jackritt Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Ok guys I need some major help. I have a budget of 3000 dollars and I wanna build a top of the line mac that I can use for music editing (Logic, Pro Tools, Reason, etc.). Can anyone recommend me some builds? Also if I can save 1000 dollars on this build or more I'll be extremely happy. A friend of mine is helping me build this thing up but he's more used to building PC's. He doesn't really know if this would be a good mac build but anyway please help me!!! ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 Turtle Beach TBS-3300-01 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Montego DDL Sound Card SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF SYBA PCI 32-bit Firewire 1394b Controller Card Model SD-FWB-32B 4 Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Thermaltake W0116RU 750W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version NVIDIA SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Cabling Active PFC Power Supply We'd be running the hard drives at raid 5. Anyway thanks in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suprjacob Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Your sound card isn't going to work. PCI-Express only, PCI does not work (yes, there is a difference). Your graphics card... maybe. I'm not real big on ATI cards, I'm a nVidia guy myself. And what do you people use firewire for? lol, i can't find anything that uses it If you need it, though, yes, go ahead. But doesn't the MB have one built in? My $0.02 for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrock42 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 firewire for capturing video is number 1. external harddrives also scratch better when using firewire. USB being a serial connection where as firewire is parallel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopmonkey Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Ok guys I need some major help. I have a budget of 3000 dollars and I wanna build a top of the line mac that I can use for music editing (Logic, Pro Tools, Reason, etc.). Can anyone recommend me some builds? Also if I can save 1000 dollars on this build or more I'll be extremely happy. A friend of mine is helping me build this thing up but he's more used to building PC's. He doesn't really know if this would be a good mac build but anyway please help me!!! ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 Turtle Beach TBS-3300-01 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Montego DDL Sound Card SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF SYBA PCI 32-bit Firewire 1394b Controller Card Model SD-FWB-32B 4 Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Thermaltake W0116RU 750W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version NVIDIA SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Cabling Active PFC Power Supply We'd be running the hard drives at raid 5. Anyway thanks in advance!! Maybe you can save some money by buying a Q6600 quad core 2.4ghz and just buy a nice heatsink and overclock it to 3.0ghz. Also, do you really need 4TB of HDD space? Next, why don't you buy 4gb G-Skill Ram kit since I believe it is cheaper than the Corsair. I'm sure you can save some money there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackintom Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 The 4850 won't work !! The fastest GPU supported today is the 9800 GTX+ BTW, if you have 3k$, buy a Core i7 platform... or a skulltrail !! And I forgot: you won't be able to use the Raid 5 of the mobo. You'd better choose a gigabyte mobo, you will be able to use their Raid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackritt Posted September 3, 2008 Author Share Posted September 3, 2008 Thanks guys! I'm gonna check this stuff out in a bit when I'm done with school today and I'll post any other questions I have. I appreciate the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaaseyRacer Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 If you have a budget of 3 grand I would be looking at some dual processor stuff. Board: Intel BOXD5400XS Dual LGA 771 Skulltrail D5400XS Extended ATX Motherboard Processors: Intel Xeon E5430 Harpertown 2.66GHz LGA 771 80W Quad-Core Processor (x2) Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 FB-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ECC Fully Buffered Dual Channel Kit (x2 8GB in Total) Graphics Card: BFG Tech BFGE88512GTOCE GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready (Simple and Easy) Power Supply: Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s (x4) Grand Total of $3,057.91 The hard drive set up is kinda spendy. Personally I would go with a 640GB dual platter as my primary drive, and then get other internal drives for scratch disks, and storage/backup. Running a RAID5 as a primary drive is going to not be any benefit to what you are doing other than your system and system data will be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackritt Posted September 3, 2008 Author Share Posted September 3, 2008 If you have a budget of 3 grand I would be looking at some dual processor stuff. Board: Intel BOXD5400XS Dual LGA 771 Skulltrail D5400XS Extended ATX Motherboard Processors: Intel Xeon E5430 Harpertown 2.66GHz LGA 771 80W Quad-Core Processor (x2) Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 FB-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ECC Fully Buffered Dual Channel Kit (x2 8GB in Total) Graphics Card: BFG Tech BFGE88512GTOCE GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready (Simple and Easy) Power Supply: Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s (x4) Grand Total of $3,057.91 The hard drive set up is kinda spendy. Personally I would go with a 640GB dual platter as my primary drive, and then get other internal drives for scratch disks, and storage/backup. Running a RAID5 as a primary drive is going to not be any benefit to what you are doing other than your system and system data will be safe. See the thing is I don't think Logic 8 is fully capable of utilizing the dual quad cores. I much prefer the single quad just because I feel my comp doesn't need it. I mean besides doing music editing/recording I'm just going to be going on the internet. I like having the raid 5 config because I want to make sure I don't lose anything even with a backup drive (I'm kind of OCD when it comes to this. I mean I lost a 15 hour project once and I plan not to do that again.) Anyway I could be wrong about the software. If so please correct me! I will definitly look into the skulltrail mobo though because it looks crazy. Besides that, any recommendation for a good soundcard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marliwahoo Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Buy a mac pro for $2600. Buy the dual quad xeon with minimum ram and hd's. Use the left over money to upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaaseyRacer Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 If you are worried about your data and you are doing audio recording. I would build a RAID5 as a scratch/storage disk in your computer. Having your primary boot drive as your primary data drive is a bad idea on all counts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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