hardware suggestions?

[NeonAtron]

hello. i need help selecting the right hardware to build my PC. it is going to be a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and im going to use it for production and recording. so the first place to start is the motherboard and processor. after doing research, i think that the PENTIUM 4 or AMD ATHLON 64 is the best processor choice. but if there are better ones for my purpose please let me know. size does not matter. reliability of course does. cooling does. noise level to some degree does. upgradability/expandability does. disk capacity matters to some degree but i can just add more hard drives. will probably need a lot of memory. and graphics preformance does not matter. my target of spending is about $700 if i can get it less than that then thats great (i can go higher if i absolutely have to lol). first i need to get a motherboard and a processor thats compatable with it. then i can worry about the case. then the power supply. then the drives and cards. i want upgradability so im not seeking embedded audio or video. when im finished building my computer i am going to buy my audio equipment such as mic, preamp, etc. my main focus is audio so i will try not to get side-tracked by things i dont need. if anyone has some info to give me or any tips ill greatly appreciate them. also if you can give me a price range for what is reasonable for the hardware that will help a lot. thanx

[Neutrino]

well I do not have that much experience with profesional audio sofware but if its anything like other pro oriented sofware it will be multithreaded (for multi proc workstations) require a fast HD and plenty of memory. So those will be the parts where we will focus most of the budget (beside the sound card ofcourse).

So:

Cpu AMD 3800X2 (yes some people will argue that the long pipelined p4s are better a multimedia stuff however that is true only to a point and overall the dual core athlons are far far better).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562

297

Memory 2x1GB of good quality corsair (not a a latency screamer but good and cheap)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145579

145

Hard drive: previous gen raptor still very fast and far cheaper than the new model
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144160

134 AR

sound card a creative labs emu should work great for music since that is what its made for, however if you cannot find one an x-fi extreme music will work quite fine too.

94 AR


mobo: any good quality NF4 board will do, for OC get the lan party ultra d

PSU: an 450+ antec smart power ATX 2.0 will offer great value and quality for the money.