I looking to custom build a PC for music production, light editing and viewing movies in 1080p.

My budget is $700 and under. Any tips? Whats more important in this type of build? CPU, GPU, RAM, etc? Thanks!

 

For music and video making and editing it is always CPU that is the most important. Then a good amount of RAM, quality motherboard, quality PSU. People often neglect to buy a good power supply unit which is a huge mistake. Good PSU can make your PC more quiet, stable, reliable, and last longer. GPU? something that has a monitor connector. Unless you're planning on playing games with it.

 

The CPU. Either 4 or 6 core. It also depends on which Audio program you are using. Are you using PT10? If so you won't need as much ram as say PT12 or some other software. Sinewave is right, make sure you get a good power supply.

What type of Audio interface are you using?

 

$700 is not enough money to build a PC for music production,Video editing,i spend around $1500 to build my pc.,well maybe you can go for the Intel i5,16 gbs ram,and a decent video card is around $200 and up.

 

yeah, thats a veeery small budget for what you wanna do... id save longer, avoid frustration down the road.

 

If You have some old parts from a previous PC, like HDD, Case, PSU... than maybe You can build something

about 300-350 for an i7 3770 CPU
the mobo is not mega expensive
8 GB ram will cost You a few bucks sadly (You can go with 4 if U lack the money)

that`s it...

 

I do DAWing, i used to do vidya editing, and I view 1080p vidyas sometimes.

You can accomplish that if you keep your resource-hog plugins low. Atm i have an i3-530 CPU, 4GB RAM. You can probably build something similar for $700 budget.

 

If you're using a DAW that utilises a multicore processor fully like Reaper or Cubase you could build an 8-core AMD CPU based computer for that money that smokes Intel i5s and can be on par with i7s, no matter what anybody says.

Something like this: AMD FX X8 8370E CPU, Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 motherboard, 2x4GB G.Skill Ares 1866MHz DDR3 RAM, Seagate ST1000DM003 1TB HDD, EVGA or Corsair 500-600W PSU, Nvidia GT630 or even better GT710 VGA. With some generic chassis and Logitech keyboard and mouse it could even come at less than $700. I can get it for ~$650. For additional $30-40 I would suggest to buy a nice and quiet Scythe or Arctic Cooling cooler for the CPU. It will make it run quietly. I use Scythe Ninja 3s or Samurais.

I'm actually making computers with these parts for customers that are on budget. I can't tell the difference between this computer and Intel i7 4790 based one [my best configuration] when using it. I do suggest to use a Samsung SSD as primary disk, though. HDDs are used for storing samples. Well, all depending on the budget, eh? The biggest difference shows when booting it. Like 20 seconds instead of 10...

Cheers !

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2016

video cards are not only for gaming dude.

 

But it doesn't make any sense to buy a powerful video card for a DAW. Some passively cooled Nvidia cards like GT630 or GT710 work beautifully and what's most important quietly, and they don't use 200W of power. You can even play some older games very smoothly with it. Yes, it can run Crysis.

Forgot to mention that I use only Gainward, Asus, or Gigabyte Nvidia VGAs with passive cooling. My rule of thumb is to buy the most expensive passively cooled Nvidia VGA [up to ~$70-80 mind you ]. I prefer GDDR5 memory to DDR3 if possible because faster RAM makes a bit of difference in 2D speed.

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2016

Chhantheman said that he wants to edit videos.

 

You can edit videos with any VGA just fine. People have this misconception about VGA cards that you have to have an expensive VGA for editing videos. No, you don't. The only factor that helps with Windows 2D speed, and editing videos and photos is VGA memory speed and even cheaper VGA cards have good enough memory speed that you won't notice much difference in comparison to a $200 VGA. Really.

I use Nvidia GT240 on my computer and I also like to edit videos, even play an occassional game. Why did I choose GT240? Because it uses 50W of power, it has speedy GDDR5 memory, and I can cool it by farting at it. it's got a passive cooler. So I have only two, low RPM and silent 120mm fans in my PC. One in the PSU and one on the Scythe cooler, and they both spin at lower than 1000rpm. I can hear ants jogging, that's how silent it is in my room.

 

I agree with most of your suggestions @SineWave
but you are wrong in one

"modern" gfx solutions aren´t better for editing because of faster gddr ram
But aps like Premiere are better at utilising gpu´s (premiere only needs 1,5 gb of vram)

so @Chhantheman
find out about you min spec for you editing suite

and try ebay for 2nd hand gear.
for instance ws gpu or deals like this (but it won´t be super quite (but quite enough)

if new
there are drawbacks @700 but fixable later
like hdd -- to ssd
like hdd--- to hdds
more ram later
cheap case -- silent case
these cuts you 100 -30 on initial cost

but the holy trinity is
CPU - MB - PSU
if this is good quality ;)

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2016

OMG! You guys are the best. Thanks for the all rhe replys!

Here is what I have/use so far:

- 24inch HDMI monitor
- 2TB External HDD
- PreSonus Studio One 3(Main DAW)
- PreSonus Audiobox 44VSL
- FL Studio 12(My lil bro uses it)

So, I could opt for a smaller 3.5" HDD, like 500gb. Of course my MB needs to have HDMI ports and as well my GPU. How about USB ports? More 3.0 ports would be better?

My budget is kinda flexible. My max MAX limit would be $850. Thanks again for all the replys

 

Also, I'm such a NOOB at the whole PC hardware world. But, I know the enough as to a Best Buy salesmen wouldn't be able to con in into buying a $1500 PC that is medicore/avg for the price. As well, I really don't know what Hyperthreading is, or something that has SLI???? Haha.

I plan on using this PC for a while. Maybe for the next 4/5yrs. Thanks again!

 

look for best bang for buck on the hdd side
it doesn´t make sense to buy @35 for a 500gb hdd if you could get a 2tb for 65
samsung and wd black up to 2tb (7200rpm) are very reliable and "quick"
all of the greens (5400rm slow!) 2tb good for storage/seldom use i.e. downloads/dump files
i suggest if you have one get one for bacup

PSU
look for at least 80+ silver better gold efficiency (pays for it self)
with enough (wattage) headrom (there are calculators on the net)

there are the tech quicky series from linus to give you an !Overview!

there are "some" performance (maybe even price) advantages to use MB with as "little" extras as possible
This is ONLY if you never want to use the on board graphics
and firewire or bad implemented usb are a hassle sometimes (you have to read up on the mb + externals you want to use with it)
maybe search : presonus + "MB X" error or problem

take your time so buy only once ;)

 

don´t underestimate a pre build pc, not all vendors are created equal of course
but certified or validated PC´s + stress tested are good investment
thats why i recomeded the .W.ork.S.tation they are validated to run 24/7 (all ws gear should)

(sorry for the double post) my eddits didn´t show up in the post
(strangely invisible, quote and text)

 

I agree that some professional video editing programs like Premiere can get a boost in performance with a better GPU, but RAM speed is still the most important for 90% of the tasks. The poster also said that he edits a video occasionally, so it's not of primary importance to have a powerful VGA. Some plugins do use OpenGL acceleration but I haven't noticed much difference between a mid range VGA like GT710 and a GTX750, for example. btw. if you need more GPU power GTX750, 750ti, and 760 are great and don't use too much power, but they use an active cooler unfortunately. Those little whining fans are incredibly annoying, I hate them with passion.

 

No need to opt for a 500Gb HDD because the 1TB Seagate I suggested is very cheap, has only one platter, consumes little power, and will probably last a long time. A 500GB one would cost you just $10-20 less so there's just no point in buying anything cheaper.

 

I would suggest to buy a PSU that's 2x more powerful than the wattage the computer consumes. Like, if your computer consumes 200W, buy a 400W PSU. It will make the PSU last longer and work quietly at all times. This computer I mentioned consumes up to around 200W when on full load, so a 500-550W PSU is optimal for it [and good 400-450W PSUs are hard to find currently]. It also depends on the manufacturer of the PSU. Quality PSUs can be less powerful but work great. There are Cheap PSUs that boast 600+W but are actually 400W or so. So it pays off to buy a brand name PSU like EVGA, Corsair, Seasonic. These are also very quiet and last longer!

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2016