Building a PC for Home Recording

[mewithoutlouie]

I'm trying to build a fairly decent DAW for home recording use. Any suggesetions on which CPU, Motherboards, RAM, Hard Drive, Video Card, and Power Supply Unit would give me the best performance for recording?

Thanks for any help.

[MarkL8]

Last spring upgraded my build to and AMD 6000 X64 Asus MB 2 Gig of OCZ ram, Nvidia 8800 GTS vid card, Enermax 750 watt PS. I run Sonar Producer with various plugs...BFD, EZ drummer and it doesnt break a sweat.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a291/Bigredhog/Amp%20Build/DSC00534.jpg

[mewithoutlouie]

Very nice, is it quiet? I don't think I need anything too over the top, just lots of RAM, hard drive space, and a good processor.

[kludge]

Not a Mac?

First, find a copy of Windows XP while you can. Vista is a NIGHTMARE for audio. This is more important than any hardware consideration.

Second, avoid "fast" hardware and look for COOL hardware. Fast CPUs and graphics cards mean heat, which means fans, which means noise. Consider underclocking. What you're looking for is a computer that doesn't add its own noise to the room.

Here's what I'm running... an Antec case (don't remember the model, one step below a Sonata) with the factory quiet power supply. Power supplies can be really noisy! An Athlon XP cpu of some sort, don't remember the speed and don't care, with a Scythe Ninja heatsink (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article251-page1.html). My videocard is a something-or-other reasonably modern PCI-Express type, with heatsink-only cooling rather than a fan. The motherboard is an MSI something-or-other, again with just a heatsink rather than a fan on the northbridge chip.

The important thing is I don't need fans to keep things cool. The only fans in my case are a single 120mm case fan at low speed, and a single 80mm on the power supply - both designed to be quiet and run at low speeds. There are no fans on the CPU, video card, or motherboard. This computer is so quiet I can hear the drives at idle!

And while we're at it, think about what you're going to do about backups. Hard drives fail all the time. Heck, houses burn down occasionally, or lightning strikes and fries computers. How will you protect your irreplacable work? You need both a backup drive and some sort of off-site backups.

See, this is the stuff that everyone forgets in the breathless race to sell you whatever amazing new component is rotting on the shelf this week.

[A440]

for windows, I would also suggest XP Pro type platform. much software not supporting Vista

another way to go? get a Mac, and run windows on it

best of both worlds :D

[s2amps]

Like the other guys have said...

XP Pro. Vista is not ready yet. I'm not just saying that. I own both (have an MSDN Universal License) and use XP for music.

Build the PC for quietness above all. Mine has no fans except for a 120mm case fan--Scythe makes the quietest fans--and an Arctic CPU fan. My power supply is some kind of ultra quiet thing with one 120mm fan that faces down. I replaced it with another Scythe fan.

My CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6200. My MOBO is an ASUS M2N-E, which uses heat pipe cooling instead of fans. My graphics card is an EVGA something or other that does not have a fan.

You can track on pretty much any PC these days, but you need horsepower for mixing if you use a lot of tracks and/or a lot of plug-ins.

Performance considerations for mixing:

1. CPU - buy the fastest you can. Your plugins will burn CPU like crazy--especially reverbs
2. Drives - 2 x 500GB - buy the fastest you can. Use 1 drive as your primary and 1 drive as a backup. There are several ways to configure them for optimal speed. The best way for you depends on your PC, interface, and DAW.
3. Memory - 2GB of the fastest you can afford. The more audio your PC can buffer in memory, the better your performace will be.

[mewithoutlouie]

What makes a fast hard drive, I'm going for a 500 GB to start with and eventually grab another one, I have the same question for RAM.

I'm definately gonna use XP...and what's good MHZ wise for a CPU or is there something else I should be looking at. I don't use plugins much...but I know I will eventually and that was the main thing that slowed down my current PC.

[djbrough]

No offense to the posts above, but you can get alot more performance out of the intel quads rather than the amd. If I were you I would do the following:

ASUS P5W mobo (it uses the TI chipset for firewire)
Intel 2.66 Quad cor chip

4 gigs of Corsair ram (2x2gig sticks, and very cheap at the moment)

Lian Li Quiet Case with 120mm fans (very quiet)

@ least 2 500 drives for samples and recording, and 1 10,000 rpm drive for your OS (buiy seagate because of reliability, warranty, and price).

Dual head graphics card of your choice (no need to be too fancy for audio. sSomething like an XFX 7300GS is good)

2 IDE drives that can burn DVD's and CD's. If you have the scratch, buy a blue ray drive as well. It will become a great tool for backing up your data.

*IMPORTANT* get a 750W power supply (go bigger if you can afford it).

Definitely get a OEM copy of XP


It sounds like a lot, but you can do all of this for around $1K

[jefesq]

Having done this twice, the advice above is perfect. Don't get overly fancy with the video card. A gaming card is not what you want here. The power supply is also something which as noted above is important. Big watts are important.

Check here too. There's some interesting stuff here regarding keeping the system quiet and cool. I'd avoid the hard drive quiet cases though. A real pain, trying ot balance quiet vs cool.

[Lexridge]

Stay away from 'ANY' VIA chipset motherboard. VIAs are really bad with their faulty interrupt handling. I'm using a AMD X2 4200 with a Gigabyte MB, Nvidia chipset, and it's plenty of speed for me, even with a ton of plugins! However, I am running Linux DAWs and not Windows DAWs (Ardour, Qtractor). I switched from Windows and Samplitude last summer, and have not look back since. :)

Also, good advice to stay away from the "gamers" video cards. The Windows drivers tend to give them higher priority than the audio. However, there are tools to correct for this somewhat.

[s2amps]

Yeah, the Intel chips are faster than the AMDs now, but I built mine before the quads were out and AMD had the best price/performance ratio at the time.

Good advice about staying away from VIA chipsets. They are fine for general computing, but not for audio. Several interface manufacturers claim their products are not even compatible with VIA. Nvidia or Intel is the way to go.

[Bussman]

...However, I am running Linux DAWs and not Windows DAWs (Ardour, Qtractor). I switched from Windows and Samplitude last summer, and have not look back since...

Just popped in to say hi and welcome to a fellow Linux/Ardour recordist!

[dju]

just expanding on the original question as I am thinking about recording on my computer also and the original poster might also want to know this:
what about sound cards/USB or firewire I/O's? is there any benefits to any of the different options? I was thinking about getting a firewire type of I/O but was wondering if USB or some other option would have better results or benefits?
thanks, dj

[kludge]

Firewire will absolutely give better results than USB, for icky technical reasons I don't even want to explain (if you can't define "isosynchronous" it'll make no sense). Even the newer USB 2.0-based interfaces are a data-loss danger compared to Firewire.

Then again, I use PCI like some caveman.

[Lexridge]

Firewire will absolutely give better results than USB........Then again, I use PCI like some caveman.

Me too! I use the Delta 1010LT with a home built breakout rack. I would like to update to a PCI Xpress MB, but MAudio does not yet offer any of the Delta cards in a PCI-X package. :(

Firewire is certainly the best of both worlds, and the most reliable when compared to USB2.

Lexridge

[Lexridge]

Just popped in to say hi and welcome to a fellow Linux/Ardour recordist!

Ah, thanks very much! It's nice to know there is another Linux/Ardour user on this forum.

I've been using Qtractor lately. It's fairly new, but it supports native Linux VSTs and DSSI, whereas Ardour does not yet support them. Qtractor is written by Rui Nuno Capela, who also authors QJackCtl and QSampler.

Lexridge

[mewithoutlouie]

Stay away from 'ANY' VIA chipset motherboard. VIAs are really bad with their faulty interrupt handling. I'm using a AMD X2 4200 with a Gigabyte MB, Nvidia chipset, and it's plenty of speed for me, even with a ton of plugins! However, I am running Linux DAWs and not Windows DAWs (Ardour, Qtractor). I switched from Windows and Samplitude last summer, and have not look back since. :)

Also, good advice to stay away from the "gamers" video cards. The Windows drivers tend to give them higher priority than the audio. However, there are tools to correct for this somewhat.

I'm planning on using a firewire based mixer, but can you tell me a little bit more about the VIA, Nvidia, Intel...chipsets. I'm not too familiar with what these mean, although I trust what you're saying, I wanna know what I'm talking about just in case I tell someone else to do the same.

[Lexridge]

Try this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipset

It should explain everything.

Lexridge

[LittleC]

This'll do you just fine! Blue-Ray optional.



No offense to the posts above, but you can get alot more performance out of the intel quads rather than the amd. If I were you I would do the following:

ASUS P5W mobo (it uses the TI chipset for firewire)
Intel 2.66 Quad cor chip

4 gigs of Corsair ram (2x2gig sticks, and very cheap at the moment)

Lian Li Quiet Case with 120mm fans (very quiet)

@ least 2 500 drives for samples and recording, and 1 10,000 rpm drive for your OS (buiy seagate because of reliability, warranty, and price).

Dual head graphics card of your choice (no need to be too fancy for audio. sSomething like an XFX 7300GS is good)

2 IDE drives that can burn DVD's and CD's. If you have the scratch, buy a blue ray drive as well. It will become a great tool for backing up your data.

*IMPORTANT* get a 750W power supply (go bigger if you can afford it).

Definitely get a OEM copy of XP


It sounds like a lot, but you can do all of this for around $1K

[GerryJ]

Maybe I missed it, but did you specify which A/D interface (analog to digital convertor) you plan on getting or have? That's at least as important to the final sound of the product as the PC hardware -maybe more so.
Also, regarding that, if you're mostly home recording, ie 1 to 4 tracks at a time, it's better to spend more money on a say an 8 channel interface like the RME Fireface 400 http://www.rmeaudio.de/en_products_fireface_400.php

than a cheaper unit with more channels.
Then again, if you're unsure/on a budget, there's lots of ~ 4 channel interfaces which are much cheaper.
Other people here know much more than me about this.

[mewithoutlouie]

I'm using the Alesis iO14 firewire-based mixer.


*EDIT*

So I asked my friend to build the PC for me and told him I was going to use XP and he said XP couldn't handle 500gb as the main drive and that I would need something smaller. Is this true? It sounded really ridiculous, but I didn't argue because I don't know much about computers.

[tedm]

Depends on the sw you'll be using, and the power consumption of your devices. I wouldn't go overboard on CPU or power supply for an audio PC. Consider this CPU which is relatively low power for a dual core, inexpensive, and will allow for a quieter, lower power, and greener power supply: AMD BE-2300 (dual core 1.9Ghz 64-bit Athlon X2).

Check with your audio SW vendor for reccs. If you're using PT, they have an ongoing forum for recc. budget, and hi-end systems, and if you're using a lot of plug-in UAD cards, or multiple i/o and internal drives, you might need a beefy power supply and CPU, but if not, you'll have a quieter, less expensive to operate system.

[mewithoutlouie]

Quick question, does XP support 500 gb hard drives? I most likely won't be using much plugins, just recording from mics and possibly a midi piano on adobe audition and/or mackie tracktion.

[tedm]

not a problem.



Quick question, does XP support 500 gb hard drives? I most likely won't be using much plugins, just recording from mics and possibly a midi piano on adobe audition and/or mackie tracktion.

[Cadbar]

Not trying to sound like a butt. But this is stuff that I hate seeing on message boards. Please please do not recommend items that someone is about to spend real money on, if you do not really know what you are talking about.

Just saw someone suggest 4GB of ram, then suggest XP. And another person back that up. You do know that 4GB will not run on XP Home/MCE/Pro correct? It will work on XP x64 but that still has problems (its kind of like suggesting vista, some stuff works some doesn't).

And like most people said. You don't need super powerfull powersucking huge fan needing hardware. I currently use my Laptop for my daw, super quiet and does everything and more (1.66 C2D, 2GB, 7200rpm 160gb). But for a desktop it really is hard to beat the price/performance of the Q6600 Quadcore, but if you are trying to do it on a cheap then almost any of the new C2D's would be great. Then look into a passive cooler for it (which means it will have no fans, but it will be a HUGE heatsink). 10,000rpm drive are nice but needed? Heck no. Just get a quality 7200rpm drive. Do get a dualhead video card, but try to make sure you get one with no fans on it.

[jefesq]

what program are you going to use?

[mewithoutlouie]

Adobe Audition and Mackie Tracktion and possibly Guitar Rigs or something of that nature. I only need something simple though, that'll record mics through a firewire mixer. I still want at least 500gb and 2gb of RAM and for it all to run on XP. I just dont know diddly squat about CPU, Motherboards, Video Cards, PSU, Fans, Heatsinks and what have you.

O and thank you Cadbar.

[djbrough]

Not trying to sound like a butt. But this is stuff that I hate seeing on message boards. Please please do not recommend items that someone is about to spend real money on, if you do not really know what you are talking about.

Just saw someone suggest 4GB of ram, then suggest XP. And another person back that up. You do know that 4GB will not run on XP Home/MCE/Pro correct? It will work on XP x64 but that still has problems (its kind of like suggesting vista, some stuff works some doesn't).

And like most people said. You don't need super powerfull powersucking huge fan needing hardware. I currently use my Laptop for my daw, super quiet and does everything and more (1.66 C2D, 2GB, 7200rpm 160gb). But for a desktop it really is hard to beat the price/performance of the Q6600 Quadcore, but if you are trying to do it on a cheap then almost any of the new C2D's would be great. Then look into a passive cooler for it (which means it will have no fans, but it will be a HUGE heatsink). 10,000rpm drive are nice but needed? Heck no. Just get a quality 7200rpm drive. Do get a dualhead video card, but try to make sure you get one with no fans on it.

I understand your logeic about the 4gigs of ram (XP only see 3.2), but he will see a difference if using a bunch of plugins and virtual instruments. This much is a fact. A passive cooler is a good idea, but it adds to the costs. The fans are dirt cheap and very quiet. Also (if he is going to use a bunch of samples in his recording) the 10,000 rpm drive isa great idea. It does help in data streaming. 7200 rpm drives work well, but not as well as the 10,00 rpm drive. There is a reason that por DAW builders like ADK and Sonica are configuring their rigs this way.

I know that he can get by with less, but why not get much more computer for virually the same money? Also, are you recording only audio?

[mewithoutlouie]

Also, are you recording only audio?

Yeah, guitars, vocals, drums...eventually a keyboard for midi use.

[Cadbar]

Have you compared pricing between 10k and 7.2k? He is not wanting to spend a ton of money on this system. A good quality 7.2k drive is all he needs.

My point on the passive cooler is, spend the money on keeping your system quiet. Save money on items like video cards etc....

[kludge]

A passive cooler is a good idea, but it adds to the costs. The fans are dirt cheap and very quiet.

The Scyth Ninja passive cooler is less than $50 and SILENT. Budget CPU fans usually sound like jet engines. And a quality heatsink+fan is going to be upwards of $20, and still make audible noise. Really, isn't it worth the extra $20 or so to go silent?

My recording PC is so quiet you can hear the disk drives idling, and it was by no means expensive to build. But I did spend an extra $20 on the Ninja and another $20 or so extra on an Antec case rather than the cheapest thing I could find.

[s2amps]

The Scyth Ninja passive cooler is less than $50 and SILENT. Budget CPU fans usually sound like jet engines. And a quality heatsink+fan is going to be upwards of $20, and still make audible noise. Really, isn't it worth the extra $20 or so to go silent?

My recording PC is so quiet you can hear the disk drives idling, and it was by no means expensive to build. But I did spend an extra $20 on the Ninja and another $20 or so extra on an Antec case rather than the cheapest thing I could find.

Totally agree!

I have an Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 CPU cooler, which is also silent and pretty inexpensive. The fan turns so slowly you can't hear it at all.

I also swapped out all my case fans and PS fan with Scythe. I think they run about $25 each, but they are totally worth it. The 120mm fans rotate very slowly, but still move a lot of air and have Sony fluid dynamic bearings.

I also splurged on a nice Lian Li aluminum case.

My PC is VERY quiet and you can hear my HD idle over the fans.

I normally only have 1 of the 3 case fans plugged in. When I'm mixing or doing something that takes a lot of CPU, I plug the other 2 in, but I never need them for tracking.

[mewithoutlouie]

The Scyth Ninja passive cooler is less than $50 and SILENT. Budget CPU fans usually sound like jet engines. And a quality heatsink+fan is going to be upwards of $20, and still make audible noise. Really, isn't it worth the extra $20 or so to go silent?

My recording PC is so quiet you can hear the disk drives idling, and it was by no means expensive to build. But I did spend an extra $20 on the Ninja and another $20 or so extra on an Antec case rather than the cheapest thing I could find.

What are you running in your pc?