Some significant factors about my main DAW computer rig:
NOT NEWThe PC is over 5 years old, but it still performs well and very rarely maxes out, so I'm not planning to build a new replacement yet. The CPU is an i7-950.
ONLY 6GB RAMI was originally planning to add more RAM but nothing that I've ever run on this PC has ever hit the RAM ceiling. I have seen it repeated advised on this forum that you need a minimum of 16GB these days. This may be true in some cases but it certainly doesn't apply generally.
QUIET CASEThe case is an Antec P183 case, which is designed to be quiet and it is quiet. However I would not necessarily recommend it, as I fing it too small and cramped and awkward to work with whenever I open it up. Space is tight, with SATA and power connectors end up bunched up and pressing against each other and against components. Also, sometimes the side covers are be difficult to put back on, with PSU cables pressing against them.
4 MONITOR SCREENSI have 4 screens (all Dell 1905FP) in a 2-up 2-down configuration. These are the old type with 5:4 aspect ratio. The first one was quite expensive when I purchased it 10 years ago but the other 3 I picked up cheaply later via eBay. I use each side-by-side pair as if it were a single wide screen and try to ignore the centre bezel. If I could afford it, I would replace 4 with 2 wide (21:9) ones. Sonar's Track View is displayed on the top pair. The bottom pair is for PRV, CV or whatever, depending on the Screenset.
SEVERAL HARDDRIVESI recented added a new 120GB SSD and set up a new Windows 7 installation for DAW-only use. The previous installation (still present) was for DAW plus a few other things, e.g. video/image editing. Earlier this year I added 2 similar SSDs for projects and multisamples. There are also 4 other drives (not SSDs) with other o/s installations, backups and various non-music stuff.
MULTI-BOOTIt has actually grown to quin-boot, although some of the older boots are not used regularly any more. The original Windows XP setup, with Sonar 7, is still intact if I need it. I have a lot of old projects that contain DX versions of plugins that currently only only exist in VST format. Hence the need for occasionally accessing the old setup. All the installations share the same resource paths.
MATROX GRAPHICS CARDSThe cards that I use are old and don't have much onboard RAM, but the image quality is great. I hear people with other GPU brands complaining about having difficulty with small text on screen or washed-out colours in some badly designed GUIs, but I never have any such problems. Even the red background on the SampleTank GUI looks just fine on my system. The total combined amount of RAM, i.e. 512MB, small by today's standards, has proved to be sufficient to drive 4 screens. I have read on these forums that you need a 1GB card for Sonar, but that's evidently not true. However, I would replace these cards with a new up-to-date Matrox card if I could afford one. They are not cheap.
OFFLINEI recently moved and my studio room in the new house is a long way from the network hub. I managed to activate almost everything without being online when I installed all the DAW software on a new boot setup. There was only one instance when I briefly needed an internet connection. I ran a 30 metre ethernet cable across the room, along a corridor, across the lounge area to the dining room. This didn't go down well with the other people in the house. I suppose I could add wifi, but I don't really need it very often.