Dubstepforum.com

I've been trying to buy a Mac Pro so i could use it exclusively to make music. So far i have not been able to secure enough money to buy one. I've thought recently that maybe if i put together a computer to use as a workstation, from scratch, i would be saving lots of money.

Im comfortable in putting everything together, installing drivers and such, but i don't know what parts to buy that would suit my needs. Im not looking to go broke, but i don't want to get cheap parts either. I want something that will last me for years (with proper care of course).

i built this PC on cyberpowerpc and its pretty dope. it might be a little more than your looking for, but thats what i would buy if i were buying a new pc. comes to like 1600 bucks.

Summarize
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 912 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Adjustable HDD Cage (Black Color)
Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
Cooling Fan: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo Gaming Cooling Fan [+4]
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: * [CrossFireX] Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard LucidLogix Virtu and Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID,2 3 PCIe Gen2, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 3CI (All Venom OC Certified)
Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory [+86] (Corsair or Major Brand)
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [+166] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)
Power Supply Upgrade: 1,000 Watts - CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gaming 80 Plus Power Supply [+125]
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive: 120GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 555MB/s Read & 515MB/s Write [+192] (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
Keyboard: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
Mouse: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS

looks like a good set up.

got a question. Would it be better, to buy the best processor in the market out there, and build around it? isnt that what will compute all the data of the music being produce?

I just wanna say this, the mac pro is very overpriced for what you get.

It hasn't been updated in years, and its value for what you get is drastically decreasing.

The baseline mac pro compared to the iMac is a joke. Your much better off either building a PC or getting an iMac.

antman wrote:I just wanna say this, the mac pro is very overpriced for what you get.

It hasn't been updated in years, and its value for what you get is drastically decreasing.

The baseline mac pro compared to the iMac is a joke. Your much better off either building a PC or getting an iMac.

Not true the processor was upgraded in the summer

llennnn16 wrote:looks like a good set up.

got a question. Would it be better, to buy the best processor in the market out there, and build around it? isnt that what will compute all the data of the music being produce?

Nah not really. The most important things would be the RAM, Processor. If you get a macbook the buy some more ram. It's like $45 for 2 4gb sticks of ram. If you build a computer then get 8-16 gb of ram/a quad core processor with a 3.0+Ghz. I recommend newegg.com since that's where I bought mine and it's popular. Sites like iBUYPOWER etc. tend to rip you off loads especially if you don't know prices of parts or anything about computers.

If you build a pre-made computer you usually get ripped off. If you make your own then it's hella cheap.

actually cyberpower pc isn't a rip off. i built the same computer on new egg and the cyber power costed like 100 more. id gladly pay 100 more to have the computer built for me, thats not a rip off IMO.

Buy all your components from newegg.com and build it yourself. You'll save yourself a bundle. And if you choose your components wisely, you can install Mac on it without any issues (google hackintosh). Its a nice alternative to limited Macs. Because you can run windows dual booted natively without that bootcamp garbage and fully utilize every bit of performance your PC has to offer.

hxczach wrote:Buy all your components from newegg.com and build it yourself. You'll save yourself a bundle. And if you choose your components wisely, you can install Mac on it without any issues (google hackintosh). Its a nice alternative to limited Macs. Because you can run windows dual booted natively without that bootcamp garbage and fully utilize every bit of performance your PC has to offer.

Bootcamp is the same exact thing as running it natively. I'm guessing you've never used it, or even know anythibg about what your talking about. It fully utilizes the computer, it pretty much turns a Mac into a PC with no problem. It's not a virtual machine. It's a dual boot for Mac.

Please learn what your talking about before you say it, or make ignorant posts.

A hackintosh does not, and will never work right. Everything is a hassle to update / keep the system running.

OP:If you want a PC get a PC. If you want a Mac with option to run windows as well than do it. Either way whether your on windows or Mac its up to your production skills. This Mac vs PC argument is old and tired.

antman wrote:A hackintosh does not, and will never work right. Everything is a hassle to update / keep the system running.

actually no. if you get the right hardware in your PC, OS X won't argue. The only issue is getting the bootloader to recognize the existance of the OS X partition...but some nice dev's already fixed that issue by creating a bootloader that does recognize it.

macofalltrades.com

antman wrote:

hxczach wrote:Buy all your components from newegg.com and build it yourself. You'll save yourself a bundle. And if you choose your components wisely, you can install Mac on it without any issues (google hackintosh). Its a nice alternative to limited Macs. Because you can run windows dual booted natively without that bootcamp garbage and fully utilize every bit of performance your PC has to offer.

Bootcamp is the same exact thing as running it natively. I'm guessing you've never used it, or even know anythibg about what your talking about. It fully utilizes the computer, it pretty much turns a Mac into a PC with no problem. It's not a virtual machine. It's a dual boot for Mac.

Please learn what your talking about before you say it, or make ignorant posts.

A hackintosh does not, and will never work right. Everything is a hassle to update / keep the system running.

OP:If you want a PC get a PC. If you want a Mac with option to run windows as well than do it. Either way whether your on windows or Mac its up to your production skills. This Mac vs PC argument is old and tired.

Where do I begin...

I have a perfectly running hackintosh, and it took little more than a brain and a few Google searches to get it perfect.

And what I meant by utilizing the performance completely was more geared towards gaming. tri-SLI graphics cards in your lousy retard apple boot camp computer and get back to me. Maybe youll consider doing some research before trying to disprove someone else.

bootcamp does not run just as good as a windows pc.. trust lol

I had near same specs on my pc rig as my macbook pro. PC took bootcamp to the cleaners big time.

Build it seven cubits, by eight cubits, by nine cubits.

Sharmaji wrote:macofalltrades.com

used is out of the question. don't trust old hardware. thanks though, BK represent!

hxczach wrote:

antman wrote:

ogunslinger wrote:Buy all your components from newegg.com and build it yourself. You'll save yourself a bundle... Bootcamp...hackintosh

Well ive been a PC user my whole life, but i would want the option to have both Mac and PC in the computer, just in case if i want to use other software that only works with Mac OS. I seen it done in my college, most of the computers in the Technology department have that feature. So im looking into that at the moment. And yes i've heard many times newegg is THE place to shop for parts. i looking already while i save to buy the processor. The Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge-E with the 6 cores, keep reading it's the best in the market right now. i wont even be able to use all 6 cores, but it will be good to have for the future.

Ghost of Muttley wrote:Build it seven cubits, by eight cubits, by nine cubits.

what do you mean by that?

daeMTHAFKNkim wrote:The most important things would be the RAM, Processor.

I was thinking of that. I've been reading that in cases where playback starts to skip or lag, maybe freeze (all of these are my current situation) it can be a problem fixed by adding more RAM. ill add that to the shopping cart then, lots of fast RAM.

Another question. the sound card. Ive seen some have all these connections in the back and ports and such. Is this all necessary? i think m-audio makes one. I am making music, i take it that the sound card is crucial. am i wrong in thinking this?

llennnn16 wrote: got a question. Would it be better, to buy the best processor in the market out there, and build around it? isnt that what will compute all the data of the music being produce?

Generally, yeah. While a computer is only as fast as its slowest component, with regards to music production the cpu is usually doing most of the work. There can be other limiting factors, such as a slow hard drive won't be able to play as many audio tracks as a faster one, and more ram means you can have larger projects running. But usually its the cpu that is the limiting factor, so its wise to get a nice fast one, with decent components to support it.

I built an i7 2600k system a few weeks ago, its fast as anything. SSD drive for my system drive, 2tb hdd for storage, 8gb ram, dual monitors and a passive cooled graphics card. Large slow case fans make it run totally silent, plus an enormous cpu fan and heatsink means it runs at 5ghz with no problems at all.

The fastest processor out at the moment is the Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme 6 core. But they currenty retail at about £800. Whereas you can pick up the i7 2600k for about £250. There's not many scenarios where you'd need 6 cores, four is plenty. Unless you have a ton of money you want to part with.

VirtualMark wrote:

llennnn16 wrote: got a question. Would it be better, to buy the best processor in the market out there, and build around it? isnt that what will compute all the data of the music being produce?

Generally, yeah. While a computer is only as fast as its slowest component, with regards to music production the cpu is usually doing most of the work. There can be other limiting factors, such as a slow hard drive won't be able to play as many audio tracks as a faster one, and more ram means you can have larger projects running. But usually its the cpu that is the limiting factor, so its wise to get a nice fast one, with decent components to support it.

I built an i7 2600k system a few weeks ago, its fast as anything. SSD drive for my system drive, 2tb hdd for storage, 8gb ram, dual monitors and a passive cooled graphics card. Large slow case fans make it run totally silent, plus an enormous cpu fan and heatsink means it runs at 5ghz with no problems at all.

The fastest processor out at the moment is the Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme 6 core. But they currenty retail at about £800. Whereas you can pick up the i7 2600k for about £250. There's not many scenarios where you'd need 6 cores, four is plenty. Unless you have a ton of money you want to part with.

^ this is the setup i would buy if i were to build a PC, except i would slap 4x 4gb ram sticks in there. 16gb is dirt cheap these days, even now for laptops 2x 8gb sticks aren't too bad.

ended up getting an iMac OS X Lion, 2.8Ghz Intel Core i7, 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3, 1TB SATA HD, AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB.

i would have gone for the build my own PC but this is what happened:

in a span of 2 months maybe less, i had both my laptops (the one i was using and an older one i had laying around) crash on me, rendering them unbootable. I had some things backed up but still ended up losing a lot of my music and works in progress. That made a total of 4 times i've had PCs crash on me leaving nothing but a dead machine.

In the past, i've had, with lots of struggle, been able to reboot my desktop and laptop after careful troubleshooting, and one time had no choice but to reformat the hard drive to make it useable again.

I was fed up by this point and thought, ill give this "Macs do not get viruses", a chance. Been a good month+ into it and i have no complains except that i did not know that FL Studio was not compatible with Macs . Now im trying my best to work with Ableton but i have to admit, close to 10 years using FL Studio makes Ableton a hassle to work with.

So im taking the route of bootcamp. Unless there's another choice?

Have you considered logic? I made the switch from live and I'll never go back.

Mazak wrote:Have you considered logic? I made the switch from live and I'll never go back.

have never even seen the interface. will give it a go. hope there's a demo version or something so i can try it.