PC Upgrade - looking for some guidance

[thunderbroom]

[Originally posted this in "Compatibility" section, but thought his forum might be better suited to this kind of question.]

Hello all! First, before questions, my current PC specs:

Windows 7
Intel I7 (duo) Core 3.4GHz
16GB DDR3 RAM (2 x 8GB)
Drives (all SSD):
2 x 500GB (Samsung EVO)
1 x 250GB (")
2 x 64GB (Crucial)
External Backup: WD MyBook Duo (4TB) via USB
UAD-2 Quad PCI-e
Saffire Pro40 (firewire) interface
UA 4-710D (master clock; ADAT optical out to Pro40)
Rosewill Power Supply
ACER 27" [2560 x 1440 w/ 144Hz refresh]

Looking to make some upgrades as even with making sure my PC is configured as ideal for audio production, some of the more VST and VSTi intensive sessions I run tend to have issues (such as delays between clicking on a track's FX and the window opening, glitchiness/stuttering during playback, etc). So overall, my goal is a greater number of cores with a solid amount of cache space to hopefully help manage the workload more efficiently.

Additionally, I want to move to a 2 monitor arrangement; using my current monitor in conjunction with a multi-touch screen monitor, so my assumption is an updated/upgraded graphics card that can handle both monitors(?).

My goal here is to rid myself of other controllers and most use of my trackball, using a touchscreen as my mixer, my current standard monitor for the tracks and sound editing jobs.

I'll be looking to also move from Windows 7 to 10.

Also, though I'm already planning on a new mobo, new RAM (DDR4 but still 16GB - seems plenty for now) and a new CPU (I7 4 or 6 core), I'm hoping to reuse my current case, power supply and current SSDs (probably look to add a second 500GB on to replace the two 64GB ones currently installed).

I've done an extensive amount of research in terms of compatibility and pricing, but I'm looking to my colleagues to get some input and direction. My current set up has served me well since 2011 (not including the additional SSDs installed along the way) so I'm looking for my upgrades to serve me well over the next few years as well.

I'd greatly appreciate any guidance and suggestions, pitfalls in terms of compatibility, changing my OS, wanting to reuse my current SSDs, etc. If any of you have done any remotely similar upgrades, I'd love to know about your experience too.

Thank you all in advance for any guidance or suggestions you might have.

[sickamorz]

Originally Posted by thunderbroom

[Originally posted this in "Compatibility" section, but thought his forum might be better suited to this kind of question.]

Hello all! First, before questions, my current PC specs:

Windows 7
Intel I7 (duo) Core 3.4GHz
16GB DDR3 RAM (2 x 8GB)
Drives (all SSD):
2 x 500GB (Samsung EVO)
1 x 250GB (")
2 x 64GB (Crucial)
External Backup: WD MyBook Duo (4TB) via USB
UAD-2 Quad PCI-e
Saffire Pro40 (firewire) interface
UA 4-710D (master clock; ADAT optical out to Pro40)
Rosewill Power Supply
ACER 27" [2560 x 1440 w/ 144Hz refresh]

Looking to make some upgrades as even with making sure my PC is configured as ideal for audio production, some of the more VST and VSTi intensive sessions I run tend to have issues (such as delays between clicking on a track's FX and the window opening, glitchiness/stuttering during playback, etc). So overall, my goal is a greater number of cores with a solid amount of cache space to hopefully help manage the workload more efficiently.

Additionally, I want to move to a 2 monitor arrangement; using my current monitor in conjunction with a multi-touch screen monitor, so my assumption is an updated/upgraded graphics card that can handle both monitors(?).

My goal here is to rid myself of other controllers and most use of my trackball, using a touchscreen as my mixer, my current standard monitor for the tracks and sound editing jobs.

I'll be looking to also move from Windows 7 to 10.

Also, though I'm already planning on a new mobo, new RAM (DDR4 but still 16GB - seems plenty for now) and a new CPU (I7 4 or 6 core), I'm hoping to reuse my current case, power supply and current SSDs (probably look to add a second 500GB on to replace the two 64GB ones currently installed).

I've done an extensive amount of research in terms of compatibility and pricing, but I'm looking to my colleagues to get some input and direction. My current set up has served me well since 2011 (not including the additional SSDs installed along the way) so I'm looking for my upgrades to serve me well over the next few years as well.

I'd greatly appreciate any guidance and suggestions, pitfalls in terms of compatibility, changing my OS, wanting to reuse my current SSDs, etc. If any of you have done any remotely similar upgrades, I'd love to know about your experience too.

Thank you all in advance for any guidance or suggestions you might have.

stay with win 7, win 10 is so annoying.

[thunderbroom]

Originally Posted by sickamorz

stay with win 7, win 10 is so annoying.

Could you tell me about why you find it annoying? I agree that I love Windows 7, but I've had no trouble at all with my windows 10 laptop which I use for mobile recording exclusively. What was your experience like?

[sickamorz]

Originally Posted by thunderbroom

Could you tell me about why you find it annoying? I agree that I love Windows 7, but I've had no trouble at all with my windows 10 laptop which I use for mobile recording exclusively. What was your experience like?

my Windows 10 has been wiped clean of my programs 4 times but programs by Microsoft were not touched, that is my annoying experience with win 10.

[Dr Bob]

I am running an i7 8700K, 32gb ram, 500gb ssd and 2 WD Black 2 tb discs.

Not been able to consume all its awesome power. Reaper manages to use each of the 12 cores (well 6 real cores and 12 virtual cores) absolutely beautifully, spreading the load across them all.

Can't praise this combo enough. Some may have different experiences, but so far, all with this and similar i7 8700K setups are also very pleased.

dB

PS I moved from a 7yr old quadcore and the difference is mindblowing

[thunderbroom]

Originally Posted by Dr Bob

I am running an i7 8700K, 32gb ram, 500gb ssd and 2 WD Black 2 tb discs.

Not been able to consume all its awesome power. Reaper manages to use each of the 12 cores (well 6 real cores and 12 virtual cores) absolutely beautifully, spreading the load across them all.

Can't praise this combo enough. Some may have different experiences, but so far, all with this and similar i7 8700K setups are also very pleased.

dB

PS I moved from a 7yr old quadcore and the difference is mindblowing

Thanks for this feedback. Are you operating Windows 10 or 7? One other question - a colleague suggested I look at mobos with Nvme SSD capabilities. Does your current mobo support that newer technology? Thanks for your help!

[Dr Bob]

Hi

Running Windows 10, no issues at all apart from it being like all other MS operating systems :-)

I have a gigabyte Z370 HD3 motherboard and it supports Nvme SSD

Spec here ... only 1 m.2 slot

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z370-HD3-rev-10#kf

This one has 3 Nvme's as you have multiple SSD's

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard...-UD5-rev-10#kf

Might be worth asking what others think as I had this one custom built for me.

dB

[thunderbroom]

Originally Posted by Dr Bob

Hi

Running Windows 10, no issues at all apart from it being like all other MS operating systems :-)

I have a gigabyte Z370 HD3 motherboard and it supports Nvme SSD

Spec here ... only 1 m.2 slot

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z370-HD3-rev-10#kf

This one has 3 Nvme's as you have multiple SSD's

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard...-UD5-rev-10#kf

Might be worth asking what others think as I had this one custom built for me.

dB

Thank you! This helps out a lot. Thought I was done with my research - now to find out more about Nvme compatible mobos!

[Jason Lyon]

NVMe SSDs are great, but you won't really notice a huge difference from SATA, even when streaming samples. I have my OS and a few regularly used programs on an NVMe, and everything else on SATAs.

NVMes are very useful for some tasks, but probably a luxury for audio work. I think the advice you've been given might not be quite tailored to your needs. SATA SSDs have already pretty much solved the major problem in modern music work - sample streaming. Although...

If you're going to be wanting to use lots of big libraries you can't have enough memory. To give you some idea, I have a template with about 140 tracks and the same number of FX, 12 of which hold multibank VSTi instances of 7 libraries. Purged, it sits in about 10GB, fully loaded it's about double that.

That is fairly comprehensive, but a very modest orchestral template by pro standards. The purged version populates into RAM in about 70s over SATA - not shabby, and I really doubt it would happen much faster over NVMe. Or not faster enough for me to care.

Of course, if you want the bleeding edge stuff and you've got the bucks, go for it. Just for now, I'd say the sweet spot for price/performance is 512GB for NVMe and 1TB for SATA.

Of course, no piece of music ever written contains every possible note and articulation, so I usually purge and run the piece through at the end of each session so REAPER's save state will tell Kontakt to only load what's used. (Or that seems to be what happens.) It's about the only area in my life where I'm a bit OCD...

You'd be surprised here. A VSTi loaded with everything imaginable might take up 3GB, and just what you use for a vigorous MIDI part perhaps 200MB.

Incidentally, I've no problem at all with Win 10. It's well worth stripping it down to remove all the unnecessary background processes though. Plenty of YT guides for that. (Some registry hacks may be required.)

And regular OS updates are important, but make sure W10 doesn't suddenly decide to do it while you're in the middle of something.

So if you're going to migrate to W10, allow for some "bedding in" time in your work schedule. You don't want to be up to your neck in IT stuff when you've got three tracks to deliver by sundown.

- - -

My system spec:
i7 6820K (I don't bother overclocking for audio work)
32GB DDR4 2133 RAM
C drive 512GB m.2 NVMe SSD
D and E drives 1TB SATA SSDs (all SSDs are Samsungs - don't bother with Rapid)
Win 10
Kontakt 11 (without amp sims and modular synths), GPO5 and JABB, CSS and CSSS, EWQL Gold, Kirk Hunter Brass 2 and Legacy, Cinewinds Core, Pianoteq Stage 6 (and a load of other shite which is often useful).
Little stripey cat who likes to sit on my mouse arm and watch the meters.

Oh, and 1070 GPU - for those moments when you just NEED to go and slash the snot out of goblins. Not that a GPU is at all useful for audio work, but all work and no play...

PS Save the drives you don't migrate over to your new system. Get a good USB-SATA cable and use them as external archive storage. I've got half a shelf full of old HDDs labelled by year.

[thunderbroom]

Originally Posted by Jason Lyon

NVMe SSDs are great, but you won't really notice a huge difference from SATA, even when streaming samples. I have my OS and a few regularly used programs on an NVMe, and everything else on SATAs.

NVMes are very useful for some tasks, but probably a luxury for audio work. I think the advice you've been given might not be quite tailored to your needs. SATA SSDs have already pretty much solved the major problem in modern music work - sample streaming. Although...

If you're going to be wanting to use lots of big libraries you can't have enough memory. To give you some idea, I have a template with about 140 tracks and the same number of FX, 12 of which hold multibank VSTi instances of 7 libraries. Purged, it sits in about 10GB, fully loaded it's about double that.

That is fairly comprehensive, but a very modest orchestral template by pro standards. The purged version populates into RAM in about 70s over SATA - not shabby, and I really doubt it would happen much faster over NVMe. Or not faster enough for me to care.

Of course, if you want the bleeding edge stuff and you've got the bucks, go for it. Just for now, I'd say the sweet spot for price/performance is 512GB for NVMe and 1TB for SATA.

Of course, no piece of music ever written contains every possible note and articulation, so I usually purge and run the piece through at the end of each session so REAPER's save state will tell Kontakt to only load what's used. (Or that seems to be what happens.) It's about the only area in my life where I'm a bit OCD...

You'd be surprised here. A VSTi loaded with everything imaginable might take up 3GB, and just what you use for a vigorous MIDI part perhaps 200MB.

Incidentally, I've no problem at all with Win 10. It's well worth stripping it down to remove all the unnecessary background processes though. Plenty of YT guides for that. (Some registry hacks may be required.)

And regular OS updates are important, but make sure W10 doesn't suddenly decide to do it while you're in the middle of something.

So if you're going to migrate to W10, allow for some "bedding in" time in your work schedule. You don't want to be up to your neck in IT stuff when you've got three tracks to deliver by sundown.

- - -

My system spec:
i7 6820K (I don't bother overclocking for audio work)
32GB DDR4 2133 RAM
C drive 512GB m.2 NVMe SSD
D and E drives 1TB SATA SSDs (all SSDs are Samsungs - don't bother with Rapid)
Win 10
Kontakt 11 (without amp sims and modular synths), GPO5 and JABB, CSS and CSSS, EWQL Gold, Kirk Hunter Brass 2 and Legacy, Cinewinds Core, Pianoteq Stage 6 (and a load of other shite which is often useful).
Little stripey cat who likes to sit on my mouse arm and watch the meters.

Oh, and 1070 GPU - for those moments when you just NEED to go and slash the snot out of goblins. Not that a GPU is at all useful for audio work, but all work and no play...

PS Save the drives you don't migrate over to your new system. Get a good USB-SATA cable and use them as external archive storage. I've got half a shelf full of old HDDs labelled by year.

Wow. Thank you for all of this amazing information. This is just top notch detail, and will really help me out. totally answered all the questions I had, and some I didn't realize I did. Much appreciated!