts are as follows:

1.) SSD - I love the thought of a speedy and quiet drive as my main "working" drive, especially for recording purposes, and using a traditional hard drive for storage.  But as much as I've read on it, I'm still a little confused about whether an SSD would be the right choice for me.

2.) Graphics card - 
a.) I read a tip about getting a video card w/o a fan for a recording computer to avoid the noise of that extra fan.  However, I have no idea which cards have their own fans and which ones don't.  Also, does a video card's fan always run, or only when necessary?  I wonder if it would never need to spin up during a recording session anyway.
b.) I want to be able to do all the general purpose multimedia stuff and possibly watch Blu-Ray movies and all that... is there much of an upgrade necessary beyond that to play Diablo 3 (at best guess, I know they haven't released recommended specs yet).  My point being, I'd like to play Diablo 3, but I don't think I'm willing to spend an extra $500 or whatever on this pc just for one game.
c.) I don't want to create an artifical bottleneck in my system either.  I'm not a tinkerer, I don't want to have to upgrade piecemeal down the road, I'd rather just run the thing into the ground then buy an all new pc four to six years later.  So I'm looking for something that won't break the bank now, but won't have me complaining in 12 months that it's not adequate.

3.) Any general thoughts/tips about quiet computers? - cases, fans, fan controllers, etc...?  Thanks to pets, I have a fairly dusty/furry environment.

4.) CPU - At least for recording computers, I read that brute force is more important than the number of cores.  Thoughts?

5.) RAM - I've read that for most people, anything more than 8Gb is overkill right now, but I also read that for recording, people have hit the ceiling even at 12Gb of RAM, depending on the complexity and number of components going in to a song.  Thoughts?

Sorry for this wall of text, I really wanted to keep my first post brief and here I've droned on and on and done exactly what I didn't want to do.  I probably should've split this into about five different posts.  I'm kind of ignorant with computer hardware and it's been many years since I've been in the market, so I'm a little bit lost at sea here, but I've been lurking around this website for awhile now and it seems like a good place to buy and a good community for asking questions.  Thanks to any of have read this far.

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apacke09 Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 08 Aug 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 10	Quote Reply Topic: quiet build for recording, maybe gaming Posted: 14 Aug 2011 at 3:39pm
	Budget: $1000 - $1500 is sort of my expected range, but if I can spend less and still meet my criteria, super; conversely, if I end up getting excited about an SSD or whatever, I could see maybe going over a bit if that's what it takes to get the right machine for me. My needs: 1.) General purpose: Windows, Office, web surfing, music/movies, etc... My current computer is an 8-year-old frankenstein I put together myself. It's loud as a jet engine, has required several repairs and fixes over the years, and it's just sorely out-of-date (2.07 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP, 512Mb RAM, MSI mobo bus clock 166Mhz, Radeon 9600 video card). 2.) Music recording: I'm hoping to get as quiet as I can w/o totally busting my budget. In a perfect world, I'd be able to record on an open mic in the same room as my pc without the mic picking up any noise from the pc. 3.) Gaming?: I'm a big-time console gamer, but the last pc game I played was Warcraft 3. However, I was a big fan of Diablo and Diablo 2. I don't want to blow up my budget just for one game, but it would be nice to play Diablo 3 whenever it finally comes out. It's going to be at least several months before I can buy, but I'm starting to research now. Currently, my top burning thoughts are as follows: 1.) SSD - I love the thought of a speedy and quiet drive as my main "working" drive, especially for recording purposes, and using a traditional hard drive for storage. But as much as I've read on it, I'm still a little confused about whether an SSD would be the right choice for me. 2.) Graphics card - a.) I read a tip about getting a video card w/o a fan for a recording computer to avoid the noise of that extra fan. However, I have no idea which cards have their own fans and which ones don't. Also, does a video card's fan always run, or only when necessary? I wonder if it would never need to spin up during a recording session anyway. b.) I want to be able to do all the general purpose multimedia stuff and possibly watch Blu-Ray movies and all that... is there much of an upgrade necessary beyond that to play Diablo 3 (at best guess, I know they haven't released recommended specs yet). My point being, I'd like to play Diablo 3, but I don't think I'm willing to spend an extra $500 or whatever on this pc just for one game. c.) I don't want to create an artifical bottleneck in my system either. I'm not a tinkerer, I don't want to have to upgrade piecemeal down the road, I'd rather just run the thing into the ground then buy an all new pc four to six years later. So I'm looking for something that won't break the bank now, but won't have me complaining in 12 months that it's not adequate. 3.) Any general thoughts/tips about quiet computers? - cases, fans, fan controllers, etc...? Thanks to pets, I have a fairly dusty/furry environment. 4.) CPU - At least for recording computers, I read that brute force is more important than the number of cores. Thoughts? 5.) RAM - I've read that for most people, anything more than 8Gb is overkill right now, but I also read that for recording, people have hit the ceiling even at 12Gb of RAM, depending on the complexity and number of components going in to a song. Thoughts? Sorry for this wall of text, I really wanted to keep my first post brief and here I've droned on and on and done exactly what I didn't want to do. I probably should've split this into about five different posts. I'm kind of ignorant with computer hardware and it's been many years since I've been in the market, so I'm a little bit lost at sea here, but I've been lurking around this website for awhile now and it seems like a good place to buy and a good community for asking questions. Thanks to any of have read this far.

firestorm Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 31 Jul 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 26	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Aug 2011 at 5:55pm
	I think you aren't going to meet all of your requirements with that budget, but for the most bang for your buck I would suggest just going with the prebuilt ODE level 1. It's $1499 which is right at the edge of your expected budget and it would perform decently. But the thing is with it you won't have any opportunity to get SLI or do any major upgrading.

NoDs212 Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 153	Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 2011 at 12:16am
	Yea man, from one musician (and gamer) to another, I can tell you that there is no such thing as a silent gaming PC. Granted, a PC picks up most of the noise while you are gaming and will not be as loud while using audio programs, you are still going to pick up sounds from all around the room. Now unless your sitting right on top of your rig I really don't think you will pick up that much sound (pending on your mic) but you just never know. Also, as firestorm said, it's gonna be nearly impossible to meat all of your expectations with that kind of a budget. Just post the resolution that your planning on gaming at and wait until one of the pros fly in to help you out. Good luck with the rig

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 2011 at 2:31am
	For your budget we couldn't beat ode 1 prices here.
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

apacke09 Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 08 Aug 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 10	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Aug 2011 at 12:33pm
	Thanks for replying, I appreciate it. My main monitor is a fairly new 24" HP monitor, 1900x1200. I do have a 2nd monitor (was thinking about adding a 3rd monitor even) but I wouldn't be doing a multi-monitor gaming setup, the 2nd monitor is just for organization when I'm running several programs at a time and want more desktop real estate. So if I'm gaming or watching a movie, it would just be on the single 1900x1200 monitor. For cases, I think I'm sold on the Raven RV02-E. (I don't care for the RV03.) I know some people don't like it as much as other cases, I've read what DST4ME (whose opinion is always welcome) has said about that case in other forum posts, but I just feel like it's the case for me. If an RV02-E owner has a negative opinion of it, or if someone has a compelling argument against it, though, by all means, I'm here to learn. Also, I think I'm really sold on the idea of going the SSD route with an HDD for storage. That combination of speed and no spinning drive is just too compelling to pass up, even at the price premium. Put all this together, though, and it's as you all have said, it's looking like I'm going to have to increase my budget to more like $2000 or so in order to get what I want. Which brings me to my next question... Say I put off my purchase for six months... are there any big advances on the near horizon (CPUs, SSDs, motherboard, etc) that people are anticipating? I know there's always a new big thing just around the corner and it's a fool's game to wait forever, but if I can't come up with the money now and I end up waiting anyway, I'm just wondering if there's anything particular I should be aware of.

firestorm Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 31 Jul 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 26	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Aug 2011 at 1:04pm
	Yup there's actually new processors and a platform coming out at the end of the year. Also new GPUs are supposed to come out next year, not sure when. Edited by firestorm - 17 Aug 2011 at 1:04pm

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Aug 2011 at 5:24pm
	There are new cpus and gpus coming before you buy. you are gonna get better airflow for less in haf stock then you will in rv02/03, and you will have more room, lot of rv02 owners complain about the layout and hdd/media drive accessibility and room, but if you like it go for it, personally I see no reason to spend extra $200 on a rv02 build when I can get more room/better airflow for less.
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

quiet build for recording, maybe gaming

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