Hi!
I need some advice to transform an old gaming monster into a mobile little desktop for professional audio recording in the studio and on stage. I've built PCs in the past but that was a long time ago, so I'm not a complete noob, but I need help.
My brother gave me his old Gaming monster:
i7-2600k
gigabyte z68 motherboard M-ATX
2x AMD HD6900 in crossfire
2x intel SSD
8MB RAM
liquid cooling
I think the CPU is still great. For multitrack audio recording through a professional Audiointerface the single-core speed is crutial. Also for many audio applications I use, the utilisation of many cores is still problematic because of realtime issues. So single-core speed it is.
NO GAMING, not even a bit.
So there is no need for a discrete GPU. This also will save power, heat and space.
NO RGB.
I dont know if I'm right but as a musician you learn to not introduce unnecessary electrical interferences in your system because Audio over USB (prof. Audiointerface) tends to be sensitive to these kinds of things.
STABILITY BEFORE SPEED.
In the club on stage you need your system as stable as possible for obvious reasons. Its hot (up to 50 C°) noisy fans don't matter (I don't use microphones and the music is hopefully louder as than the fans :-). In the studio it matters a bit more, but also here I don't use Mics so the fans noise won't make it onto the recording) My conclusion to this: No OC! Maybe different Fan profiles.
MOBILITY!
I will carry that thing (not the monitor) every day inside a backpack. So the main goal would be:
AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE (for mobility)
AS BIG AS NECESSARY (for stabilty and coolness)
I thought the existing CPU, the 2 SSDs and the RAM is a great point to start. I would need a MB, a case and a Cooler.
Here are my Questions:
Motherboard M-ITX:
1.1 As I'm not planning to overclock it might be better to get a non-Z chipset because you never know what OC-tinkering the previous user did and it might be worn off by that. Right? Wrong?
1.2 What Chipset do you recommend? Which chipsets are compatible with the k2600? I need as many USB ports as possible. Do the z/h7x chipsets give me more value than the z/h6x?
1.3 I know AsRock is very good nowadays, but I remember talk of some quality issues back in the day (2011) Right? Wrong?
Case:
2.1 I like the InWin Chopin. Will the 150W power the CPU/MB/SSDs and 1-2 USB powered devices (NO GPU)?
2.2 Is the Chopin good for strong air cooling?
2.3 Other possible cases?
Air-Cooler: (PERFORMANCE BEFORE SILENCE)
3.1 The InWin Chopin ok for the Cryorig c7? Judging from the technical details of the case (43mm) no, but I've read threads here where people say it fits. Could you confirm that? If yes, does the tiny space left between case and cooler affect the cooling negatively?
3.2 Other possible coolers?
I hope the read was not too long. Please feel free to point me to some online information.
Thanks in advance
I need some advice to transform an old gaming monster into a mobile little desktop for professional audio recording in the studio and on stage. I've built PCs in the past but that was a long time ago, so I'm not a complete noob, but I need help.
My brother gave me his old Gaming monster:
i7-2600k
gigabyte z68 motherboard M-ATX
2x AMD HD6900 in crossfire
2x intel SSD
8MB RAM
liquid cooling
I think the CPU is still great. For multitrack audio recording through a professional Audiointerface the single-core speed is crutial. Also for many audio applications I use, the utilisation of many cores is still problematic because of realtime issues. So single-core speed it is.
NO GAMING, not even a bit.
So there is no need for a discrete GPU. This also will save power, heat and space.
NO RGB.
I dont know if I'm right but as a musician you learn to not introduce unnecessary electrical interferences in your system because Audio over USB (prof. Audiointerface) tends to be sensitive to these kinds of things.
STABILITY BEFORE SPEED.
In the club on stage you need your system as stable as possible for obvious reasons. Its hot (up to 50 C°) noisy fans don't matter (I don't use microphones and the music is hopefully louder as than the fans :-). In the studio it matters a bit more, but also here I don't use Mics so the fans noise won't make it onto the recording) My conclusion to this: No OC! Maybe different Fan profiles.
MOBILITY!
I will carry that thing (not the monitor) every day inside a backpack. So the main goal would be:
AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE (for mobility)
AS BIG AS NECESSARY (for stabilty and coolness)
I thought the existing CPU, the 2 SSDs and the RAM is a great point to start. I would need a MB, a case and a Cooler.
Here are my Questions:
Motherboard M-ITX:
1.1 As I'm not planning to overclock it might be better to get a non-Z chipset because you never know what OC-tinkering the previous user did and it might be worn off by that. Right? Wrong?
1.2 What Chipset do you recommend? Which chipsets are compatible with the k2600? I need as many USB ports as possible. Do the z/h7x chipsets give me more value than the z/h6x?
1.3 I know AsRock is very good nowadays, but I remember talk of some quality issues back in the day (2011) Right? Wrong?
Case:
2.1 I like the InWin Chopin. Will the 150W power the CPU/MB/SSDs and 1-2 USB powered devices (NO GPU)?
2.2 Is the Chopin good for strong air cooling?
2.3 Other possible cases?
Air-Cooler: (PERFORMANCE BEFORE SILENCE)
3.1 The InWin Chopin ok for the Cryorig c7? Judging from the technical details of the case (43mm) no, but I've read threads here where people say it fits. Could you confirm that? If yes, does the tiny space left between case and cooler affect the cooling negatively?
3.2 Other possible coolers?
I hope the read was not too long. Please feel free to point me to some online information.
Thanks in advance