e need a little better quality. 

Cactus Music

It all starts with a good case and power supply. This is where consumer machines cheap out but for keeping the noise down we need a little better quality.  

That is very true. I just built a new system. Got a lesser quality power supply. Damn thing had a screw rattling around in it. I didn't know it at the time. Plugged everything in and started working towards getting it all built. Long story short, that screw loose screw in the power supply somehow caused a short that destroyed my brand new motherboard.  Thank gawd it didn't take out my new SSD as well.      

brconflict


I'd definitely go after the company that made the power supply. Not many people do this, so those companies don't realize the damage they cause by not correctly QA'ing their products. 

I thought about it... But I thought, you know what, they will either deny it or expect some kind of proof, which I had no way of proving that their shotty power supply caused it. 


I was having initial issues because I didn't have a good boot disk, so I took my entire computer into a tech at work.  He's the one that showed me the short. He would move the power cables around and the box would just turn off. It wasn't until we took the power supply out that we could hear the screw rattling around.


Key takeaway?  Shake the sh1t out of your power supply before mounting it and listen for anything rattling around. 

Chuck, i will definitely be watching your videos... thanks for those.

Having been a member of this forum for years, through many versions of SONAR, I am convinced that building a powerful machine from scratch with NOTHING on it except the operating system, SONAR and the proper drivers is the absolute best way to assure stability. Having been involved with computers since before Windows, I am also convinced that every added program or process that demands the system's attention is a step towards instability and crashes. ( a caveat here... I know that just because I'm "convinced" doesn't necessarily mean I'm "right"). Knowing this, I still bought a third party programs bloated Dell machine because I just couldn't build as powerful a machine at a price to match theirs... it was always $400 to $500 more (the amount, I'm sure, that those third party companies are paying Dell to put their programs on the machine...). I wish I had the smarts (and the guts) to wipe my Dell and reinstall just Windows 7 and SONAR, but I don't... now that's a service I'd probably pay for. For now, I'll just disable whatever I can clearly see won't make a difference to my system and leave the "iffy" things - like McAfees - that may make the system very jumpy if I remove.

To the OP, have a machine built if you can afford it.

Best,
Rob

rcrees


Chuck, i will definitely be watching your videos... thanks for those.

Having been a member of this forum for years, through many versions of SONAR, I am convinced that building a powerful machine from scratch with NOTHING on it except the operating system, SONAR and the proper drivers is the absolute best way to assure stability. Having been involved with computers since before Windows, I am also convinced that every added program or process that demands the system's attention is a step towards instability and crashes. ( a caveat here... I know that just because I'm "convinced" doesn't necessarily mean I'm "right"). Knowing this, I still bought a third party programs bloated Dell machine because I just couldn't build as powerful a machine at a price to match theirs... it was always $400 to $500 more (the amount, I'm sure, that those third party companies are paying Dell to put their programs on the machine...). I wish I had the smarts (and the guts) to wipe my Dell and reinstall just Windows 7 and SONAR, but I don't... now that's a service I'd probably pay for. For now, I'll just disable whatever I can clearly see won't make a difference to my system and leave the "iffy" things - like McAfees - that may make the system very jumpy if I remove.

To the OP, have a machine built if you can afford it.

Best,
Rob

if you want a copy of my book ill gladly give you one for free, it will walk you through building your own.
its not that hard with instructions and videos, its almost fool proof.
 
if you want message me and I will give you detailed instructions on how to re install windows and sonar too.
again, not that hard, re install of windows a little more indepth because youll need  your motherboards (laptops) drivers,exc.
rob I also live in boston, so I could probably call you and walk you through it if you ever want to.

Bristol_Jonesey


You've got a 6 and a half foot fan running????????

Yup.  Everything's bigger in Texas.

Cactus Music


My laptop is a P4 with1.5 Gigs of RAM. W XP 32 bit. 
My wifes Lenovo is an i5 with 6 Gigs of RAM. W7 pro 64 bit.  It was around $1,000. 
I borrowed it to do some live recording because mine is pathetic. What blew me away was normally I have to optimize and tweak a dozen things before the DPCLAT meter comes down out of the red. The Lenovo was at the bottom without any tweaks. My point was that sometimes you get lucky with a laptop.  
My P4 will work for audio but that's all. It was free. It works as long as you don't mind waiting 3 minutes for a screen re-draw after you hit stop. 

you could build this same computer as your wife's in a desktop for around 600.00 (as I just did a quick price check estimate)
this also has dual onboard graphics, which I've had excellent experiences with, not for gaming, but for sonar, great luck.
its the same as the second monitor VGA EXT on the side of laptops.
and also 8 GB of RAM not 6GB like your wifes.
 
this also leaves things wide open for future upgrades.
 
I guess the point was trying to make was these aren't cheap junk set up's
600.00 will build you a decent rig for sonar.
 
but like anything, if I was using adobe photoshop for a living, I would probably go out and buy a machine built for fast processing.
not that custom built 600.00 rigs wont, but a high end will yield better faster results.
now how much of a difference? I guess it depends how serious you are.
for a lot of us, not that much, for the professionals here, it is a difference.