Time for a new build, input please.

[overseer]

Hello all,

It's been a while since I've posted, but I need some input from the forum. I have been working on some projects and saving some scratch and its finally time to build a new recording PC.

I will be running WinXP SP3 for my OS, and I will be using Sonar 7 PE as my DAW software. I will also be running plugins such as Amplitube, PSP Vintage Warmer, Guitar Rig, Waves Bundle, etc. Also, I am running 2 M-Audio Delta 1010s for interfaces. Therefore I need at least 2 PCI slots. I am looking to move up to new firewire or usb interfaces after I've gotten the new computer in and settled.

Below is a list of the components that I am looking to build with. Please take a look over them and their specs and give me your feed back. I want to build the best machine I can for the money that I have.

Mother board: Gigabyte Micro ATX Motherboard GA-H55M-UD2H

Processor: Intel Core i5 750 Processor 2.66 GHz 8 MB LGA1156 CPU

Mem: Corsair XMS3 4 GB PC3-12800 1600Mhz Dual Channel

HDD: 40-80 GB (IDE or SATA OS Drive), 500 GB SATA (Recording/Storage Drive)

So that is what I am looking at. Does that look acceptable to do what I want it to do? Let me know your thoughts. I am ready to move on a purchase once all my homework is done.

Thanks,

OvrCr
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[CurtZHP]

Looks good to me. Gets the job done for now, and give you room to grow later on. Just make sure the power supply is beefy enough. 450W or better.
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[kingmetal]

Looks good but you may want to consider putting Win7 on the machine when it shows up. I'm finding that a lot of newer hardware isn't supported by XP as well as it should (it's an ancient OS at this point!) and I finally took the dive and put Win7 64 on my production rig and it has significantly improved performance across the board. It is a very mature operating system at this point. Your Deltas have drivers for Win7: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=1061

If you know someone with a copy of it, you could install it tentatively and try it -- if you don't put a product key in during installation you won't have to activate the software for 30 days. If you decide you like it, you can just buy the version that you used to install and input the key later. You can also put in a key for 'better' version (like say you had Home Premium but you bought Professional) and it will work that way as well (you just can't go backwards, so if you install Professional and then buy Home Premium you'd have to re-install).

Give it a thought, as far as your hardware it looks good except for the hard drive: DO NOT BUY AND IDE HARD DRIVE. That's suicide, SATA is MUCH faster and you'd be crippling your machine by running an IDE drive. Buy a late model Western Digital or Seagate with a SATAII interface (usually labeled as SATA 3.0GB/S).

The rest looks great I'm running a much less impressive rig and I'm pretty happy with my performance under Cubase, and I've only heard good things about the i5s (and the whole series, really!). I only buy Gigabyte motherboards these days, so that's a great choice as well. What kind of power supply will you be running?
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