Tried and True Hardware Recommendations for 64-bit DAW

Before building a new DAW computer for use with Sonar 8.5PE 64-bit a few weeks ago, I spent a huge amount of time researching which components to buy.  After putting it all together I'm relieved to find that my new system is working great.

As a service to others who are thinking about building their own DAW computer, I'd like to share my experience as it relates to hardware.  It would be great if other people could chime in with their own recommendations.  My intention is to focus on groups of components that are known to work well as the hardware portion of a 64-bit Sonar DAW. 

COMPUTER
i7-930
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
6 GB (2 x 3 GB) Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8-8-8-24 DDR3 1600 RAM
Zalman CNPS10X Quiet CPU Cooler
HIS H465PS1GH Radeon HD 4650 fanless Video Card
(2) Samsung F3 500 GB Hard Drives
Pioneer DVD-RW with Lightscribe
Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 PSU
Antec Solo Case
Logitech M510 wireless mouse
Logitech K320 wireless keyboard

INTERFACES
Edirol UA-25EX
Roland UM-3G (for MIDI)

OS (dual boot)
Win XP Pro SP3 32-bit  (for home office use)
Win 7 Pro 64-bit (for Sonar 8.5PE 64 bit, plus email and general use)

BIOS SETTINGS
I'll fill this in later . . . . .

RESULTS
System is quiet.  Dual boot works great and is very convenient.  Sonar project with 15 soft synths is around 9% CPU usage.  Same project on my old computer would have easily been above 50%.  Have had a few crashes when fiddling with groove clips in DimPro x64.  Otherwise, the system is fast, stable and a pleasure to use.

LATENCY
As reported in the Sonar Audio Options dialog box, total roundtrip latency is 9.4 msec, 413 samples.  Audio settings are 44.1 MHz at 24 bits.


Final Note:  I'm overjoyed to have a new DAW that's screamin' fast and doesn't constantly crash.  I'm also happy that I was able to build the system myself and save around $800 in doing so.  But it took a huge amount of time to research, purchase, assemble, install, adjust and optimize the beast.  I lost a lot of time that should have been devoted to making music.  I'll definitely look into buying from a pro DAW builder next time.

Yes, it's TI.  That's one of the main reasons I bought that board.  I'm not currently using Firewire, but I want to have the option for the future.

Great info. Rooftree.  I'm looking into building a system myself and will be looking into the parts you've used.  Please post status updates re: overall performance and any issues the arise.

I spent a total of $1350 on my new computer.  That includes all PC components, keyboard and mouse, a new OS (Win7 Pro), shipping charges, plus a 30 minute consultation with a professional DAW builder.  The only things reused from my old computer were the monitor, DVD-RW drive, audio interface, and MIDI interface.

Subtract $130 for the OS, $50 for the consultation, and $100 for the keyboard and mouse (just a guess), and that brings my total hardware cost to $1070.

Mike,

Thanks very much for sharing the results of your DAW research with the rest of us! I plan on building a system soon and I'll definitely make use of your recommendations. You've saved me and a lot of others a boatload of time of redundant research. Much appreciated!

gdugan


Mike,

Thanks very much for sharing the results of your DAW research with the rest of us! I plan on building a system soon and I'll definitely make use of your recommendations. You've saved me and a lot of others a boatload of time of redundant research. Much appreciated!

Gary,

You're very welcome.  It's the least I can do.  I've learned so much on various music-production forums that I'm glad to finally have something to contribute.

I'm hoping that lots of other people will contribute to this thread too.  I'm sure there are other configurations that work well.  For instance, here's a computer that Noel Borthwick put together:
http://www.noelborthwick....idump/2009/12/new-daw/

Excellent thread Rooftree, I too am hoping to build something this fall.
It would be nice if a few others post successful DAW builds too.
I was thinking a i5 to save a few bucks but seems like planned obsolescence to me now. 

I get the impression that the go-to motherboard vendor changes with each generation of CPU and socket type.  Things change so quickly that a great vendor yesterday isn't necessarily going to be great tomorrow.

I didn't want to spend the money on SSDs.  Also, I don't really have a need for them since I don't stream large sample libraries.

The plain-vanilla disk setup works just fine for my needs, so I had no need for RAID.

The Antec Solo case is perfect in every regard except one:  the two USB ports on the front panel are too close together.  I can't put two thumb drives in side-by-side.  The only was to use both ports simultaneously is if you're using USB cords.

The power supply is working well.  I haven't had any problems with it.  I wanted to save money and get something smaller, but the consensus in forums was to get something on the large side.