Poll: Should I upgrade or not?
Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 5:41 pm
I'm getting fed up with my PC. Sick of audio crackles and terrible latency. The number one rule I have these days is that everything must flow smoothly when recording, otherwise everything sits on this foundation of shit.
I currently have a 2009 first-generation i7 2.6ghz quad-core, which I believe is far inferior to a quad-core of the same speed from the third and fourth generations of today. Stop me if I'm mistaken, but so the charts read.
6 GB RAM although I'm still on Live 32 bit, so let's make that 3.8 gig.
7200rpm WD 1TB hard drive
Windows 7 Home Premium
A half-working GTX295 - the one GPU has failed so it's running in single-GPU mode. It's a piece of shit too.
I mostly use a Pod HD bean as my audio interface. Sometimes I switch to an Edirol UA-25 (also the first generation of these from around 2005) when I need phantom power for condenser mics. Both have poor latency on my system. The lowest either can achieve is 10ms round-trip, but then I better not be running any u-he stuff or many tracks. Even without CPU heavy-stuff like Bazille, audio will easily drop out and crackle on such low latency, 128 buffer etc. I don'ttend to use no more than 16 tracks anyway, if hardly ever. Usually around 8. Generally around two or three instances of either Bazille or Zebra, some Samplers.
Effects-wise I have M4L Conv Reverb Pro on a return, sometimes 2, and a few of Live's delays in various rack setups. u-he Satin is on every channel except returns. EQ8 is also on every channel. Maybe a Live native effect here and there.
Is my PC simply too old now? After windows has loaded the desktop after startup, everything takes forever to load initially. Live takes about 20 years to reach the splash screen. I guess everything is just starting to go off, like old fruit. My one guilty distraction when I really cannot get anywhere while working on sound is Left 4 Dead 2. This will sometimes fail and crash about 4/5ths of the way through a campaign. I'm just wondering if my ailing GPU is connected to my woes. Perhaps it interferes with something somehow causing everything to slow down, crackle, and fuck up.
Perhaps my audio interfaces are not the best driver-wise (both up to date). Maybe - and this is what I suspect - it's a combination of the lot - old CPU, failing GPU, 32bit Live, bad audio drivers, and demanding softsynths. Even with a buffer setting of 512, medium size buffer setting, the interfaces can reach crackling point (80-90% CPU used), and a roundtrip latency of 44ms! Unplayable. I don't want to use ASIO4All, i need the Hi-Z for guitar and phantom power for condenser mics of audio interfaces.
Anyone else had a similar setup/experience and upgraded to find good latency and generally good performance?
I should mention that a whole new PC will most definitely benefit my 3D-modeling and animation experience with Autodesk Maya etc.
Thank you for reading.
I currently have a 2009 first-generation i7 2.6ghz quad-core, which I believe is far inferior to a quad-core of the same speed from the third and fourth generations of today. Stop me if I'm mistaken, but so the charts read.
6 GB RAM although I'm still on Live 32 bit, so let's make that 3.8 gig.
7200rpm WD 1TB hard drive
Windows 7 Home Premium
A half-working GTX295 - the one GPU has failed so it's running in single-GPU mode. It's a piece of shit too.
I mostly use a Pod HD bean as my audio interface. Sometimes I switch to an Edirol UA-25 (also the first generation of these from around 2005) when I need phantom power for condenser mics. Both have poor latency on my system. The lowest either can achieve is 10ms round-trip, but then I better not be running any u-he stuff or many tracks. Even without CPU heavy-stuff like Bazille, audio will easily drop out and crackle on such low latency, 128 buffer etc. I don'ttend to use no more than 16 tracks anyway, if hardly ever. Usually around 8. Generally around two or three instances of either Bazille or Zebra, some Samplers.
Effects-wise I have M4L Conv Reverb Pro on a return, sometimes 2, and a few of Live's delays in various rack setups. u-he Satin is on every channel except returns. EQ8 is also on every channel. Maybe a Live native effect here and there.
Is my PC simply too old now? After windows has loaded the desktop after startup, everything takes forever to load initially. Live takes about 20 years to reach the splash screen. I guess everything is just starting to go off, like old fruit. My one guilty distraction when I really cannot get anywhere while working on sound is Left 4 Dead 2. This will sometimes fail and crash about 4/5ths of the way through a campaign. I'm just wondering if my ailing GPU is connected to my woes. Perhaps it interferes with something somehow causing everything to slow down, crackle, and fuck up.
Perhaps my audio interfaces are not the best driver-wise (both up to date). Maybe - and this is what I suspect - it's a combination of the lot - old CPU, failing GPU, 32bit Live, bad audio drivers, and demanding softsynths. Even with a buffer setting of 512, medium size buffer setting, the interfaces can reach crackling point (80-90% CPU used), and a roundtrip latency of 44ms! Unplayable. I don't want to use ASIO4All, i need the Hi-Z for guitar and phantom power for condenser mics of audio interfaces.
Anyone else had a similar setup/experience and upgraded to find good latency and generally good performance?
I should mention that a whole new PC will most definitely benefit my 3D-modeling and animation experience with Autodesk Maya etc.
Thank you for reading.
It won't offer me Bazille's power, but I will still check it out definitely! I have no time for EDM or trance though, it numbs me.