Value oriented audio rig

[Influencija]

I am trying to assamble value oriented rig for making songs. It is not for me, so I don't know much about that stuff, but I know that mostly there will be used program called Nuendo. There will be no gaming, and maybe watching a few videos now and then.

 

What I had in mind is something in the lines of:

 

MOBO: Gigabyte F2A55M-DS2 (chose it because it was one of the cheapest FM2 mobos with one additional PCI slot for sound card)
CPU: A10 5800k (Even tho it's "K", there will be no overclocking)

RAM: 2x4GB ordinary kingston or corsair memory at 1600MHz

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: 2x 1TB WD Green (in raid 1)

PSU: Thermaltake SMART 530W (It's value 80 plus PSU. 530W might be an overkill for this rig, but I read that 400W ones from this series are not as good)

CASE: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (it's cheap)

Sound card: I dont know these things, so please recommend

 

This is what I had in mind. Will it do? Please advise me.

 

 

 

 

[CoolBeans]

Looks good, just some baracudas instead of greens, and get a better PSU ie CX500M

[Vague]

If it's a PC built for making songs it's okay. Don't get a soundcard and what headphones will you be getting?

[SuperStroopwafel]

Asus Phoebus?

[defunkt]

For the soundcard.. What are you going to be recording? What inputs and outputs do you need? And what kind of quality?

[Joshyy]

Don't bother with a soundcard, there marketing ploy and make 0 difference, that build is good though, it won't handle much gaming but your doing Audio so it doesn't matter. 

[bob345]

i would use an external dac such as a fiio e09k or a d07 for audio output and i would invest in a nice pair for studio monitors. For audio production i absolutely despise using headphones as you will always get a better soundstage with a pair of nice speakers.

[Lamarkuss]

Ohkay My question is will you do native recording on the machine such vocals being recorded through something like a condenser mic and an external interface or is it just pure music composition. I myself am a music producer with an in home recording studio setup and my machine is listed here but I also use pro tools fl studio ableton and other DAWS etc.(never used nuendo) and I would recommend going for either a firewire audio interface or a usb audio interface perhaps even a pcie interface not a sound card. but with your system specs You will not achieve studio quality I can guarantee that. at the upper end of music production alot of programs highly support multi-threading  when rendering tracks together and sampling them especially with large audio files basically I personally don't agree with your choice in system but i myself strive for professional studio grade audio quality. 

[Influencija]

@CoolBeans

The store I want to buy this from doesn't have 1TB barracudas. And besides, WD grrens aren't bad now. They are very quiet, and storage drive doesn't have to be the fastest possible sine there is an SSD, so I don't see why not to use that one.

 

@ Vague

There will be no headphones

 

@

I said it's VALUE oriented

 

@CreepingMoth

Well, I said this isn't for me, but as far as I know, there is a keyboard, and a programs called Nuendo and Cubase. It is not a studio so there will be no singing through mic, or playing any other instuments except that keyboard.

 

@Lamarkuss

Please consider that the value of this rig I am thinking of assembling is about the same as your CPU, and that is the budget I am working with. As I said, no native recording. Input is from keyboard. Any particular reason you prefer your daws over nuendo or cubase?

 

Thank you ALL for the replies, your insights weve very helpful!
 

[Guest]

PC looks good so far. No Baracuda or anything needed. Its overkill for music production. 

Its a thing for Video production. But not for us Audio guys.

 

Personaly I am using a M-Audio Fast track pro

[bowleggedcat]

 

I am trying to assamble value oriented rig for making songs. It is not for me, so I don't know much about that stuff, but I know that mostly there will be used program called Nuendo. There will be no gaming, and maybe watching a few videos now and then.

 

What I had in mind is something in the lines of:

 

MOBO: Gigabyte F2A55M-DS2 (chose it because it was one of the cheapest FM2 mobos with one additional PCI slot for sound card)

CPU: A10 5800k (Even tho it's "K", there will be no overclocking)

RAM: 2x4GB ordinary kingston or corsair memory at 1600MHz

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 EVO

HDD: 2x 1TB WD Green (in raid 1)

PSU: Thermaltake SMART 530W (It's value 80 plus PSU. 530W might be an overkill for this rig, but I read that 400W ones from this series are not as good)

CASE: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (it's cheap)

Sound card: I dont know these things, so please recommend

 

This is what I had in mind. Will it do? Please advise me.

 

 

 

 

 

Ignoring everything else mentioned in here (besides the one above me) You'll need an external sound card. And no, nothing by asus, creative, ect ect. A REAL sound card. Something from Roland if you can afford it. They also need to have ASIO drivers.

 

Your build is fine, but you can get a 2TB HDD for less than two 1 TB Green's. If you don't plan on O/Cing, you can get a non-k processor and save some few bones.

 

For studio monitors - I need a budget to recommend anything. I personally would spend around $500 on some monitors if I'm making my own music, but that's just me.

[Influencija]

Thank you for your valuable input!

I am building this PC for my dad, and he is an expert when it comes to studio monitors, so I will not be suggesting anything on that part.

I choose 2x1TB drives because of the data safety. I mentioned they will be in raid 1 configuration.

 

He is now making music on his obsolete pentium 4, and it pains me to see the CPU struggling with sometimes 50+ tracks. So when you ask about the budget, I would say as low as possible needed to renew his machine.

 

As for the sound card, he has internal m-audio audiophile 192 sound card, and he needs it just as someone mentioned because it is compatible with ASIO drivers and it makes him input latency 5ms. I know nothing about sound cards, so, is this OK or should he be getting a new one?
 

[bowleggedcat]

Well you won't be able to use it in any modern machines, since it's PCI. There are many sound cards available now that have ASIO drivers.

 

Also if you can, try to get something with more than 4 cores, I think the FX-6300 is cheap.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=822508&Q=&is=REG&A=details

 

This should be a decent external device, with ASIO drivers.

[Influencija]

Well the fx 6300 requires additional video card which makes the budget go up considerably. 4 core CPU is able to handle those multiple tracks just fine.
The board I mentioned has an old school PCI slot, but thanks for the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, I will certainly consider it and read about it!

[bowleggedcat]

Well the fx 6300 requires additional video card which makes the budget go up considerably. 4 core CPU is able to handle those multiple tracks just fine.

The board I mentioned has an old school PCI slot, but thanks for the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, I will certainly consider it and read about it!

 

Not sure about the multi-core thing. From the sounds of it he had a problem with dual core and needed more cores to process. I've never actually made music so it was an educated guess. The external sound card is the most important thing in the chain though.