i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by CME

Also most socket 2011 boards also can run xeon E5-2600 processors. If you have the money those have up to 12-cores. Same procs they're using in the new Mac Pro I do believe. So yes socket 2011 for max potential power. But most any modern 1150 or 2011 based rig should be pretty impressive.

Yeah buddy

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by WKG

Thanks for the response.

Next to RAM finding an effective cooler is a pain. I am trying to balance efficiency with noise level as the computer is in the same room I record in.

Hopefully the "screaming 6 core" won't bleed into the mics...

I need to find some quite case fans, I have a cheaper fractal case and those fans are really loud, yeah a condenser will pic it up!!!

[WKG]

Originally Posted by YYR123

I need to find some quite case fans, I have a cheaper fractal case and those fans are really loud, yeah a condenser will pic it up!!!

Which Fractal case do you have? The Design R4 comes with these and are rated at 66CFM and 18.5 db. I was going to add a few more as the case will handle up to 7.

Fractal Design Silent Series R2 FD-FAN-SSR2-140 140mm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835352007

[YYR123]

Yeah those look like mine I have 3 of them

Also the CPU cooler and the fan on the gpu

I chased it down to the case fans - I would like quiter ones but if it's a pain I will just have to build a ISO cab


Eventually after I get a room built, I won't have an issue aside from monitoring with a noisier floor


Yeah I need an ISO cab

[WKG]

An iso cab would be nice. Most of the reviews on the Fractal fans mention how quiet they are, seems like they should be OK.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by WKG

An iso cab would be nice. Most of the reviews on the Fractal fans mention how quiet they are, seems like they should be OK.

When I see isolation cabinets, the first thing that comes to my mind is a Crock Pot. Do any iso cabs actually keep the computer cool with little to no noise? From what I've seen, they are designed similarly to Fractal cases; thin intake ports with 120mm exhaust fans and a bit of dampening. To make use of this, you need a well-evacuated graphics card. I don't think passive cards could survive that without driver errors, and any PCIe cards you may have (Avid, UAD) would have to be very well-ventilated. I'm sure it's worth a shot, but it is not the final puzzle piece to a noise-free control room.

Regarding quiet case fans, this is the one: Noctua NF-S12A ULN. Quiet 120mm fan with a step-down adapter (so-called "ultra low-noise")

[Brandonx1]

Originally Posted by mesaone

When I see isolation cabinets, the first thing that comes to my mind is a Crock Pot. Do any iso cabs actually keep the computer cool with little to no noise? From what I've seen, they are designed similarly to Fractal cases; thin intake ports with 120mm exhaust fans and a bit of dampening. To make use of this, you need a well-evacuated graphics card. I don't think passive cards could survive that without driver errors, and any PCIe cards you may have (Avid, UAD) would have to be very well-ventilated. I'm sure it's worth a shot, but it is not the final puzzle piece to a noise-free control room.

Regarding quiet case fans, this is the one: Noctua NF-S12A ULN. Quiet 120mm fan with a step-down adapter (so-called "ultra low-noise")

Iso cabs just lower the noise floor of a control room, they don't eliminate it.

[WKG]

Build parts enroute...

i7-4930
Noctua NH-12S
ASUS X79 Deluxe
G-Skill Ripjaws Z 16GB DDR3-1866
Samsung 840 Pro Series 256 SSD
WD Black 2GB HD
ASUS GeForce GT 640 2GB Video Card
Fractal Design Define R4 Blackout
SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular
Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS DVD/CD
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit

[tatothekid426]

This will be my first build in 5 years since the pc I built myself based on the old Best Core 2 Series Desktops-Results and Specs thread. I’m still running Windows XP & Pro Tools 8. After all those years I decided the time has come to upgrade my system and to be honest I was a bit afraid that if I didn’t do it now I would never do it.

So, after doing a lot of research on this thread, reading countless reviews, etc, I took the first step and started buying the parts for my new pc. Things get a bit more complicated because I live in Brazil, so everything cost 2 or 3 times more, RMA is practically out of question and support near zero.

Here’s the components I already bought:

Antec P280 case
Asus Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 motherboard
Zalman ZM750-XG power supply
Zalman CNPS9900 Max CPU cooler
DDR3 1.600MHz 16GB (4x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance - CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
Intel Core i7-3820 (LGA2011 - 3,60GHz) - BX80619I73820SR0LD

I’ll be using my old Digi 003 as interface and I’m considering to use my 5 years old Firewire SIIG NN-440012-S8 card for firewire connection. According to the product page on siig website it’s still on sell so I think that will be fine.Any thoughts about it?

Also I have right now two options for graphic card:

Gigabyte Gt630 2gb Ddr3 128 Bits Pci E - Hdmi

Placa Video Gtx550 TI Gigabyte 1gb 192bit Gv-n550d5-1gi Ddr5

Price is not a huge issue, especially because the difference in price between both isn’t that big, but I'm really in doubt as to which to buy and I’d be very thankfull if someone could point me to the right direction.

Well, that’s it.

Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for my english.

[cruisemates]

Good luck on your build. If you get the right components it should go flawlessly, it is so easy to build a computer these as long as you have a decent Internet connection - all the hardware finds its own drivers.

I spec'd out a complete system on Egghead - and then saw someone selling almost the exact same computer on Ebay for 1/2 the price - already built. I would hope and think you can find parts cheaper than 200% in Brazil, this is a world-wide business now. My parts totaled about $1400, and I got the co mputer already built for %700, and it has been working flawlessly.

I am also using the Digi 003 (upgraded from an 002) - I love it, you know it is almost impossible to find a combination interface/control surface anymore. They have made them all separate.

Anyway - it is WORTH the upgrade. I had a Pentium II with 1 GB ram running PTLE 8.05 (built in 2003); I just upgraded to an i7, 32 GB, SSD, 2 SATAs, and Protools 10 and it sounds so much better I was blown away. It is worth the cost - and don't think it is going to be hard to build, it shouldn't be. If it is, just hire someone to do it.