i thought u where gonna build a drummachine or smthng.

I come from more of a gaming standpoint...but I know that my tech friends all say that the best bang for your buck currently is the i5 chip.

I went for the i7 myself, and it's a fantastic chip. I've never run into any CPU issues with anything thrown at it thus far. (Runs Crysis perfectly, runs FL / Cubase / Reason perfectly)

The other thing that helps is having a solid soundcard, which is where alot of my money went.

I don't like getting into specifics as everyone has their preferences, but out of all of my friend's pc builds, the most stable combo has been i5/Asus/Corsair with Win7 Ultimate.

Something to consider, (and something that helped speed production up for me) was dual 22" LCD's. If you already have 1 monitor, It's a great way to spend 180 bucks if you can spare it. (If you've seen any of Ronald Jenkees on youtube, he runs 3 monitors with FL studio xD)

If you happen to care about graphics cards, ATI's 4850HD is the way to go for savings, but keep in mind that Nvidia has better built in AND aftermarket graphics tweaking, and the GTX285 is a solid card. (nhancer 4tw?)

It was a thread before about this subject but I will post my config:

1 x LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62 Black 0.8 mm SECC, Plastic + Mesh ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
1 x HIS H575Q1GD Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
1 x CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
1 x Rosewill RHB-220R 4-port USB Hub - Red
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGMBOX
1 x LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
1 x ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
1 x Rosewill RNX-N100 IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB2.0 Wireless-N 2.0 Dongle (1T2R) Up to 150Mbps Data Rates/ WPA/WPA2 (AES, 64,128-WEP with shared-key authentication) Cisco CCS V1.0, V2.0 and V3.0

Newegg order for around $850.00. Assembled in about 3-4 hrs.
Never have any problem with AMD - is fast, really fast. Whatever I throw on this baby, barely go to 20% of processor load (incl. OmniSphare) - love it.

Pay attention to Motherboard, for me has to have Texas Instrumant FireWire chipset for good connectivity for any firewire hardware you want to add/connect to your computer. This system is brilliant for production.

Also we are using Windows Server 64 bit with some OS small registry changes to shift audio/multimedia priority to high.

Cheers

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aren't those like $300? looks nice tho.. maybe i'll get it =D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i7_processor-_-19-115-202-_-Product

Edit, and this... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375&cm_re=LGA_1366_motherboard-_-13-128-375-_-Product

Last edited by Evolve140 on Mar-24-2010 at 05:42

This mobo looks like the best at the moment... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813128423

Now your talking. Pair those with a 500 gig HD (minimum), mid range graphics and a 4 gig of ram on 1 or 2 sticks and your totally set. It'll be screamingly fast...

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Yep that's a decent board, i would just go straight for a 3x2GB stick matched ram set like the TR3X6G1600C7 (part number, google for local pricing). They're good value when bought as a set, and they will come from the same batch. Memory is a fundamental part of the system, so matched sticks designed to run together at high speeds is a worthy investment in my mind.

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Interesting, I didn't know matched sets worked better...

I was only suggesting cutting back on ram since he'll probably be using a 32 bit system and is trying to save cash in the short term. He was saying he only had $300 or $400 after all. and we're telling him to get a CPU that's 2oo and something.

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quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips Interesting, I didn't know matched sets worked better...

They don't.


I'm trying to find the link but Toms did a test and the difference was less than 0.5%

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there's another thread somewhere about 32bit / vs 64bit. I went 32bit initially and then had to rebuild the OS to change to 64bit because i wasn't happy with the free memory i was left with. In my opinion save yourself the trouble and go with 64bit to start with. Sit it out until you have another pay check under the belt and do it properly from the get go i say.

Regarding the matched sets, the OP mentioned overclocking, if you want the highest level of reliability and stability when overclocking then a matched set of ram is not a bad idea. When you push up the clock cycles of memory with tight timings, if you have 3 sticks with identical physical properties it may be easier to find stable settings than if you have sticks from different batches that might not like exactly the same settings.

So it's not necessarily about a paper performance increase, but higher chances of stability across the sticks at faster speeds.

If budget is really strict and more important than that then yeah it's not 100% necessary, i just took the mentality with my build that i wanted to do it once, do it well, and not have to do it again for a long time.

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quote:

Originally posted by tehlord They don't. I'm trying to find the link but Toms did a test and the difference was less than 0.5%

Everything I have ever heard about RAM is that matched pairs are better than unmatched and issues always seem to arise with unmatched pairs. I thought that was pretty common knowledge?

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