The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Haven't been on here in ages as the HUD home remodel and a teen age daughter leave me worn out.

My current PC is having some serious performance issues that I think is due to some MOB and hardware issues from age. I have been planning on building a custom PC to replace it that is optimized for photo editing and mid level gaming capability once built PLUS will be capable of adding some decent consumer level DAW software and hardware at a later point. Looking to try to stay under $800 but will be keeping my same monitor and two of my current non OS HD's

i.e. I want to make sure that what ever MOB, CPU, GPU, HD's and case are reasonably future proofed. Although I have found some good recommendations related to mid level gaming PC's and photography editing for the components but hadn't run across much on the PC forums about essential things to take into account for a decent level consumer to "prosumer" build. This will be more of a decent noncommercial bedroom studio capable goal. No plans to get anything like Pro Tools and will likely use Audacity on the PC along with using the 16G.

I accept that on some level the "Jack of all trades, master of none" principle will possibly come in to play but for financial reasons I'm not shooting for top of the line cutting edge performance.

From the gaming and photo editing criteria I am looking at so far;
- CPU (quad core) Intel i5 or preferably i7 if I can afford it
- Possibly a MOB CPU combo package likenthe Skylake-based Core i7-6700K where compatibility of included components have been tested. MOB will need to have at least 4-6 PCi slots
- New SSD HD for the OS and programs only drive (my other two drives are storage drives)
- DDR4 Ram
- 400 watt Modular power supply
- quiet cooling fans
- Win 10 home 64 bit OS
- Case something like a Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case

My main question I think is are there any other factors I should consider related to having a good range of options for adding an AD/DA input/output card or wired interface later?

Also are there are minimum specs for running some plugins and mixing software that would not be covered by hardware specs above?

_________________
Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

Hi Scooter.
The spec you've mentioned would be more than enough.
I use Pro Tools 12Hd & Presonus Studio One V3, with an Asus Quad Core i5. and it's plenty for what I do, which is normally 10 mono tracks, 3 stereo tracks, 3 stereo instrument tracks which are Drum tracks, 3 stereo fx Sends (2 reverbs and a delay) Stereo Drum bus, Stereo Gtr Bus, Stereo Vocal Bus, all sent to a Stereo Submix Bus, then to a Pre Master Bus, finally to the Master Bus.
Vu meter + Compression + Eq vsts on every track.
I use a Focusrite Forte usb interface which is superb,
I also use a Focusrite ISA One pre amp for my mics.
I've never had a glitch or pop or anything untoward since I started using the laptop, but it is optimised for audio, no Internet and definitely no Anti Virus software these are really bad for recording systems.
I still use a Yamaha AW4416 for the transport and fader and pan controls through a 5 pin din to USB midi interface.
There are excellent audio optimisation pages on the Sweetwater website, makes a big big difference to the CPU usage.
All in all if you use an i7 you can't go wrong but an i5 is fine also.
Good luck with what your doing.
Enjoy the rest of your day.

T.

_________________
https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac1

https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac

http://www.soundcloud.com/t-mac-12

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmCjAzN ... ture=watch

https://www.reverbnation.com/tmac

Scoot,

Agree with all TMac imparts... I use a quad core Asus i5 myself. Interface is a small Echo Audiofire4 which has been discontinued, with a real cheap tube preamp(ART MPA Gold)... A preamp might be something you get later on down the line since $$ is always an issue, and most interfaces have a preamp or two built in... Audacity is free, but I would urge you to purchase something like Reaper, which is fairly inexpensive and would give you better results than Audacity. If your daughter has a school ID, she could purchase a very good entry level software DAW from Cakewalk(Sonar Artist, and I believe its under $100 with the education discount).--- http://www.cakewalk.com/Education/Students#buy I use the Pro version...
Above all else, I would get as much RAM as you can--- at least 16GB for audio...

TMac,
Question about your sign flow and buses... How do you use a submix bus, premaster bus, and then Master bus??? Is the Master bus your Audio interface stereo outs(speakers)??
I have a bunch of buses too, but they all feed a Submix, then on to the Master, then to the audio interface stereo outs... Maybe its just a matter of terminology

_________________
it's funny, the older you get, the older you wanna be

Hi Bok, basically just as you say, all tracks to their own busses, then all busses to the Submix, then Submix to PRE MASTER or MASTER, PRE MASTER is just an optional Master to maybe have a alternative sounding Mix with different plugins.
Hope that clears it up.
How you keeping anyway?
Enjoy the rest of your day.

T.

_________________
https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac1

https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac

http://www.soundcloud.com/t-mac-12

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmCjAzN ... ture=watch

https://www.reverbnation.com/tmac

Thanks all.

So far from what I gathered on the gaming PC sites the only real immediate benefits of the i7 over the i5 is the ability to overclock which is not something I plan on any time soon. I think best case scenario for me is to go i5 with a MOBO capable of running i7 I can look into when prices come down a few years down the road.

Unfortunately due to financial limitations this will be my only PC for gaming, recording and photo editing so antivirus software will be a must. I'm not sure if disabling AC software during recording applications would be of any benefit or a realistic possibility? Perhaps set up as a unique user logon?

I have several hardware preamps already and rarely used the G's preamps unless I just wanted to do a quick capture of a song idea or riff.

I have an Echo Darla that I barely used that had a Win 98 interface and only an unsupported XP Beta driver upgrade. It would be nice if some of the AD/DA converters and I/O hardware could somehow be put to good use LOL.

_________________
Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

Hi Scoot, yeah if anti-virus software has to be, then just disable it when using your system for recording, also disable internet access, you can do these things without having to re-boot.
Good luck bud.
T.

_________________
https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac1

https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac

http://www.soundcloud.com/t-mac-12

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmCjAzN ... ture=watch

https://www.reverbnation.com/tmac

Many thanks all,

It will mostly likely be another year before I actually use this build for any DAW type applications but need to build new PC earlier than planned due to current on e crapping out. Just want to make sure I had that capability base covered with the essential hardware.

_________________
Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

Here is the basic parts list I ordered. Keeping my previous monitor and two data drives but new MOB has room for up to 6 SATA drives. Ordered extra quiet case fans and will add a third data drive for recording later. Can add another 32 GB RAM later as well.


Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory

Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card

Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit

_________________
Refusing to make waves is not an indicator of a life well lived. Refusing to
make waves is the state that precedes drowning. - Paul Coughlin author

Way faster than my current set up!

_________________
it's funny, the older you get, the older you wanna be

Yep... thanks!

_________________
it's funny, the older you get, the older you wanna be