A computer ?

[zosomagik]

So right now I'm producing on an hp laptop, which isn't that bad. It's got 8 gigs of RAM and an i7-2670qm processor but i've had it for a few years and it's just starting to act stupid, getting slower etc. and I upkeep it pretty well, but still. I'm building a desktop in the next couple of weeks and I was looking at doing an Intel build with an i5 3350p and I'm gonna throw 8 gigs of ram in at first (probably upgrade to 12 or 16 later on) so my question is this; Do you think any quality in performance in the i5 will be lost in when compared to the i7 processor I have in my laptop? I know the i7's are supposed to be better, but at the same time it's a laptop cpu. I feel like the i'll probably get a boost in performance with the i5, but I'm a very uncertain person, so idk. any input is appreciated

[wub]

What are you planning to do with it, in terms of production?

Like, is it just arranging samples, will there be lots of audio editing, recording live instruments etc etc?

Also, whats your budget?

[Karoshi]

I have heard people using i5 in desktops have no worries at all. I have an i5 in my lappy and i have frequently hit the limit (but i dont really do much resampling so all synths active). I only have 4 gigs ram though

[zosomagik]

What are you planning to do with it, in terms of production?

Like, is it just arranging samples, will there be lots of audio editing, recording live instruments etc etc?

Also, whats your budget?

All of the above, and the budget is about $500. I was reading reviews though and the 3350p doesnt have integrated graphics, so I think I'm gonna throw in an extra $20 and get the i5 4570.

[AxeD]

Can't you set a little more money aside for this project? I've built a desktop a few years back,
think the cpu was a q6600 and that already came to around €700.

From experience, I'd say don't skimp on psu, cpu and motherboard

[Libra]

i5 desktop user here. Its fine, I was going to overclock but have never needed to so I stayed with the stock cooler etc... it is also dependent on thr DAW you use. Logic had 8cores (hyperthreaded) with my old i7 and barely broke a sweat with huge projects. My humble i5 does an amazing job too but is obviously only a quad core. Ps its a hackintosh.

[OllieScott]

Can't you set a little more money aside for this project? I've built a desktop a few years back,
think the cpu was a q6600 and that already came to around €700.

From experience, I'd say don't skimp on psu, cpu and motherboard

Saving on the motherboard is fine, as long as it has the features you plan on using, no need to spend a lot. Just make sure to check reviews.

[outbound]

Can't you set a little more money aside for this project? I've built a desktop a few years back,
think the cpu was a q6600 and that already came to around €700.

From experience, I'd say don't skimp on psu, cpu and motherboard

Agreed! Ram & HD space can always be upgraded but once you've got your cpu and motherboard in there it's gonna cost a whole lot more to replace!

[zosomagik]

Can't you set a little more money aside for this project? I've built a desktop a few years back,
think the cpu was a q6600 and that already came to around €700.

From experience, I'd say don't skimp on psu, cpu and motherboard

Agreed! Ram & HD space can always be upgraded but once you've got your cpu and motherboard in there it's gonna cost a whole lot more to replace!

I know you're not supposed to skimp on the cpu, but I think the i5 4570 looks pretty good. And I'm realllllly tight on money, $500 is pushing it for me. ahhhhhh being poor

EDIT: Plus, on my laptop i'm running ableton 8 which is only 32 bit and with this build im going to upgrade to live 9 64 bit so I can use that extra RAM. All in all I think I'll probably see a boost in performance compared to my laptop.

[OllieScott]

Did a quick build on pcpartpicker, I'm not overly smart when it comes to this so make sure to do some further research

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $492.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 00:14 EST-0500)

[zosomagik]

Wow, thanks man.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I managed to build a pretty decent pc for around 330 quid. Ebuyer is the website. so cheap for components. Like mentioned get a decent psu and mother board. If you want to save a littel money go AMD rather than intel. YOu wont notice a difference particularly because you can usually get a better amd chip than an intel one for the price. it just means youll have to go ati on graphics and and get the right mobo ect

[AxeD]

A 20,- dollar psu is basically asking for the whole thing to die within a year imo.
I'm hardly a computer tech, but one thing that I found myself doing is replacing psu's

[zosomagik]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I guess I'll go with a better psu, it's strange though, I've heard a few places that this is one of the points where it's safe to skimp a little. W/e though, I trust you guys I might go AMD, but I was thinking about maybe doing a hackintosh to check out logic x, and as I understand this is a difficult pain in the ass with an AMD build. So idk, I guess I have a couple things to think about.

[zosomagik]

I managed to build a pretty decent pc for around 330 quid. Ebuyer is the website. so cheap for components.

Good looking out on that website tip man, you can pick up the amd fx 8350 for like $60 cheaper than newegg or tigerdirect

[OllieScott]

A 20,- dollar psu is basically asking for the whole thing to die within a year imo.
I'm hardly a computer tech, but one thing that I found myself doing is replacing psu's

That is a $40 one, just on offer. And corsair is a pretty trusted brand.

If your on reddit zoso you should look at r/buildapc and r/buildapcforme Helped me when I built mine

[zosomagik]

Never checked out reddit, but I've seen some good info on there. The layout just confuses the fuck out of me though.