Weekly Updates - 2/11/13

[Tech Warrior]

I'm a bit late, but this is the first of many weekly updates relating to my current music production (and even perhaps non-related). Weekly Updates will be every Monday! Please realize that I understand that this a forum related to Marble Blast, not music. Within the past few months I've realized that. I've mentioned in another blog why I still post here the way I do; it's a fairly recent post if you want to dig for it.

January was a very slow month for me. I didn't get anything done that was on my agenda for that month. The bright side is that I have developed a fully-functional plan that will carry out in the coming months, if I'm dedicated enough to do so.

Recently, I've been looking into getting a new computer. This is because my current system will not fly any longer, considering my demands. What I had found was that getting a new system wouldn't necessarily fit my needs exactly as I wanted. I therefore made the decision (along with my dad) that we would build me a new computer. While this method is slightly more risky, it is more rewarding in the end, because I'll have the tricked-up super computer that I want, and sort of need at this day in age. Getting this new system will not only make making music much easier, but will also enable me to make MC and other gaming videos, as I've already started doing. As long as I'm good to go on graphics cards, I should be good. Any suggestions?

I've thought about a source of income for this project, as that would be essential. I came to the conclusion to write a book, initially for the Kindle Direct Publishing system Amazon has. In addition to my album (which has only gotten me $10 thusfar), this second source of income will further develop my savings for this computer project. The main issue is how people will see it. If I don't have enough people buying my content, I won't get anywhere. I've thought about methods of promotion, but am not sure exactly what to do yet. I'm still looking into that.

The book, titled "School Days", reflects my experiences in seventh grade, but is still a fictitious novel in first-person. It's not meant to be too serious - more the opposite, actually. I want the book to relate to people, pretty much. And I think that's what makes these things a success. It's almost half-way done at this point.

That's the major thing I wanted to get out of the way. As far as music projects go, I've got a list of things in the works: "Festival of Lights", "U Got Swag", "Spiro", and "Year of the Exodus" are the active projects for now. Others are currently idle or secret.

Not all weekly updates will be this long, but this is the first of them, so I need to get all the plans out of the way.

Stay tuned for more updates and please leave any comments or questions!
~ TW

[Trace]

I dunno your price range, but this is pretty close to my "ideal" computer that I built for a friend a few weeks back.

pastebin.com/rE2pC2fy

[[DWARF] RDs.empire]

Id say you're super right about building computer from scratch (At least since time i got mine I never regret it)
Here is just list what I puted in mine which is basically medium range low budget gaming PC
CPU - Intel i5 Ivy Bridge 3.4GH/z (Totally enough. I haven't used its full potential yet even playing games on highest graphics and it runs MC on around 120FPS) Also stock cooler does job really well so I suggest not wasting money on different cooler for this one.
GPU - Asus GTX 550 Ti (Its not in production now so I suggest you to go for something like GTX 600 ti. Reason why i took asus was because its GTX version had HDMI VGA and DVI ports. I cant give you any reviews on AMD GPU's but i can say that NVIDIA has never failed me on my experience.)
MotherBoard - Asus p8B75-v (Pretty good motherboard tho it don't have SLI support (still has 2 PCle 16 slots) has integretad GPU (good for cases when you don't have GPU yet or GPU fails) and loads of other goodies if you're planning to expand your system in future)
Case - Thermaltake v3 black edition (cheap and REALLY good case. Lightweight too and has really good cooling. Tho I would suggest installing fan in front panel)

Cant say much about PSU optical drive and HDD and RAM because I ordered my computer at company that assembles PC's from parts that customer orders and these were ones that they suggested for me:
PSU - Green me 650w
Optical - (Dont have manual so I cant tell much about that)
HDD- (Dont have manual so I cant tell much about that) 1TB Samsung
RAM- Kingston 2x 4GB (With hyperthreading technology or something)

Overall price (with cost for assembly) was 950$ but If I would do it myself would be around 750$ (Ik it was bit too expensive for assembling as whole but at least I had warranty and If they screw up they pay. Also price range is whole different here so yeah.. )

Few notes: When you choose CPU and GPU make shure they are somewhat equal in power for best performance. For RAM make sure you get 8GB's or more (you wont regret it when it comes to running something like sonic ethers epic shaders on mc blowing up huge stuff in vanilla or just running lost of tasks in background )

My 5cents

[Tech Warrior]

Thank you Trace and Rds for your suggestions! Part of me wanted to pick everything out myself initially but that's actually a lot harder and more tedious than I thought. I'm intrigued to look into your suggestions.

My ideal goal for RAM, Rds, is around 16 GB, reason being that is probably enough for any task I throw at my system. This new computer is for a gaming computer as well as a fully-fledged music production environment. As long as the motherboard can hold up to 16 (or more), I'm fine with starting with 8. CPU is probably one of the most important things for me, considering that FL has a high demand of it. I'm not completely sure how to judge picking a good one, so I might consider suggestions after some research. Rds, what you suggested sounds nice the way you put it, but how well will MC run with Fraps and at highest settings? I'm looking for CPU that can do that as well as manage my FL music projects to a high degree.

Trace, I'm not sure what makes that GPU worth $400, but my guess is that it's pretty darn good. I assume that GPU is graphic-related, based off looking at it (I've never looked into GPU at all, so forgive me if I sound ridiculous ). As that is essential as well, $400 is a bit high in my price range for just one component. My dad told me that good video/graphics cards will cost at or around $200, and he recommends Intel. Thoughts on that vs. AMD?

My harddrive will definitely be at least 2TB, as my demands are getting very high. Plus, when you factor in the videos, everything gets crazy. I had initially thought of getting one harddrive specifically for storing videos, but I'm not sure if that's the best option or not. Thoughts?

And here's the coming ideal for all of this. Basically, as long as I can generate a constant flow of income on my album and book (which therefore requires the demand for promotion or advertising of some sort), in addition to perhaps some eBay business, my price range is around $1,000 at the very most, considering I'm not expecting this to be cheap. The good news is that when I get this new computer done and thereby accomplish all these things I want to do, promotion and income will get progressively easier. My dad told me that he will help the funding, but I kind of want to get most of it myself so that I feel accomplished.

Thank you again for the suggestions. With additional research I'll look into them a bit more.

[[DWARF] RDs.empire]

Late reply but still may help.

So first off you're planning to assemble your beast by yourself. Only thing i want to warn you about is that you will have to reread and make sure all parts fit together. Might sound silly and pointless but you don't want to end with your rig not fitting together. For that all I can suggest is doing research. if you don't understand what means this or that in parts description google of what it means. That should also give idea of what feature you're receiving. (At least by doing that i got smarter about all computer stuff)

Now little insight in manufacturers and what is my experience on them. Hopefully wont make any AMD vs Intel flamewar.

So you said you want yourself a gaming+work rig
For processor i would choose intel. Explanation for me is that i have had great experience with my last PC's who had them and even after running games way over CPU's limits i didn't managed to fry it. I found it reliable to me.
YES AMD is cheaper but for serious thing I would throw few dollars extra and get something like Intel i5 ivy bridge (From my research people said that i7 processor is worth only if you're doing occasional video rendering. Not many programs use multithreading anyway)
In many forums if you do amd vs intel you will see bunch of flamewars basically but some people give good opinions and that might help you decide.

GPU: For gaming rig you can cross out Intel graphics cards. They are good but only if you're doing business PC that doesn't cost more than 500$. From my experience Intel has bad comparability with games (with MC there are few graphical glitches that are constantly appearing and you cant run epic shaders mod with them). So we stand in AMD vs NVIDIA. Here it goes again: AMD is cheaper than NVIDIA. But as far as my research went there's been more complains to AMD about its compatibility with games. From my experience my NVIDIA 6600 was really reliable and after yet again running games over limits it keeped really strong. Also if there is bug then nvidia patch it out really fast. Its basically what you preffer and think its best but i would go for nvidia.

Few other things I can mention is that when you choose motherboard make sure there is everything you need and that it can be expandable. Do a research of what each port or sizing means. You can easly buy cheap motherboard with crappy audio card only 4 usb ports (without lets say USB 3.0 tho you have external HDD that supports USB 3.0) and only one pcl16x slot and later on you will want to add another graphics card, you wont be able to because motherboard wont have second pcl16x slot.
When choosing PSU make shure you get higher power PSU then nessesary. You never know when you want to add something more but PSU wont let you connect more devices.

Hopefully will help you a bit more on your research.

[Jeff]

Sorry I am a bit late at my reply:

go intel, no amd. You'll get so much better performance with intel. You get what you pay for =)

and yes, what RD said. I5 is PLENTY fast, no need to spend the extra $$$ for I7 as its basically the same thing. 3.4GHz is plenty fast too, heck I'm on first generation i7 1.74GHz and its blazingly fast (4GB ram). You don't need 16GB ram lol.

[Mystery Man]

Id say that 4GH of ram is too little whereas 16GB is too much. Id go with 6-8GB if i were you. Also intel has much higher performance but make sure to get the right motherboard to be compatible with the processor you choose.