From old Abit NF8-V running AMD Sempron overclocked with 2 gig memory and IDE drives (with GeFORCE AGP graphics) running XP
TO Entirely new from mother board up - but I also changed other components to reflect the needs of the professional AUDIO synth/sampling/recording PC.
Note the order - IMHO -
synth requires low latency response for math/bandwidth intensive operations
sampling requires low latency response with disk/memory streaming
recording - requires multi track multiplied multi effect real time mixing
In addition to this I also took into account power up times and long session stability.
The main changes from the above requirements was the use of SSD and SATA throught out the system (AHCI mode NOT IDE)
so a Corsair 60G SSD was allocated for System Disk
another Corsair 60G SSD was allocated for Programs/ Samples
and slower Kingston 128G SSD was allocated for recording/mixing
(slower means relative to Corsair but still blows doors off HDD)
and a WD 1.5 Tera byte HDD was used for project backup and storage (as well as none performance related data and programs)
(of course - with the USB-3 ports and a pocket full of WD Passports the storage is unlimited)
Some of the decision points
1) ASUS P8Z68-V motherboard used because of 2 32 old pCI slots for legacy cards
2) this motherboard also had on-board graphics (no need for fancy graphics cards)
3) Shit load of built in USB slots including USB 3 plus Firewire
4) Even more USB Firewire internal connections for connecting to front panel of rack mount chassis (no need for a reach around - lol )
In Addition the three SSD are placed in "trayless hot swap" racks in the front panel of the rack mount chassis so disks can be upgraded as SSD prices come down
The results
(Apart from the system results posted below)
1) Power up - W7 Pro 64bit boot actually takes LESS time than the fancy BIOS (Total 30 secs - 20 sec for BIOS!!)
2) Overall response - Un-changed W7 pro 64bit runs like audio optimized XP - see no reason to perform ANY optimization YET! - except disabling all the $%@# power saving stuff
3a) Cubase 6 boots in a snap and loads projects fast enough to be worth it
3b) Have run multitracks tests and have yet to see any performance degradation (of course effects are the killer but harder to add - will come later)
Only hiccup was stupid MS upgrades - W7 upgrade needs configured hard disk and it turns out all my MS OS buys have been upgrades - which means in order to install my XP upgrade (so I could use my W7 upgrade) and my Win 98 was an upgrade which meant I had to use my original Win 95 disk to allow the XP Upgrade to boot.
But I have to say the MS find driver thingy worked flawlessly on legacy stuff - had to do some special downloads for RME Fireface but other than that, system ran right away.
Total cost - everything - 1500 (700 in disks alone + 200 for W7 Upgrade)
Windows Experience Index follows
More details about my computer
Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz 7.6 6.4
Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB 7.6
Graphics Intel(R) HD Graphics Family 6.4
Gaming graphics 1696 MB Total available graphics memory 6.4
Primary hard disk 13GB Free (56GB Total) 7.9
Windows 7 Professional
System
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Manufacturer System manufacturer
Model System Product Name
Total amount of system memory 16.0 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 4
Storage
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Total size of hard disk(s) 2560 GB
Disk partition (C:) 13 GB Free (56 GB Total)
Disk partition (D:) 119 GB Free (119 GB Total)
Disk partition (E:) 958 GB Free (977 GB Total)
Disk partition (F:) 161 GB Free (195 GB Total)
Media drive (H:) CD/DVD
Disk partition (J:) 33 GB Free (56 GB Total)
Disk partition (K:) 225 GB Free (225 GB Total)
Disk partition (L:) 542 GB Free (931 GB Total)
Graphics
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Display adapter type Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Total available graphics memory 1696 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 64 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1632 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.15.10.2509
Primary monitor resolution 1680x1050
DirectX version DirectX 10
Network
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Network Adapter Intel(R) 82579V Gigabit Network Connection
Network Adapter Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Notes
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The gaming graphics score is based on the primary graphics adapter. If this system has linked or multiple graphics adapters, some software applications may see additional performance benefits.
