New PC Suggestions

Why do you want to spend $1000+ on a new PC when all you need is to spend around $200 on RAM and SSD?  That Core i7-6700 is hardly end of life.

Hilandermak,
The OS and Cakewalk program go to the SSD. Files that you will edit often (Cakewalk as well as others) go to the HDD.  When you first install Cakewalk go to Edit pull down menu and select Preferences.  In the Preferences select File Folder Locations.  You will see the Cakewalk files that you are allowed to move.  Set up folders on the HDD for the files you want to move.  Then go back to Edit/Preferences/FileFolderLocations to change the file path to the new drive.  The obvious files to put on HDD are:
Cakewalk Project files for CWP, CWB AND MIDI files for Cakewalk projects
Wave files for Wav, AIFE AND MPEG files to import into Cakewalk
Video files for AVI, MPG, MOV video files for import into Cakewalk 
Play lists for audio playlists of your Cakewalk Creations.
There are several other Cakewalk files you can move but you need to ask yourself if you will be editing them a lot or just adding to them infrequently and in small quantities.  eg. CAL, StudioWare, Step Sequence files if your a keyboard player.
 
Keeping your SSD from being bloated requires some diligence.  Here are a few.  The how to's are on the web.
Disable frefetch and superfetch
Limit the paging file on C:\drive
Move the locations for User TMP and TMP files and the System TEMP and TMP files
System protection for C:\drive need a limit set for how many restore points you want to keep
Turn off Hybernation thru the command prompt, this also shuts off Fast Start
Turn off windows indexing service for C:\drive  but keep it on for HDD
Turn off C:\drive file compression and defrag in disk management
Depending on your SSD, enable write cache buffer and buffer flushing, see vendor specs
Change the default location for user files this is the big one.
Change the default location for download files this is a big one too.
This should get you started.  I'm sure there are others the rest of the forum can help with.
 
Enjoy,
Forest
 
 
 
 
 
 

What are your Thoughts on plugins and virtual instruments such as waves, ikmultimedia and ad2 products? Thanks

abacab
Don't forget to look in Cakewalk Command Center settings.  There is a path tab there for Cakewalk download files (installers) and Cakewalk Content.  Make sure that is pointed to the HDD, otherwise your SSD will slowly fill up with Cakewalk updates!

A directory junction is a better solution that messing with the Command Center settings. Command Center settings reset to default when logging out and back into it. The directory junction, on the other hand, stays put.

Yup, directory junctions just leave a shortcut in place of the original folder.  Seems to work well with anything, especially any app that has hard coded tendencies to expect things are in a certain default location. 

If you want to speed up sample load times... and greatly expand your disk-streaming polyphony, put those sample libraries on SSD. 
 
If you have the budget, M.2 Ultra SSD is about 6 times the speed of SATA SSD.
Used strategically (for your most heavily used libraries), this can make a tremendous difference.
 
 

Now that is a loaded question!  The answer ranges from none, to everything else. 
 
One thing depends on whether you are dedicating your PC to DAW only, or using it as a multi-use PC.  If it a dedicated studio DAW, maybe the best plan is to disconnect it from the network and use offline updates only.  You only need an on-demand scanner if that is the case.  No real-time AV protection required, which frees up a bit of RAM and some CPU cycles.
 
But if you are going to be connecting to the internet, you need some protection.
 
A lot of folks take their chances with Windows Defender, which has improved with Windows 10.  It doesn't always score the highest detection rates in tests, but it is free and included with Windows.  Since it is embedded in Windows some folks feel that it has the lowest system impact.
 
Many AV file scanners let you set some exclusions, so you can prevent your audio drives from being scanned, for example.  Or you can disable real-time scanning while you are working with audio.
 
IMHO, if you want the best paid protection, Bitdefender. Kaspersky, and Avira are consistently among the best in 3rd party tests year after year.
 
The best free products are probably Avast, Bitdefender, and Avira.  For free plug and play with the broadest coverage, if you don't plan to install more than one product, my vote would go to Avast Free.  In addition to the file shield and web shield, it now has a behavior shield.  Just be sure to select the custom install, and uncheck the extras you don't really need.  https://www.avast.com/en-us/free-antivirus-download
 
Good luck!  You are likely to get some interesting opinions on this subject! 

I just use Windows Defender, but I don't generally browse the internet on this computer. But I DO leave it online to d/l updates and check Cakewalk forums with it and transfer files to/from my home computer (which I DO use for general browsing).