Separate PC for music production?

It should be possible to use one machine for everything, but it does complicate the administration problem. The OS should sort out the applications and they should not interfere with each other, but many of these applications are set up to hog resources (and potentially interfere with each other) even when you are not intending to have them run at all. You may want to run indexing on your work computer, find it convenient that MS Office is waiting in memory so it seems to load quickly, or have your browser stream audio or video automatically using an app like Windows Media Player. Unless you are diligent in understanding what is running silently, there is a potential for problems, and diagnosing the problems is more complicated. The main advantage to using a dedicated DAW installation (it need not be on a dedicated machine as you can dual boot or use a drive drawer for your OS drive) is that you do not have to worry about some application loading itself and screwing up your settings.

I currently run Guitar Tracks Pro on a laptop as a music only machine.  I think there is a lot of benefit to this, as long as the cost is affordable to you.

How experienced are you at Sonar?  How much of a computer tweaker are you?  On the Guitar Tracks subforum here there is a constant stream of fairly new users who are having all kinds of issues due to their computer being bogged down with unnecessary processes.  Choppy sound, delayed sound, latency during recording, and random stoppages are common.  Once they get their machine tweaked it runs fine, but the new configuration is not usable for their daily non-music stuff.  Having a system dedicated to your studio means only tweaking it once and then forgetting about it.  No random weirdness when you update your browser or install a new program.

Anti-virus is one of the big problems.  I'll admit to having no AV on my laptop, and I do connect to the home wifi network sometimes, with only the firewall on that router to protect the laptop.  To date zero infections or malware.  But I don't recommend going naked like that if you keep anything important like financial information or your email on there.

I don't think Win 7 updates are likely to be much of a problem, if it is working for you as is you could just ignore any future updates.  Updates seem to be mostly about security issues, and if you're not on the internet it isn't necessary.

Having one computer with a dual boot system would work, where it boots up into a stripped down state for Sonar, and if you want to do other things you boot up into that system.

Have a rock solid backup system in place!  You don't want all of your hard work lost in a disk crash other catastrophic failure.

You can connect a studio computer to the internet indirectly through your main home system most likely.  Any VST plugins could be downloaded to your main system and then you could use an ethernet cable between the two computers or set up a home wifi network to transfer the files from one computer to the other.  Such a setup also allows you to back up files from your music computer to your other computer.

I see no downside to a computer dedicated to your studio other than cost and possibly some minor hassle in getting stuff off of the internet.

I also have a separate PC for music.  As you're suggesting, I just upgrade the music PC and use the older model to surf and do general stuff. 

Just upgraded my system.. HP 1235. The main issue with DAW's is RAM speed. 8 gig is a good start and make sure you can double the ram to 16 gig with the system you have or buy. Most new PC systems have more hard drive space than you will need. You should not worry about internet activity, just keep the spyware crap off when working your projects.
It's always nice to be able to jump over and get online when on a break from your project.

i did this,ive tried both ways and im telling you,i havent noticed the benifit,sure ive had spyware problems,but those problems have been net releated not daw related.
im sure it does indeed happen,but ive not yet seen the benefit so im back to using my daw/web user/update downloader/forum speaker.

i would suggest disabling your wireless card while using sonar but thats about it.
i have 3 daws and i build another 3-4 a month(not all daws,some gaming,some daws,some standard household computers.ive done a lot of tests.

i can still build a computer for under 450.00 that will be better than anything for that price at bestbuy,or other commercial stores.
ive got a book out there now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFZ7ZrsTl3g
on computer building.

with many good reviews as seen here:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.ashx?m=2778255

im trying to get more and more people to build their own DAW's.
its very simple and cost effective.
not to mention avoiding the bloatware that comes with a store bought computer,the 30 day trials that expire and pop up's that just never seem to un-install all the way.

i was also an intell man for many years,till i started bench testing AMD's.
then i found huge gaps in these tests,some of these things were things we never planed for...the entangables.
the things you dont realize,the tests arent done.

the key IMO is to use a very light version of anti virus,and almost always a fre version of Avast or AVG will do better than a bloated version of Norton or MCafee.

i use a combo,free Avast and a Norton password manager with a built in reputation "Safe web".Both combined are under 100 MB.using less than 4,000k of performance when on.
common sence also goes a long way,searching random sites with bad reputations will surely get you in hot water.

To those people using there daw's off line..i got nothing,its not a bad thing.its a good thing.
but even when you add up the temporary net files and cache files added,there small.but do save you the headache of cleaning,which i do often.
i use Ccleaner every week religously.

And Mesh was the only one paying attention... ha ha. 

It may not be relevant to the OP after so long but the info may help someone else.

I have kept my old DAW in service as an Internet / Office/ Photo editing machine and my new one is music production only. Its on the net but only for relevant software updates, registrations etc.

I am using a KVM switch to share monitor, keyboard and mouse between the two PCs. http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.ashx?m=2781257

Bristol_Jonesey


Hi Glyn.

Does the KVM switch allow for switching dual monitors?


Jonesey

No. It would probably allow one of the two monitors to be switched, I imagine it would be possible to connect one monitor directly to the DAW and the other via the KVM switch, however I can't verify that.
 
 

Combo - That's just what I've done as well. 

When my older store bought rig, [which easily surpassed the minimum specs needed for DAWs,] wasn't really up to par for all the VSTs, etc. I built my own rig, complete with some of the best & fastest components available.

I've kept it off line and use my older one for the net, downloads, emails, photos, etc.

There is a small bit of inconvenience having to register & authorize programs, and Vsts and stuff, by transferring info using a USB flash drive, but I find it's well worth it.

You can also get updates for Windows and other things. Just search how to do it. 

Personally, I never bother with Windows updates anymore though. 

If my stuff's working, then it's working. Personally, I find Windows 
updates to cause as many new problems as they claim to solve.