Its that time again...i need a New Computer.

[BasariStudios]

Hi all, back in 2010 in June with all your help i built this my self:

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower,
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz,
MoBo: ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0,
GFX: MSI R6850 Cyclone PE/OC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5,
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 16GB 1600 (PC3 12800),
CPU HS: Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO CPU Cooler,
PSU: SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3,
Studio-HDD: WD Black 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s,
Data-HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5",
OS-HDD: WD Green 320GB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s,
ODD: Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner AD-7261S-0B LightScribe,
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Then i dragged long and complicated, was worried much about all kinds of things
but then found out some of them were not really important, one of them the noise
and stuff, of course i do not want it to sound like an airplane but nothing surgical.

And its that time of the year again, i wanna build new machine, this one works and
i am still using it, maybe will continue to use it with the new one or dismantle it
and use of of the stuff above in the new one, i guess the HDDs will be the only thing.

I do Audio and some Video Editing but mainly heavy Audio processing. My main question
is, is there anything out there that will actually give me performance worth the money
i will spend now or it will not be much more then this? Where do i start?
Graphics Card is important too, i wanna use it in CUDA where the GC becomes a processing
power for Audio too. GC, CPU and MOBO i can spare 13-1500$ plus the rest of the stuff.

Let me start somewhere and see where we get. Of course i would love advices on all components.
Keep in mind, my Audio Disk Drive will run on Win 7 x64 and it can not be without a FW connection,
i will still use my old Card that i have in this computer that i am using now a TI 1394.

Thanks
Nedim

[Kaine]

Purely from a processor benchmark view, your current chip pulls around 5000 marks.

The quad core 6700K at the top end of the mid-range currently will give you around 10800, the hex core 5820K which is low end enthusiast pulls just shy of 13000 and the high end octo-core 5960X gives you around 16010.

I suspect you'll find something in that lot that gives you the performance increase your looking for.

Your noted TI FW card, is that a FW400 or FW800 version? I've found that most of the FW400 only cards (FW400/FW800 cards are unaffected), including the TI FW400 solutions won't work on the current X99 (enthusiast) and Z170 (mainstream) chipsets.

[BasariStudios]

Hi Kaine...so in reality i will just splurge 2-3000$ for a very little performance increase?
Also...is there anything i can do to the current system to upgrade? I was thinking instead
of building new one just adding a System and Libraries SSDs to this now.
My card is 400/800, it has both, i wanna stay away from USB Audio Interfaces.
Also, in about a month or two there will be more parts for the 6th Generation Intel?
Will there be any difference?
I was also wondering, what about the 6 and 8 core processors?
Thanks

[UltimateOutsider]

The quad core 6700K at the top end of the mid-range currently will give you around 10800, the hex core 5820K which is low end enthusiast pulls just shy of 13000 and the high end octo-core 5960X gives you around 16010.

Your noted TI FW card, is that a FW400 or FW800 version? I've found that most of the FW400 only cards (FW400/FW800 cards are unaffected), including the TI FW400 solutions won't work on the current X99 (enthusiast) and Z170 (mainstream) chipsets.

FWIW I have the 6-core 5930K and yesterday it benched at 15926.6 on the CPU Mark test and 5952.5 on the overall Passmark test (running on Win 7 64-bit).

Also, on other forums I have seen complaints about TI firewire not working well with modern ASUS boards, but my Rosewill Firewire 400 card is Via based and works excellently. Yesterday I was getting reliable performance on my RME Fireface UFX at 44.1kHz/24-bit under a very heavy DSP load with a 48 sample buffer (4.785ms round-trip latency). So at least this Via FireWire chipset is working great.

Hi Kaine...so in reality i will just splurge 2-3000$ for a very little performance increase?
Also...is there anything i can do to the current system to upgrade? I was thinking instead
of building new one just adding a System and Libraries SSDs to this now.
My card is 400/800, it has both, i wanna stay away from USB Audio Interfaces.
Also, in about a month or two there will be more parts for the 6th Generation Intel?
Will there be any difference?
I was also wondering, what about the 6 and 8 core processors?
Thanks

The number of cores can have a big effect on your DAW performance, depending on what tools you use. Cubase, for example, will run threads on every available logical/virtual core and evenly distribute the load, letting you squeeze every possible ounce out of your CPU. Other DAWs have other ways of taking advantage of physical cores and hyper-threading, with varied results. Clock rate's important, too, though. That's why I saw the 5930K as a really reasonable compromise between the other two Haswell-E processors.

The higher number of PCIe lanes on the 5930K and 5960X might be requirements for some users, particularly for people who want to use multiple high-end graphics cards. If I were only concerned about PCIe lanes, the 5820K would have been sufficient for my needs.

EDIT: Wanted to add- if I were building a PC right now, I would still go for the last generation (Haswell-E) over Skylake. When Haswell-E came out it took the industry at least six months before motherboards/chipsets for that generation of processors to get truly relibale via firmware and driver updates. The X99 series motherboards are finally pretty stable across the board now that all the early adopter-reported problems have been fixed. You'll likely find yourself dealing with some surprises by diving into Skylake right away, but that's just my conservative approach. Some folks enjoy the adventures of being on the bleeding edge.

[BasariStudios]

Here is a wishlist i made...at least starting to get somewhere:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=28286985

[Kaine]

Hi Kaine...so in reality i will just splurge 2-3000$ for a very little performance increase?

Even the lowest end benchmark I posted offered double the raw CPU benchmark, so I wouldn't call that a small upgrade!

Also...is there anything i can do to the current system to upgrade? I was thinking instead
of building new one just adding a System and Libraries SSDs to this now.

If you problem is sample bank load times, that will help. If your problem is running out of processing overhead, you'd need a CPU upgrade.

My card is 400/800, it has both, i wanna stay away from USB Audio Interfaces.

Combo cards are fine, different chipset.

Also, in about a month or two there will be more parts for the 6th Generation Intel?
Will there be any difference?

Not expecting a huge one. The flagships might get a small boost as they refine the silicon, but your talking a 200MHz clock bump normally, if your lucky.

I was also wondering, what about the 6 and 8 core processors?
Thanks

I did mention them above.

The X99 based 5820K is my sweet spot since Z170 launched in the midrange. Current pricing on the highend quadcore 6700K in the midrange due to it now using DDR4, puts it suprisingly close to the lowend 6 core 5820K in the highend once all the parts are factored in, your probably looking at around £150 - £200 difference and personally I'd take the 5820K for that amount.

I've got a chart with results for the 6700K, 5820K and 5960X published here: http://www.scanproaudio.info/intel-skyl ... h-testing/ that also compares against a number of older boards.

FWIW I have the 6-core 5930K and yesterday it benched at 15926.6 on the CPU Mark test and 5952.5 on the overall Passmark test (running on Win 7 64-bit).

Yeah, I'd expect that with a clock boost and it has to be noted the recorded benchmarks can vary a bit depending on the rest of the system in use. For me personally the 5820K and the 5930K both overclock to around the same level, so personally (YMMV) I'm prone to saving the cash, going for the 5820K and overclocking as I don't care about the extra lanes, but that of course is just my requirements. The 5930K doesn't offer much for the money except for the clock boost and all those extra lanes. Of course if you need the lanes for a multiple gfx cards or simply don't wish to overclock the 5820K, its a great chip, I'm just a bit more of a cheapskate

Also, on other forums I have seen complaints about TI firewire not working well with modern ASUS boards, but my Rosewill Firewire 400 card is Via based and works excellently. Yesterday I was getting reliable performance on my RME Fireface UFX at 44.1kHz/24-bit under a very heavy DSP load with a 48 sample buffer (4.785ms round-trip latency). So at least this Via FireWire chipset is working great.

Yep, althrough that VIA chipset doesn't work with every interface you'll throw at it, althrough its certainly great when it does choose to play nicely. The TI is notable as it's the same chip that's been recommended by every interface maker and his dog since the dawn of time, so suddenly finding it falling over on the newer boards was a bit disconcerting to say the least.

The TI combo chips (FW800 and FW400 on the same card) work fine and that is indeed the solution that OP has, so all good as far as I can see.

[Kaine]

Here is a wishlist i made...at least starting to get somewhere:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=28286985

Could have sworn I looked at this and saw an MSI board on there, only to hit refresh and an Asrock appeared?
Did you change it, or am I just imagining things over here?

Anyhow I'd take a MSI X99 board all day long, either that or the Asus or perhaps a Gigabyte if your not overclocking. Not big on Asrocks for this sort of work, still not convinced by some of their component choices and more to the point the resulting drivers, I do tend to use them for media centers and the like, so I'm pretty familiar with them still.

Rest of the parts look fine through.

[BasariStudios]

Thanks Kaine, now things are a lot clearer. No, there was not an MSI board.
Can you please point to some MSI or ASUS? And for now i wanna get 32GB RAM
but in 2x16, wanna keep the 2 extra slots for later, instead of 4x8.

[Kaine]

Boards across the X99 range are much the same core hardware, with different bits bolted on. Find the X99 board from the relevent manufacturer that has the features you need and go for it.

[BasariStudios]

Thanks...for some stupid reason i am more comfortable with ASUS and maybe the reason
is because i already am using one for 5 years so lets see. I have 3 questions though:

1. 5820 vs5930, is it acvtually worth the money for the 200MGHZ? but thats 6x200.
Lanes i do not know, will use the GFX in CUDA sometimes too.
2. Strix 960 2GB vs Strix 960 4GB vs 980 4GB, again, value vs money?
Would i see that AWESOME difference or i can save the money?
3. The PSU, would somewhere around 650 Gold be ok or jump to 750?

Thanks

[BasariStudios]

I really like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813132518

[Kaine]

Thanks...for some stupid reason i am more comfortable with ASUS and maybe the reason is because i already am using one for 5 years so lets see.

Then I reckon they've proven themselves to you already then! Tier 1 brands and they don't skimp on components, can't knock them. I've not used the Sabretooth in the X99 generation, although my own personal studio machine is a X79 Sabretooth and the setup before that was a X58 Sabretooth.

I find them feature light but generally the drivers are great and the board is solid. Most people default to the cheaper, better spec'd models and those are great, but the Sabre series I really do like for reliability reasons.

1. 5820 vs5930, is it acvtually worth the money for the 200MGHZ? but thats 6x200.
Lanes i do not know, will use the GFX in CUDA sometimes too.

If your not using more than 1 graphic card, you don't need the extra lanes offed on the 5930.

2. Strix 960 2GB vs Strix 960 4GB vs 980 4GB, again, value vs money?
Would i see that AWESOME difference or i can save the money?

Playing games? If no, then no, you won't. CUDA support whilst nice, isn't life changing in any regards, as most processing is done on the CPU, even in video editing situations.

3. The PSU, would somewhere around 650 Gold be ok or jump to 750?

That board/960 gpu/memory/CPU even overclocked would floating around the 400w mark under load. Given the preference to leave 50% overhead, the 650 gold would be fine. Should you go 980, I'd consider the 750 instead.

[tehlord]

Kaine for President

[BasariStudios]

Thank you Kaine...that's all done and Set, i will just have Part specific questions i guess.
The only thing that bugs me is the Cooling, the Noctua things are huge, uuugghh and hang over the RAM Slots.
The MOBO, i just read all Specs for Sabertooth, its not for me, i will go with an ASUS X99PRO i guess.

1. The Antec P380, i do not see an external Drive Bay for a BR/DVD/CD player?
Do i need to buy any extra fans for the case it self?

2. What RAM for this MotherBoard and CPU? I am comfortable with Ripjaws but which ones?

3. Based on this whole system (my wishlist is final) what Cooler i can get away with and and not being too huge,
there is one already added to my wishlist.

4. I remember when i built my older system i bought a special Paste that you spread on the Cooler and not
the one that came with it, someone told me it was better, can't find on newegg now.

5. I built only 2 computers from scratch in my life, should i give this a shot my self or pay someone?
Both times i built was first click ON, no problems at all...i guess i should enjoy the thrill again.

Thanks

And yes...you should've joined the debate last night.

[legendCNCD]

You do want the huge cooler from Noctua
I have one and its dead silent if you dont open the case and put your ear into it. Also very very cool with i7-4960..
I have X79 setup with Strix 970OC and 660W PSU from Seasonic.. yes I do game.