Ideal personal computer setup for Ableton Live 9

[audiophonity]

Hello,

Currently I'm using Windows 7 (32-bit) with 4 GB RAM and Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6400 with Ableton Live 9 Suite and now in combination with Omnisphere I reach the limit of this setup.
Therefore I think about buying a new setup. It should be Windows based.

What are your current recommendations (processor, mainboard, sound card, graphic card, RAM) for buying?
Is it cheaper to buy a notebook or a desktop pc?

I'm happy to hear feedback about the current state-of-the-art in audio production.

Thanks in advance.
Michael

[nebulae]

I think the reason you may not be getting a lot of replies is that this question is so open ended. The bottom line is that you need to get the fastest computer you can afford, and whatever platform that's right for you.

Ideally, the fastest chip, with the most ram (at least 16gb, IMHO), and a fast SSD drive. Then you can go with a 64-bit OS and 64-bit version of Live.

[Buleriachk]

I went to 64-bit (finally), and so far no issues, except for a couple of plugins I no longer use very much. So far no issues....

I think the SSD will make the biggest difference in your life, but the processor and memory upgrade will certainly help with large projects...

So far, I haven't run into any issues with 8 Gb memory, but memory is cheap these days. I just don't want to crawl under my desk yet again to upgrade....

[yur2die4]

The big question is, desktop or laptop. Then you can sort out your options.

Desktops currently give you much more power to price. They don't rely on mobile processors and aren't a whole computer plus keys and monitor squashed into an inch or less thick case.

[savyurrecords]

Since you asked about a sound card recommendation.

Do you have an external audio interface? If you are using a standard sound card of the motherboard than an audio interface will improve things significantly.

Have you tried adjusting your buffers/latency?

[audiophonity]

Thanks to all for your feedback!

It helped me a lot.

I will go for a Desktop pc with Windows 7 (64 bit), 16 GB Ram, Intel i7 processor, an external sound card and a fast SSD drive.

[yur2die4]

Personally, I would bump it to Win8. Every other element of the computer looks like a no-compromises up-to-date setup. Win8 will have slightly smoother performance for both your DAW and the SSD (especially the SSD).

[[efl]]

We actually get this question quite a lot here, so we've written some articles about it:

https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/what-computer/

https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/optimize-windows/

[H20nly]

if all else fails, get the most expensive one. the best music is made on the expensive ones.