Building a Computer for DAW and Photoshop use

[Zerberus]

Re: Building a Computer for DAW and Photoshop use

I disagree. You want a solid card with solid drivers, and you certainly can't find that with CHEAP. Drivers are so very important to the stability of the system.

With Cheap, I was more referring to not purchasing the newest most modern graphics card on the market, thereby saving about 3-400$ that would be spent on graphics power no non-gamer needs. Whx buy a Radeeon x280 or whatever when a GF MX 400 from Y2K will suffice fully for a 20th of the cost? That said even an Mx 400 is overkill for any 2d application, we could scale down to the days of Riva TNT or Voodoo Banshee and still not notice a difference... Essentially if Doom will run on your machine the Graphics card can handle Cubase, Live!, Logic and their Brethren... Doom unfortunately isn´t a very good benchmark for the rest of the performance specs, I´m afraid :chairfall

That said and re: Drivers: If you purchase an nVidia or ATI card from any even half decent manufacturer (i.e. a name such as ASUS, Leadtek, MSI, et. al. that has been around pre-CeBit 2k8) then your driver needs will for the most part be more than accomodated by simply using the reference Drivers from the Chipset manufacturer.

I for one hate companies that find a need to graphix up and slobber all over perfectly good drivers and installation routines just so the load screen shows their logo

 

[supernosher]

Re: Building a Computer for DAW and Photoshop use

With Cheap, I was more referring to not purchasing the newest most modern graphics card on the market...

Ahhh ok, that wasn't clear.

 

[millsart]

Re: Building a Computer for DAW and Photoshop use

I definatly know where your coming from in regards to being out of the loop lol. I built a ton of systems for lots of people back in the day, but then after a machine a few years ago never really upgraded until I got back into the DAW and software modeler thing and figured I could use the extra PC horsepower.

For example my old case and power supply didnt have SATA connectors so image how shocked I was when my new 16x DVDR drive that I bought for a mere $18 to replace my old slow 2x on (why didnt I upgrade that sooner right ?) I couldnt even power as it didnt have a molex connector on it!

So lots of reading and researching again for me to find out what chipsets and mobo's were working best, new PS, cases etc.

Took me a day to get XP installed because low and behold it didnt have support for the agp 16x graphics card, so I had to learn how to make a "slippable" bootable OS etc

Funny how fast technology can move by when your on the sidelines lol


2.4ghz intel quad

Gigabyte p45-dser mobo, saves you alot of money over Asus and its a good stable chipset

two 2gig cas3 pc800 ram chips for basically any brand. XP can't use more than that

16x dvdr drive for any brand, I got samsung because it was black

Asus silent video card, I got one with the Nvidia chipset, geforce9000 chipset I think. I just like them better that ATI chipsets. Just has one dvi output but really I think thats all you need as running one 24" widescreen monitor displays plenty of info these days. I used to use two and it was something of a pain as not everything would drag between them right, color profiling them (unless you bought the same model etc)

Antec Sonota case. Good solid steel case, very quite, looks nice and comes with a nice quite 500w ps which will be plenty. Has nice touches such as iso mounts for HD's etc to cut noise a little. $79 on sale at Microcenter so basically it was like getting a free case with PS.

2 HD's, I bought Western Digital but really any major 7500rpm SATA drives with 3mb/sec transfer rates will be more than fine. No point spending more money for raptors or anything, maybe for video work worth it but otherwise just needless money

Top it off with a couple of good fans, I forget the CPU cooler I got but its a big heatsink with piping and its very quiet, as is my CPU controlled PWM case fan.

CPU fan runs at 1200rpm and the case fan about 600rpm and they are dynamic. You cant even tell the system is turned on at idle. Stays plenty cool as well, about 31c on the chipset even under load.


I know lots of builders these days like giant fans, seeing how many fans they can put onto their system, neon lights and windows, and all that jazz but I go for quiet. I'm old and noise bothers me lol

You'd be looking at $600-700 complete

Get a USB toneport soundcard for $75 or whatever they cost, and then some monitors like the KRK Rokit 5's for $300 a pair and you'll have one great sounding and very powerful home DAW/PS pc.

Not on the leading edge of technology so maybe 10% off the benchmarks but about 50% cheaper and far more stable.

Core i7 is great I'm sure but is a slightly faster bus speed really worth double the price for a performance increase I can only see in a benchmark app ? I dont think so

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Building a Computer for DAW and Photoshop use

Well, the old computer "died" last Sunday when I got back from D.C. so it's forcing the issue. I've only got my iphone and work computer for internert access, so researching has been slower than I'd like and making me get into work quite early.

I think I've decided on Intel Core 2 Quad, and a Gigabyte P45 board. I just need to determine the amount of horsepower I want under the hood. I'll go with two HDDs, on around 300GB and one around 1TB, both with as much cache as possible, 7200 3Gb/s.

I'm still stuck on soundcards and video cards. I have no problem with a GeForce 9XXX series, I'm thinking a 9800GT to be able to run a few games, but we'll see.

Currently, I've got a 5.1 THX system, and the onboard audio supports it with standard 3.5mm jacks. If I add an additional PCI soundcard, will it still allow me to use the onboard sound for everything but DAW use, then use the additional soundcard and inputs for recording? Usually a recording soundcard has 1/4" outputs, and is obviously intended for 2 monitors. Any insights other than ditch the current speaker system?

 

[millsart]

Re: Building a Computer for DAW and Photoshop use

Yes, most any DAW will let you selet which sound devices you want to use as will XP and I'd assume Vista if you use that (I dont)

I did that for a while, had my monitors hooked up to the "real" soundcard and then my 5.1 system for gaming etc. Needed the surround for Battlefield 1942 after all lol

These days I've just disabled the onboard sound and have my monitors and USB audio interface (toneport GX, simple but works) hooked up to the monitors

Its got a nice physical volume knob I can easily twist and whenever Im listening to music etc, its always played from my monitors because they frankly sound so much better than those tiny satalite 5.1 speakers I had

Once you start listening to music through good monitors you'll never want to go back to hi-fi speakers. Just doesn't sound "right" anymore

You get so spoiled by the accurate responce and amazing stereo imaging, hearing the recording as the artist actually made it, that everything else just sounds muddy or to hyped in the bass etc