New PC for recording/multi-use/gaming

[Mornats]

My home-built PC is over 6 years old now so is due for an upgrade. I built it primarily as a gaming PC so performance was number 1 but now I want to focus a little more on audio work so silent running is a tad more importance than gaming prowess.

My old kit is:
Intel Core 2 Duo with a 20% overclock.
8GB Corsair XMS2 RAM
Crucial M4 SSD (main drive with Windows 7 and all my plugins/audio software on)
Couple more drives for storage/apps/games.
Soundblaster Xtreme Gamer soundcard (used for Spotify/CD listening not recording)

So I'm looking the following

Asus Maximus Ranger VII motherboard (mainly aimed at gamers and has massive overclocking potential)
Intel i7 4790k Devil's Canyon CPU (this is the unlocked one for overclocking)
16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 1866mhz RAM
Fractal Design Define R4 silent case
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler (these are great, got one on my old rig. Keeps it cool with that 20% overclock and runs very quietly).

I use a Focusrite Forte interface for recording and Reaper is my DAW of choice. 64 bit all the way too. The motherboard I'm looking at has a soundcard that would replace the Soundblaster if needed.

Later on, once I'm happy that Win 8.1 is stable enough for audio stuff I'd move to that and go RAID 0 with SSDs and split the OS and my music software/samples/VIs onto separate drives (not sure which lot I'd put on the RAID but that's all in the future).

I've not mentioned the graphics card as that's gonna be a later upgrade. I've got fan management on my current one so it powers down really low when doing audio work.

So, anything I should look out for/avoid for audio work? The CPU is quad-core which Reaper will love from what I've heard. 16GB of fast RAM should handle anything I throw at it too. Also, that case is the one that Scan put in some of their Pro Audio PCs.

The use of the PC will be split between home recording/mixing, gaming and photo work. With my current rig these all work fairly well in harmony. I can switch off anything that will interrupt recording (browsers with facebook in the background, skype, "your virus database has been updated" message etc).

As an aside, I'm not interested in going back to a Mac/OSX so it'll be a Windows build.

[Zenitram]

I'm always interested by the specs of people's "fancy" computers, although much of it goes over my head. I'd love to have something really amazing as my work computer, but instead, I always buy a cheap crappy PC from eBuyer for about 200 quid, install the OS myself, and use that pretty much free of trouble for about three, four or even five years (I can't remember), and then buy another one, again for about 200 quid. And everything I do on it seems to run fine - Reaper, Reason, Photoshop, Lightroom, my CAT translation software (my actual paid work), everything. Often all at the same time.

So I then wonder if I'm missing out on something really whizzy, or being clever (in spending as little money as possible), or if it's probably somewhere in between.

I don't play video games though, so maybe that's where I'm not having a problem, if you see what I mean.

Edit: None of which was any help at all, sorry. I was just thinking out loud.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Zenitram

[Mornats]

Heh no worries most of the fancy stuff is linked to gaming where the difference between a £200 PC and a gaming one is that the cheaper one puts a game at 10 frames per second (looking like a flip book being flipped slowly) whilst a gaming one runs a game at 60 frames per second (super smooth).

The good side of having a gaming PC is that it can usually do most other things really well without breaking a sweat. Plus it can play World of Warcraft hehe

[Zenitram]

I do also streamline Windows down to a very bare-bones kind of install, so that probably helps as well.

Doing this, basically:
[url="http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/"]http://www.blackvipe...configurations/[/url]


And, yes, as I suspected, it's the video games thing.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Zenitram

[MonkeyTrick]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1409947308' post='2544973']
My home-built PC is over 6 years old now so is due for an upgrade. I built it primarily as a gaming PC so performance was number 1 but now I want to focus a little more on audio work so silent running is a tad more importance than gaming prowess.

My old kit is:
Intel Core 2 Duo with a 20% overclock.
8GB Corsair XMS2 RAM
Crucial M4 SSD (main drive with Windows 7 and all my plugins/audio software on)
Couple more drives for storage/apps/games.
Soundblaster Xtreme Gamer soundcard (used for Spotify/CD listening not recording)

So I'm looking the following

Asus Maximus Ranger VII motherboard (mainly aimed at gamers and has massive overclocking potential)
Intel i7 4790k Devil's Canyon CPU (this is the unlocked one for overclocking)
16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 1866mhz RAM
Fractal Design Define R4 silent case
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler (these are great, got one on my old rig. Keeps it cool with that 20% overclock and runs very quietly).

I use a Focusrite Forte interface for recording and Reaper is my DAW of choice. 64 bit all the way too. The motherboard I'm looking at has a soundcard that would replace the Soundblaster if needed.

Later on, once I'm happy that Win 8.1 is stable enough for audio stuff I'd move to that and go RAID 0 with SSDs and split the OS and my music software/samples/VIs onto separate drives (not sure which lot I'd put on the RAID but that's all in the future).

I've not mentioned the graphics card as that's gonna be a later upgrade. I've got fan management on my current one so it powers down really low when doing audio work.

So, anything I should look out for/avoid for audio work? The CPU is quad-core which Reaper will love from what I've heard. 16GB of fast RAM should handle anything I throw at it too. Also, that case is the one that Scan put in some of their Pro Audio PCs.

The use of the PC will be split between home recording/mixing, gaming and photo work. With my current rig these all work fairly well in harmony. I can switch off anything that will interrupt recording (browsers with facebook in the background, skype, "your virus database has been updated" message etc).

As an aside, I'm not interested in going back to a Mac/OSX so it'll be a Windows build.
[/quote]

This is so strange - I'm buying an almost identical build right now but with the i5 Devils Canyon part and a slightly cheaper mobo, everything else is the same. I am also after a machine for the exact same reasons. Take a look at the Gigabyte Gaming or OC series motherboards - the new designs aren't as pretty as they used to be but there is some great OC potential and brilliant onboard sound to be had.

I also use a Focusrite interface, I'm going to be making the jump from 7 to 8.1. Brave or stupid? We will see. I've just been assuming that Reaper will be fine on 8.1 ...

[Leonard Smalls]

I've just had a new laptop built by www.pcspecialist.co.uk - it was especially for music production and live use...
It's a 17" i7 (not over-clocked, no real need for audio) running at 3.4GHz, 16Gb RAM, 1Tb hybrid hard disc with 128Gb of solidstate, with bog-standard sound card (no need for fancy sound card if it's always running into a Focusrite). All for £700 inc wireless mouse.
And it's quick - I'm into an Ableton project within 20 seconds of switching on, and much of that time is typing in my pass word!
And so far had no glitches or track dropping, even at 32 tracks all with up to 5 VSTs...

[lurksalot]

To be honest Mr Smalls , I think you are taking the monthly challenge Waaaaaaay too seriously

[Leonard Smalls]

My one and only win and subsequent ability to actually choose next month's photo was such an amazing power-rush that I've re-mortgaged my house to fund purchase of a 128 channel Neve desk complete with outboards by Klark Teknik and custom monitoring by TAD and Bryston.
And besides, my old laptop was 8 years old and often fell over with just a Word document and Internet Explorer running - which would have been embarrassing if us Weeds had been playing a gig with flawless backing from the laptop, only for it to crash leaving the unfortunate audience to hear only our over-the-top noodlings...

[Mornats]

Ooh, quick update then. I've got my PC running nicely now.

I went for the i7 4790k overclocked to 4.6ghz, an Asus ROG Maximus Ranger VII and 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM. I also went for a Fractal Design Define R4 case which is very nice, has acoustic dampening built in and loads of fans/fan slots and a fan controller too. It's rather nice and silent other than some humming that I think is a hard drive not quite screwed into the rubber thingys properly.

I was hoping the much vaunted on-board sound on the motherboard (SupremeFX or something) would be fairly decent as my old Soundblaster X-fi was PCI and the motherboard only has PCI-E slots. However it's piece of cack. Sounds dreadful and has no ASIO drivers. So I bought an Asus Xonar Essence STX which sounds great. I'm very happy with it (for hi-fi use, I still use my Forte).

The performance difference is staggering. I had a song in Reaper with 15-20 tracks all stuffed full of virtual instruments and effects. I couldn't play it in realtime on my old system as the CPU use would go over 110% and it would stutter and slow down. Same song on my new system gets the CPU to around 10-12% usage and that's with World of Warcraft running in the background too...