[DJ SymBiotiX]

Alright so I need some help once again from all you hardware gurus around here. Here is something I prices out pretty quickly.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=55299
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA1366 DDR3 CrossFireX SLI 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 PCI USB 3.0 Motherboard
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
$219.99

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=39590
Intel Core i7 950 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 3.06GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
$309.98

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...2&promoid=1270
Corsair XMS3 Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
(X2) = $257.66

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=57430
OCZ Vertex 2 80GB Sandforce 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD
$129.99

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...1&promoid=1270
Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2 3Gbps 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
$79.99

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=56262
XFX Radeon HD 6870 900MHZ 1GB 4.2GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini Display Port PCI-E Vide *IR-$20*
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
$229.99

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=56380
ASUS VE228H 21.5IN Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920X1080 LED Backlit 5ms 10M:1DC HDMI DVI-D VGA
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
Add EXPRESS COVERAGE What's this? ($15.50)
(X2) = $309.98

YOUR TOTAL $1,537.58

I'm looking to know if you guys know if any of this is incompatible, or if you guys know any better setups/deals that I should be looking at.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks :D

[Neblix]

I've read around (don't count on me, though) that Caviar Green drives are slower (something about eco friendly power consumption). If you're using that for sample streaming, I'd suggest Caviar Black.

Or if you don't mind $3000 more, get a nice terabyte SSD. :D

Also, power supply? I don't think a random 400 watt can pull the Core i7 and the Radeon HD 6870.

[DJ SymBiotiX]

hmm I totally forgot about a power supply. Oops XD. Ill look in to the caviar blacks. Might grab a 120 or so GB hd for the OS, and just use a caviar black for storage and installations. How much do you think I need in a power supply? 800? Im kinda noob when it comes to this hardware stuff XD

[Flexstyle]

You could probably get away with buying a good, high-quality 650-watt PSU. Something from Antec or Corsair should do nicely. I'm running a similar rig and have plenty of headroom on my 650-watt Antec unit.

[kitty]

Caviar Blacks have higher RPM which means data is read and written faster. So I definitely recommend it if this computer is going to be compiling files for music which I imagine takes quite some time.

Not sure what the exact plans are to build this computer, but prophetik here at OCR builds computers for a small fee. He'll also probably drop in this topic eventually to give his feedback about your hardware setup.

[Moseph]

How much does your friend want to spend, exactly, and what sort of things will he be doing with the system? I ask, because you could shave at least $500 dollars off of that system and still have a good machine for most music purposes.

EDIT: Didn't see that you had $300 in monitors on there, so maybe not $500. The possibilities I was talking about specifically were that you could go with an i7 8xx chip which would let you buy a cheaper motherboard, you could cut the RAM from 12 to 8 GB, you could replace the SSD with a regular disk drive (actually, I'd do this regardless because 80 GB is really too small to be your only sample drive), and you could replace the video card with a bargain-basement model. Dual monitors is a good idea, though. Don't forget the power supply, the case, the DVD drive, and (if needed) the operating system and soundcard/audio interface.

[Nutritious]

Any specific reason for the expensive graphics card? Unless they're gaming of course.

With my recent build, I went budget-friendly and got an AMD mobo with an integrated radeon graphics card. Since I use the computer primarily for music, it's not a big deal. Still, it can handle a game like Team Fortress 2 with decent graphics settings.

[DJ SymBiotiX]

hmm well I guess I could go down on the GFX card. The idea i that this would also be a general/gaming computer. As far as going from 12 GB ram to 8 GB. if I put 8 in there then it will be dual channel instead of tripple channel. So 12 or 6 would be ideal.
The SSD wouldnt be for the samples. The SSD would be for the OS to give the computer an overall speedup (sure as hell helped my computer)
DVD drives are cheap, so im not really calculating that. Audio interface will come later, and I guess I should add an OS in there.

[Neblix]

Originally Posted by Moseph

EDIT: Didn't see that you had $300 in monitors on there, so maybe not $500. The possibilities I was talking about specifically were that you could go with an i7 8xx chip which would let you buy a cheaper motherboard, you could cut the RAM from 12 to 8 GB, you could replace the SSD with a regular disk drive (actually, I'd do this regardless because 80 GB is really too small to be your only sample drive), and you could replace the video card with a bargain-basement model. Dual monitors is a good idea, though. Don't forget the power supply, the case, the DVD drive, and (if needed) the operating system and soundcard/audio interface.

I think he wanted the SSD as a boot drive. Using an SSD as a samples drive would be incredibly lightning fast, but would cost an arm and a leg.
Also, unless he's recording, he should do fine with integrated audio and ASIO4ALL. It's not like he needs to hardware I/O if he only uses software.

[DJ SymBiotiX]

yeah my friend doesn't really have anything to record, so an interface isn't the biggest deal at the moment. ASIO4ALL ftw :P
Im gonna modify the list soonish and let you guys know. Also looking to get prophetik up in this piece at some point. He helped me out quite a bit last time I built a computer.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far btw