Would these parts be suitable for building a PC for a DAW?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:05 pm

Hi all, would the following parts be suitable for building a PC for a DAW?

CPU – Core 2 Duo E4500

RAM – 2GB DDR2, PC2-5300 (667) non-ECC, 240 DIMM unbuffered (2x1GIG KIT)

MOBO – Gigabyte GA 945 GZM-S2, i945 GZ S775 PCI-E (x16), DDR2, 533 SATA2, uATX, On Board VGA Motherboard

HD – 250GB Seagate Barracuda, SATA2, 7200RPM, 8MB Cache

CD/DVD Drive – ASUS DRW – 2014BLT, DVD-RW, 20x SATA, Lightscribe

Graphics Card – ASUS Raedeon X300 SE, 128MB Extreme, PCI-E (x16), 400MHz GDDR, GPU 325MHz, 4 Pipes, D-Sub/DVI-D/V-Out

Sound Card – creative X-FI, Extreme Audio Sound Card OEM

PCI Card – Dynamode PCI, USB2.0 & Firewire 1394a Combo

Case/PSU – Coolmaster RC-930 itower Case, MOBO Type Micro ATX, ATX and CEB, One 120 x 25mm Front Fan, One 90mm HDD Fan(19dBA), One 120 x 120mm Rear Fan(22dBA), I/O panel USB2.0 x 4, MIC x 1, SPK x 1, IEEE 1394 x 1, Power Supply PS2/EPS 12 V Compatible (Optional)

OS – Windows XP Home Edition

The total cost i've got for these parts is £512.92

Any help would be much appreciated

p.s. Am I missing anything?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:39 pm

HI,
nope all that is old tech. and the proc is very slow.

for a tad bit more you can get up to date product.

DDR2 800
P35 chipset
E6550 (or wait a month and get the newer penyrn chips)
Nvidia 8400 dual head video

Scott
ADK

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:56 am

Thanks fo the reply Scott. Dam! lol. I suppose it's best to find out now before I make a big mistake.

I'll look into what you mentioned.

Anything else I should be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:36 pm

remember that the mother board will only take an Intel or an AMD prosessor
and this mother board is for an intel. It only has two slots (yellow)for your Ram. you need 4
you should also heve 4 PCI slots (white)
the newer DAW systems offer the option of running 64 bit systems and believe me its nicer once you get them set up. Pain it the but to get there though. This is not one.
its a cheep office MB that belongs in a Dell (IMO) Very Happy

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:24 pm

I'll agree with everything stated thus far.

Spend just a tad more and get the following when buying:

Dual head video (even if you can't take advantage of this now, you'll love it later.)

Win XP Pro...com'on, it's $20 more.

Get a second hard drive (I just picked up a 250 Gig for $60...Newegg, SATA, Seagate...all good stuff.)

Processors and MOBOs are cheap, cheap, cheap...pick a nice one. Read up and see which chipsets work well for audio and which don't.

Cheers-

J.

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 5:24 pm

I just made a list for a cheep build that cost me a grand a year ago, now under $400.
go here

http://recording.org/ftopict-45107.html

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:24 pm

I've finally got a list together of components for building my PC.

They are:

MOBO – Intel DP35DP

CPU – Core 2 Duo E6500

RAM – Corsair 2x1GB DDR2 XMS2 6400C4 TwinX with Heat Spreader

HDD – 2 x 250GB Seagate Barracuda, SATA2, 7200RPM, 8MB Cache

Case/PSU - MESH Midi-TowerATX Case + 550W PSU

CD/DVD Drive – Samsung 24x DVD COMBO SLIM BARE DRIVE

Graphics Card – Gigabyte GeForce 7300GS 256MB/512MB TC DDR2 PCIE DVI HDTV

I can purchase these for £421.68

On top of this i'll need a sound card but i'm looking at a mixer/soundcard combo so still to decide on this. I'll also be purchasing Windows XP Home SP2 for the OS. I will also need a monitor, keyboard, mouse but this isn't essential just now. Another thing i've still to decide on too is speakers.

Software wise, i'm getting Pro Tools LE with an Mbox Mini and Reason 4.

I'd just like to know if all the parts i've choosen are compatable with each other before I go ahead with buying them. I think they are but would like some confirmation if anyone can help.

Still looking at other equipment such as midi keyboard etc but I can use some of the stuff I have just now.

Is there anything obvious i've missed? Do I need to purchase cables, plugs etc?

Any help appreciated;)

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:08 am

I think the P5W DH Deluxe is a nicer MB

http://www.google.com/search?q=p5w&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7

I use a MB for AMD because I want the 64 bit option

M2N-E

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=308&model=1181&modelmenu=2

the choise is yours. some boards are vista ready

I use XP pro as it is also 64 bit compatible.

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:23 pm

Stick with the Intel board! newer and better chipset
not to mention Asus RMA rate is horrid.

Scott
ADK

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:50 pm

ADK audio wrote:

Stick with the Intel board! newer and better chipset
not to mention Asus RMA rate is horrid.

Scott
ADK

Sorry to disagree but Ive never used the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization), never had to. Wink

My present board would not boot for me on my first boot because it was the wrong bios and I just had to reflash it. (easy update)
Maybe some might have given up and returned it but maybe they should let someone else build their PC , who knows.
I work close with a local computer store and I can say that not to many boards are (dead) and need to be returned.
We had one vista board last month that would not even power up, but thats really rare.

No matter what you buy, you will find good and bad reports.
Stay away from the real bad, but don't expect a problem free install and you wont be disapointed.
No matter what board you pick, check with the manufacturs web site for updates and google it for problems before you by it.
Thats my best advice.
personally I will never go back to intel, but each to there own right.
Good luck with what ever you choose Thumbs Up

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:08 pm

I totally agree, I bought an Asus a few months back and have no qualms with it whatsoever.

I've always used AMD, maybe there's something about the underdog aspect that I like!

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:54 am

Quote:

Sorry to disagree but Ive never used the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization), never had to.

how many Asus board have you bought in the last yr?

i ship over 800 computers a yr.
do you have that kind of experiance with Asus and other manufacturers?

and the P35 is by far better than 975 chipset.

Scott
ADK

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 12:54 pm

No ADK, I am a musician not a computer store, even though I am sure the computer store that I mentioned and sometimes help out at sells enough.

Not going to get into it, when everyone can read the reviews to all the different brands themselves.

I do no a music store that hates fender guitars though.

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:34 pm

What Scott is saying is that a 25% DOA rate is pretty huge. Most people don't buy in quantity enough to see an overall failure rate. It's not that he's saying ASUS is bad (qualitative) he's saying they show up dead alot (quantitative).

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:22 pm

Hard2Hear wrote:

What Scott is saying is that a 25% DOA rate is pretty huge. Most people don't buy in quantity enough to see an overall failure rate. It's not that he's saying ASUS is bad (qualitative) he's saying they show up dead alot (quantitative).

I here ya man And am sorry if we got a missunderstanding going scott.

I must say that the p35 board is sweet, I just wish it could be had with an AMD option. Looks like AMD has there own struggle right now, though. Their last update was less then worth it. Embarassed

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