So I'm thinking about it.

About the only thing I would cannibalize from my old PC is the GPU - a Radeon 5870 HD, although this is one long bastard of a card.

I'm interested in building a slightly smaller statued machine (probably microatx).

I'd love to get an SSD drive and a 1tb drive.

Main usage will be for recording music, so a powerful mobo - processor are probably more important than RAM.

I'll post up some ideas of specs another day - just throwing this idea out here at the moment.

Budget £500 - £800.

Fire away!

A case capable of housing that monster is probably going to be a decent sized midi-tower don't you think?

In which case why restrict yourself to Micro-ATX?

For music get a mac if you can, not joking.

I just spent literally 3 days f'ing about with vsts in an incompatibility nightmare, would of been a 10 minute job on a mac (exaggerated) and even after 3 days i've not fully set up as intended and it will never be as good as it could of been with apple, such a ball-ache with windows especially 7 (i love everything else about it).

Howeer thats only really if its dedicated to tunage.
But whatever, i'd invest in something like this : http://www.uaudio.com/products/uad/uad2solo/index.html
(that specifically if its within budget). expensive but i think you could have a pretty shit PC with one of these and it will be much better than a top end gaming rig without. Especcially if your recording guitars etc.

Also if your wanting to get pro with recording then take a look at the Native Instruments range, they really are the shit.

It's not really going to be a pro, pro recording machine - I'd like to get something fast enough to chop through audio and midi programming at reasonable quality (i.e. 44000 - 48000) without drops due to processor speed.

I suppose restricting myself to micro is a bit silly, but I do like the idea of smaller real estate desktop wise.

The problem you get isnt one of quality tho, the difference is input lag. Its really hard to record to a drum track or anything without one, for me the only way to do it is have the output of the guitar off, no effects on the gutar and the drums/track quiet enough to hear sound of the strings, then faff about re-aligning it in the track because it recorded out of time. that 0.2/0.5 second delay screws you up man
and ofc defeats the whole point of rocking out (i just got guitar rig 2, its soo epic).

I'm sure their are cheaper alternatives but you defo need a specialilised sound card to avoid it, a fairly decent one if you want to play it through something like GR2 live. not even gaming style sound cards are good for it i dont think (admittedly never tried).
maybe you could combat it with proc power alone but i think it'd end up being more expensive. i have Duel core 2gig and its ok... just, can handle about 8 track with 2/3 basic effects on each but it gets choppy if i have to much on and have to mix stuff down alot.

these UADs are just really nice, also the software looks good and the reverbs and inbuilt compressors are said to be the best around. basically its what i want

my bro has an external usb Sound card which cost around £80, now i know usb isnt great for music, but it works fine, its got 2 jacks he can just plug in and play with any number of effects and proccessors going on and never gets input lag, plus its got cool eq and green lights on the front


oof carried away.

I already have an external usb input that has virtually 0 input latency (Line 6 software is very good, if completely unsupported beyond driver updates).

you could of mentioned that before

Are you likely to keep your old PSU as well, as i assume if its able to run a 5870 its got to be a fairly reasonable unit?

I have a problem with the PSU at the mo - it's a 600w OCZ silent model, but the fucking thing is well noisy.

Plus, it keeps reaching a critical level of dust, after which the fan blade rattles to bollocks against the mounting.

So... I wouldn't mind getting rid of it.

have you tried hitting it with a bigger stick?