Help Me Build My New DAW, No Really, I Need Help...Thanks

O.K. here goes. I want to build a DAW that meets my needs and not spend money on a Porsche when all I need is a Ford F150. Here is my workflow. I record no more than 16 analogue instruments at a time (real time or live recording). I would use no more than 24 midi, or soft synths with the aforementioned 16 tracks of pre-recorded analogue instruments (probably closer to 6 soft synths). When all of this is in a project I would then mix it down and master it.

Additionally, but NOT important I would like the ability to fly video in and try to make an attempt at putting my product online with some type of video. 

I have Sonar 7PE. What I need is a DAW with a TI Firewire chipset, NIC, video card I guess for the video, DVD/CD burner, one internal HD at 7200rpms, and USB 3. I currently use two MOTU 8Pres’, so the TI firewire is important, but I am also anticipating maybe future upgrades so USB 3 is not a bad idea.

To save money I can go with an integrated video and forget about the video portion and just worry about the video supporting my 40” LCD/Plasma display (not sure which one I will use), just that it should have great resolution capabilities and several choices for connecting. I could also drop the USB 3, as the PC tower I build will be outdated in three years and I won't be purchasing any new equipment until after then anyway so I don't really need it I guess. 

So what MOBO, what processor, how much ram, what speed ram, what FSB speed (if that even matters any more), what NIC, what PS,what cooling fans,  what chassis, I don't need insulated etc. Did I forget anything that I need...I heard one very smart person say "I don't know what I don't know", and I don’t know the answers to these questions. If I had a head start on the MOBO and processor I may be able to stumble thru the rest, but really…this is kinda like brain surgery if you don’t know what you are doing.

Please help. I don’t want popping and clicking or drop outs when using plug ins and managing the track counts with the midi soft synths. Please advise…again I don’t need a Porsche, or to say "More Than I Need", I just need enough to satisfy my workflow, which will NOT change. I don’t do bands or third party projects. I only do my own band and that is it. We are old school and set in our ways, not to mention have no time, so I can’t take on more than I can chew. Basically we are a three piece Rock/Prog/Funk band that will use vocals and some soft synth. The analogue track count comes from micing each drum...go figure, at some point I know this will bite me in the ass, but nonetheless the drummer has the money so he is putting out for the additional 8Pre and his mics. Thanks 

post edited by TremoJem - 2013/04/12 19:47:56

My advice would be to go for the most powerful system you can afford, even if it's more than you currently need, as you'll likely grow into it soon enough. But there's no simple, single answer. A Porsche might corner and brake faster, but it can't pull stumps or haul lumber like an F150.

You don't really need a very powerful system just for tracking (recording) 16 tracks of audio. A netbook or iPad can do that. But if you want to record at high sample rates or throw any fx on the inputs while tracking or mixing, that requires more cpu power. And softsynths also use more cpu power and can benefit from more system memory for samples.

Video editing isn't necessarily demanding, and the on-core HD4000 graphics on the  latest Intel "Ivy Bridge" i5 and i7 cpu's can handle that at even high def resolutions, so you could get by with using the onboard graphics, or a lower end graphics card. Your 40" TV probably has an HDMI input, so a motherboard or graphics card with an HDMI port would be necessary (but you need to confirm what input jacks your display has, in order to know what you'll need!).

For a basic DAW, you'd probably be looking at an i5 Ivy Bridge cpu (4 cores, 2-channel memory support, no hyper-threading) with 8 GBs or more of memory. For more power you'll want an i7 Ivy Bridge cpu (4-cores with 2-channel memory support and hyper-threading) and 16 GBs or more of memory. Either of these cpu types would use a "socket 1155" motherboard with an Ivy Bridge chipset (PCH) With a "K" cpu such as i5-3570K or i7-3770K and a Z77 or Z75 motherboard you would have the ability to "overclock" the cpu for more performance.

Next step up, at quite higher cost, would be an i7 Sandy Bridge-E cpu on a socket 2011 X79 motherboard, starting with the i7-3820 (4 cores w/hyperthreading and 4-channel memory support) or i7-3930K (6 cores w/hyperthreading, 4-channel memory and overclocking support) and 16GBs or more of memory. With such a system you'd have plenty of power for most any DAW needs (could cormer fast, pull stumps and haul lumber). But you'd also need to install a separate graphics card as these cpu's do not have onboard graphics.

You can install a PCIe (PCI Express) Firewire adapter with T.I. or LSI chip, so don't worry about onboard Firewire support on a motherboard.

You'll also need storage drives for your operating system and DAW applications and audio data, samples, etc. Solid state drives (SSDs) are fastest but are lower capacity and highest cost per GB compared to hard disk drives (HDDs).

You'll also need a power supply and case, and may want or need a good quiet cpu cooler.

If you have no time or are not computer/DAW savvy, then it might be wise to consult a pro system builder who could (possibly for a fee) give detailed recommendations on a system to meet your specific requirements, and who could also build a custom system for you tailored and tuned to your specific needs and provide support down the line.

Building your own system can be very rewarding (I just did), but it's also time consuming if you have to learn what you're doing before even starting.

I don't look at it as saving money, but as getting higher quality parts for the same money and being able to get exactly the parts you need.

You should hang out a bit on forums like tomshardware.com to get a feel for what's involved. It's not just a simple matter of throwing a few parts together as many will have you believe (they've done it countless times and it's easy for them).

Start by buying an anti-static wrist strap and figure out a way to keep it grounded.

If you have the option, use a PCIe FW card for your new system, not PCI. If using a PCI card, you will be limited to using either an Intel B75 or Q77 motherboard (which don't support overclocking) or else using an expensive X79 board and cpu, or an AMD board and cpu, because other recent Intel motherboard chipsets do not support  "native" PCI interface and this can mean problems with many PCI cards. 

All motherboards have at least one onboard Gigabit NIC these days, so that's not a problem.

Note that the system benchmark info found on most hardware sites is not necessarily applicable to DAWs. For some benchmark info on relative DAW-type performance between various current and recent vintage cpu's, see Scott's 2nd and 3rd charts here:
http://www.adkproaudio.com/benchmarks.cfm

and also here for Scott's testing of recent AMD FX Vishera cpu:

http://www.gearslutz.com/...y-have-eat-my-hat.html

For additional explanation of the benchmarks used for above-linked info see Vin/TAFKAT's site:

http://dawbench.com/benchmarks.htm

For various info on other people's recent DAW builds, see these forum threads:

http://www.soundonsound.c...365&fpart=1#932136

http://www.gearslutz.com/...-studio-pc-thread.html

If you are interested in overclocking in order to get more performance, there is a lot of info to be found on the gaming-centric hardware sites. You may need to use better spec memory and you will also need a good cpu cooler setup for overclocking.

There is also info to be found on how to tweak your system BIOS and Windows and Sonar settings for better DAW performance and the tools available for monitoring your system's performance, if you search for it.  But beware, not all of it is necessarily reliable or applicable or up-to-date, so take care. 

People using other DAW software than Sonar also face many of the same challenges when building their DAW systems, so you might find useful info in other DAW software users forums also. And some audio interface manufacturers' sites have system tweak recommendations as well as user forums where info can be found. 

Edit: Scott has just posted some benchmark test results over at GS on the shortly  forthcoming new Intel "Haswell" i7-4770K cpu, which exhibits significantly higher performance compared to i7-3770K and close to i7-3930K even at stock speed (without overclocking), so it might be worthwhile waiting a bit longer until this new cpu hits the market. 

http://www.gearslutz.com/...-benchmarks.html