[CPhoenix]

Hey guys,

So... I'm going to be building a computer... I need to keep the costs under $750.

In theory, I would've spent $750 on a laptop, but in all reality the power I get from a PC will be a billion times more for the same price (unless you guys tell me laptop CPUs in this price range have caught up to desktop processing power... which I would not know, since I have no been keeping up with the latest in Intel world).

I currently have an i7 3930K, but I need another setup for a separate location. Laptop is an option, but... I'd rather build a more powerful PC for the new location and keep it there... b/c it's not like I'm ever going to get the urge to move the laptop anywhere.

I was looking at building a legacy i7 3820 system. I'm familiar w/ 3820's power and overclocking it, b/c I had it right before I was fortunate to swap for a 3930K w/ a friend. It's a monster chip (still).

The PC is for music production only. I do not game... at all. I do nothing except produce music..... and a little bit of the p word but don't judge me lol.

So, I'm considering i7 3820... but the mobo's are still pretty pricey. And I'd also have to get a video card.

I checked i7 5820K also... which would be perfect if I was only going to be buying new CPU... but I want to keep costs down and also the mobos would be the higher part of my budget. $750 is max but... if I could go $500 and save a little that would be nice.

What else should I consider?

I'm okay with all used parts to keep parts down (except it has to be new PSU)... I was 100% be using used RAM and SSDs. I'm okay with used i7. A new mobo would be nice, but I'd settle for used if price difference is significant for that platform.

Thoughts? I'm not even sure where to start. Should I go the 4770K route? Drop down to a 2700K? (God they are still so pricey)

My goal is to have a clock speed of about 4.2ghz. A 4.2ghz overclock is what I do on my 3930K and it would be nice for the performance to be comparable to that.

 

[Depauville Kid]

I'm not familiar with the kind of power you need to music production. So, I can't help with part choices. If you were thinking the x99 platform, that would be a tall order for $750. Used might be possible. If you were to go new, a Haswell i5/i7 system might fit the budget better, and would still be faster than any $750 laptop.

Just to give better advice, please list the parts you need: case, PSU, mobo, GPU, CPU, cpu cooler, amount of ram, monitor, keyboard, mouse?

 

[Formula383]

Skylake all the way no reason not too even if you just got a little dual core should be plenty of power for doing music tasks just get lots of memory preferably over 3000mhz. i did a total build for 450$ and its simply amazing what a 4.7core/4.7uncore dual core can do. I used a r7 370 because it was cheap under 120$. Make no mistake every toc cycle is worth upgrading too. skylake is a toc. just as haswell was. so that means you will have two full toc's over your Sandy. And the best part is if you dont like the dual you can always upgrade to the i5 for like 180$ dont have to get a "k" either if you do abit of snooping around for a bios you can overclock any of the skylake chips. I would recommend getting a asrock board like the z170 pro4s.

Edit: just make sure to watch prices before you buy they move around alot.

 

[CPhoenix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Depauville Kid

I'm not familiar with the kind of power you need to music production. So, I can't help with part choices. If you were thinking the x99 platform, that would be a tall order for $750. Used might be possible. If you were to go new, a Haswell i5/i7 system might fit the budget better, and would still be faster than any $750 laptop.

Just to give better advice, please list the parts you need: case, PSU, mobo, GPU, CPU, cpu cooler, amount of ram, monitor, keyboard, mouse?

Thanks for the response man..

I need significant power. Music production software in general is pretty inefficient unfortunately, so on an i7 3820, my standard project would maybe be 60-70% of it's full capability, but only using 30% of the 3820's power lol. So... anything less than 3820 power-wise is a no go for me and not worth spending money on at all. Hopefully that puts it in perspective. 3820 is my basement... and this post is to see if I can do better for close to (or even less?) the same money).

Cost wise... I'm only considering the price of CPU / mobo / ram / SSD / PSU / case / GPU. I'm not considering monitor, keyboard, mouse, and extra HDs since I'm going to price shop and use some spare parts.

Price-wise, I want to spend the money as follows:

1 & 2. CPU and mobo - The best I can afford
3. PSU - The best quality one under $100. I haven't researched the amount of Watts I need yet
4. CPU cooler - if one doesn't come w/ the mobo, the best I can afford under $80
5. Case - I need a rackmount. I'd like 3U as preference. Please recommend a CPU/mobo combo that will fit w/ CPU cooler
6 - 8. ram/ SSD / GPU - Price conscious. Preferred SSD is Samsung Evo, but not mandatory. 16GB ram minimum. Cheapest GPU with a DVI-D / HDMI (or OpenGL is fine, I have a cord) is fine.

I really want to fit the CPU + mobo + PSU + CPU cooler + case + ram at about $750. I can also get drives and GPU later. Or get a mobo w/ built in GPU.

 

[CPhoenix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Formula383

Skylake all the way no reason not too even if you just got a little dual core should be plenty of power for doing music tasks just get lots of memory preferably over 3000mhz. i did a total build for 450$ and its simply amazing what a 4.7core/4.7uncore dual core can do. I used a r7 370 because it was cheap under 120$. Make no mistake every toc cycle is worth upgrading too. skylake is a toc. just as haswell was. so that means you will have two full toc's over your Sandy. And the best part is if you dont like the dual you can always upgrade to the i5 for like 180$ dont have to get a "k" either if you do abit of snooping around for a bios you can overclock any of the skylake chips. I would recommend getting a asrock board like the z170 pro4s.

Edit: just make sure to watch prices before you buy they move around alot.

Are you saying a dual core Skylake is comparable to a quad core i7 3820?

Regarding ram speed... honestly I notice no speed difference on my current ram whether it's clocked at 1066 or 1600mhz. Would I really notice a difference bumping to 3000mhz range? (wow, have I been out of the game so long that 3000mhz is a new norm? lol. Which I build 2 years ago 1600mhz was the standard.. it's doubled?!) It would be nice if my instruments loaded faster and the DAW operated more smoothly when flipping between large instruments. I'm sure RAM speed has something to do with that... but if it's not a significant difference then it may be a waste of money.

I'm not sure how comfortable I am with having only two cores... when I currently have 3930K w/ 6 cores. The DAW is a multi-core software and utilizes them all, and it sends each track to a different core to optimize the performance (it doesn't do it well... but it does it). So... 2 cores makes me nervous. And not having the benefits of hyperthreading w/ the i7's also makes me nervous.. b/c the DAW recognizes those extra threads and performance is improved even further.

 

[keikei]

No need to get a dedicated gpu for your needs. The intel chips have on board vid. Make sure the board you purchase has a vid input on it though. I'd get an i7 considering the software you mentioned.

 

[CPhoenix]

Right now I'm looking hard at a i7 4790K setup.

4790K CPU/mobo (MSI) combo is $100 cheaper than cheapest 5820K combo.
Heatsink included
Graphics included. (Even though I have a spare Radeon 5450.. I hated that thing, I think it caused random problems in my system but can't say that for a fact.)

Looks like it's a better CPU than 3820... which was my baseline.

I'm trying very hard to resist the urge to go 5820K and have to keep reminding myself this is secondary setup and doesn't need to be better than my current setup.

What will a 4790K overclock to with the stock heatsink? Is a 20% overclock to 4.8GHz reasonable?

Price comes to $400 which leaves me with $350 for case, SSD, RAM, GPU which feels like I may actually stay within budget lol.

Thoughts? Will it be a little better than i7 3820 like CPUbenchmark.net suggests?

 

[keikei]

This guy is getting 4.6 with an aftermarket cooler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRB22cx3EWo

 

[CPhoenix]

Nice, thank you.

Do you think a 4790k stock heatsink will fit in a 3u rack?

 

[keikei]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPhoenix

Nice, thank you.

Do you think a 4790k stock heatsink will fit in a 3u rack?

It should. My stock cooler is actually lower in height than my ram.

 

[CPhoenix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by keikei

It should. My stock cooler is actually lower in height than my ram.

Oh that's excellent man, thank you!

 

[Formula383]

Well its up to you for how much money you want to spend but for starting out IF your overclocking the g4400 it is truley amazing little chip and is likely that is as fast as a Sandy quad core at stock speed maybe even a little faster. thing is you can get the computer up and running cheap with the g4400 and if you decide you want more you can up it to a i5 or i7 if you really want HT. And sell the g4400 for basicly what you have into minus maybe 10$ for shipping costs.

 

[Formula383]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPhoenix

Right now I'm looking hard at a i7 4790K setup.

4790K CPU/mobo (MSI) combo is $100 cheaper than cheapest 5820K combo.
Heatsink included
Graphics included. (Even though I have a spare Radeon 5450.. I hated that thing, I think it caused random problems in my system but can't say that for a fact.)

Looks like it's a better CPU than 3820... which was my baseline.

I'm trying very hard to resist the urge to go 5820K and have to keep reminding myself this is secondary setup and doesn't need to be better than my current setup.

What will a 4790K overclock to with the stock heatsink? Is a 20% overclock to 4.8GHz reasonable?

Price comes to $400 which leaves me with $350 for case, SSD, RAM, GPU which feels like I may actually stay within budget lol.

Thoughts? Will it be a little better than i7 3820 like CPUbenchmark.net suggests?

Not worth getting a DDR3 system atm with how cheap you can get a DDR4 system imho.

 

[CPhoenix]

Not going to purchase a CPU that I'm going to sell.

And since I have a decent enough budget to at least keep my current pace of power for my production, I'm not going to be going backwards for the build, even though I'm sure the cost savings would be there and some work would get done. The moment I try to add a few high powered instruments and have to sacrifice, I'd get pissed off and feel like time was wasted. I'd rather start with something that is at or better than my minimum power requirements. Thanks for the advice though.

Also... I'm seeing 16GB sets of DDR3 for as cheap as $40 on eBay if I win the bid. I don't need new ram for this build. ram is ram to me. For music production, the difference isn't easily noticed.

 

[CPhoenix]

Okay... I'm 95% locked in on 4790K at the moment guys.

Next hurdle is PSU.

I'm old school and my baseline was always a 500W PSU... easy peasy. However, I just ran a PSU calculator and it's telling me my setup will only be about 285W. That's way lower than I imagined. Are the new Intels that much more power efficient?

My setup will be:
Wireless mouse
Wireless keyboard
Wireless network card (may not include and keep unplugged from the matrix)
USB powered midi controller w/ LED display (Akai Advance 61 keys). No wall wart
USB jog wheel controller
2 x 8GB DDR3
1 x 500GB SSD
1 x 7200rpm 1TB drive

Would I be okay with a 350W PSU? Or should I go 450W?

I currently have an Antec 650W and I like the brand, it seems very well made. They sell a new 750W for about $135 and that feels too expensive. I know you're never supposed to skimp on PSU, so 350W Antec makes me nervous.

I'm also looking at 500W Inland Gold, but the price is so cheap it makes me nervous.

 

[keikei]

i'd go for the higher wattage. SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W

http://www.overclock.net/t/183810/faq-recommended-power-supplies/0_30#user_400-499W

Even better option: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W

 

[CPhoenix]

Heard great things about Seasonic.

Thanks! That's a solid price... looks like a solid product.