Looking to upgrade system

[sw0mgt]

Hi,

It appears my motherboard is dying; thus, a good excuse to upgrade my system!

I am thinking about upgrading the motherboard, ram and CPU. Performance on Pro Tools is the most important consideration. What would you say?

Current system
Motherboard: ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core
RAM: 2 x Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Graphics card: EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Hard drive: Western Digital AV-GP WD10EVDS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Firewire card: SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe Model NN-E20012-S2
DVD-ROM: PLEXTOR 18X DVD±R Super Multi DVD Burner Black SATA Model
Power supply: SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT 650W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Case: Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

[EGS]

Read this thread (especially the first 2 posts). There's tons of great info here:

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=238426

[albee1952]

Looks like you could recycle a lot of parts, and just buy motherboard, cpu and RAM. If I were building today, it would be an i7 socket 2011 quad or 6 core, X79 motherboard(Asus or Gigabyte) and 16GB of quad-channel RAM(or 32GB if you have the extra $100).

[sw0mgt]

Why the 2011 socket? Would it specifically benefit pro tools? The mobos are a bit more expensive and is love to keep my RAM/mobi/cpu around 800

[albee1952]

Budget can rule the day, but the intel i7 socket 2011 is the king of the hill when it comes to horsepower for PT. Socket 1155 has been a disappointment for many(including me) and I would steer clear of it. If money is tight, price out an X58 mobo and an i7 950(or 960) with 6GB of DDR3 RAM(or 12GB if you find a good deal). I bet you can hit your budget and I think it would outperform the 775 system in a large way(with Hyperthreading enabled, PT will see 8 cores). It may be considered old, but its a proven package(I own 2 x58 rigs that both work very nicely).

[sw0mgt]

Here's what I'm going with: any thoughts before I take the plunge? Really hoping this system works well for Pro Tools.


I chose a case with a pretty sick air-flow design: the FT02. It's one of the most silent cases (sound insulation foam, 3 slow moving 180mm fans), it's beautiful, and has great airflow. Cooling with a Noctua NH-D14 because it looks wicked for airflow with my case, and it is said to be the best air cooler on the market and somewhat quiet:




FT02 (case) and NH-D14 (cooler): All seven fans flow in one direction! Pressurized, directional airflow driven by 3 quiet 180mm fans on the bottom blowing out 1 120mm fan on the top Natural convection at its best.

Sticking with LGA 2011 6-core because users here have said it's the best chip/socket for Pro Tools.

Still looking for motherboard recommendations. Might ditch ASUS because of the comments here and elsewhere: they don't seem to be very reliable these days.

I went with 1866 RAM because it was only $15 more expensive than 1600 RAM, and it might give me more overclockability.

Prolimatech thermal compound out performs AS5 on every benchmark I've seen :)

Motherboard:
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

CPU:
Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K

Thermal Compound:
Prolimatech PRO-PK1-5G PK-1 Thermal Compound - 5 Gram

Heatsink:
Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 140mm and 120mm SSO CPU Cooler

RAM
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10Q-32GBZL

SSDs:
2x Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

HDDs:
1 x SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT 650W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified ...Western Digital AV-GP WD10EVDS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive -Bare Drive

1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

GPU:
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

PSU:
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT 650W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified ...

1394a:
SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe Model NN-E20012-S2

DVD-ROM:
1 x PLEXTOR 18X DVD±R Super Multi DVD Burner Black SATA Model PX-810SA/SW-BL

Case:
SilverStone Fortress Series SST-FT02B-USB3.0 Black 4.5mm aluminum unibody frame, 0.8mm steel body ATX Mid Tower Computer ...

Fan controller:
Scythe Kaze Master Pro 5.25 Fan Controller

Fan: (to replace the loud 120mm case fan)
Scythe SY1225SL12L 120mm "Slipstream" Case Fan

[albee1952]

Why spend all that money on 2 SSD's? I could see 1 for system if you really NEED fast boot time, but that money would buy WD Caviar Black drives and store a boatload more data. Also, I'm not big on the Caviar Blue(I own several) and find them to be quite "middle of the road" in dependability(Caviar Black are my first choice). I use some Blue drive as system, drives, but I have them imaged and cloned for backups(as I do with ALL my system drives).