stephenlane703
New member
Looking to buy pc for audio production. Budget about 1000. i7 with ssd, 16g ram and 2tb 2nd drive. Any further advice? Thanks. 1st post for me.
Audio pc
- Thread starter stephenlane703
- Start date
Frank100
Rising Star
Hi,
For an audio PC where you will be connecting to high quality speakers it is worth getting a motherboard that has optical out, because it has pretty much zero 'noise' and so no possibility of hum. If you already have an external DAC with optical input then that definitely is a must.
If you have an external DAC with only USB input, or you plan to connect high quality speakers directly to the speaker out on the motherboard, be aware that there always is some 'noise' bleed through these ports but better quality motherboards may have dedicated USB ports with shielding for this sort of thing.
Even speakers like the KRK Rokit, which aren't seriously high end, are sensitive enough to pick up hum if there is background 'noise/interference'. There are lots of YouTube videos and forum discussions on hum and computers. Something slightly lower down the speaker chain, like the M Audio AV42, probably wouldn't be sensitive enough to pick up hum, in which case any board in the build option will be fine. Of course less sensitivity means less output range but then if you are an audiophile you understand all that.
If you are doing a lot of audio processing with programs like Cubase then CPU and RAM are important. Now the i5 has six cores if you are tight on budget you might be fine with that. I'd suggest 16GB of RAM still if you do much processing. If you are just playing and recording, or listening back then the PC could comfortably drop back to an i5 with 8G of RAM.
If you go with Intel always opt for one of the aftermarket CPU coolers as the standard one gets loud quite quickly. AMD chips come with perfectly adequate coolers though.
Perhaps post back some more specific software requirements and if you are using external DACs, speakers, audio interfaces etc, name those and it will be easier to make suggestions.
Frank100
For an audio PC where you will be connecting to high quality speakers it is worth getting a motherboard that has optical out, because it has pretty much zero 'noise' and so no possibility of hum. If you already have an external DAC with optical input then that definitely is a must.
If you have an external DAC with only USB input, or you plan to connect high quality speakers directly to the speaker out on the motherboard, be aware that there always is some 'noise' bleed through these ports but better quality motherboards may have dedicated USB ports with shielding for this sort of thing.
Even speakers like the KRK Rokit, which aren't seriously high end, are sensitive enough to pick up hum if there is background 'noise/interference'. There are lots of YouTube videos and forum discussions on hum and computers. Something slightly lower down the speaker chain, like the M Audio AV42, probably wouldn't be sensitive enough to pick up hum, in which case any board in the build option will be fine. Of course less sensitivity means less output range but then if you are an audiophile you understand all that.
If you are doing a lot of audio processing with programs like Cubase then CPU and RAM are important. Now the i5 has six cores if you are tight on budget you might be fine with that. I'd suggest 16GB of RAM still if you do much processing. If you are just playing and recording, or listening back then the PC could comfortably drop back to an i5 with 8G of RAM.
If you go with Intel always opt for one of the aftermarket CPU coolers as the standard one gets loud quite quickly. AMD chips come with perfectly adequate coolers though.
Perhaps post back some more specific software requirements and if you are using external DACs, speakers, audio interfaces etc, name those and it will be easier to make suggestions.
Frank100
Oussebon
Multiverse Poster
The above is excellent
Do you have any other requirements, like the system must be very quiet?
Do you do anything that requires a dedicated graphics card, such as gaming, video editing with certain software?
How many monitors will you be using, and what resolutions? Just a single 1080p monitor?
Do you have any other requirements, like the system must be very quiet?
Do you do anything that requires a dedicated graphics card, such as gaming, video editing with certain software?
How many monitors will you be using, and what resolutions? Just a single 1080p monitor?