Ok, so my friend is looking into building a pc that he can use to run Avid Pro Tools for music production.
I honestly don't think I need an expensive setup. He's currently using Logic Pro on his macbook atm, so nothing really serious, he's a music student.
If it's possible, can we I make something thats $550 or less? (We already have monitor, peripherals, OS, HDD, optical, and graphics card)
Sure, I might be able to help. What is your OS and graphics card? I need to know so I know what you need to power it and if I can upgrade it if possible.
we have win7 homepremium 64, but I can grab ultimate if needed,
We also have a 6670. Did some digging and found out it doesnt matter what card I used, so this is sufficent
Ok, I have a good Intel option for you that has multiple upgrade options.
Wishlist: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=21847525
Over all I think this would be an great option for you to start with. you could do some gaming on this too, if you wanted. You possibly could play BF3 on mid settings. I would get a 660 TI for your first upgrade and a i5 3570k next. You get all this for around 400 bucks. so you got about 100 dollars breathing room for some music software.
PS. If you want to, get a HyperX 3k 120gb SSD and for more storage, a 1tb WD HDD.
In relation to this. I would get a AMD 6300, mainly because for the same price your getting 6 cores and alot more performance. I do agree that you first upgrade should be the graphics card and than get a SSD.
I really was thinking about grabbing a a10 5800k for hybrid crossfire, but I wasn't sure if that quad core was going to be all right
EDIT: Thanks for the advice! i'll take the parts you suggested except for the i3 I'm completely not interested in it. I've been searching on multiple forums and I need someone who knows Pro Tools 10, they've been sayig it's very stingy with hardware, etc I could really fit in an 8350 in this budget
alrighty slimm. for my personal imput, i actually use 3 different DAWs [Pro Tools, Ableton, FL Studio] (using this many is my personal preference because i feel each are easier for certain aspects of production to me). one thing you have to know is that if you have a dedicated graphics card, then very rarely if not ever, would you have to upgrade your graphics card.
reason being is because all sources used will mainly be from ram and cpu. to give some clarification and examples, most processing of the audio files will be from the cpu itself. nextly, plugins and effects of any sort generally load from cpu and is held through ram. in some cases there are even cons to having a huge dedicated graphic card. most producers would actually say that the generated sounds would interfere with the way analog to digital processing works (only what ive heard). thats why you'll generally see producers have amazing cpu and ram specs and almost never have a dedicated graphics card. ~IMPORTANT~: the main parts you want are good cpu, good amount of ram and a dedicated sound card that is good unless he is already using an external audio interface.
extra: cooling would preferably be done through heatsinks(like i said with the generated sound from computer parts). in terms of cores, i do not know if the newer DAWS utilize more than 4 cores yet so i have no input on that but do keep that in mind) also for my personal experience, i literally hear fan noises in my studio mic recordings
Wow, thank you so much! So I can just use the graphics card I already have on hand
Now that you cleared up most of my confusion, should I tell my friend to wait and save for an intel rig?
I've asked a question abous using a 8350 on the avid forums and they said the intel x79 chipset + 16gigs of ram is a proven setup and that costs a lot. I've also learned that Pro Tools is VERY discriminative on hardware, so I would like to know a sure-fire setup that won't create problems.
whew sorry for the mia, not sure if you still need a reply, but generally yes you can use the graphics card at hand, unless you plan on running photoshop or something of that sort, you wont really need much of a graphic card in general.
now the intel debate. i have looked around before and people do say it works better simply because the architecture AND the fact that for a 4 core, it beats ati in the 4 core department. since DAWs cannot make use of more than 4 cores at the moment(at least i am sorta sure), intel is considered the better route.
Pro tools hmmm, i wouldnt say TOO discriminative but i generally use that for recording rather than producing so I have not run into hardware problems yet other than a few audio interface compatibility