Building a Digital Audio Workstation

[MadPsyance]

Hello, folks, I'm new around here and am about to build my first computer centered around audio production. It would be much appreciated if you guys could tell me if this setup looks okay and if everything will work together alright.

Intel BOXDP965LTCK LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813121035

Intel Pentium D 940 Presler 3.2GHz 2 x 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual Core, EM64T Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819116239

XFX PVT71PUDP3 GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 EXTREME Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814150202

COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811119106

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply 115/230 V TUV, UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817103937

Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820220095

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822135106

LITE-ON Beige 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2MB Cache ATAPI / E-IDE Combo Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16827106007

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI Digital Audio Card
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ard?sku=701341

The rest is just peripherals and not needed mentioning.

It was also suggested that I get another harddrive just for audio files, which I just may do.

ALSO, which version of Windows XP would be best for this type of thing. I found some super-cheap OEM XP Professional, but I'm not exactly sure what OEM means, I think it means that it was being sold as retail which would mean it has a lot of unnecessary software, right?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

[sgtspector]

I found some super-cheap OEM XP Professional, but I'm not exactly sure what OEM means

OEM means that the OS was packaged to be sold to a system builder. The main difference is in the license agreement. Once you install that copy onto a pc and use the cd key it is bound to that pc. You cannot (according to the license agreement) move it to another pc even if you remove it from the original build.

[Furius92]

What audio production program is going to be used on this PC? I know ProTools is very popular, and if that is what you plan on using, as far as I know DigiDesign recommends ONLY 975X chipset motherboards. Normally I'd ignore this recommendation as being ridiculous, but I also know ProTools to be incredibly picky about what hardware it is running on.

[MadPsyance]

Protools is the one I use for audio editing(which I hate to use since I can only use the mbox audio interface). but for songwriting i'll be using energyXT and FLStudio.

[glc]

Okay - I'd recommend an Intel D975XBX2 board if you are going to use ProTools. Also, rather than that Pentium-D, I'd recommend one of the Core 2 Duos. There was just a large price reduction on them yesterday.

You do not need a 7900GS for audio editing - the cheapest PCI-E card you can find without Turbocache or Hypermemory will do the job just fine. This is the best place to save some money. A 40 buck Radeon X300SE is plenty.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121538

Hard drive - you should really get more than a 80 gig drive. Look at the Seagate 7200.10's, the capacity vs. cost sweet spot now is a 250 or 320 gig.

Optical - instead of the combo drive, get a retail boxed DVD burner. Lite-On is a good choice.

Power supply - save a few bucks and get a XClio 450BL - you don't have very big power demands with that system.