John Vere Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 So I almost have all my parts to build my new DAW PC, one thing missing will be the OS. I looked on line and the price goes from $29 to $229 for Pro. Seems these sellers might be sketchy? It's not clear. The most solid one I found is from PC World for $89. At least I know who they are. Seems the most expensive if from MS themselves. Last OS I had to buy was W 8.1. All my W10 versions were free direct from MS. What is everyone's experience with purchasing the OS and why the huge difference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 Maybe @Jim Roseberry can give some advice. I would definitely go “pro”. Home lets MS stick their “nose under the tent” a bit too much to suit me. YMMV t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 Yes but Pro is $200 or more from the MS store. That’s a bit too much for me after spending $1,600 on the rest. My wife will start noticing!! The question is that seems you can get it for well under $100 from other sources. Has anyone advise about that? I have a long ago shelved DAW PC which has a W10 licence that my son said I should be able to transfer if I deactivate it. And possibly if you have W10 you can upgrade for cheap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 (edited) Win10 pro on my latest StudioCat, OEM Did an “in place” upgrade to W10 Home on the old Cat. Never was “right”. It finally “puked” and W10 did a reinstall on its own. Had to reauthorize most programs, but woks flawless now. If that W10 you have is a “retail” version it’s yours (IIRC), however if it’s OEM I think it’s tied to the original hardware. I’ve bought some “budget” versions of W7 and never been burned, but as W11 is the “current” OS; like you I’d be nervous. Again, maybe Jim can lend some advice. t Edited November 14, 2023 by DeeringAmps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 There’s a thread somewhere, W10 Pro was cheap and legit. I bought a copy, figuring to update the old Cat to W10 Pro as that “in place” was flakey. But the reinstall works, and I’m lazy. Can’t remember when that “deal” was offered, had to be in the “deals” forum, but good luck searching for it… wish I could be more help. t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Stanton Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 my laptop came with W11 home and it seems to run all my software ok. when installing an upgraded OS like home to pro or W10 to W11 - i recommended clean install followed by re-install all software etc, PITA but much more reliable that way. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 (edited) Thanks both of you. @Glenn Stanton Its a brand new build. I’m just waiting for the case and power supply. The old DAW was from 2005 and was also a home built my son gave me as he upgraded. It got shelved back in 2015 when I was given my current PC a HP Pavilion So he took it back and put new drives in it and he bought one of those cheap W10 licenses off eBay. He used it as a media host but it was painfully slow so he gave it back in case I needed parts. Well I guess the license is a part. He going to see if he still has the numbers written down somewhere. Which is another question is there an app that can find your license key? The PC World article said you can download the OS and install with out the key. Everything will work but you get nagged. Edited November 14, 2023 by John Vere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 PC World. I think that was who the “buy” on W10 was through. Maybe someone with a better memory can enlighten us. t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Stanton Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 (edited) you can find your product code (if you used one) - either through the system settings or check - there are some simple scripts to dump it in a command window. or link it to your MS account (i have a live.com account which carries the license so if i reinstall the OS is just activate it online). i think the W10 "only nag" passed long ago and it now will disable certain features unless activated. Edited November 14, 2023 by Glenn Stanton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Well I ended up just purchasing from PC world for $100 Can. taxes in. This is Windows 11 Pro so looks like I save $125 off regular price. PC is all put together haven't done one in 10 years. Not much has really changed other than the new M2 SSD drives. Just installing windows now. Not looking forward to installing everything else!! Haven't done that for a long while either. But everything's on a external drive so just sort of time consuming. Will have to de authorize a bunch of stuff on my Laptop. Case fans will need some tweaking. Not loud but not sure why they are even on right now. Might have used the wrong sockets. Corsair 400D Airflow EVGA 700 Gold PS Intel i5 -13400F 10 cores up to 4.6GHz. Deep Cool AK400 CPU cooler MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12GB MSI Pro B760-P Patriot Viper DDR4 64 GB Two Samsung 970 1TB SSD M2 drives. So far with the OS its about $1,500 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Roseberry Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 I'd definitely go with the Pro version. Not for performance reasons... but because it gives more control. Completely shut down Automatic Updates Group Policy Editor (Shut down Cortana, One Drive, etc) 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Spent a few hours trying to optimize it. Things are not where they were in Windows 10. One thing I can’t find is the USB power sleep settings. I use one drive for a lot of documents so I have to leave it on but the whole syncing crap put all the icons from my old computer on the desktop of the new one. Dang. Of course there’s no software yet so they are pointless and I had to delete them. So now installing my apps and plug ins. CbB was pretty straight forward I’m not sure why people seem to have problems. Just did the bare bones of 8.5 for True Piano, tempo delay Session Drummer and Lexicon. Now I can go straight to CCC. I don’t think I need to install Sonar Plat or X3. I’ll just grab my goodies which of a lot of them I no longer use. I’m not going to install any VST’s on here that I’m not currently using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOOK Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 John...I think the USB settings you're looking for are in the Device Manager. Right click on the various USB controllers and look for a power management tab. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 It used to be under Power and Sleep- Additional settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOOK Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 I get it. I recently upgraded to 11 and had a heck of a time trying to get performance like I had on 10. I also did a BIOS update at the same time. That was probably a bit of a mistake. Because as good as I have it, I'm still not back to the same performance. Very close. But not exactly. And since I updated BIOS and OS at the same time, I'm not sure which one is my problem. You'd think I'd know by now to not fix something that's not broken. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 @Jim Roseberryis showing Win11 as his standard build. StudioCat.com for details. If Win11 wasn’t “ready for prime time” I’m sure he wouldn’t be recommending it. I would go with Win11 Pro. t 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 (edited) The thing was W11 pro was actually cheaper @ $75 than W10 pro @ $85. Can An OS is an OS they are kinda boring to me. I tend to ignore them and disable 90% of the junk they offer for the punters. I really never have noticed anything different about using any of my software be it W7, W8.5 W10 and now W11. It just looks different. Big deal. And they hid a few things etc but after a few days I found them by using the search option. Not sure what part of the system is better but performance has definitely improved 100 fold. I’m good for another 10 years. I’d say building your own computer has become much easier than it was in W7 days. I’m a pretty novice tech and it was all a matter of just reading the instructions. About the only thing that sucks is randomly some Air products tell me they are not activated even though they are and open in most projects. You can forget trying to contact them they suck. To bad I definitely depend on DB33 and Xpand2. Edited January 2 by John Vere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOOK Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 As sad as I was about issues when I switched to 11 a couple months back, I finally got the machine screaming again. In my opinion, it's very highly likely that my biggest problem with the upgrade was the fact that I changed my bios at the same time and didn't get a couple settings ticked. You're gonna have to make the move sometime. Might as well be now, while you build a new machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Stanton Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 15 hours ago, wiviv said: Hi, in the next month i will buy some new hardware and i will make a new build from zero. What do you think, it's better to stay on windows 10 or at the moment Windows 11 is mature and can be adopted without problem? Thanks very much W11 is fine for use. like any OS there will be things you want to tweak but un general, my W11 (home) is working just fine for my DAW and my design work with very few changes - mainly turning off unneeded services and setting my A/V exclusions. occasionally using airplane mode when some plugins seem more impacted (e.g. Waves Abbey Road Chambers seems to be in this category) and thus reduce any network interrupts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Roseberry Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 In later versions of Win10, Microsoft broke the ability to disable CPU Core Parking (when running 12th or 13th Gen CPUs). That was that pivotal moment I'd been waiting for to move to Win11. I've heard that's since been fixed... but I'm not going back with any new builds. For a new build, I'd install Win11 Pro. Pro lets you fully disable Automatic Updates (Home does not). You also have the Group Policy Editor (which allows shutting down Cortana, OneDrive, etc). As @DeeringAmps mentioned, the Pro version just gives you more control. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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