DAW building ... The 15 highest-performing PC components you can buy today

If price is no object - just go with one of the custom builders and get the best computer components for Audio.
 
Otherwise, I might be interested in this hardware 3 years from now.

The article is written for builders ... "Looking to build the ultimate PC?"

I have the plexiglass side panel and one case fan with a cool blue LED. 
 
But I will need a much bigger bank account before I upgrade, LOL!

Here you go! On sale for $170
 
Corsair Gaming K95 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, Aircraft-grade aluminum, Backlit Multicolor LED
 
https://www.amazon.com/Co...ativeASIN%3DB014W1Z4S0

Lave lamp.
 
Check!
 

That's like working from the top down for me. I dare say extreme overkill for 99% of users on this board.
 
Doesn't matter to me if money is no object. Why waste it?

I bought new RAM for my office computer, we use it to watch movies. I was watching a movie and the room was dark and my computer was kinda emitting a weird blue glow that was changing?
I forgot the RAM had LED lights and I guess I blew it because I never bought the case with the plexiglass. 

I just paid $200 for a computer keyboard.
 
It will replace one that sells for $14.95.
 
My hope is that everything I write from now on will be succinct, grammatically correct and well-reasoned, and that I will never make another typo again.

bitflipper
That CPU costs nearly as much as my whole computer.

It's a server CPU, essentially, and they price it accordingly to not cut in to that market. CPUs can get stupid expensive in servers. Our VM servers each have 2 CPUs that were, at purchase time, $3000 a shot.

That one was on my shortlist, Tom. By all accounts, it's a good one.
 
I did a lot of research, initially in the hope of not spending as much as I did. Then I thought: I spend more time on a computer keyboard than almost every other activity short of sleeping. So why go cheap?
 
The final straw was when I registered my newly-acquired $10 Synthmaster, and due to a typo wound up with an unusable license key. I am done with rubber keyboards!
 
Here's the scoop on mechanical keyboards. The best ones use switches made by the German company Cherry. Lesser keyboards use Chinese clones of Cherry switches called Kailh, which are similar but as with Chinese clones of most things, not quite as good. The Corsairs use real Cherry. The almost-Corsair Azio keyboards are well-reviewed and cheaper but they use the Kailh switches.
 
Cherry color-codes their switches to indicate their mechanical characteristics. Kailh mimics the same scheme. You can't actually see the color without removing a keycap, as the only colored part is the plastic plunger.
 
The variables are how far you have to press a key to register a keypress, how much force it takes to do so, whether they generate a tactile "click" and whether they make an audible click. Being able to feel when the key registers a keypress is crucial to fast and accurate typing. Lack of this feature is why the cheap keyboards suck for touch typists.
 
The red switches are "linear", meaning there is no tactile click. They are closest to generic keyboards. Some people like them because of that. They feel similar to a cheap keyboard but have a little farther travel plus you get the reliability of mechanical switches.
 
The most popular among gamers is the blue switch. It has a short throw and a tactile click, as well as an audible click. But because I often type while talking on the phone, I decided the blues weren't for me due to the clackety-clack.
 
Take away the audible click but leave the other characteristics of the blues and you've got the brown switches. That's what I opted for.
 
Also popular among some gamers are the green switches, which require more pressure to activate and are therefore harder to make adjacent-key typos with. There's also black and clear switches, but they're not common.
 
I ended up going for a fairly plain keyboard. No backlighting, no programmable keys. The only nonstandard things it has are a volume control and mute button (handy for killing audio when the phone rings) and a 2-port USB 3.0 hub. The latter will be useful for thumb drives, since my computer's under the desk.
 
The one I got is called Das Keyboard 4 Professional. $250 at my local Best Buy but $162 on Amazon, $187.79 after tax and shipping. It has no wrist rest, so I may need to add that for another 15-20 bucks. The same company offers another popular model that's a few bucks less and has white backlighting if you like to work in a darkened room.
 
Here's another one from my shortlist that was also a contender. A lot cheaper ($95). 

Another company to look at for mechanical keyboards is Matias. They make their own key switches, which are very very good. I have one of their Ergo Pro keyboards that I like a lot. Their keyswitches are much more quiet than anything I've found from Cherry.

My first keyboard was an actual Teletype. Talk about dating oneself. I spent years on VT-100 terminals and IBM Type Ms. Clackety-clack. Noisy and expensive, but they hardly ever failed.
 
My first experience with a rubber keyboard was sometime in the early 90's. My well-worn keyboard had stopped working so I went down to the local computer store (remember those?) and was amazed that I could buy a replacement for 20 bucks. I'd never paid less than a hundred. I'd also recently bought a 17" monitor for a mere $1,000, so I was thinking I'd reached computer Nirvana.
 
Now that I'm back to a mechanical for the first time in 25 years, it's like old home week. Just feels right.

bitflipper
Your post did remind me of how much I hate my current keyboard. I've been a fast touch-typist since I first learned how more than 50 years ago, but on this POS I'm constantly making typos. It's been years since I've had a really good keyboard with mechanical switches and proper tactile feedback. But it's also been years since I paid more than 10 bucks for one. Still, it's got me thinking maybe it's time for an upgrade.
 
 

And like me you were probably the only dude in your typing class! Most thought I was wierd but as a writer I knew it made sense and when GAO was the first to get computers... Even before actually, with big micom word processors, I was the only one able to effectively write reports on them but for a few women the agency had hired!

Still got an old IBM keyboard which lets me blaze a trail... Only thing I've hung on to over the decades!

That cpu and ram sure looks sweet! And the thunderbolt Mb is also nice! If I get a $25k over bid for the old farm... (I can actually dream of this!) with Sonar's improved load balancing I might be inclined to a retirement present! However... The 8 core version seems enough! More SSDs!

"Check out the CM Storm QuickFire Rapid. $85 on Amazon, uses the Cherry brown switches"
Thanks Dave!
Its on the way...
 
T

We think alike! As the first long hair in junior high we had a meeting with the principal and my dad refused to make me cut my hair, saying "he's a beetle and plays at all your dances". They refused to let me do a normal gym class, saying if I wanted to look like a girl I could only take coed badminton and tennis...

Gosh, I hated that!