My System Build

[JMonroe24]

Specs:

E8400 3.0ghz Core 2 Duo

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

2 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

ASUS V-60 92mm Vapo Bearing CPU Cooler

EVGA 512-P3-N975-AR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

ASRock X38TurboTwins LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

I WILL BE RUNNING PRO TOOLS 7.4

I WANT YOUR OPINION ON HOW EFFECTIVE DO YOU THINK THIS SETUP WILL BE WITH PRO TOOLS? THIS IS MY FIRST CUSTOM BUILD AND IM BUYING SOME MORE PARTS FOR CHRISTMAS.

[Matt Whritenour]

I have the same processor and my computer fly's and is extremely stable.
I know other there's a lot of other things that go into it, but that's just a nice CPU.

Here are my specs running great with that processor.
E8400 3ghz core 2 duo
ASUS P5N-D mobo
ZALMAN heatsink/fan
Corsair Ram 2 x 2GB, the faster one that's .4 MS or nano seconds or whatever the measurement is.
EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS (superclocked)
Western Digital 250gig 16mb cache sata system drive partitioned into 2. 1 for Vista Home Premium, the second for XP Pro SP2
WD 500gig drive for recording sata
WD 2 - 1 TB sata drives in Raid 1 configuration running off the Mobo's raid controller.

[JMonroe24]

Thanks for the opinion.

[pcmusicpro]

I don't recommend you the Asrock board. Here everybody uses ASUS boards with great results. Check the Core 2 thread for more info.

[JMonroe24]

I was going to get the ASUS board but the next one I saw with ddr3 capability was about 250 and more. The ASRock board has ddr2 and 3 capability for a nice price.

[shea]

Originally Posted by JMonroe24

I was going to get the ASUS board but the next one I saw with ddr3 capability was about 250 and more. The ASRock board has ddr2 and 3 capability for a nice price.

Be wise like me and heed advice,forget ddr3 for now and change that board to asus

seamus

[JMonroe24]

Well im not buying the board right now so I will wait and see if the prices go down or asus comes out with another board for a lower price.

[mano111]

Originally Posted by JMonroe24

I was going to get the ASUS board but the next one I saw with ddr3 capability was about 250 and more. The ASRock board has ddr2 and 3 capability for a nice price.

What good is DDR3 on this chip set and/or CPU?
(none )
It would be like using unleaded fuel on an old car that doesn't need it...
If you where going for Core i7 then you NEED DDR3.

Also I would consider a quad core CPU, as PT knows how to take advantage of the extra cores, so you'll get almost double performance per clock. Q8200/Q6600 are low price alternatives. Q9550 would be the sweet spot.

The Asus cpu coller wouldn't be my first choice to say the least.
If you wanna go chep go AC freezer 7, if you want the best go with Termalright (Ultima 90, Ultra Extreme 120, or HR1+)

[JMonroe24]

Originally Posted by mano111

What good is DDR3 on this chip set and/or CPU?
(none )
It would be like using unleaded fuel on an old car that doesn't need it...
If you where going for Core i7 then you NEED DDR3.

Also I would consider a quad core CPU, as PT knows how to take advantage of the extra cores, so you'll get almost double performance per clock. Q8200/Q6600 are low price alternatives. Q9550 would be the sweet spot.

The Asus cpu coller wouldn't be my first choice to say the least.
If you wanna go chep go AC freezer 7, if you want the best go with Termalright (Ultima 90, Ultra Extreme 120, or HR1+)

Well i already bought the chip so i guess oh well to that. lol, but as far as a board I will wait. Your right with the ddr3 issue, but I guess I just wanted something capable of doing it.

With my rig I am doing Pro Tools mostly, but also video editing and I the E8400 will do for me. Seems like there are a lot of people recording with less.

[Matt Whritenour]

My normal sessions are around 22-28tracks with a bunch of plugs on all the tracks at at least 3 reverbs, and in PT8 in Vista (haven't tried my XP partition yet) I am getting 28-31% CPU Usage, So I have a good amount of headroom.

That's also at 512buffer, 2CPU at 85% settings