Please criticize my new long-awaited computer rig before I pull the trigger. Thanks a lot!

[Googly Smythe]

Be careful about installing the OS on a small SSD. I did that and have had a constant battle
to keep it from filling up since day one.

The OP should check his current setup and go from there, remebering to keep about 15-20% free.

My OS drive uses about 65 gigs out of 120-odd. This includes Cubase Pro, Wavelab Elements, MS Office, Apache OpenOffice, Visual Studio 2013 Express, Corel VideoStudio and PaintShop Pro, Serif MoviePlus, and all the usual utility programs including Paragon backup and HDD utilities.
I'd have thought 250 gig SSD for the OS/software should be fine.

[pekbro]

I guess it depends on the usage, and what you use. I never install anything to the
root drive if I can help it. Program Files 64/x86, Program Data, Appdata and the Windows folder
all add up to 90 GB or so for me.

That doesn't leave tons of room when companies like propellerheads, NI and tons of
others want to put stuff on the root drive.

And that's only the music stuff, Computer Graphics, Video, Programming and games are
also a huge weight for me.

Its perfectly doable if your sure, but if your wrong its a huge PITA...
Plan it out well is all I'm saying.

-Cheers

[mark3000]

Yeah he'll need the 1151 socket if he does decide to go that route

Which route? Both 6800k and 5820k (the 2 options that I'm considering) have LGA2011-3, not 1151...

The frequency limit is based on your motherboard not CPU

So if the motherboard supports 3333 Mhz, but the CPU only supports 2400 Mhz, will it make sense to install 3333 Mhz RAM?

[jdnz]

I'd probably go for a pair of SSDs too - something like the 850pro for programs/os and something cheaper (850evo) for sample data. Ideally something with serious bandwidth for the os/programs - so if the board has a m.2 socket a samsung m2, or maybe one of intels pcie ssds.

Apart from not paying for a lot of speed you don't really need on a sample drive, it also splits the wear, you sample drive is going to be largely just read, no need paying for extra endurance there.

I'd also chuck in a suitable HDD for backing up the ssd drives to (I use acronis personally for this) - ssds DO fail, you want decent backup strategy.

[Kaine]

So no games. However, I will connect a big (maybe 29'') and high-resolution display. Do I need a video card in this case, or just the motherboard is enough?

Yes, enthusiast class chips & boards have no native onboard GFX support.

Is there any technical advantage in having separate SSDs for OS and for samples? Why would it be better to have them separate instead of on one big SSD?

The main one is if Windows shits the bed or you get a virus. It's a lot quicker to reinstall if you don't have to recover your entire sample collection as well.

Also, I forgot to mention that it's quite unlikely that I will be overclocking. Is the cooler still not enough in this case? Because before posting, I had a feeling that even my initial one was a little bit overkill.

You want a bigger one, that offers more air flow at lower RPM. `120 / 140 mm would be better. Link us the store your looking at and I'll point out the better choices. A larger Noctura at a push, although I'd take Bequiet or Thermalright over those and both offer 140mm fan designs that will do the job fine, for less than your paying for the Noctua.

Also looking at your config vs the more current skylake series, its about the same price on amazon but it also has integrated graphics, so you wouldn't need a GPU to get up and running

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6 ... e-i7-5820K

And..... that's the point it occurs to me that that CPUBoss makes this shit up as it goes along.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... 40+4.00GHz
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... 40+3.30GHz

I've rebenched both recently.

http://www.scanproaudio.info/2016/06/28 ... of-choice/

Even a cheap video card will give better performance than Intel's built-in effort. Plus, it won't eat into system ram. I use an AMD Radeon, cost about £50/$75, came with 2 gigs of on-board ram. With a 29" monitor, I'd say a video card is essential. I've heard that Waves plugins (if you're using them) require more than basic video capability.

Yeah, some software likes to leverage Open GL for acceleration and this is supported by all three current GFX option producers. RAM usage is a fair point, but given how cheap it is these days, unlikely to be a huge deal for most people.

The onboard Intel Gfx solutions these days are fairly decent for our needs, and certainly more than capable of standing up to a £50 add in card option. The Intel driver is also currently the lightest weight option when it comes to DPC and system resources, I wish they would offer it for X99 personally!

Yes but 6700 is 4 core only isn't it?...

Sure but not all software can even make use of all cores anyway, one example being

https://www.ableton.com/en/help/article ... -machines/

That says it can allocate one channel per core. Your going to be stacking up far more than one channel in any given project.
I'm pretty sure all the sequencers can load balance across more than 16 cores at this point.

Now I'm thinking I could replace the 5820 with an i7-6800K. It's not that pricier but it's better on benchmarks and it's fresher (2016). What do you think?

Also another question, this time about RAM. The maximum frequency the 6800 (and 5820) supports is 2400 Hz, according to specs. Does it mean there is no sense to buy RAM with higher frequency? If so, how does this look to you? Kingston HyperX FURY 2x8GB DDR4 PC4-19200
As it's 2 times cheaper than what I had originally chosen.

Than you!

I'm no expert, but I've always thought that too high a ram frequency may damage the cpu, even if only in the long run. Also, I think that, so far as performance goes, you'd need measuring devices to tell the difference between the different ram frequencies.

Higher speed RAM won't damage the CPU as it's applied via a ratio multipler. It is however more likely to get more unstable the further you go out of spec. Spec on 5820K is 2133MHz, spec on 6800K is 2400Mhz, although at this point 2400MHz on either chip controller is petty much bombproof.

Also, no real advantage going above the spec for audio work, just more headaches and cost.

The frequency limit is based on your motherboard not CPU

For RAM? Nope, the motherboard and memory makers offer you overclocking profiles, but the frequency limit ultimately depends on what the memory controller will take, and that's on the CPU die.

Overclocking RAM is probably the easiest overclock their is, literally set and forget if your just using an XMP profile, or you can try turning it up and past it's specs incrementally until your system becomes unstable

yeah, it's also one of the most likely to cause a problem without being obvious. The number of complaint threads I've seen over the years with people kicking off with motherboard venders, when it's really an overclocked memory issue is insane.

[mark3000]

Thank you so much for the incredibly useful input!

I have updated the rig. Changed the CPU, cooler, RAM, added another SSD and a video card. What do you think about it now?

CPU: Intel Core i7-6800K ($540)
Cooler: Thermalright HR-02 ($54)
Motherboard: ASUS X99-A II ($320)
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY 2x8GB DDR4 PC4-19200 (2 pieces, or 32 Gb total) ($160)
SSD #1: Samsung 850 Evo 1TB ($330)
SSD#2: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB ($130)
Video card: MSI R7 240 2GB DDR3 ($60)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ($115)
Total: $1709

Also, I am completely lost about choosing a proper PSU. If anybody could point me out to a specific model, that would be awesome.

Thank you!

[Numanoid]

SSD #1: Samsung 850 Evo 1TB ($330)

These are coming rapidly down in price, so if you haven't got plans to max it out from the start, I would think twice about it.

Next year you might get it for half the price.

[jdnz]

SSD #1: Samsung 850 Evo 1TB ($330)

These are coming rapidly down in price, so if you haven't got plans to max it out from the start, I would think twice about it.

Next year you might get it for half the price.

And for the money saved getting an 850evo 512 instead of a 1tb he could switch the 850pro 256 for an intel 750 400g - bigger, and 4 times the speed of the 850pro (pcie vs sata6). From personal exprience I know a 256g system drive is marginal (thank heavens for junctions), the 750-400 is a win-win on speed and space

[Googly Smythe]

...Also, I am completely lost about choosing a proper PSU. If anybody could point me out to a specific model, that would be awesome.

Thank you!

I use this:
Corsair RM750

Too much for what I have now, but it's there if I add anything that requires it.

[mark3000]

Awesome advice. And true, I will probably go for the Intel 750 400 GB + 850evo 512 Gb instead. I'm so happy to have started this thread!

[legendCNCD]

Anything done by Seasonic for PSU. Corsair has some models that are made by Seasonic.

[jdnz]

Anything done by Seasonic for PSU. Corsair has some models that are made by Seasonic.

Def worth spending more on a god quality psu - I originally use a silverstone, it lasted less than a year before dying (thankfully didn't damage the rest of the system) - replaced it with a seasonic/corsair (old stock t650v2)

Do it once and do it right - even $100 more on a psu is nothing over the life of a system

[Googly Smythe]

... Def worth spending more on a god quality psu...

I wouldn't go that far!

[Googly Smythe]

Awesome advice. And true, I will probably go for the Intel 750 400 GB + 850evo 512 Gb instead. I'm so happy to have started this thread!

Another happy customer!
Good luck with your new system.

[mark3000]

Thanks guys