New DAW build

[timboalogo]

I thought I'd share the deets of a new DAW I bought the parts for.  Actually my daughter assembled it cuz my eyes and fingers don't work so well anymore. I already had a Komplete Audio 6 (v1) interface and AKAI Advance midi keyboard and didn't change them, just the PC. With an old i5 system I was frustrated with project loading times and the system coming to a crawl for a song with 30+ plugins and lots of VSTs and VSTis ... I'm the type of amateur who likes to mix as he records and see where the song takes me.

So it's made of an Intel Core i7-12700K on a Z690 AORUS ELITE AX with 32 gigs of Kingston Fury Beast RAM. I bought 2*2 TB SSDs as well. I can't think of what I got for a case, but it's darned quiet - funny thing is I haven't built a PC in so long I was surprised to find that most cases don't come with CD drives anymore! Getting old I guess.

I cannot believe the difference between this and my several year old i5 ... the darned thing boots Win 10 in less than 15 seconds! I've never had an SSD before ...

Cakewalk projects that took minutes to load now take seconds and I've been able to record and mix more easily without having to bounce tracks to audio.

All of this for $1700 Cdn, say $1000 US or 1200 Euros or 1000 Pounds, and IMO a pretty good price.

There have been some glitches with Cakewalk though that I've been unable to identify, the one that ticks me off the most is that the scroll lock stops working regularly and I have to hit the ScrLk key on the keyboard to get the screen scrolling again. Didn't change the keyboard, so there's something off somewhere.

So if you're tired of your old PC and have 1000 whatevers lying around under your mattress and want to fly me and my daughter to wherever you live ... the upgrade well worth it!

The patrons at Tom's (tomshardware.com) helped me and my stupid questions and I'll give them a plug here if it's okay. 

Hope this helps someone take the leap,

Timbo

PS Kidding about the road trip, pay your PC store $50 and they'll assemble it. Then again, if you live in Bora Bora, we're up for the drive.

[Starship Krupa]

Congratulations!

The upgrade with the biggest impact is going from a spinning drive to an SSD for your system and projects.

In recent months I've taken systems with as old as a Core 2 Duo in them and made them run acceptably, even for a little bit of audio recording, just by swapping in an SSD for their spinny system drives.

My main system is an i7-6950K with 16G of RAM, and yeah, it can handle anything I throw at it, with aplomb.

The Core 2 Duo system with 4G of RAM (maxed out!) was less perky, sure, but it wasn't agonizingly slow. No way was it going to handle a DAW project with more than 8 audio tracks and a handful of plug-ins, but for web browing, lightweight office stuff, it was fine.

The difference, for me, these days once you pass the SSD barrier, the difference that a newer more powerful system will make isn't so much in general perceived speed of the computer system, it's in how complex a video or audio project or game you can run on it. And there are plenty of games from a dozen years ago that still look great and run great on older systems. Portal, which I think has great graphics, lists Core 2 Duo as a minimum system requirement.

[mettelus]

On 7/7/2023 at 6:02 PM, timboalogo said:

Didn't change the keyboard, so there's something off somewhere.

Changing the keyboard is something to consider. Keyboards collect dust and crap that can interfere with the gap needed to let keys "release" (builds up on the rubber diaphragm under the keys). Typically this takes years to become an issue, but if you ever eat at the computer or have pets it can be quicker. I took a shop vac to my keyboard once and pulled enough cat hair out of it to make quite a dust bunny. I am rather violent as a typist, so once lettering starts to wear off keys it is reaching end-of-life (about the 4-5 year point for me). If you have a shop vac, you could try vacuuming things out (a lot of what went in will come out, but not all).

[timboalogo]

Good idea, I'll rethink the keyboard. It's happened several times this afternoon and is driving me nuts.

[Kevin Walsh]

Nice system! Sounds like your good for another decade or two!

I upgraded a few years ago to a Ryzen 3950x - based system and I'm awestruck every day by how fast this thing is.  That said, I'm still hungry for more.

[timboalogo]

Thanks Kevin,

Unfortunately speed doesn't overcome my lack of ability!

Timbo

[Kevin Walsh]

Nor mine, Timbo, but it's nice to fail so quickly.

[Starship Krupa]

On 7/10/2023 at 1:40 PM, timboalogo said:

Good idea, I'll rethink the keyboard. It's happened several times this afternoon and is driving me nuts.

I like to compute (especially mix) with all the room lights off, so a lighted keyboard is essential to my requirements. I got one with nice big letters on it.

Mouse is a Logitech Anywhere 2S with a fast scroll wheel and assignable side buttons.

[Peter C]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:24 AM, Starship Krupa said:

I like to compute (especially mix) with all the room lights off, so a lighted keyboard is essential to my requirements. I got one with nice big letters on it.

Mouse is a Logitech Anywhere 2S with a fast scroll wheel and assignable side buttons.

I'm permanently in the dark - I never know what I'm doing. 

And the lights are on but my brain doesn't seem to be at home. ?