Hello all,
I've been reading your posts . . . and I understand that I may have been a bit quick to go to Win 7.
Here is my situation. I've already selected my computer and I wanted to set up a Raid 1 on my boot drive. Reinstalling OS, no matter what it is, it is an experience I would like to avoid. Raid 1 seems to be the solution. I ordered two 2TB drives to do this. I had the WRONG impression that a 6GBps SATA III superior to the 3GBps SATA II. So while waiting for my computer I found out that, as far as MECHANICAL drives are concerned, NONE of them can achieve the THEORETICAL throughput above 3GBps. The other thing I found out is that, if you are using a DISK INTENSIVE software, like a DAW, Raid 1 set up may actually slow things down as the data demand goes up. SATA III was designed for Solid State Drives.
So I picked up two 500GB drives to set up my Raid 1 for installing Windows 7 and other non-disk intensive software like spreadsheet, word processing, internet etc. I will install Sonar X2, Ableton Suite 8.4 and all plug ins on one of the 2TB drives I bought. This drive will also hold all the Sonar and Ableton projects with all recorded files. I purchased a disk cloning software that I would use to clone the entire 2TB Music drive to the other 2TB drive housed in an external E-SATA case. So when a major amount of work is done, I can just copy the affected project files or wipe the external E-SATA drive and clone the Music drive as I sleep.
After the arrival date of my new computer, I have only 12 days to get everything sorted out and up and running. My next client will be showing up this weekend with tracks to add vocal tracks and have them mixed. Client = Income. His project in the studio will pay for my new computer. If I was not pressed for time, I would have given Win 8 a better chance. I KNOW that eventually I will have to move on to Win 8. I still have the 1TB drive with Win 8 that came with the computer safely tucked away to be revived in the near future. I would have to explore Win 8 on my personal computer, not the music computer.
"I hate Win 8" is my time sensitive frustration talking. I just need a cheap motherboard, a Core i5 or i3 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 RAM plus the 1TB drive with Win 8 for my spare desktop, and I have a Win 8 playground. I have not totally given up on Win 8.
I gathered 64bit version of all my important plug-ins. I have downloaded and installed 64bit X2. I still have to download the upgrade to X2a. I have downloaded and installed the 64bit version of Ableton. The only thing I'm missing is Sound Forge 10. SF10 was a pirated version a friend installed for me to use as a plug-in host for Melodyne editor. That was before I purchased the upgrade to X1. The only time I used it was to edit clips in Ableton. I think the Sound Forge Studio at $48 from Amazon can do the same. A few more test and I'll be ready for my weekend session.
I'm sure that within a year I'll upgrade my studio computer to Win 8.
Thanks
Ed