New build PC for Home Recording and Games

[palace_monkey]

Hi,

I'm looking to build a new PC so I can do some home recording as well as play some of the latest games, Battlefield 2, Half Life 2 etc.

The only restiction is my budget of £400-500.

I guess I'll need 1GIG of DDR RAM a processor of around 3GHz, a decent sound card and the rest, Hard-drive, Motherboard and a video card.

I know I need these things but I haven't a clue what specific makes to go for and which will work together best! Any help therefore will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Adam

 

[V_R]

First up, that budget is kinda tight, but do-able.....


Try checking out this link for some bundles of cpu, mb and Ram.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Athlon_64_Bundles.html

Providing you pick a PCI-Express mb then take a look at this link for the graphics cards. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600_GT.html

Then you need a hard drive, try the top one here - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Maxtor2.html

If you pick the 2nd bundle down (1st one is AGP) with the first graphics card and first Hard Disk that = £438ish
But then you need a PSU, Cables, Case, Monitor, Keyboard, mouse, floppy drive, cd or dvd drive, an OS. and probably something i forgot....

But see if anyone else can find anything better.

Something to think about though

 

[floppybootstomp]

You don't neccessarily need a 3Ghz processor to have the best.

A 2 or 2.2Ghz AMD 64 CPU-based system would be better, in my opinion.

Battlefield 2 is about the only game out at the moment that actually thrives on 2Gb RAM. So if you're not interested in overclocking, go for 2Gb of good solid dependable RAM such as Crucial basic or Corsair Value select.

If you're after doing home recording, be it either audio or video, you'll need a big hard disk, preferably one small disk for operating system and another larger disk for storing recordings.

Is your budget to cater for peripherals as well as basic tower? Such as Monitor; speakers; mouse; keyboard.

If so, your budget won't cope, the price you've specified should build you a very capable tower unit though.

 

[TECHGUNS]

If your gamein and recording audio ya dont need the fastest processor like the other posters are sayin, but ya want to some denero $$$ into fast video card with lots of video memory.

Oh ya dont need a fast processor to record video, but a fast dual processor will be needed if ya do lots of effects and editing. Oh and as many fast large hard drives that ya can, and thats still not enough.

 

[Me__2001]

do you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc or just the base ? we're talking sound or video recording?

ok, im gonna have a bash

OCUK bundle, A64 3000, 512 MB Geil value RAM, Abit UL8
HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 soundcard
WD 200GB HD
Leadtek 6600GT
Plextor PX-740A DVD-RW
Antec sonata case + 450w PSU

that comes in about £550 + about £60 for a copy of XP

 

[PotGuy]

athlon 3000+ is being phased out very soon

:O great value though wow - all that for £550

 

[palace_monkey]

Thanks for everyone's replies so far! They've enlightened me to quite a few things!

I have a monitor and keyboard and it's sound recording/music making software that will be used primarily.

I like the look of this setup, is there any way to get the price down of this by having different components or will there be compatibility issues? If say a 'slower' processor is used i.e. a 2GHz processor, with an appropriate motherboard will this lower the price to less than £500?


Cheers

Adam

do you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc or just the base ? we're talking sound or video recording?

ok, im gonna have a bash

OCUK bundle, A64 3000, 512 MB Geil value RAM, Abit UL8
HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 soundcard
WD 200GB HD
Leadtek 6600GT
Plextor PX-740A DVD-RW
Antec sonata case + 450w PSU

that comes in about £550 + about £60 for a copy of XP

 

[Me__2001]

i think i may be somewhere near, but i have no idea about what sort of features the soundcard is going to need so i haven't listed one and hopefully you already have one?

this should be able to manage those games but it will be border line

AMD Sempron 3100
Gigabyte GA-K8NS
512MB Geil Value
Leadtek 6600GT (AGP)
160GB Maxtor HD (SATA)
Antec Sonata II + 450W PSU
Pioneer DVR-110DBK DVDRW

that totals £436.06 + XP @ £65 = £500.63 (all from OCUK)

remember thats without the soundcard

 

[palace_monkey]

That's great, I will have a shop around see if I can pick any of that stuff up cheaper but I can certainly use that as a basis.

Thanks for your time

 

[floppybootstomp]

Bear in mind that sound recording/editing is memory intensive.

WAV files also take up a lot disk space.

Therefore it would be wise to consider plenty of RAM & hard disk space.

Battlefield 2 would struggle, maybe not run at all, with suggested setup, but you can always upgrade later.

 

[Me__2001]

Bear in mind that sound recording/editing is memory intensive.

WAV files also take up a lot disk space.

Therefore it would be wise to consider plenty of RAM & hard disk space.

Battlefield 2 would struggle, maybe not run at all, with suggested setup, but you can always upgrade later.

thats a very good point, how many simultaneous tracks will you be recording/editing and what format will they be ?

if your going to be doing alot at the same time then an extra £50 would get you an extra 512MB of RAM and a 200GB HD with a 16MB Cache instead of 160GB with 8MB Cache

also as flopps said the system is right on te minimum requirements of those games so there is a high possibility that it will strugle to run them at a playable level

 

[palace_monkey]

I am very new to the whole recording thing. I am really loking for a good starting point, but one which will last me at least a year or 2 - if that's not asking too much with this budget.

From what I have read on other posts, what would be the best thing to invest in at this moment? Many people say motherboard and CPU, but as some have said CPU is not so important for the recording side, instead more the memory and storage. So perhaps forgetting so much about the gaming would the RAM and Hard-drive be a better option over video card and CPU?

 

[palace_monkey]

Hi, I've been looking around and I've come up with this spec. I have no idea if it's all compatible so if you could let me know what you think I would be very grateful.

HDA Digital X-Myystique 7.1 Gold Sound Card £29.95
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 200GB 6L200R0 ATA-133 16MB Cache - OEM £53.25
MSI 865PE Neo2-PFS Platinum Socket 478 £54.95
Crucial 1GB DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Kit £69.95
LG GSA-4167BA 16x16 DVD+-RW Dual Layer ReWriter - OEM £26.60
OcUK Case with 350W PSU £24.95
Intel Pent 4 'Prescott' 3.0Ghz - OEM £102.50
Connect3D ATI Radeon 9550 256MB DDR - Retail £39.95
VAT £70.37
Total £472.47

Is it better to get retail over OEM? [what does OEM mean?]
Are Intel Celeron D processors a good idea? Will this one be ok: Intel Celeron D 335 2.80GHz (Socket 478) - Retail (CP-068-IN) as it is cheaper and would allow more to be spent on video?

Cheers

Adam