Help me evaluate Fry's suggestions for building a PC

[SHOWSTOPPA]

Hi,
So I plan on building a PC that will be primarily used for audio production and other basic computer uses like YouTube,paint, etc etc ...
Fry's gave me this customer quotation after I explained my needs. However my computer hardware knowledge is,
lets just say.....not good.
But I'm not too worried. I know someone wouldn't mind going out of there way to help point me in the right direction

That being said.
Here is basically exactly what the customer quotation recommend.
Now, if anyone has any criticisms, or ideas to get the price down I'm all ears.

oh in addition I plan on purchasing a external sound card. Possible the MOTU Microbook USB 2.0.


1. Intel i7 47770K Boxed
4th Gen Socket 1150
3.50 GHz - 8MB Cache
BX80646174770K
Price - $339.99

2. DDR3 16GB 16000MHz DUAL C
2X8GB DIMM XMS 1.5v
UNBUFFERED 11-11-11-30
CMX16GX3M2A1600C11
Price - $119.99

3. MSI Z87-G43
Intel Z87 LGA 1150
SATA 6G/USB 3.0/PCIE G3
Click Bios 4/ OC Genie 4
Price - $119.99

4. 12GB Samsung 840 ProSSD
Read530MB/sWrite390MB/s
Samsung840 Pro series
MZ - 7PD128BW
Price - $149.99

5. TT New Soprano Case
Aluminum Front Panel
HDD Hot Swap Docking
Cable Management Design
Price - $119.99

6. LG OEM DVDRW 24X Int
SARA, Internal
M - DISC Compatible
GH24NS95
Price - $24.99

7. WD10000CSRTL 1TB GREEN
SATA/300 RETAIL BOX HD
GREEN POWER 16MB BUFFER
WDBAAY0010HNC-NRSN
Price - $71.99

8. Win 8 OEM 64Bit Full Version:
WN7-00404
Price - $99.99

9. TT Smart 750w
750w ATX Power Supply
80 PLUS Bronze Certified
Quiet 140mm Fan
Price - $79.99

10. ASUS GT640 2GB DDR3
Core Clock:901 MHz
HDMI / D-Sub / 2xDVI
Price - $99.99

Quotation Total - $1226.90

[Simulant]

Some of your numbers are wrong - for example there is no 12Gb 840 Pro, I guess you mean the 128Gb model? Anyhow, it's pretty much the fastest model on the market at the moment(I think a new version might have come out), so it's a great choice. Personally I'd get the 256Gb version as it's a bit faster.

And the i7 47770K - you mean the 4770K? Anyhow, a great CPU and it's overclockable, you won't go wrong with this.

Ditch Windows 8, unless you like an operating system that looks like it's designed by a child, for a child. It's an awful mess and hasn't sold well. Don't you have a copy of 7?

Overall it looks like a great system, plenty of power and good components. Sure you could save money by getting a lower spec CPU, PSU etc, but at the end of the day you get what you pay for.

[ThisIsSovereign]

Ditch Windows 8, unless you like an operating system that looks like it's designed by a child, for a child. It's an awful mess and hasn't sold well. Don't you have a copy of 7?

Yeah don't get Windows 8, it's literally a tablet OS on a desktop; pointless. If you wanna save some money you don't really need an SSD but that's up to you.

[AxeD]

Simulant said it, great stuff, but you're paying the price.

I'd say you could get a pc that can handle your needs for around 800 as well.

[pete_bubonic]

I see a lot of threads like this on various forums, now I'm no sound design god, but equally I can't see the need to run 10 instances of Massive vst and accompanying eq's compressors and alike, nor have a full orchestra where I would need over 150 real time audio tracks for recording.

In essence, isn't that massively overpowered? I'm still running a 2008 macbook intel coure2duo 2.8 ghz. Stuck a solid state drive in and 4 gigs of ram and can happily run about 8/10 instances of synths with the channels packed out before needing to freeze stuff? And that would cost someone about £400 if that nowdays?

Highlight,. I'm not really into sound design, at least the modern EDM style approach, so are the synths for this really that power hungry?

[Electric_Head]

It is overpowered, yes.
But why not?

I am using an i5 2500k 3.3ghz and I honestly only think an ssd would make a difference considering my current drives are old and slow.
But I am a gamer as well but also find the system to be more than sufficient with a nice graphics card.

[ThisIsSovereign]

Highlight,. I'm not really into sound design, at least the modern EDM style approach, so are the synths for this really that power hungry?

I think it really depends on how you like to work, if you don't bounce anything to audio then it can really add up over the course of a track. I've never had a problem with my rig (i7 950 @ 3.07Ghz, 6GB RAM) but if I had a weaker system I could see myself having problems for sure.

[pete_bubonic]

It is overpowered, yes.
But why not?

[snip]
But I am a gamer as well but also find the system to be more than sufficient with a nice graphics card.

Exactly, OP has said he only wants it for music production and checking youtube, not gaming and certainly nothing that'd require that much power. That's spending a lot of money on something he won't see any extra benefit from. (EDIT: side note - an ssd drastically increased the performance and lifetime of my machine, highly recommended).


@ThisIsSovereign Can I ask what synths are the most demanding? What level of tracks, vsts and such do you have to run to max out an i7? Is the track in your sig indicative of the sort of stuff you require that power for? Or are there other audio purposes you're employing it on?
The majority of my stuff is recorded audio anyway, so it's never been a problem.

[ThisIsSovereign]

@ThisIsSovereign Can I ask what synths are the most demanding? What level of tracks, vsts and such do you have to run to max out an i7? Is the track in your sig indicative of the sort of stuff you require that power for? Or are there other audio purposes you're employing it on?

I don't max it out but by the end of a track I could be anywhere from 40-80% CPU depending on how many elements are in said track, so on a weaker system I could possibly run into issues. I only use straight audio hits for atmospheres or incidental effects that are being sampled or are from a sample pack. For pretty much everything else it's a MIDI track whether it be a synth or a sampler as I feel it's easier to see what's going on overall.

[Tom_Autobot]

Everything looks ok, but i'd go for an Asus motherboard instead of the MSI as they tend to be more stable and have lower DPC times (the spikes that overload the computer and make it click and pop at low latencies).

I'd also look at getting a Seasonic power supply if you can because we find they run very quiet, and dont use third party maufacturers to make thier units (so the first batch is reallly good, then they switch factories for the next runs that are cheaper, but not as good)

Also if you want a gt640, Zotac do a passive one, so no extra fan noise. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-zota ... passive-co

[AxeD]

Recording studios need fat computers, as do post pro CR's. Like Bubonic said, you can easily do with less for home use.
I feel like a lot of people are simply doing things 'wrong' maybe. Like using Ozone as bus fx, or printing nothing
so your daw has to process things you're not even tweaking anymore.

My own productions demand very little, but that's just because I don't believe in using tons of plugins/tracks.
A friend of mine mixes and records bands in the box, so he does need fast drives and processing etc..

[Simulant]

I see a lot of threads like this on various forums, now I'm no sound design god, but equally I can't see the need to run 10 instances of Massive vst and accompanying eq's compressors and alike, nor have a full orchestra where I would need over 150 real time audio tracks for recording.

In essence, isn't that massively overpowered? I'm still running a 2008 macbook intel coure2duo 2.8 ghz. Stuck a solid state drive in and 4 gigs of ram and can happily run about 8/10 instances of synths with the channels packed out before needing to freeze stuff? And that would cost someone about £400 if that nowdays?

Highlight,. I'm not really into sound design, at least the modern EDM style approach, so are the synths for this really that power hungry?

Basically, modern software usually requires modern hardware to run it. Some newer synths will kill an older CPU. But if you don't plan on using any newer stuff for a while then your system is fine for your needs. It just might struggle a bit with some more modern plugins.