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What country are you in? Australia What are you using the system for? Ideally, I'm looking for something that's spec'd for music production and, to a lesser extent, professional use (non-intensive experiment prototyping and data analysis with Matlab/R). I'm no gamer and it's quite likely that this machine will never be used for games but friends have advised me that the strengths found in affordable, non-overclocked gaming builds tend to crossover to music production. My music is sample-heavy rather than VST-based so intense CPU-loads are less of a concern for me than they might be for other musicians. I also record my vinyl collection so extra storage wouldn't hurt. This is shaping up to be my first build. I've had a passive interest in building a PC for some time but friends have had issues in the past (cutting corners on cheap components) which has left me hesitant. The prebuilt systems at PCCaseGear have fairly close specs to what I've listed below so I've been very tempted to pay the premium for piece of mind but figured I'd gauge the forums' opinions on my hypothetical build before making a decision. I didn't come across any obvious non-gamer music builds when searching the forums so this might serve some future posters too. What's your budget? Around the AUD$1500 mark but I'm flexible. That's made up of ~AUD$1000 in grant-funding for precisely this purpose so only money above that mark is worth deliberating over. I'm lacking a monitor so that'll need to be included. A second monitor may be on the horizon but don't need to consider it here. I put together a hypothetical build below based on advice from the OP and general comments on music builds around the net. To constrain the choices I selected from a single local supplier. I'd prefer not to cobble together pieces from a bunch of different places but happy to be advised otherwise if there's a huge advantage to doing so. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ PCCaseGear) Motherboard: ASRock H170M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($145.00 @ PCCaseGear) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($59.00 @ PCCaseGear) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($239.00 @ PCCaseGear) Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($139.00 @ PCCaseGear) Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear) Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24D3ST DVD/CD Writer ($19.00 @ PCCaseGear) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear) Monitor: BenQ EW2440L 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($179.00 @ PCCaseGear) Total: $1511.00 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-06 15:08 AEST+1000 Cheers for your help!
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May 6, 2016 07:06
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 05:03 |
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AVeryLargeRadish posted:A few changes I would make: Legend, thanks for the input
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May 6, 2016 09:24
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BurritoJustice posted:The R5 is a good case but it isn't worth the crazy premium that all fractal design cases have in Aus. With the money saved going for a Phanteks P400s or Enthoo Pro M you can fit in a 960/380, which is a large upgrade. Thanks for the comment, I'll have to give it some thought - I'm not especially attached to the Fractal Design cases but they did seem to pop up in music rig discussions. Re: GPU upgrade, although it'd be nice to know the potential is there I'm doubtful I'll need the extra oomph for my current purposes. Certainly a possible upgrade in the future if my mind changes.
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May 6, 2016 16:59
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AVeryLargeRadish posted:Is that really going to help for a music production machine where I would assume quiet operation is very important? I did not want to assume that they were using closed headphones vs open ones or studio monitors so I figured building towards quiet operation was more important than the video card for GPU accelerated math or something. That's basically the situation, any intensive work that will benefit from the GPU acceleration wont be performed at home. I'm no professional musician so silent operation isn't critical but quieter is certainly better.
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May 6, 2016 17:07
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Jack Forge posted:Should he think about a dedicated sound card? Or did he already have that? I don't have one but happy to hear about suggestions for the sake of others reading later. Realistically, music is a hobby and the acoustics of the room are pretty average so it's likely an unnecessary expense in this instance.
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May 6, 2016 17:22
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AVeryLargeRadish posted:If you do end up wanting one I'd recommend the Asus Xonar DGX, it's got very good sound quality and in particular is good for headphones, it's also pretty cheap. Thanks again, local store had these for AUD$49 so grabbed one this morning along with many of the other bits. Decided on the Fractal Design case if only because that's one of the few component categories that seems to be semi-future-proof.
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May 7, 2016 03:57
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