time to upgrade the PC

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 11:53 am

i have about a 4 or 5 year old PC that i work on every day and it's starting
to bog down a lot and i think i need to start thinking about a new one but would love
advice on what to get.

i want to run WIN7 64 bit OS - but i'll be using Cubase 7 in 32 bit (for plug in compatibility etc).

i also have an RME HD96 card that is essential to my set up that must be compatible (it is supported by the 64bit OS)

current PC is Intel core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4 mhz / 4 gb of RAM

- this is a big hassle to do so i want to do it right and have something with a lot more power that i can run for the next 4-5 years.

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:05 pm

What's your budget?

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:09 pm

$1000 - $1200?

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:20 pm

I'd look into one of those silent turnkey systems. I can't recommend a brand because I haven't done it, but probably will next time around.

E-money · Post by **E-money** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:23 pm

I just completed upgrading my DAW. I finally wound up going with an HP Laptop and a new interface. I had to upgrade software too since my old Sonar 2 would not run on Windows 7. I still have my old DAW hooked up to my patch bay which helped a ton while I was transitioning. I'm amazed by how much horsepower the modern laptop PC has. Projects that were eating up 95% of my CPE before are taking less than 20% of CPU on the new laptop. Also, no worries about black and brown outs rebooting my PC anymore.

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:28 pm

i don't actually need it to be silent - it lives in a machine room/hall.

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:37 pm

i'd love to have a laptop for the odd remote session but for my main setup a tower is gonna work best (pci card, large lcd etc...)

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:41 am

if you build it yourself, you can save a ton of money AND spec it with better parts, i.e. a beefier power supply, etc.

i've had good luck with asus motherboards and seagate drives...

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:56 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:if you build it yourself, you can save a ton of money AND spec it with better parts, i.e. a beefier power supply, etc.

i've had good luck with asus motherboards and seagate drives...

This is true. The other bonus is you get to do a clean Windoze install and sidestep any manufacturer bloatware, and configure it right off the bat how you want it.

Few years back I was searching craigslist and found a box a local guy had built for about $800. It was an i7 quad core machine with a Gigabyte motherboard and it's served me pretty well. I installed Win7, upgraded the graphics card to fanless and added a second hard drive for audio files.

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:41 pm

i guess i was hoping somebody might recommend the components that would make for a modern powerful pc. i am not much of a techy so i'd probably need some help putting it all together and installing but what kind of a rig is a good one now?

intel?

i7?

8 gbs of RAM?

would need a minimum of 2 internal drives - one for APPS and one for DATA/AUDIO FILES

solid state drives?

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:08 pm

What are your track and plugin counts like? Do you do a lot of editing, rendering to disk, etc.? I'd go slightly differently if I wanted 50 tracks of 96k with no plugs vs. 16 tracks of 48k and 18 billion plugins per track.

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:22 pm

basically, i want something noticeably more powerful then what i have now that can handle whatever i throw at it. i want to go big.

so far I haven't ventured into 96k but I'd like to be able to - or if i need to mix
something already recorded at 96k

yes, often very high track counts: 60 - 100

lots of plugs - no UA cards

the odd virtual instrument (hey - i can't afford a mellotron ok?

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:54 pm

joninc wrote:i guess i was hoping somebody might recommend the components that would make for a modern powerful pc. i am not much of a techy so i'd probably need some help putting it all together and installing but what kind of a rig is a good one now?

intel?

i7?

8 gbs of RAM?

would need a minimum of 2 internal drives - one for APPS and one for DATA/AUDIO FILES

solid state drives?

intel i7 8g ram all good. i've no experience with ssd's, but internet consensus seems to be use those for your system drive and a regular hd for your files.

as mentioned i like asus motherboards and seagate drives. get a good, big power supply.

putting it together is easy. you just install the mobo into the case and then put stuff on the mobo. installing the cpu was the only nerve-wracking part for me, and even that wasn't too bad. if you're smart enough to handle a big complicated mix, you can put a computer together, i assure you.

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:38 pm

If it was me and I was doing 60-100 tracks with lots of plugs I'd want an i7, 16 Gigs of RAM and I think, for this purpose, I might try a RAID 0 (striped) with two 7200 RPM Terabyte (or bigger) drives. I'm pretty sure my next computer is also going to have a 128 or 256 Gig solid state drive for booting and apps too. (It makes booting and app launching much, much faster.)

I would also really, really consider a 2 or 3 monitor setup, especially with all those tracks and plugins. The way I look at it, the monitor(s), keyboard, mouse (and in this case, audio interface) are the only parts of the computer that you directly interact with. For smooth use you don't want bottlenecks internally, but you also want to have the computer present to your senses all the information that you can handle in an ergonomic fashion. 3 monitors will require a beefier video card than one, but there are lowish-midrangish cards that can do 3 monitors off a single card.

I would also only get a midrange i7, you usually (not sure about the specific state of things right now) pay a HUGE premium to get the absolute fastest cpus (or any other part for that matter) and can save a lot of money by just getting something slightly slower than top of the line.

As others have mentioned, get a great power supply. A weak, ripply power supply can cause all kinds of problems and shorten the life of components. Also, consider your cooling needs. If you have the space, get a big case with a few extra fans just to be on the safe side.

You might want to consider getting at least 2 DVD writer drives. It makes duping CD's much faster and maybe you can even burn two at once if you need to.

Also, consider backup/portability options. For this, I'd want at least a couple USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 is waaaay faster than USB 2.0. A 7200 rpm drive in an external USB 3 enclosure or even some biggish Flash cards or SSD's will make backing up sessions in the evening soooo much faster. I'm not sure how it works with all the DRM and everything, but you might even be able to take your plugins and Cubase settings, etc. with you to other studios, etc.

If it was me, I'd go to Newegg.com and start searching. I'd sort my results by avg. review. Start piecing together parts that all have 5 star average from more than 100 reviews (or whatever). Quadruple check that all the pieces work together. Sometimes people will say "This is a great motherboard, but it's finicky about what RAM you use." or whatever, if there's a consensus on that, you probably want to pay attention.

My $0.02. HTH.

CK@TOMB

Edit: I just read MSE's post again. I don't disagree with it, but I wanted to mention that I always mount the CPU (and it's cooler) to the motherboard before I put the mobo in the case. I use a piece of thin foam (there's usually one in the motherboard package) under the motherboard to support it evenly through the procedure. It always feels like the mobo is going to crack to me when I'm pressing down on it sorta hard and it's just on those standoffs.

Take all my advice with a grain of salt since it's probably been 6 months since I built anything. Maybe CPU coolers are way easier now.

Oh. And look at youtube for "howto" install this and that videos. There's almost always one that makes the lightbulb go off for me when I can't exactly figure something out on my own from the weird-ass, wordless (or oddly worded) instructions that come with shit.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 8:30 am

Snarl 12/8 wrote:Edit: I just read MSE's post again. I don't disagree with it, but I wanted to mention that I always mount the CPU (and it's cooler) to the motherboard before I put the mobo in the case.

i'm a dummy.

i couldn't remember what order i did stuff in, but you're right, i put the cpu and the power supply on first, then put the mobo in the case. trying to install the cpu on a mobo that's already mounted in the case seems like it'd be asking for trouble.

good idea with the foam!

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