2008 New Build

[Duekay]

I am doing this build for a friend, Here's a link to the site im buying from http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=2

Case and PSU = Antec Sonata III - Piano Black with EarthWatts 500W

Mobo = Asus P5KC

CPU = Intel E8400 CORE 2 DUO

Ram = OCZ Reaper PC8500 4G(2x2)1066Mhz

DVD/CD Drive = Pioneer DVR-215BK

Any comments would be much appreciated :)

[spearman914]

Parts look great!!! And are you planning you buy any video cards for gaming since you got an AWESOME core 2 duo e8400?

[Duekay]

My mate Isnt to much of a gamer but there is two PCI-E slots for going crossfire if he ever wants, he is mainly using it for music production!

[ShadowFold]

If hes not gaming why not get a Celeron E1200 or Pentium E21XX?

[Duekay]

If hes not gaming why not get a Celeron E1200 or Pentium E21XX?

Cause the type of music he write has a high CPU demand, I use a E6850 on a Asus P5K-VM OC @ 3.6GHz and i still max my CPU out on some tracks, Most of the cpu gets eaten up by VST synths.
I Would got up to QUAD CORE if the programs we use could take advantage of all 4 cores but it doesn't :( so just have to wait for that a bit longer

[ShadowFold]

Cause the type of music he write has a high CPU demand, I use a E6850 on a Asus P5K-VM OC @ 3.6GHz and i still max my CPU out on some tracks, Most of the cpu gets eaten up by VST synths.
I Would got up to QUAD CORE if the programs we use could take advantage of all 4 cores but it doesn't :( so just have to wait for that a bit longer

My friend writes melodeath on a X2 4400+. I think you should get a E2220 or E4600, they are cheaper and not for gaming as much as the E8400.

[Bluefox1115]

Just get an AMD, they are awesome renderer's

[Duekay]

Just get an AMD, they are awesome renderer's

He basically needs something with huge amounts of grunt ie. Core 2 Duo 3GHz +

[ShadowFold]

What kind of music needs that?

[FatForester]

Nah, stick with the e8400. If your e6850 is getting maxed out, then a e2x00 / e4x00 wouldn't cut the cheese. The e8400 will do great, although I'd still recommend a quad core + overclocking. Although the software might not use it now, it likely will in the future. Unless if your friend likes burning money, the jump up to a quad will be more worth it in the long run.

[Duekay]

What kind of music needs that?

BreakBeat, Jungle, Drum & Bass, Electro most dance music demands shit loads of balls :rockout:
I would be most happy if there was a faster Chip than 3.16GHz In the Core 2 range but they still haven't feed us that yet, Dance music needs the power

[Duekay]

Nah, stick with the e8400. If your e6850 is getting maxed out, then a e2x00 / e4x00 wouldn't cut the cheese. The e8400 will do great, although I'd still recommend a quad core + overclocking. Although the software might not use it now, it likely will in the future. Unless if your friend likes burning money, the jump up to a quad will be more worth it in the long run.

Quite true, What would be an average stable overclock for a Q9450

[ShadowFold]

I guess :p Idk ive made that kinda music. If you say it needs that much then go with the Q6600!

[Duekay]

I guess :p Idk ive made that kinda music. If you say it needs that much then go with the Q6600!

Yea i do like the sound of the QUAD CORE, and i heard they are quite good to OC

[ShadowFold]

Yea they pretty much are guarnteed to hit 3ghz

[FatForester]

Quite true, What would be an average stable overclock for a Q9450

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2179084

That's the highest I've seen, but those are some pretty high volts that guy had to use. In all honesty I'd stay away from the new quads for now and go with the Q6600. This all depends on how long your software is going to stay 1-2 threaded. If your software will become multi-threaded soon, then the quad will definitely be the better solution. If it is going to be a while, then the e8400 overclocked to around 4ghz would be the better and cheaper solution. It's really a toss-up between the two in this case, but personally I would go with the Q6600.

[Bluefox1115]

A high end dual core is sufficient for now, like he stated, hes not a gamer, and won't be playing supreme commander anytime soon :p

[commandercup]

A high end dual core is sufficient for now, like he stated, hes not a gamer, and won't be playing supreme commander anytime soon :p

if he's working with music, converting things, transcoding things, generating things etc. get a quad core... most of those applications are now quad threaded and can handle all 4 cores of a quad which gives you approximately double the performance the E8400 will... clocks aren't everything

[Duekay]

if he's working with music, converting things, transcoding things, generating things etc. get a quad core... most of those applications are now quad threaded and can handle all 4 cores of a quad which gives you approximately double the performance the E8400 will... clocks aren't everything

Hey any Ideas on another good Asus Mobo Around the same price as the P5KC??

[Duekay]

How Would a standard P5K board go with the PC8500 OCZ ram

[Smartbomb]

if he's working with music, converting things, transcoding things, generating things etc. get a quad core... most of those applications are now quad threaded and can handle all 4 cores of a quad which gives you approximately double the performance the E8400 will... clocks aren't everything

This is exactly right... I myself mainly use my PC for Audio production and Gaming 2nd. I have a Quad core and can vouch that software like Ableton7, Cubase4, and Sonar7 are doing really well handling mulitple cores... Also 64bit Os is definatly the way to go as more production software is being built to run 64bit Nativley... The problems early on with Vsti plug-in software sysnthesis have been Hammered out. Your friend might be happy to know this as Audio only wins with 64bit floating point :)
EDIT: also a soundcard with ASIO support is highly recommended... Even great onboard audio isn't as clean as seperate card I find. I suffer with on board right now... there is some noticable hiss at low volume and I have no ASIO support, my freinds M-Audio soundcard has got to be the cleanest one i've heard :)
Have a lookie here, not the cheapest but you get what you pay for http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=PCIinterfaces

[Duekay]

This is exactly right... I myself mainly use my PC for Audio production and Gaming 2nd. I have a Quad core and can vouch that software like Ableton7, Cubase4, and Sonar7 are doing really well handling mulitple cores... Also 64bit Os is definatly the way to go as more production software is being built to run 64bit Nativley... The problems early on with Vsti plug-in software sysnthesis have been Hammered out. Your friend might be happy to know this as Audio only wins with 64bit floating point :)
EDIT: also a soundcard with ASIO support is highly recommended... Even great onboard audio isn't as clean as seperate card I find

Very True, i use a M-Audio Fast track Pro sound card and its heaps better than the stock on board.
So with the 64bit option do you need to be running Windows XP 64bit to make all things run sweet?

[Smartbomb]

Yes.. however these companies are turning to vista64... I know... I run XP64 SP2 it runs these great, I run at full available soundquality with onboard 192 000 when available or 96000 I blame this on the Quad and 4 gigs ocz ram I have, get very low audio latencies would nly be better with an m-audio like yours.. Off track sorry with XP64 only sonar7 told me that xp was unsupported but it works great, Sonar is Native64bit geared at vista, ableton and cubase are currently 32bit native 64bit support with 64bit eq'ing and mastering all plugins werk great Native Instruments included. they are more geared at XP still, I would recommend XP, vista still sends some things loopy.
The biggest problem with 64bit XP is getting Anti-virus... Not too much support, Kaspersky and Panda have 64 bit versions and Symantec final solution 10 are only options
As we speak Steinberg is about to or just has released Cubase4 native 64, ableton is working on it

[Duekay]

Yes.. however these companies are turning to vista64... I know... I run XP64 SP2 it runs these great, I run at full available soundquality with onboard 192 000 when available or 96000 I blame this on the Quad and 4 gigs ocz ram I have, get very low audio latencies would nly be better with an m-audio like yours.. Off track sorry with XP64 only sonar7 told me that xp was unsupported but it works great, Sonar is Native64bit geared at vista, ableton and cubase are currently 32bit native 64bit support with 64bit eq'ing and mastering all plugins werk great Native Instruments included. they are more geared at XP still, I would recommend XP, vista still sends some things loopy.

Wow, Thats cool cause i use Cuebase, So all of my Existing hardware would work fine on a 64bit platform. Whats the main Advantages in 64bit

[Smartbomb]

Yes, m-audio has beta driver now for 64bit as all this change is very current... some of their older midi controllers where unsupported, not too sure but think they got them going... M-audio Axiom boards work for sure... You get cleaner, better,and more full sound and mutliple tracks seem to lap better(Nothing drowns out anything else) better stablity the most important things I believe... I might be wrong but I am pretty sure XP64bit is newer OS than XP32 and it's built around Windows server OS
EDIT: There are tonnes of reviews all over the net and all positive at 64bit... I am no authority but all the stuff I read made me change and I'll never look back, never sounded better, even with onboard and DX drivers instead of ASIO... my hiss is only at low volume hehehe My aplifier is the loudest in the world... It goes up to 11 LOL
Also rewire is a go and Reason4 works great
EDIT: also 64bit mastering eq'ing etc... effects are killer... really brings high quality 24bit drum samples etc to life.

[Duekay]

That's it im convinced, im getting a copy for my self.

[Duekay]

Yes, m-audio has beta driver now for 64bit as all this change is very current... some of their older midi controllers where unsupported, not too sure but think they got them going... M-audio Axiom boards work for sure... You get cleaner, better,and more full sound and mutliple tracks seem to lap better(Nothing drowns out anything else) better stablity the most important things I believe... I might be wrong but I am pretty sure XP64bit is newer OS than XP32 and it's built around Windows server OS
EDIT: There are tonnes of reviews all over the net and all positive at 64bit... I am no authority but all the stuff I read made me change and I'll never look back, never sounded better, even with onboard and DX drivers instead of ASIO... my hiss is only at low volume hehehe My aplifier is the loudest in the world... It goes up to 11 LOL
Also rewire is a go and Reason4 works great
EDIT: also 64bit mastering eq'ing etc... effects are killer... really brings high quality 24bit drum samples etc to life.

What sort of music you make brov

[Smartbomb]

I do house and breakbeat... Sometimes I get bored or on a different track and make some more tekkie stuff to mix with :)
Have a lookie at those screenies I left on an earlier post for ya
EDIT: you have a nice system there... you would really see the benefit of an xtra 2gigs of memory for 4 total, some guys are going to 8gigs with audio now

[Duekay]

I do house and breakbeat... Sometimes I get bored or on a different track and make some more tekkie stuff to mix with :)
Have a lookie at those screenies I left on an earlier post for ya
EDIT: you have a nice system there... you would really see the benefit of an xtra 2gigs of memory for 4 total, some guys are going to 8gigs with audio now

Kool yea i do a bit of breaks mainly all DnB tho. :)

Yea i am thinking about stepping it up a few gig, as memory is so cheep now, Might go for a 4gig of OCZ PC8500 if it work fine in my mates new system, I don't do the largest amount of sampling so it hasn't be a real hold back yet but saying that i have been eating into it a far bit:(

[Smartbomb]

nice, i spun d&b for a while, went to breaks... I like a lot of electronic beats
No sampling here... can't get away from them... Battery3 still uses em along with other vsti. I do prefer generated sysnthesis...
EDIT: Nuthin wrong with sampling though... Especially when done right, makin a .rex file there is vsti now that handles .rex forget the name of it but will dig it up for you
Also with systems with 4gigs+ memory you'll never see more than 3.5gigs of ram with 32bit OS mine I only saw 2.75gigs outta 4 in 32bit... 64bit OS handles some huge amount of memory like 128gigs or something that that (I read somewhere, might be off though but it's huge amount it handles)