chuckebaby

Jesse G
Like others here, I built my own rig.  
 
I went to Micro Center and bought all my parts even the case,

 
so did I.
you use the one here in Cambridge Jesse ?
(im from right here in Boston = a suburb outside of bean town)

chuckebaby
 
Nope, not near Cambridge at all.  The link I posted will take you to the Micro Center in SD Davids, Pa, Next to Villanova University.  It's a nice large Micro Center and I am always getting items there.  It's my main go to place for computer parts.

Sanderxpander
If you like using high performance laptops, I don't think you can get better than Clevo shells.

Curious if Clevo LPs with Sound Blaster X-FI cards can load soundfonts like the old desktop SB Lives could.
 
Also how noisy are they? My HP Envy is too noisy for studio work.

Jesse G

chuckebaby

Jesse G
Like others here, I built my own rig.  
 
I went to Micro Center and bought all my parts even the case,

 
so did I.
you use the one here in Cambridge Jesse ?
(im from right here in Boston = a suburb outside of bean town)

chuckebaby
 
Nope, not near Cambridge at all.  The link I posted will take you to the Micro Center in SD Davids, Pa, Next to Villanova University.  It's a nice large Micro Center and I am always getting items there.  It's my main go to place for computer parts.

same here Jesse, when I found microcenter I found a goldmine. its better than New Egg only you can browse around their store. I've made several builds from parts bought there. for a while I was building DAW's on the side (doing a few a month). not only are their parts well priced, their laptops are as well. problem is, ive gotten a few eggs there (parts and one laptop) they are great about returning items though, I will say that.
Peace man

My Desktop system (Fractal R5 Super Quiet and extremely efficient) is "Rock Solid" with Sonar, I'm using AMD 6 core & 16gb of Ram, no matter what I throw at it (track count & advance editing), it performs wonderfully. 

Another self-built desktop here, details in sig.  Not exactly cutting edge five years ago, but still effective today.
 

Jesse G
...The link I posted will take you to the Micro Center in SD Davids, Pa, Next to Villanova University.  It's a nice large Micro Center and I am always getting items there.  It's my main go to place for computer parts.

Huh, I'll have to check that out!   I'm in Chester County about 45 minutes from Saint Davids, but it could be worth the trip... 
 

SteveC, you might want to check out their website - if you haven't already. I find ordering online and picking up at the store particularly useful. At the one here in Dallas there is usually a long line for the normal checkout lines (of which there are many). But, the pickup counter usually only has a few, if any, people waiting. It only takes a few minutes to get the gear and pay for it. If you want you can still shop around for more gear too and take it up when you pickup your online order.

Build: Yes, since 2000.  My 1st PC was a store bought "multimedia" PC in 1997 that cost me like $2000.  Found out it sucked for audio.  It was Cakewalk that inspired me to build my own desktop.  That name brand PC was difficult/impossible to upgrade most of the proprietary hardware inside.  Sort of like today's laptops ... Googled a lot about the topic, and then went to a local electronics store and came home with a box full of parts for a screaming Pentium 3. That night I had a clean first BIOS post, and the install with Windows 98 went well.  Life was good!  So was Cakewalk Professional 6.
 
Desktop: Yes, primary workstation/DAW. Also have a laptop, with my DAW software loaded for when I'm traveling.  Nice to have a portable office, but I would never consider a laptop as a desktop replacement, or main rig.  They are useful, though, but limiting.  If my desktop acts up, I can just swap parts until all is good again.  I have a twin system with the same hardware specs, but runs Linux, that I can borrow parts from for troubleshooting.
 
Gaming: I have never setup a rig dedicated to gaming.  Not that there is anything wrong with that! I do have an older generation home theater PC in the living room, with Nvidia graphics, and a few games loaded.  But I would probably get a dedicated gaming console if I ever felt the need for more gaming power. While a DAW for MIDI/audio is my first requirement (addiction), I've installed decent Nvidia cards in the past and dabbled with older games that I could get to run OK.  The Intel HD integrated graphics is good enough for my use on my current rig (2014).  So no new graphics boards for me lately.  But I do think my current rig would do well for gaming with a fancy graphics card.  No matter what, get an SSD
 
Intel vs AMD: I have always used Intel or Asus desktop boards with Intel CPU's.  Intel is getting out of the mobo business, so I expect it will be Asus with Intel chipsets for me going forward. I have never had a mobo fail. Just my preference, but because I value stability over performance, I do not ever overclock.  My theory is because Intel is bigger, they probably can write more compatible drivers.  I am sure you can find forum flame wars on Intel vs AMD if you use Google.
 
I have always used good power supplies and keep my PC's on APC UPS power backups.  Keep the fans clean & spinning.  May partially explain my good luck with components longevity.  I repaired a friends HP PC with a blown mobo recently.  Swapped the mobo because the caps (capacitors) were bulging and leaking.  The fans were also full of dog fur.  Just FYI: my latest Asus mobo's have solid polymer capacitors for long life
 
I am very happy with my current rig. It is very fast and solid as a rock. With the SSD it reboots in seconds and programs launch almost instantly.  With Sonar I mostly use virtual instruments and effects, rather than audio recording, and have a hard time pushing it to 50% CPU.  DPC latency is low according to LatencyMon.  My Sonar mixing latency with ASIO settings at 24/44, two buffers, 128 samples, are 2.9 msec with ASIO reported total roundtrip latency of 9.8 msec.  No dropouts yet.
 
The only time I have ever hit 100% is with a CPU/RAM stress test called Prime95, which searches for the largest known prime number.  My keyboard and mouse is still responsive, even with that running.
 

stevec

Huh, I'll have to check that out!   I'm in Chester County about 45 minutes from Saint Davids, but it could be worth the trip...
 

SteveC,
 
This Micro Center has a nice mark down section in the store and a lot of nice deals weekly.  As soon as you walk in to the store there are items stacked in large quantities.   Take a trip on Saturday.
 
If you are married or dating, there is the Radnor Hotel across the street that has a brunch on  Sundays to die for.  All you can eat with free mimosa  for brunch.  $29 each person, but the food is worth it.
 
Radnor Hotel Sunday Brunch
 
 

StudioCat. Laptops don't have enough hard drives are big enough, multi monitors