Need help on building or buying a new pc

[damoog]

It's been quite a few years since I built my current pc( a core 2 duo with 4gb ram) and I need a new system...I'm looking at building I think but I'm a little rusty since its years since I built the last so i might just buy pre built,not sure

I'm not sure if I should go with intel (i7) or an amd(the entire range seems cheaper)

If intel is the way to go will the i5 be fine or is it essential that I get an i7

I'm mainly using reason but I am using s1 pro and I want to buy lush 101 which is pretty CPU heavy


Any help here would be appreciated,I'm uk based so some help with a seller would be good to

Thanks

[rifftrax]

Get the new amd fx-8320, bests the fx-8150 by a mile (for the same price) and has tons of overclockability. Value for performance price-point is off the charts! The multithread performance beats the i5-2500k in a lot of areas.

[Jace-BeOS]

My personal and biased bitter opinion is to buy a system with one unified warranty from one company. There are companies doing DAW builds just like there are companies doing gamer rigs. The minutia of parts selection and compatibility is really a lot of hidden specs and documentation diving (and forum reading) these days, especially with the "officially supported" memory lists for motherboards (bleh). Is it more costly to buy a build than build your own? Yeah, but a tech support and warranty contract is often worth it.

That's my advise