X1 producer new computer specs?

Check out the this link to the Cakewalk system guide:

https://www.cakewalk.com/PCResource/default.aspx

Lots of good info there. Particularly the ADK link. Here's a link to ADKs systems page. If you click through it takes you to their online system builder where you can see what parts they use:

http://www.adkproaudio.com/choose2.asp

But generally you'd be good with...

CPU: i7 series

RAM: 8GB DDR3 or more

HDD: 7200RPM (Caviar Blacks are good) or you could get an SSD

MOBO: It would depend on what you needed for connections but both Gigabyte and ASUS make some good boards.

Then just make sure you have quality interface. Obviously this is very general but it should get you into the ballpark. Cheers.

CJ is right and I would add that be sure you run the PC and Sonar in 64-bit if you plan to use a lot of plugins or virtual instruments so your PC can address all the memory.

I assume 64-bit is pretty standard now...

Windows 7 Home and Pro will be supported until 2018 (2015 for Ultimate so maybe avoid that). We don't really know what's gonna happen with 8 yet and a lot of the manufacturers haven't gotten their drivers up to date yet either. 

Some may not agree with this statement but I think Win 7 is probably the safer and perhaps wiser choice right now. It just works and pretty much everything has solid Win 7 drivers at the moment (and likely will for a long time like XP did). 8 just seems like a gamble at this point. 

Just my opinion. Cheers.

You scared me with that, Beepster, me who just installed Win7 Ultimate on my brand new system that is supposed to last me at least 10 years like the last one.

So I ran over to Microsoft and looked it up and they say Ultimate will be supported until 2020 (phew).

It's support for "Ultimate N" which ends in 2015, that's a version for european countries.

I've been using an M-audio audiophile 2496 for about 7 years & have never had a problem with it & don't plan on changing it if I don't have to. Even though it only has RCA hookups the sound quality is excellent. M_audio is pretty good about drivers so I'll probably be O.K. with Win7. My other question is a lot of boards today come with built in audio & video. I assume they can be disabled in the BIOS. Does anyone here ever use the onboard video? I'm just not getting the difference between PCIe or PCIe2.0, 2.1, 3.0 etc.. so I'm considering using the onboard video. I know I sound like a novice but I've been building my own systems for a pretty long time & just haven't done it in about 7 years so a lot has changed in the hardware department.

Beepster with windows 7 or 8 you need to have a good quality graphics card to get the full benefits of graphics processing. A hard core gamer may have multiple graphics cards to get the fastest screen updates (Frames Per Second). They can spend more for the graphics than they do on the computer. For just general computing such as word processing an on board graphics card is fine. For doing DAW work or video work you do need a good graphics card. 

If you rely on on board graphics you will also be using system memory and the kind of screen updates needed for a smooth display for VSTs and the like will suffer.

Using a DAW is not general computing.  

Check this out . It may help understand the point I am making. 

Beepster


Hi, John. I realize that but if there is enough processing power on the system already Sonar should run fine. Seriously my vid card sucks and everything is working great. I could probably get away with not using it at all. The i7s also have graphics acceleration or magical fairies or whatever it is that make things easier on the system.

What I'm saying is OP doesn't need an expensive graphics card to run Sonar if his system hardware is decent... particularly the CPU. Obviously a good graphics card is always ideal but Sonar isn't draining resources to display graphics like a high end modern game would. Even then if there are issues due to graphics there are options to lighten the load. I was shocked at the price of graphics cards these days. Totally unnecessary IMO.

YMMV

Ever since Vista the idea that a cheap graphics card will do is wrong. Vista used Aero which off loaded the screen updates to the graphics card. This improved 2d apps and the desktop appearance in general. Many saw Vista as slow and unresponsive because it was being run on old under powered gear due to a low powered graphics card. This has not changed except that hardware developers have adjusted to the new requirements. Also CPUs have gotten a lot more powerful. With a DAW like Sonar it needs all the CPU it can get. By using a low powered graphics card you put added strain on the CPU that your OS is meant to avoid. 

This is not just to have a good looking desktop it is for increasing the overall performance of the system that will give big dividends to Sonar.  

You don't need the power of a hard core gamer but an upgrade to the graphics card will be very useful for all computing running a modern OS. 

I'm just going by what Cake support told me and what I've experienced so far. The guys at support just said with my specs the graphics card shouldn't even come into play. I've got an i7 2600k and 16 GB of RAM... just for reference. I forget my vid card model but it is indeed a cheapo.

Not trying to be argumentative and definitely if the money is there might as well snag a nice vid card but it doesn't seem to be causing problems on my system.

Cheers.

Beep that card is not an underpowered card. You have DDR 3 plus its 1 GB. Cost is not the important issue its the technology that matters. Would a faster one be better, yes, but that card is not a poor choice.

 

I think you did everything right Beep. Research is the key.