Digital Audio Workstation build help needed

Hi I am new to the forum so sorry if i get anything wrong!
I am building a DAW for my reocrding studio, I am building a Pc myself and need help picking parts that will work together

I need...

A Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo
E8400 2 x 3.00Ghz 6Mb Cache 1333 FSB Dual Core Processor
4gb RAM
Graphics card will dual output
Powersuply
cpu fan
case fan
cheap soundcard - I will be using an external one as my main
CD/DVD RW
7200rpm hard-drive (as big as possible)
and a case!
firewire card
and a usb card

i think that is everything

I am looking to build this as for as cheap as possible, if anyone can help and put together a list of parts that will work together would be great!

cheer
James

 

A firewire card and a usb card can easily cost you over $40 and if you shop carefully you can find a motherboard that has 6-8 usb slots and an onboard firewire as well as firewire/usb connectors on the motherboard to connect to the front of the case if you buy a case that has them. That way you can spend the extra money on the board or cpu instead. Antec makes excellent cases and although the're not the cheapest the're not the most expensive either, but are a great balance of price and quality. As for your CPU choice, if it were me I would look into the Q6600 quad core 2.40 processor and get the one with G0 stepping over the one with the S3 stepping since its well known to be highly overclockable with just air cooling. That way you can get your 3.0gig and a quad core to multi task your multimedia.

Unless your going to use Vista as your OS, or XP 64bit, don't buy 4 gigs of ram at this is the ceiling for XP 32bit and with your video memory added you would go over 4gig and cause problems. Better to get 2-1gig matched sticks and 2-512mb matched pair and end up with 3gigs plus the video memory keeping it under 4 (if your going to use XP 32bit anyway).

For the power supply do not buy anything under 500watt and again I myself prefer Antec for the same reasons as with the cases not too expensive and great quality as well as great customer service (I have had them replace things out of warranty just by being nice and telling them how great their stuff is, they even sent me a bunch of stickers and decals).

When it comes to specifics I hate to be a spoiler but there is such a good chance of you getting bad parts (especially if you shop at newegg) that I will not recommend any static sensitive parts like motherboard or cards, you will have to decide whats best for you and stick to name brands, its best.

Since you have an external sound device you should consider an matx board, it will have less slots but can cost 1/3 less yet still have all the goodies you need and enable you save a few bucks on the case as well, although I do prefer large roomy cases for good air flow.

 

ah cheers man, if anyone else has any advice on a CPU o should get please feel free to give advice