Stipes Vigilo


Some of the best advice I've recieved from others about building a studio system is to start with the soundcard and build around it. I think the DAW we choose and how we intend to use it is at least a close second to that too. All the 'nuts & bolts' seem to fall into place after those two things are addressed.

its not what I would do (only my opinion)
if you tend to build your daw around things like soundcards, peripheral's, devices your going to be running into problems down the road.
I build computers to last for a long time, when your soundcard becomes obsolete your left with a computer you built around a device, its just not good judgment.
I built a computer for a customer about 8 years ago, I just replaced the power supply last month, so good computers will last the change of time.
of course that same computer I built for him 8 years ago was 1200.00
today I could build the same one for about 600.00
the process in parts have gone down so much, look at ram for instance.
a stick of 512 megabyte was close to  70.00 dollars about 5 years ago.
a stick of 2 gigs is about 30.00
 
I think the key is to build a good computer  leaving room for expansions,better mobo,cpu, this way you can increase ram from 8 gb to 16 gb.
those systems are about 700 to build.
the one in my book is under 500, its 8 gigs of ram max out.
 
but in my opinion, daw wise, I put these through rigorous testing and not even skipping a beat until track count/effects count gets way up there.

Well...I won't get a chance anytime soon, BUT...I will have to say this...BIG UPS to Mr. Charlie Roy for one awesome Ebook on building a computer...man, you have a real gift for explaining things and you are very thorough and orderly. I am no idiot as far as trying to DIY with things, but I really feel I can build a monster of a computer myself following your instructions...thank you personally for reaching out and helping me along the way with other stuff here as well! You are a real asset to the community here for sure...I'll be hollering at you soon brother! THANK YOU!!! Sincerely David

chuckebaby

Stipes Vigilo Some of the best advice I've recieved from others about building a studio system is to start with the soundcard and build around it. I think the DAW we choose and how we intend to use it is at least a close second to that too. All the 'nuts & bolts' seem to fall into place after those two things are addressed.

 
if you tend to build your daw around things like soundcards, peripheral's, devices your going to be running into problems down the road. 
 
I think the key is to build a good computer  leaving room for expansions,better mobo,cpu, this way you can increase ram from 8 gb to 16 gb.
those systems are about 700 to build.
the one in my book is under 500, its 8 gigs of ram max out.
 
but in my opinion, daw wise, I put these through rigorous testing and not even skipping a beat until track count/effects count gets way up there. 
 

I do agree with the idea of leaving room for expansion and even not building around a specific part.
I should clarify, that what I meant was more along the lines of the idea of your soundcard and not any specific soundcard. i.e. considerations of how you intend to connect to the mobo via USB/FW/PCI/PCIe and what breakout boxes you might have to use for them.

Considering they can be one of the largest costs in the system, we do ourselves a favor by starting with that in mind. At the very least, it is equal to what we put into the rest of the system. It shouldn't be the last thing we consider in building our system.

Personally, I put the power supply choice pretty high up there too.
RAM gets cheaper until it reaches a certain age, but what I feel is minimum or adequate is better if I double that to what the mobo can handle. (many say 8g is minimum and 16g is optimum right now, so for growth, I would double that to 16g minimum and 32g optimum.) But that is just my opinion.

But it seems we are in more agreement really that the key is to make sure the system has growth potential.

As an aside to this thread/discussion.  This months Custom PC magazine ran an article about how much RAM we actually need.  Admittedly it wasn't a test using a DAW and plug-ins, but, even running some of the most recent and graphics intensive games, they concluded you only need 8GB of Ram and any more is wasted.

LordElpus

...they concluded you only need 8GB of Ram and any more is wasted.

I have 6GB and this is more than enough, even for large projects.

Kev999

LordElpus

...they concluded you only need 8GB of Ram and any more is wasted.

I have 6GB and this is more than enough, even for large projects.

Wow! I need to re-visit my workflow, I have 8GB and I regularly bang up against that limit. Am I doing something wrong??

I hit close to 5G of ram with multiple midi and a single audio. Seems to me I read once you want at least 30% higher than your current needs are which would put it closer to 7G, but that is with little or no audio and whatever VST FX added to it, so it seems 16G is really minimum. With RAM being one of the cheapest and easiest solutions to many problems, why not run the max it can handle?

wst3

Kev999

LordElpus

...they concluded you only need 8GB of Ram and any more is wasted.

I have 6GB and this is more than enough, even for large projects.

Wow! I need to re-visit my workflow, I have 8GB and I regularly bang up against that limit. Am I doing something wrong??

I wasn't trying to imply that everyone should only have 6GB.  Get as much as you need.

this has piqued my interest.  I am going to need to upgrade soon.  will the amd phenom perform better than my current system?

LordElpus


As an aside to this thread/discussion.  This months Custom PC magazine ran an article about how much RAM we actually need.  Admittedly it wasn't a test using a DAW and plug-ins, but, even running some of the most recent and graphics intensive games, they concluded you only need 8GB of Ram and any more is wasted.

totally agree Gary.
I follow a lot of gamers articles and even gamers threads.
they really put there computers through hi intense features such as video and cpu strength's.
im not a gamer at all but when it comes down to it, we are in the same boat pretty much :)
 
even this article is something along the lines you were referencing.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4529847
 
as always good point sir.