Music Production and Gaming Rig Build on a budget

[Osairon]

Hey everyone,

so my Goals are twofold: The rig should be able to handle Cubase and a lot of VSTs loaded into Kontakt. At the same time, it should be able to play current games at 1080p, although the Music Production part is much more important to me than just being able to play games at max detail. If a reasonable fps(60fps) can be maintained in gfx intense modern games, I'd be happy with that.

I am based in Germany, so I'll be using Mindfactory.de or geizhals.de

My Budget would be ~1500€, with some additional work I could stretch it to 2000€ if it's needed, although I'd prefer it to be in the 1200€-1500€ range if that is at all possible.

 

This is what I've come up with so far:

 

 Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 399,85

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Asus STRIX NVIDIA GTX 970 € 357,97

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

32GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000  € 187,86

be quiet! Pure Rock (BK009) € 30,63

3000GB WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3.5" (8.9cm) HDD € 110,97

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB € 79,92

Creative Soundblaster Z Soundcard Bulk € 62,90

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 70,75

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03  € 60,53

 

€ 1.663,68

 

(I already have a monitor and the peripherals)

 

The reasoning behind this is that the 6 core i7 5820K seems to be the best price to performance in that range and suited for music production/gaming. I'd also need as much RAM as possible for the VSTs; I am not sure if 64GB is needed but 32GB should be the minimum I think. The SSD is for the OS and applications. 3 TB HDD should be enough for the samples I hope?

 

Lastly, this is my first custom PC so I'd be grateful if you could give me some suggestions on how to maximise the performance while staying in the <1500€ region.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Starelementpoke]

34 minutes ago, Osairon said:

Hey everyone,

so my Goals are twofold: The rig should be able to handle Cubase and a lot of VSTs loaded into Kontakt. At the same time, it should be able to play current games at max detail.

I am based in Germany, so I'll be using Mindfactory.de or geizhals.de

My Budget would be ~1500€, with some additional work I could stretch it to 2000€ if it's needed, although I'd prefer it to be in the 1200€-1500€ range if that is at all possible.

 

This is what I've come up with so far:

 

 Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 399,85

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Asus STRIX NVIDIA GTX 970 € 357,97

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

32GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000  € 187,86

be quiet! Pure Rock (BK009) € 30,63

3000GB WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3.5" (8.9cm) HDD € 110,97

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB € 79,92

Creative Soundblaster Z Soundcard Bulk € 62,90

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 70,75

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03  € 60,53

 

€ 1.663,68

 

The reasoning behind this is that the 6 core i7 5820K seems to be the best price to performance in that range and suited for music production/gaming. I'd also need as much RAM as possible for the VSTs; I am not sure if 64GB is needed but 32GB should be the minimum I think. The SSD is for the OS and applications. 3 TB HDD should be enough for the samples I hope?

 

Lastly, this is my first custom PC so I'd be grateful if you could give me some suggestions on how to maximise the performance while staying in the <1500€ region.

Thanks in advance!

 

Max detail at what resolution?

[Osairon]

I'm using a Eizo Foris FS2434 24 Zoll IPS, so that would be 1.920 x 1.080

1080p would be the resolution then?

 

Max detail is not absolutely necessary, I just would like to be able to play everything that's on the market without noticeable stutters(so around 60fps). My focus is on heavy duty music production, really. So if it's going to save me money, I can deal with not being able to play everything at max detail and max resolution; as long as I can load a lot of sample libraries into Cubase and not worry about the next 2 years of gaming.

[brob]

Presumably a 4x8GB memory kit is contemplated? This would leave 4 memory slots free for an upgrade.

 

I suspect a larger ssd would be beneficial.

 

If 7200 rpm HGST Desktop NAS drives are available you might consider them instead of WD Red.

 

What is the reason for including the Soundblaster card?

[Osairon]

Yes, the 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000 is a 4x8GB kit.

 

I agree about the SSD although I think I'd like to clear up the other more important components first. Like if the Graphics Card and Power Supply Unit make sense or if there are cheaper options.

 

I included the Soundcard because I was under the impression that if i am building a music production rig, I'd need a high quality sound card like the Creative ones?

[Starelementpoke]

15 minutes ago, Osairon said:

Yes, the 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000 is a 4x8GB kit.

 

I agree about the SSD although I think I'd like to clear up the other more important components first. Like if the Graphics Card and Power Supply Unit make sense or if there are cheaper options.

 

I included the Soundcard because I was under the impression that if i am building a music production rig, I'd need a high quality sound card like the Creative ones?

Check the price of the 390 at where you are. It tends to be cheaper than the 970, and usually does better by a bit.

[HdFkK]

I would consider getting a larger cooler for that 5820k if you can fit it in your case.

 

Edit: When you say you already have peripherals that includes a sound card suited for music production?

[Osairon]

@Starelementpoke

Do you mean this one?

http://geizhals.de/xfx-radeon-r9-390-dd-black-edition-r9-390p-8db6-a1282769.html

 

Seems to be cheaper by about 20€ on average.

 

@HdFkK

Yes, I am looking at some. The budget is for the PC only. Just need to know what works with what and what kind of performance I can get out of the budget.

Regarding the cooler, there are 3x120mm fans included in the case, with room for 5x120mm fans and 2x140mm ones. That sounds like plenty of space.

 

So my setup so far is sound except for that I could replace the Nvidia GTX 970 Strix for a Radeon 390 and that I should consider a larger SSD?

[Starelementpoke]

9 minutes ago, Osairon said:

@Starelementpoke

Do you mean this one?

http://geizhals.de/xfx-radeon-r9-390-dd-black-edition-r9-390p-8db6-a1282769.html

 

Seems to be cheaper by about 20€ on average.

 

@HdFkK

Yes, I am looking at some. The budget is for the PC only. Just need to know what works with what and what kind of performance I can get out of the budget.

Regarding the cooler, there are 3x120mm fans included in the case, with room for 5x120mm fans and 2x140mm ones. That sounds like plenty of space.

 

So my setup so far is sound except for that I could replace the Nvidia GTX 970 Strix for a Radeon 390 and that I should consider a larger SSD?

The 390 in general is usually cheaper. Is there a Sapphire 390 at your website? If not, the xfx one is perfectly fine.

[HdFkK]

I don´t see any major issues with it, should work just fine. But for music production get the Audio stuff out of the case, get a USB Soundcard like a Steinberg UR22-MKII.

[Osairon]

@Starelementpoke

Yes, there is one for 330€ http://geizhals.de/sapphire-radeon-r9-390-nitro-backplate-11244-01-20g-a1326323.html

Are you saying that the Sapphire one is better than the xfx?

 

@HdFkK

Yeah so it doesn't make sense to upgrade the internal sound card?

[HdFkK]

Not unless you need the onboard sound for gaming. For music production you want something external in most cases, you can easily plug monitors and headphones in there, have analog controls instead of all digital ones.

[Osairon]

Ok, I've incorporated all suggestions so far; how does this look? It probably doesn't get cheaper than the selected i7 5820K, Sapphire 390 and the G.Skill 32GB Ram. What about the motherboard and the PSU?

 

Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 392,94

Noctua NH-D15 Dual NF-A15 140mm fans  € 85,38

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB € 329,85

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

32GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000  € 182,95

 

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s  € 118,03

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 500GB € 146,46

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 66,86

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03  € 57,50

 

Total € 1.682,27

[brob]

The NH-D15 will not fit in the Spec-03 case. And the G.Skill Ripjaws are not optimal with that cooler.

 

The Spec-03 maximum cpu cooler height is 157mm. The NH-D15 is 165mm tall.

 

The NH-D15, when mounted with fans perpendicular to expansion cards, overhangs both memory areas. On the rear memory clearance is excellent. Unfortunately on the front it is only 32mm with the front fan mounted in its normal position. This fan can be raise, if the case has enough clearance.

 

Ripjaws 4 are 40mm tall. Ripjaws V are 42mm tall.

 

The NH-D15S does not have significant memory clearance issues as it uses a single fan in its center.

 

The NH-U14S has no memory compatibility issues on X99 motherboards. Nor does the NH-U12S.

 

Unfortunately the NH-D15 and NH-U14S will overhang the 1st PCIe slot on the X99 Extreme 4 motherboard. The NH-D15S and NH-U12S do not have this problem.

 

If you want to keep the motherboard, consider going with the NH-D15S or NH-U12S.

[Osairon]

Wow, thanks, this is the kind of advice I came here for!

 

So, as it stands, the following should work?

 

Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 392,94

Noctua NH-D15S  € 79,73 (the measurements are 150x165x135mm)

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB € 329,85

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

32GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000  € 182,95

 

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s  € 118,03

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 500GB € 146,46

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 66,86

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03  € 57,50

 

Total € 1.676,62

[HdFkK]

Get Ram that is as flat as possible for that cooler. You will either have to fit the RAM with the cooler already installed, or screw in the cooler with the ram already sitting in there, on X99 even on both sides.

[Osairon]

Is there an alternative to the x99 motherboard?

Also, how do you determine how flat it is since no measurements are given?

 

So far, I've found these 4:

 

http://geizhals.de/kingston-hyperx-fury-dimm-kit-32gb-hx421c14fbk4-32-a1231152.html?hloc=at&hloc=de

 

http://geizhals.de/g-skill-ripjaws-4-blau-dimm-kit-32gb-f4-2133c15q-32grb-a1155358.html?hloc=at&hloc=de

 

http://geizhals.de/g-skill-aegis-dimm-kit-32gb-f4-2133c15q-32gis-a1379152.html?hloc=at&hloc=de

 

http://geizhals.de/crucial-ballistix-sport-dimm-kit-32gb-bls4c8g4d240fsa-bls4k8g4d240fsa-a1148274.html?hloc=at&hloc=de

 

[HdFkK]

I think the last two are as "flat" as it gets, I just look at how much taller the heat spreaders make the overall module as most of them under their top are pretty much the same height due to manufacturing processes. Overall, all of them should work out fine.

[Osairon]

Ok, this should be the final setup then:

 

Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 392,94

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB € 329,85

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

G.Skill Aegis DDR4-2133 4x8GB € 135,70

Noctua NH-D15S € 79,73

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s  € 118,03

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 500GB € 146,46

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 66,86

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 mit Sichtfenster € 57,50

 

Total: € 1629,37

 

Any other opinions on this build?

[brob]

6 hours ago, Osairon said:

Ok, this should be the final setup then:

 

Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 392,94

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB € 329,85

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

G.Skill Aegis DDR4-2133 4x8GB € 135,70

Noctua NH-D15S € 79,73

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s  € 118,03

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 500GB € 146,46

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 66,86

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 mit Sichtfenster € 57,50

 

Total: € 1629,37

 

Any other opinions on this build?

The NH-D15S will not fit in the Spec-03 case. The case can accommodate cpu coolers up to 157mm tall only. The NH-D15S is 165mm tall. Corsair Carbide Spec cases are more suited to liquid coolers.

[tataklee]

5 hours ago, brob said:

The NH-D15S will not fit in the Spec-03 case. The case can accommodate cpu coolers up to 157mm tall only. The NH-D15S is 165mm tall. Corsair Carbide Spec cases are more suited to liquid coolers.

 

11 hours ago, Osairon said:

Ok, this should be the final setup then:

 

Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 392,94

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB € 329,85

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

G.Skill Aegis DDR4-2133 4x8GB € 135,70

Noctua NH-D15S € 79,73

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s  € 118,03

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 500GB € 146,46

Pioneer BDR-209EBK Blu-ray Disc Writer  € 66,86

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 mit Sichtfenster € 57,50

 

Total: € 1629,37

 

Any other opinions on this build?

You might consider the Enthoo Pro M.

 

https://geizhals.de/phanteks-enthoo-pro-m-schwarz-mit-sichtfenster-ph-es515p-bk-a1303656.html

[Osairon]

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

The CPU cooler problem might also be solved by using a Define R5 as a case, right? I decided I'd skip the optical drive, since I hardly use it anyways.

 

So, right now, I have this setup:

 

Intel Core i7 5820K 6x 3.30GHz  € 392,94

ASRock X99 Extreme4 € 202,40

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB € 329,85

Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W € 99,90

G.Skill Aegis DDR4-2133 4x8GB € 135,70

Noctua NH-D15S € 79,73

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s  € 118,03

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 500GB € 146,46

Fractal Design Define R5 Black, schallgedämmt € 101,12

 

€ 1.606,13

 

I am pleased I got this down to 1600€. I am not sure about the Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W though, is 650W enough for this build? Can the PSU or any other part still be improved?

[brob]

The Define R5 is a nice case. It does have bays for two optical drives behind a front door.

 

If you put the part list into a pcpartpicker.com build, a max power will be calculated. (Just use US merchants and ignore the pricing.)

 

650W is enough for the build. But it does not have enough of a margin to allow for a second gpu. There is sufficient capacity to handle smaller upgrades such as additional memory and an hdd or two. You could also consider a 750W psu, which is what Sapphire recommends. But it is not strictly necessary.

 

RMx psu are very good. The earlier RM line were not nearly as good and Corsair seems to have learned from that.

 

[Osairon]

Oh thanks for the tip. Comes out at 538W; it doesn't even go beyond 600W if I double the RAM to 64GB and add another 3 TB HDD.

 

The 750W PSU in the same RMx line actually only costs like 10€ more

 

http://geizhals.de/corsair-rmx-series-rm750x-750w-atx-2-31-cp-9020092-eu-a1331026.html

 

If I added a second GPU, would that be enough? Also, does the Define R5 even have enough space for 2xGPUs?

 

 

[brob]

21 minutes ago, Osairon said:

Oh thanks for the tip. Comes out at 538W; it doesn't even go beyond 600W if I double the RAM to 64GB and add another 3 TB HDD.

 

The 750W PSU in the same RMx line actually only costs like 10€ more

 

http://geizhals.de/corsair-rmx-series-rm750x-750w-atx-2-31-cp-9020092-eu-a1331026.html

 

If I added a second GPU, would that be enough? Also, does the Define R5 even have enough space for 2xGPUs?

 

 

PSU parts age over time and if one overclocks additional power will be required. If you are planning a second gpu consider going with 850W.