brconflict
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Hardware Improvements Poll
I wanted to do a check from fellow users to see what of these hardware improvements you've made after the release of X2a which produced for you the greatest performance increase for Sonar. This includes the ability to increase tracks and/or experience general responsiveness as well as the ability to reduce latency or minimize drop-outs.
1) Additional CPU Cores
2) Faster Motherboard
3) More/Faster RAM
4) SSD drive
5) Separate working disk/H.D.
6) Faster Video Card
Additionally, even though this was not part of my question, but useful: Using vs. not using Anti-Virus software, de-fragmenting your hard drives, etc.
Brian Sonar Platinum, Steinberg Wavelab Pro 9, MOTU 24CoreIO w/ low-slew OP-AMP mods and BLA external clock, True P8, Audient ASP008, API 512c, Chandler Germ500, Summit 2ba-221, GAP Pre-73, Peluso 22251, Peluso 2247LE, Mackie HR824, Polk Audio SRS-SDA 2.3tl w/upgraded Soniccraft crossovers and Goertz cables, powered by Pass-X350. All wiring Star-Quad XLR or Monster Cable. Power by Monster Power Signature AVS2000 voltage stabilizer and Signature Pro Power 5100 PowerCenter on a 20A isolation shielded circuit.
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burkek
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 12:57:08
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If you have a late-model PC of any sort (say, Core i7), any gains made through the expenditure of upgrading any of the components listed above will be marginal at best (if you notice any improvement at all) with the exception of the SSD; your computer should boot faster and files should load faster, but arguably you won't be storing sampler libraries on it due to size, so you'll just have a faster boot to Windows and faster program launching.
Defragmenting is handled automatically by newer O/S's.
KEv
www.kevinburke.ca Macbook Pro 2017 | 4K monitor
AKAI S5000 x 3 | Korg Prophecy/Poly-61M | Alesis S4+/DM5 | Ensoniq Mirage x 2, ASR-10 | EMU e6400 | Roland S750 | Kawai K4r/XD-5/K3m | EMU Proformance/1+ | Waldorf uQ
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Beepster
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 14:05:05
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I built the new rig to handle whatever I can throw at it for the next 5 years or so (hopefully). The old one would probably turn into a puddle of fizzing goo if I tried install X2 on it as is but I'm tempted to see if I could get X1 running on it. It's an XP rig and probably just scraping the bottom end of min requirements.
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CJaysMusic
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 16:49:19
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Sound car drivers play a bigger role than anything else,. if you have a recent PC. if your using an older Pc ,then adding more ram or updating a video card will do you no good
Cj
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Beepster
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 16:57:40
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Yeah, if you are a little above recommended specs and have a good interface and configured your system well all should be good. We've got guys on here doing crazy stuff on rigs that don't even meet the MINIMUM specs. If you have the cash to upgrade your system it's probably better spent toward buying parts for a new build for the future.
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2:43AM
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 17:24:26
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How about adding a PCI or PCIe firewire card to the list? Even though I have a great and stable motherboard, I am going to go that route, since it isn't too expensive, in an effort to HOPEFULLY clear up some of my constant crashes.
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Beepster
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 17:28:02
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If you have a firewire interface then yeah that's a great idea. Be sure the card has one of the good chipsets on it like the Texas Instruments FW chipsets. It's worth scouring the net to check the makes of both the card and the TI chipset and/or contacting Focusrite to see which ones they recommend.
Oh and don't use legacy PCI if you have a PCIe slot available. Cheers.
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2:43AM
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 18:11:31
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Beepster
If you have a firewire interface then yeah that's a great idea. Be sure the card has one of the good chipsets on it like the Texas Instruments FW chipsets. It's worth scouring the net to check the makes of both the card and the TI chipset and/or contacting Focusrite to see which ones they recommend.
Oh and don't use legacy PCI if you have a PCIe slot available. Cheers.
Believe me, I am looking into it from all angles. Found a couple boards on eBay for a good, cheap price so even if they don't work to cure my ailments, then no big $$$ lost. And I have asked the sellers to report back the chipset manufacturer and part number. I am specifically looking for TI. Would there be a problem to use PCI instead of PCIe? I have a spare PCIe slot, but the card will block the cooling fans of my graphics card.
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Beepster
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 18:21:41
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PCIe is supposedly much faster but the main problem with legacy PCI on newer motherboards is that the manufacturers now use a "bridged" connection as opposed to a "native" connection. This isn't generally a problem for most old cards people want to use but because of the high demands of audio it can choke the data and cause poor performance which can result in dropouts and crashes. I am not familiar with your MOBO but I have an ASUS as well and ran into this problem with my old Echo Layla card. If your case is sufficiently cooled then I'd say the better connection for your audio card trumps any slight temp increase. Just keep an eye on your system temps and if things start getting overheated add some case fans or even just leave one of the case panels off. I mean check out the temps now and google what is appropriate. If it's pushing the limits as it is then yeah... might be a concern but if the case is good I doubt it'll be a problem. Cheers.
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Beepster
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 18:25:18
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Oh and unless you are using it as a gaming system as well I doubt your vid card is going to get too hot anyway. I'm not too knowledgeable about those wacky high end cards though. I just have a $20 Gigabyte card with a gig of RAM. One little fan on the card and it works fine without any heat issues.
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2:43AM
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 19:51:20
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Beepster
PCIe is supposedly much faster but the main problem with legacy PCI on newer motherboards is that the manufacturers now use a "bridged" connection as opposed to a "native" connection. This isn't generally a problem for most old cards people want to use but because of the high demands of audio it can choke the data and cause poor performance which can result in dropouts and crashes. I am not familiar with your MOBO but I have an ASUS as well and ran into this problem with my old Echo Layla card. If your case is sufficiently cooled then I'd say the better connection for your audio card trumps any slight temp increase. Just keep an eye on your system temps and if things start getting overheated add some case fans or even just leave one of the case panels off. I mean check out the temps now and google what is appropriate. If it's pushing the limits as it is then yeah... might be a concern but if the case is good I doubt it'll be a problem. Cheers.
Great information from personal experience. Thanks! However, does it matter if it's only a PCIe x1 that is available? The PCIe x16 is used up by the graphics card. So all I have left are several, standard PCI slots and one PCIe x1 slot. Beepster
Oh and unless you are using it as a gaming system as well I doubt your vid card is going to get too hot anyway. I'm not too knowledgeable about those wacky high end cards though. I just have a $20 Gigabyte card with a gig of RAM. One little fan on the card and it works fine without any heat issues.
I enjoy a game or two so I do indeed have a stout graphics card! If the firewire-card-to-be is small enough, then the graphics card will most likely still be OK as it has dual fans and can most likely vacuum any air around the firewire card with little resistance! Plus, my case is adequately cooled; no problems there.
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Beepster
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 21:18:57
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Sorry for the late reply (chilling out for the night). Unfortunately I can't help with that question as I actually just got a USB interface instead of another card based interface. I'd imagine it would again depend on the MOBO and how it handles the card slot connections. You could find out from ASUS about that kind of thing. Then maybe relay what you find out to Focusrite and Cakewalk tech support just to double check everything.
However even if the PCIe x1 is bridged it will still likely give better results with a good quality FW card. I actually did manage to get my Echo card working better through the PCI slot after some system optimization (you should look into this as well while talking to Cakewalk) so I can only imagine PCIe x1 would be an improvement. But that is outside of my realm of knowledge so best to ask the pros. Good luck.
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garrigus
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 22:20:09
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ampfixer
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 23:29:38
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I find that good video cards and great video cards all run Sonar about the same. Biggest improvement for me was the Intel 240 gig sata 3 drive. It's not very often that an upgrade makes you say "oh, that's a big improvement". The SSD did it for me.
Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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gswitz
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/10 23:30:50
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From a reverse perspective, when running under-powered on an old laptop, lots of things can cause an issue. As projects load up with plug-ins, moving my mouse could cause a drop out (video). Or the Windows Virus Scanner might try to scan a file after stopping the recorder after a song... gotta make sure that never happens by adding the exclusion folder. Block Windows updates. More RAM doesn't hurt if you're at 4 GB. A faster hard drive (man has the pace picked up in the last 6 or 7 years!). Windows 8 auto defrags unless you disable it. I don't disable it. With a careful balance of gear, you can do amazing things with a POS computer.
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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Shambler
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/11 03:50:41
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For me it is always about what tech has had a step change in power.
You have to look at how much more powerful the new CPU's/Drives are compared to your current one and decide if this warrants an upgrade.
Each time the tech of CPU gets better I gauge if it is worth an upgrade and if it is this normally means a motherboard upgrade as well.
This in turn probably means my RAM will not work on the new motherboard or at least not at the speed the new board can run at.
And why run a new Motherboard/CPU/RAM with an old power supply?
We all know power supplies fail at some point and usually end up taking out the motherboard etc. with them.
What I always do then is buy a barebones system which includes a new case/PSU/Motherboard/CPU/RAM and transplant my graphics card and drives into it.
One key thing when buying another PC is the motherboard...do your research!
Does it work well for audio streaming, has anyone had problems?
Research this well and then look for systems that use this motherboard.
So in summary the biggest thing that will improve your performance is a new PC! =)
SONAR Platypus on Win10 64bit. Studio One Pro / Cubase Pro 9.5...just in case. 8GB i7-2600 3.4GHz Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Geforce GTX970 Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 2nd Gen Prophet 12/Rev 2/Virus Snow Zebra2/DIVA/NI Komplete 10
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brconflict
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/11 12:25:46
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truongquangtan204, please remove yourself from this forum. This is not within the agreement of the forum for you to advertise, and I have reported this to the forum administrators. Please find more suitable and acceptable ways of advertising your products and services. In fact, you should give your own Spam Software manual a try. You might like the insights on fighting Spammers... 
Brian Sonar Platinum, Steinberg Wavelab Pro 9, MOTU 24CoreIO w/ low-slew OP-AMP mods and BLA external clock, True P8, Audient ASP008, API 512c, Chandler Germ500, Summit 2ba-221, GAP Pre-73, Peluso 22251, Peluso 2247LE, Mackie HR824, Polk Audio SRS-SDA 2.3tl w/upgraded Soniccraft crossovers and Goertz cables, powered by Pass-X350. All wiring Star-Quad XLR or Monster Cable. Power by Monster Power Signature AVS2000 voltage stabilizer and Signature Pro Power 5100 PowerCenter on a 20A isolation shielded circuit.
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Glyn Barnes
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Re: Hardware Improvements Poll
2013/07/12 00:47:08
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Beepster
I built the new rig to handle whatever I can throw at it for the next 5 years or so (hopefully).
That was my plan (specs in the signature). I certainly see major improvments over my last DAW (older i7 12GB RAM), however as just about every component except the graphics card is a higher spec who know what's contributing to the improvment.
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