build for little brother (any suggestion?)

[nes]

Hello everyone,


My little brother came to me with the daunting task of building him a rig for music productions. He and myself are deeply into productions. I make Drum and Bass (rave music....www.breakbeat.co.uk if you don't know about it) and he mostly makes house music. He's going to be running Cubase 4 and needs a low latency, AISO compliant sound solution and this is what I came up with:

Pierre's Comp!


Case:
RAIDMAX AZTEC ATX-619WY Black/ Yellow $84.99


Processor:
intel e8400 $189.00

Main Board:
MSI P7N SLI Platinum
750i $164.99

Power Supply Unit:
OCZ GameXStream 700W $128.99


Graphics Solution:
PNY GeForce 9600GT 512MB $148.99


Sound Solution:
E-MU 1616 16 Channels PCI Interface $380.99


Memory Modules:
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB) $94.99


Keyboard:
Kensington 64365 Black $29.00


Mouse:
Logitech V220 $29.99

Monitor:
SAMSUNG 953BW High-gloss Black 19" 5ms, $219.00
2ms (GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor
300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1(1000:1)


Optical Drives:
Lite-On 20x LH-20A1L $32.99


Hard Drives:
Western Digital Caviar GP WD5000AACS 500GB $89.00


Total $1592.92


He didn't say anything about gaming but I decided to toss in a 9600gt for good measure, you never know. Anyways, suggestions are welcome; I know there are some rig-wizards that cruise this board so lay it on me.:icon_tiphat:

[sushrukh]

I wouldn't invest in a SLI board if i won't be gaming.I would rather go for a P35 or an X38 based board.And i would prefer Samsung over Lite-on. ;)

[joz]

Are you american or canadian?

I can find you much better deals and setup for what you said you needed.

[nes]

Joz, I'm an American bro. I'm stationed up here at Fort Drum, NY so I do go into Canada quite often. I usually chill up in Kingston, Ontario when I do go. Why, what's up?

[nes]

Yo, Joz..... what's up with the setup and the deals? Drop a list and links for me.

[joz]

I was in class you know...

e-mu card: http://www.antarespro.com/Item.aspx?sku=701864&sgd=330d312d314d308d317

everything else: http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=9135048 (added a differnt mouse.)

one more thing you might want to consider: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887002

[nes]

Nice one Joz.

[joz]

its what I do.

[Chakka]

Here's my new build (havent done it yet still being shipped):

1. EVGA 750i - $190 - (newegg, zzf or club IT - 6 phase mobo)
2. Intel e8400 cpu - $197 (everywhere)
3. 4gb gskill ddr2 1000 - $90 (newegg)
4. Palit sonic 9600gt (x2) SLI - $240 (zzf - 3 phase video card)
5. PcPower 750w 60a single rail psu - $150 (newegg)
6. Antec 900 - $90 (buy.com)
7. Total = $957

All other parts Im re-using...btw, thanks nes for your service to our country!

[joz]

Here's my new build (havent done it yet still being shipped):

1. EVGA 750i - $190 - (newegg, zzf or club IT - 6 phase mobo)
2. Intel e8400 cpu - $197 (everywhere)
3. 4gb gskill ddr2 1000 - $90 (newegg)
4. Palit sonic 9600gt (x2) SLI - $240 (zzf - 3 phase video card)
5. PcPower 750w 60a single rail psu - $150 (newegg)
6. Antec 900 - $90 (buy.com)
7. Total = $957

All other parts Im re-using...btw, thanks nes for your service to our country!
Your post had nothing to do with this topic.

[nes]

not a problem chakka, my pleasure.

[Chakka]

Your post had nothing to do with this topic.

Dont be a dork...I was giving nes my just purchased equipment and pricing of that equipment as alternatives for him to consider.

I figured nes to be smart enough to make those determinations without having me to point it out to him. Obviously I will have to point it out to you - sorry nes but I do give you far more credit for your intelligence in this matter but it seems I will have to digress from joz.

First up the mobo - the new evga is a 6 phase mobo with sli, unlike his MSI choice which is 4 phase. A 6 phase mobo should have far more stability than a 4 phase mobo plus evga offers true x16, x16 sli and lifetime warranty....and a whole host of other benefits. The price difference is $189 versus $164...well worth the price upgrade.

2nd up is the 9600gt - palit offers a 3 phase 9600gt versus most other 9600gt are 2 phase, leading to better stability especially in overclocking...the sonic palit is aready overclocked. Price difference $119 after mir versus $149.

3rd up is the memory - 4 gb gskill ddr2 1000 at $90 versus the 2 gb ballistix for $95.

4th up is the psu - PC Power/Cooling 750w quad at $149...I think its even cheaper now with an mir bringing it down to $129.

Finally, I agree with the e8400 and a case is personal choice. Joz do you get my point now or do I need to explain it even more?

[Chakka]

not a problem chakka, my pleasure.

Nes keep up the good work that you do.

I you are still interested in crucial ballistix, its on sale for $20 after mir at tigerdirect - here is the link. You may want to get it while its hot...I have ballistix tracer ddr1 and had to replace my pair after 1 year and crucial has great customer service and replaced them without question.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1558870&Sku=C19-4332

[joz]

Dont be a dork...I was giving nes my just purchased equipment and pricing of that equipment as alternatives for him to consider.

I figured nes to be smart enough to make those determinations without having me to point it out to him. Obviously I will have to point it out to you - sorry nes but I do give you far more credit for your intelligence in this matter but it seems I will have to digress from joz.

First up the mobo - the new evga is a 6 phase mobo with sli, unlike his MSI choice which is 4 phase. A 6 phase mobo should have far more stability than a 4 phase mobo plus evga offers true x16, x16 sli and lifetime warranty....and a whole host of other benefits. The price difference is $189 versus $164...well worth the price upgrade.

2nd up is the 9600gt - palit offers a 3 phase 9600gt versus most other 9600gt are 2 phase, leading to better stability especially in overclocking...the sonic palit is aready overclocked. Price difference $119 after mir versus $149.

3rd up is the memory - 4 gb gskill ddr2 1000 at $90 versus the 2 gb ballistix for $95.

4th up is the psu - PC Power/Cooling 750w quad at $149...I think its even cheaper now with an mir bringing it down to $129.

Finally, I agree with the e8400 and a case is personal choice. Joz do you get my point now or do I need to explain it even more?
Dude, hes not making a gaming PC.

[Schwarz]

Since you are building a very quiet computer, the dope should see this thread or I will point him towards here so he can help you.
I've seen a PC he has made for sound recording and all.
I tell yuo I have never seen such a quiet computer.
Its actually unbelievable.
It does make ANY sounds at all and thats good for recording since you dont have ripple sounds or little background noises.

[nes]

c'mon dope!

[the_dope_chaud]

here is my basic recipe for a quiet rig like mine, and my roomate added a couple gadgets to make it 100% silent, I swear you dont know if its on or off..... !
Its important, because his studio only has a voice booth, which means any other recording is hapening in the same room as the computer, and the his old P4 showed up on many recordings, thus this new build on which I had total liberty of budget and hardware. ('xcept for the hard drives, which came from old build.)

case: antec p182 - the godfather of silence

aftermarket heatsink, I have a thermalright and my roomate has my old zalman, the trick is to maybe change out the fan like we did on the zalman, and keep it in low RPMs

fans - yate loons 120's all around, we bought 10 !
all hooked up to a sunbeam rheobus to run them in low RPM's. When I game, I turn it up.

passive cooling on motherboard and ram, of course

since my roomate ONLY records (no games) with his studio PC, we went for a passive nvidia 8400, it drives 2 19" wides nicely.

PSU : corsair 620hx has a great reputation for being well built, providing solid power, and especially being quiet ! We each have one.

Now, my roomate has 2 extra gadgets that really make his silence, especially the hard drive enclosures. He has a raid setup that dosen't even humm. And I checked, all temps are reasonable idle and load.

He's got :

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=19663&vpn=SST%2DPP02&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology
which just kind deflects the psu airflow. In this recording enviroment, this is necessary. We tested with and without, works :-D

and 2 of these :

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22363&vpn=SQD%2D1000&manufacture=Scythe

BTW the roomies computer : q6600, 4 gig patriot 800 cl4, asus p5k-3 wifi, 2 x WD sata 250 gig, expensive m-audio sound controller. the rest is mentioned above.

A good site to read up on silent PCs would be http://www.silentpcreview.com/
this is one of the site I have been surfing for a few years, its full of great advice.

Check out this immaculate work of art :

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43273


If you got this far, its a little elaborate, specially if you are making more electronic style music and not recording but I just like quiet PCs and I can talk about it for a while.....

I also LOVE drum and bass, and I would love to hear some of your work.
I'm also always looking for new stuff to listen to, give me some names !!
I listen to mostly classic old school stuff like goldie, t-power and grooverider.
Also just dicovered Bitplane, they rock !
http://www.last.fm/music/bitplane/_/Acid+Wave