Optimize Your DAW Computer for Your Home Studio

[Chili]

Scrap it and pick up a couple of G.Skill Ripjaws

I want to see if they will replace it. Besides, I'll probably upgrade in teh next 6 months... I'm still running Core2Duo.

[triquee]

I want to see if they will replace it. Besides, I'll probably upgrade in teh next 6 months... I'm still running Core2Duo.

That hurts my heart.

Hurts it a lot....

[Chili]

Quite honestly, it does everything I need including HD video editing and realtime preview.

I really have no other reason to upgrade than this:

That hurts my heart.

Hurts it a lot....

[Bobbsy]

I want to see if they will replace it. Besides, I'll probably upgrade in teh next 6 months... I'm still running Core2Duo.

Yeah. I was on a Core 2 Duo laptop until only a week or two ago and it was fine for my DAW needs. My pressure to upgrade came from a piece of software I run that's converting to 64 bit only plus the fact that the battery in the laptop is down to only moments of life. Since I use the same laptop for live playback in theatre situations, I like the safety net of a long battery life--and wasn't keen on spending the exhorbitant cost of a news battery on a 5+ year old computer.

However, as I say, even a core 2 duo could happily mix 24+ tracks with some real time effects. I'm looking forward to seeing what the new machine can do (i7, 16 gig RAM, 64 bit OS, etc.).

[McMajik]

Buy the fastest CPU you can afford? Surely when fan noise is an actual issue you dont want a 140W TDP beast pushing the CPU fan to the limit? Intel have some CPUs aimed at being energy efficient, like the i7 3770t. 45W TDP. That plus a quiet fan would be great. Hell, you could even get away with a fanless heatsink on something that low pretty easily, I'd imagine.

[långben]

Great article....some suggestions to add:

The scratch drive is great advice. I'm in dire need of an upgrade myself and a scratch drive(s) is one of the things at the top of my list. Don't ever get a 5400 RPM spinning hardware drive. Just don't do it. There's no need for it except to set yourself back a few bucks and about 10 years in computing power. 7200 RPM drives are very affordable. I would recommend an SSD for the read drive, though. They're starting to get cheaper per MB so they are actually affordable when building now - 120 gigs of SSD from Intel is only about $100 on Newegg. I plan on gutting my Lian Li, selling the parts and rebuilding as soon as I can afford to and the SSD will be a definite and much needed addition. My recommendations for spinning drives are Western Digital Caviar Black and Seagate Barracuda.

A couple of other things...

Running 4GB or more of RAM on Windows XP is useless and wasteful. With XP, you are only able to utilize around 3 GB of it. Getting more RAM won't change that. If you want more computing power and flexibility and the ability to actually use more than 3GB of RAM, get Windows 7. Trust me, it's better anyway and I have yet to have any significant compatibility issues with either software or hardware. Another note about RAM - Kingston is indeed good. So is G.Skill. I've used G.Skill RAM on my last 4 builds and have never had a bad stick, no compatibility issues, BIOS always reads exactly what I expect.

CPUs - Not always best to buy the fastest you can afford. Intel makes use of some excellent technology including hyperthreading and both AMD and Intel are using turbo boost - both of which have your CPU working smarter instead of harder. Though, these days, if you're gonna build you might as well pick up the value priced AMD 8 core with turbo.

One component that wasn't mentioned and is often overlooked, but vitally important that it be a quality part is the PSU (power supply). makes a damn good power supply. Don't skimp here - when a faulty or poorly manufactured power supply dies it has the potential to take your entire machine with it.

Edit: Oh! On quality motherboards.....Get ASUS. Period. End of discussion.

If anyone is new to building and thinking about building, I'd be happy to put together a parts list for you (tell you what to buy) based on your budget.

What means with scratch drive ?

[långben]

I forgot: one that writes and one that reads . What means that ?
I have one ssd for OS and programs , a second (7200RPM) for projects , and a third (7200RPM) for sample library.

[Bobbsy]

Scratch drive is a phrase I've only encountered in that other thread so your confusion is justified!

To say that one drive writes and the other reads is a bit misleading...what's the point of writing to a drive if it doesn't read! (And vice versa of course!)

Anyway, my interpretation (based on the linked article and the way I operate too) is that it's good to have one drive that contains your operating system and DAW software (so, other than internal housekeeping, it's only reading. A second drive is there to contain the actual audio files you're recording and working one. This allows both drives to work at the most efficient. So basically you're doing it exactly right!

Why some people call them scratch drives I don't know!

[TMS]

Focusrite has an excellent section on their site for things you can do to actually optimise the performance of your Windows 7 computer to do audio. The link is HERE. The tricks there really do make a big difference to audio performance. If you're on a different version of Windows, Googling for "Optimising Windows XX for Audio" will find similar pages for your version.

thank you for the link, was just searching for it.

[jimmys69]

What software is best for making music on laptop?

Oh my, here we go....