New Daw Computer Recommendations help Appreciated

[leedsquietman]

You should consider adding a second drive for streaming audio samples, separate from the hdd with your o/s for much better audio performance.

In this time, people would probably consider a quad core i7 (or at least an i5) over a core2duo processor as being a more future proof investment and 6GB ram is recommended as the minimum for running a total 64 bit environment (not so crucial for Live at the moment as it's still a 32 bit application only, so 4GB is fine, but if the next version offers a 64 bit version, 6GB is considered minimum, according to Scott at ADK computers, who build bespoke audio DAW computers).

[tw1nstates]

Live sipports multiple cores.

What it doesnt support is more than a few gigs of ram usage.

Supposedly it uses up to 4 gigs in OSX however system monitor shows only around 2.25- 2.5 gigs live then crashes quite a lot.

However their tech supprt say it does use up to 4 and system monitor shows incorrect information. . .


With regards to multiple cores, live works with muliple cores on a core per track basis, tghe problem with live is that it uses up a lot more cycles than other DAW's and so it's easy to max out a single core and then live starts stuttering etc. It's annoying as it means you can have a super fast machine and yet you still use 20-35% of your system resources . . .

Still, the old maxim is always the same, get the fastest most up to date machine you can afford.

600 euros shoudl get you a decent rig if you alredy have a case and monitor and stuff. . .

If you have 6k you could buy one of those Neko things

[Unfazed]

I recently bought a Dell Studio with i7 and 6 Gigs RAM, using Windows 7. Both Windows and Live 8 have been crashing horribly, so I'm thinking of cleaning it all out and installing Windows XP. What do you think?

As far as Rabbit's question is concerned, I don't think it matters if you get the most suitable hardware, because if the flatulent op sys keeps crashing, you'd be better chugging along with a Pentium computer.

[o0o]

this is disheartning, it seems like many have not found the system that works just right for live, this is not an option for me because live is the only program i'm willing to use, with the addition of the natives maschine if i can work it out. and i did not mean 600 euros I meant 600 dollars, maybe i can afford 800. this core, threading, how many cores live can use talk is absolutely confusing, is there an easier way to explain it like just saying, that cpu/motherboard is the one to get for Live?

also right now i'm using windows xp, is it that most people are having problems with windows 7 and live?

[tw1nstates]

get the fastest most up to date board and cpu that you can.

Do an internet search on the hardware that you have selected for general stability.

it's not compatibility with live you are looking for as much as compatibility with other hardware (does the firewire chipset work ok, could you put a UAD card in it).

There are so many combo's that no one is going to tell you get this, you will have to do your research. but, once yuo have, you will know about your machine so it;s worth doing.

As a starting point you could look up Hackintosh boxes and i7 cpus, if it's running both osx and windows it's gonna be stable, plus, you could put osx on it if you wanted.

[tw1nstates]

Ps almost every computer works well with live. . .

If it doesnt work with live it likely doesn't work with other programs.

its hardware compatibility you sometimes need to look out for. . .

[pimpleburger]

Drivers are not likely the cause of you issues (or the worst of them) with the Steinberg MR816CSX, it's far more likely your Toshiba has a crummy firewire chipset (such as ricoh, ene, o2 or generic) rather than a Texas Instruments chipset (99% of pc laptop don't have TI chipsets anymore).

You can also try downloading and using the asio4all driver, although you will not be able to access the DSP fx in the interface if you do this.

This is not an issue with desktops, where you just pick up a PCI-E to firewire card with TI chipset, which is rock solid with a good interface.

Thanks for taking the time to post, I apreciate any thoughts or recommendation made. But my Toshiba does have TI fire wire chip set, so much confusion and head scratching on my part.

Peace,
Pimpleburger

[RonaldDumsfeld]

If you are planning to build for a specialist DAW then I would advise against a top of the range, super powerful multicore rig.

Unless you also plan on using it for gaming or video production then not only is an i7 or si,ilar a waste of money it is undesirable from a power - and hence heat > noise - perspective.

I'd still recommend Windows @ 64 bit though. Since you will not have a graphics card taking up 1Gb or more of RAM and Live is still 32 bit then 4 Gb RAM will be fine. If you have 64 Win 7 you can always add more later if you need it.

Cutting edge design would suggest you buy a board like the Zotac Ion N330 (~£130) fitted with an Intel Atom N330. This is ideal as it has integrated graphics and such a low power consumption it doesn't need any fans at all. Even power comes from a wall wart.

More conventionally I'd recommend an i3-530 (65W vs 140W for an i7-920) @ ~£80. Still runs dual cores at 3.0GHz without OC.

Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H int. graphics and T.I. Firewire chip.
4 Gb OCZ Platinum low voltage RAM.
Be-Quiet make reliable, high efficiency very quiet power supplies. 350W might be enough.
Noctua make quiet fans.
Antec make good solid cases and you can add damping material if you want.
You can also find special quiet HDDs and optical drives if you do a search and cba.

That would do nicely and not cost the earth.

[tw1nstates]

If you are planning to build for a specialist DAW then I would advise against a top of the range, super powerful multicore rig.

Unless you also plan on using it for gaming or video production then not only is an i7 or si,ilar a waste of money it is undesirable from a power - and hence heat > noise - perspective.

I'd still recommend Windows @ 64 bit though. Since you will not have a graphics card taking up 1Gb or more of RAM and Live is still 32 bit then 4 Gb RAM will be fine. If you have 64 Win 7 you can always add more later if you need it.

Cutting edge design would suggest you buy a board like the Zotac Ion N330 (~£130) fitted with an Intel Atom N330. This is ideal as it has integrated graphics and such a low power consumption it doesn't need any fans at all. Even power comes from a wall wart.

More conventionally I'd recommend an i3-530 (65W vs 140W for an i7-920) @ ~£80. Still runs dual cores at 3.0GHz without OC.

Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H int. graphics and T.I. Firewire chip.
4 Gb OCZ Platinum low voltage RAM.
Be-Quiet make reliable, high efficiency very quiet power supplies. 350W might be enough.
Noctua make quiet fans.
Antec make good solid cases and you can add damping material if you want.
You can also find special quiet HDDs and optical drives if you do a search and cba.

That would do nicely and not cost the earth.

That's interesting.

Why would you no want as many cores as you can possibly have?

Live makes use of them, it's not like it only uses a couple (please correct me if wrong here).
So, more cores = more vsts / au's

My octocore mac runs loads more plugs than my core 2 duo lappy.

This I believe is due to having more cores (plus better architecture but I was under the understanding that it's primarity the extra cores).

interested to know hwy you think that an i7 would not be better than an i3

Cheers

[o0o]

this is getting very good I thank all of you for sharing what you know this is really helpful