Built mine over a year ago now.

• Intel Core2 Quad Q9450 (2.67GHz) w/ Zalman 9500 heatsink+fan
• Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 motherboard (based on the Intel P35 chipset)
• WinXP-x86, Vista-64x, Win7-64x tri-boot
• 2GB CAS5 Corsair DDR2 800
• 2 x 500GB Western Digital Caviar RE2 enterprise (for better reliability) hard-drives
• 512MB nVidia GeForce 8800GT. Great for gaming.
• Corsair HX520 (520W) PSU.
• Nzxt Lexa case.

Total cost ~£1K.

Solid as a rock with XP. Never had a single blue screen on this computer.

Vista created DPC spikes when I first tested it for audio work, but I think this was due to early graphics card drivers at the time but I've not since tested it in over a year as XP just works so well.

Not tested Win7 for audio yet, but it's much faster than Vista in general use.

Holly crap Timo, that thing looks like it could take off!

Actually my studio machine is very similar to yours spec wise (although a few of your components a little bit better than mine), but it doesn't look no where near as flash!

Intel i7 920 2.6ghz quad core x 2 threads each core
intel dx58so board
6gb Corsair ram
Antec 900 case
corsair 550 watt psu
WD 500gb drive
UAD-1 powered plugins card
ATI Raedon 2600
LG Dvd burner





Running dual boot XP and Win7-64

Very very solid with everything. Also very very very very very very very very fast ableton rarely goes past 12% cpu. <3

Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4Ghz
Asus P5K-E motherboard
2GB Kingston CL4 ram
Antec P182 silent case
Antec Neo HE 430 watt psu
Hitachi 500gb SATA2 drive
RME 9632 PCI audio card
nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
Pioneer DVR-215D burner

Hey DrJonez,
Looks great, I'm looking at building something very similar.
How much did that beast cost, with & without the UAD-1?

The UAD-1 is something that I had from my old system which was a P4 3.0 gig w/ 1 gig (single core). For the record, this syststem BLOWS that sucker away.

Obviously.

The total cost of the system was about $1200 USD around 2 months ago. Also, I have to say, this is the BEST case I've ever owned. It' ergonomic, great panel features, sexy look, quiet and even has a little spot at top to store your keys, USB drives, weed, or connectors!

You can get a used UAD-1 for around $175. They've been replaced by the UAD-2. Luckily, this board as a PCI slot, so I was able to accommodate the old technology...

Thanks for the info.
Coincidentally the system I am replacing is the same! P4 3ghz, absolute crap in the current market.
Same as you I already have my RME soundcard and TC Powercore.
I priced mine to about £1.2k aswell, but that is with good quality components ofc.

XLR8A, did you turn that Asus into a Hackintosh???

That's what I did to my years old P5K-Premium (I have that same case too!) I wiped my XP x64 and ditched Sonar after all these years to go with Mac OS X 10.5.7 and Logic. Best move I ever did. Only running a 3.0GHz Core2Duo with 4GB of RAM, but no need to go faster just yet... This thing is really solid.

I was surprised that all of my hardware would work so well with OS X on this thing. My iLok works perfectly for my software licenses, the MIDIsport 4x4 works, the Zoom H2 field recorder works as an input device as well as a standard field recorder, and my Toneport works perfectly (would like to maybe switch to something else later though.) The fucking devices even pass through onto an XP install inside of VMware Fusion and work in legacy software there. (not many programs that I have to run on XP but it works great.)

A lot of that stuff didn't work in x64... That was some annoying shit right there..

Intel i7 920 Processor
Gigabyte ex 58 ud3r mobo
kingston DDR3 1333MHz 1.5V 6 GB
Nvidia 512 mb Gforce display card
MAudio Delta 4x4 Interface
Samsung 20 inch 2033 SW monitor
7200 RPM IDE Hard Drive (old)
Glacial Power 650 Watt PSU
Cooler MAster Cabinet


I still have to assemble this computer....just got it...

I wanna use a 64 bit OS cause i wanna utilize all 6 GB of RAM.
I am also running Protools. As of now Protools only supports Vista 64 which sucks...so i'm gonna have to get used to using vista for a while....till windows 7 works with Protools..
Also my audio interface drivers are only compatible with vista 64...

i really do not wanna sacrifice 2 GB of RAM by going with a 32 bit OS..

so VISTA IT IS !!

Much needed to do, running a 3ghz p4, running out of power on every project now, even after streaming things down.

Going to wait to go all 64bit, loads of ram, with the new windows. feels like a waste to upgrade now, when such a massive jump up is only months off (more like half a year when you get round to it.

Just hope my emu card will be 64 bit. or I could just sack it and use the virus. never thought of that till now.