New Music Computer

M

MCJosiah

New member
OK guys, my computer is getting old & I think I'm in need of a new one. Right now I'm using a Dell Studio XPS 8100 for recording into FL Studio & these are the specs:
Intel Core i7-870 Quad-Core 2.93Ghz,
16GB DDR3 1333Mhz,
1.5TB 7200RPM,
Windows 7 Home Premium,
& Nvidia GT 730 2GB GDDR3.

My computers performance is beginning to go down hill fast, & I'm in need of a new computer soon. I think the main issues are the hard drive & aging motherboard. If I'm gonna build a new computer I can't spend anymore than $800-$1000, so here are my options:
Build a new Intel Computer, maybe using a $200-$300 i7.
Build a AMD Computer, using maybe a unlocked 6-Core or 8-Core CPU from them, ranging around $200.
Or recycle parts from my current computer, like taking the CPU, Ram, & GPU & putting it on a new motherboard, with a new Hard Drive, Power Supply in a new case. What ever I do, I want my new computer to have at least 16GB of Ram, 1333Mhz or more & a 1TB Hard Drive(cause I save my music on a external hard drive). What should I do y'all? I wanna make this build as cheap as possible, & have the same to up to 30% better performance, but willing to spend $800-$1000. What should I do y'all?
 
MCJosiah said:
OK guys, my computer is getting old & I think I'm in need of a new one. Right now I'm using a Dell Studio XPS 8100 for recording into FL Studio & these are the specs:
Intel Core i7-870 Quad-Core 2.93Ghz,
16GB DDR3 1333Mhz,
1.5TB 7200RPM,
Windows 7 Home Premium,
& Nvidia GT 730 2GB GDDR3.

My computers performance is beginning to go down hill fast, & I'm in need of a new computer soon. I think the main issues are the hard drive & aging motherboard. If I'm gonna build a new computer I can't spend anymore than $800-$1000, so here are my options:
Build a new Intel Computer, maybe using a $200-$300 i7.
Build a AMD Computer, using maybe a unlocked 6-Core or 8-Core CPU from them, ranging around $200.
Or recycle parts from my current computer, like taking the CPU, Ram, & GPU & putting it on a new motherboard, with a new Hard Drive, Power Supply in a new case. What ever I do, I want my new computer to have at least 16GB of Ram, 1333Mhz or more & a 1TB Hard Drive(cause I save my music on a external hard drive). What should I do y'all? I wanna make this build as cheap as possible, & have the same to up to 30% better performance, but willing to spend $800-$1000. What should I do y'all?
Click to expand...

Hi there,
OK, that's not a top spec shiny new CPU but your wording worries me. "go downhill fast".
Is it actually getting worse over time, all else being equal?
It'd be worth running memory and HDD diagnostics before anything.

Personally I'd buy a modest SSD system drive and reinstall windows to it either way.
If it turns out there's something wrong or you still need an overall upgrade, use the SSD anyway! :) Win/Win.

How intensive is the work you're doing? Your cpu smokes the cpu in my old macbook and I was working away on it happy as Larry until quite recently.
 
It's like becoming real slow for no reason, there are times the audio is messed up & it becomes stackticy sometimes I play Audio(Its happing more & more), & it restarted randomly on me for no reason, while giving me a blue screen another time. I think I have a Trojan virus as well. I've wiped the hard drive like 3 times, & reinstalled Windows, but with in a month, the same signs of a Trojan or another virus show up.
 
I am with Steeny here! Bit like buying a new Beamer coz the ashtray is full!

Yes, get a pristine SSD and put windows on it. Where, BTW, does the OS come from? If not a pukkah Ms disc I suggest a fresh download from Msft you should be able to do that with your existing licence.

Do you have any other drives in the PC? If so diss' them for now. I would keep the machine off the net (but I don't and don't have problems) for a time. If you have valuable data on another drive buy a USB 3.0 caddy and just transfer what you need at a time.

Ah yes! Memory can play silly buggers. Pull all but one stick (I bet you rarely need more then 8G) at a time to pin that down. Err, suck eggs question I know but are CPU and other temperatures in the safe zone? Could be muck!

Also, find the MOBO mod # and see if there is a diagnostic/BIOS update.
Dave.
 
MCJosiah said:
It's like becoming real slow for no reason, there are times the audio is messed up & it becomes stackticy sometimes I play Audio(Its happing more & more), & it restarted randomly on me for no reason, while giving me a blue screen another time. I think I have a Trojan virus as well. I've wiped the hard drive like 3 times, & reinstalled Windows, but with in a month, the same signs of a Trojan or another virus show up.
Click to expand...

Third Steen's suggestion, your PC is only a tick or two 'slower' and maybe a year or two older than mine, so it shouldn't have much trouble keeping up. The slowing down over time could be malware (there are some boot partition aware viruses in the wild), or even a dying hard drive as mentioned. A new SSD and windows reload would be needed at this point regardless of how you proceeded, so I would start there and if it doesn't help then it could be a flaky/failing motherboard or other component [less likely based on your symptoms]. SSDs really bring old PCs back to life and reveal just how antiquated the old platter drive technology has become.
 
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