So, I'm coming into a little windfall and after a brief fantasy of using it to buy some expensive instrument, I realized I'd be way better off getting a kick-ass music PC to replace my older Dell. It's an OK computer... I think it'a a dual core duo 2 running at 2.5.

The good thing about it is I can plug both my old MotU 828s into it (firewire) and they run flawlessly (though which one will boot first is a crap shoot!) So I'd need something that has a Firewire on the mb or can get one with a Texas Instruments chipset.

Don't say Mac. I'd love one but I have too many plugs at this point that are PC only that I use all the time.

a 100% solid-state machine would be awesome. the good ones are usually about 4k-5k and you'd probably want it custom. depends what kind of windfall you're referring to.

the other option is to plumb the machine into an isolation chamber, then you can allow it to make as much noise as it wants. air filters, cooling, forced circulation. that's another really awesome configuration but might be equally as expensive.

I think that tech's too new and too spendy. I'm thinking more of a $1000-$1500ish machine.

ah ok.

well what i'd do is just grab the best deal i could find, ensure it has good cooling capability and set everything up next to a closet or maybe mount it in the crawl-space if available... i have my machine on the other side of an audio-quality insulated wall, a walk-in closet space with an insulated/sealed door. i can hear the hum from my LCD monitor.

next upgrade is either a better machine or a better monitor LED backlight would eliminate the god-awful humming.

as far as machines though isn't it more a question of availability than what's best? some of the little pre-built machines for $1000 are unbelievably good so it's more a matter of power supply quality, cooling configuration and so on.
Last edited by aciddose on Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

then i guess this is out of your range?

http://raincomputers.com/products/ion/

EDIT: or this, if you prefer Intel:

http://raincomputers.com/products/ion-studio/

Yeah, that looks sweet, but tbh, 90% of my music time is spent with me in headphones so noise isn't much of an issue and rack mount isn't important. I just want a fast decently built PC. I'm starting to worry that Firewire is no longer even an option.

just buy one of these and you're sorted, regardless of what new configuration you choose:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-PCIE-PCI-E-FIREWIRE-800-1394B-CA RD-WORK-WINDOWS-7-32-64-BIT-TI-CHIPSET-/160791563284?pt=LH_D efaultDomain_0&hash=item256fec8c14

(or these:)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCIE-PCI-E-FIREWIRE-IEEE-1394-2-1-3- PORT-CARD-TI-CHIPSET-WORK-WINDOWS-7-32-64-/110871800607?pt=L H_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d0796b1f

Ah, thanks for the tip. I thought this was something that had to be part of the mother board or what-not.

i think most implementations of pci-e have far lower latency and way, way, way, way more bandwidth than firewire, even in it's latest editions, is capable of.

the firewire chipset running on top of the pci-e bus will just be addition of latency. the pci-e latency should be so low as to be indifferent compared with it being another component on the bus of the main chipset.

Thanks for the advice, that opens up things a lot for me.

So if I were to go off-the-shelf, is there a difference between the major brands? Any more quiet and reliable?

i've found it's super variable.

unfortunately can't say much more than that. almost all systems seem to develop major issues with dust over time so having clean air if possible should improve things a lot.

the worst experiences i've had are with cheap graphics cards with on-board fans - i had one die and the chip over-heated and killed the whole card. 100 bucks gone.

i replaced it with a passively cooled card. i'll never buy another card with a fan. never.

Case: Fractal Design R3 $140
Power: Seasonic 460W 80 Plus Gold Fanless $140
MB: ASUS P9X79 LGA 2011 X79 8-DIMM PCIe 3.0 Motherboard $253
CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2 1 LGA 2011 Processor $570
CPU Fan: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 Quiet CPU Cooler $90
Memory: Kingston Technology HyperX 8 GB $46
Video: ASUS GeForce 210 1GB 64-bit DDR3 (Fanless) $35
Firewire: SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe (TI Chipset) $43
Burner: Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA $23
HD: Western Digital Black 1TB (or larger) $120

TOTAL $1460

Its best to kill the noise at the source then trying to deal with it after the fact. Silent cases can only do so much. Use fanless power supplies and video cards. Rubber grommets also come in handy to stop hard drive vibration. You can use liquid cooling like Intel's Liquid Cooling or Corsairs H80, but there have been defective products that have leaked and damaged components. Corsair also uses Ethylene glycol and its toxic.

Cheers,
Club Ho
Last edited by ClubHo on Tue May 01, 2012 8:00 am; edited 4 times in total

Add a SSD OS/program drive and that's a great system. To stay in budget, swap the
awesome 3930 hex-core for the $279 3820 quad core. To spend less and still get stunning performance go with a Ivy or Sandy Bridge based system.

But, this tidbit is important: Some ASSEMBLY required.

zerocrossing, are you planning and able to build your own machine?

i built my last rig for about $1400 shipped..

i usually figure in:
$150 motherboard (Intel)
$350 CPU (Intel)
$100 Hard Drive (Western Digital)
$200 SSD (OCZ/Intel)
$50 RAM (Corsair)
$150 - $200 case
$100 Power Supply (Corsair)

seems like you should have a decent enough DVD drive by now right? i find less and less use for them anyway.. i build an i3 media computer - i had never used an SSD before - my god - the thing boots in like 12 seconds and all apps load lightning fast as if they were already in RAM.. even an i3 would run circles around an old dualie.. you don't need to worry about getting the top i7 - it's like having the GTX 690 Nvidia card, nerd bragging rights and large amounts of cash are always involved.. lol..
you should see about a seven fold increase from a Core2Duo 2.5 with any decent i7..

The new Ivy's are out. 2 channels of memory though but probably still very nice. Socket LGA1155 MB needed.

http://ark.intel.com/products/family/65506/3rd-Generation-In tel-Core-i7-Processors/desktop