Updating Old PC to a new DAW PC

motiondnb

motiondnb

motiondnb

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Joined
19 Nov 2009
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70
Hello Overclockers,

I built this PC about 5 years ago and feel its time to upgrade as my PC cant handle what im throwing at it anymore. My current spec is this.

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket
LGA1366)
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz)
Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C8)
HS-010-NC Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler
(LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM2+/AM3)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache x 2
ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Card
CA-011-CS Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply
(CMPSU-750TXUK)
CA-110-AN Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
MS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit - OEM
2 x DGM 27" IPS Monitors 2560x1440p (maybe upgrading to a 3rd)

Im currently running a Focusrite Saffire 6 USB soundcard but am definitely upgrading to a RME HDSPe AIO PCIe shortly.

Now I wanted to talk about what the best way to go about upgrading this system with its main use as a DAW Digital Audio Workstation. I use Cubase 5 (again im upgrading to Cubase 8 Pro shortly), Reason 8 linked via rewire and run multiple Kontakt 5 instances and multiple instances of power hungry VSTI synths like xfer Serum, Reveal Sound Spire, Dmitry Sches Diversion etc etc and also run lots of vst fx. On my D: drive is all my samples but TBH the disk is getting full so I might as well upgrade that as well.

Ive been trying to get some good recent DAW benchmark results but the site http://www.dawbench.com/ is down. I found these 2013 benchmark results...

http://www.scanproaudio.info/daw-be...-the-best-performance-for-audio-applications/

I know I want to upgrade my main C: drive to a SSD drive of some sort and saw these on Overclockers that look rather tasty and are PCIe.

Samsung SM951 512GB M.2 PCI-e Gen3 8Gbps x 4 Solid State Drive

I also want to upgrade my Intel i7 chip but im not sure which one is best suited to my needs and also want to upgrade the RAM to 16gb again, not knowing which type will provide me the best results and I guess that means im going to need a new motherboard too.

Questions are, will my current case accommodate newer motherboards?
Will my Noctua CPU cooler need changing?
Is my power supply going to provide enough power.

I have also read this article on the Cubase website that talks about Optimising Windows for DAWs.

https://www.steinberg.net/en/suppor...ails/kb_show/optimizing-windows-for-daws.html

and understand MOST of it.

Can someone please advise me on what the best components are that work together well for a DAW.

Thanks
 
Hello,

Nope no gaming but I would like to try and make some music videos using this software:

http://www.plane9.com/

And I use a program called ViewNX2 to transfer photos from my Nikon onto my PC. Thats probably going to be the only graphics stuff I do.

Would like a few options with a budget window of say £700 to £1200 tops.

I will be able to re use the CPU cooler, cool.
 
What about something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £379.98
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 960 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N960-1DDV-E5CNX) £158.99
1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £155.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01) £99.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G1 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (120-G1-0650-XR) £67.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £44.99
1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 5.5g / 1.5 ml £10.99
Total : £918.88 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).



If you want a new case, just pick one you like. I like my Air 540 but its big.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Just a few questions, how come your advising me to get another PSU, is mine now inferior?

And also why should i not choose that SSD i had my eyes on in the first place? It sounds like a far superior SSD or am I missing something?

And you have recommended I buy another graphics card, whats wrong with my existing graphics card.

Why are they labelling the motherboard as a "gaming" motherboard when im not going to be doing any gaming on the machine.

And just to switch things up a bit, I think i would be better off with 32GB of ram.

Thanks
 
I really don't think you need to upgrade the CPU, and you're right you definitely don't need to upgrade the graphics card or PSU.

I agree that upgrading the RAM will definitely bring you a massive improvement. If you're looking at going to 16GB then you won't need to replace the mobo, but if you do go to 32GB then you'll need a new one (24GB is the maximum your board can take).

SSDs are awesome so that will make a huge improvement too. I don't know anything about the one you linked to, but I have a Samsung Evo and it's very good.

I think you can achieve your aim at a fraction of your budget. RAM and SSDs are all you need, imo.
 
"gaming" in the name doesn't actually mean anything. But generally when its used they are built to a better spec than standard models.

A new GPU will help with your work. A lot of programs are using the graphics card for extra processing power, and it makes a huge difference.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £379.98
1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £155.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2003FZEX) HDD £106.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R) £99.95
1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 5.5g / 1.5 ml £10.99
1 x Arctic Silver ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover and Surface Purifier - 60ml Kit £6.98
Total : £770.48 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



If your 1tb drive is almost full you'll need a 2tb, the one above is fast and has 5 yr warranty
In use you wont notice any difference between the ssd you've listed and the one above
Included cpu cleaner to remove old TIM from your old heatsink
 
 
always worth running task manager up when you pc is underload.. see if its running out of RAM or if its the CPU being maxed out or both.. if its RAM then its a cheap upgrade to 12gb or 24gb (triple channel) if the cpu is at 100% then time for a new one i guess. dont forget to check out the possibility of upgrading the 920 chip to a 6core xeon as well.. there is another thread on this.. and the chips are about £70 i think

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18618052
 
N17 dizzi said:
His CPU is 6 years old, and there have been many improvements subsequently.
Click to expand...

He's specifically using it as a DAW. I just don't think the difference is going to be justifiable. In my experience (Ableton, FL Studio, too many VSTi's to list) RAM is crucial, so going from his 6GB to 18GB of RAM will show a huge improvement. Similarly, switching to SSDs, imo, is a no-brainer. Both will have visible benefits. I'm not sure there'll be a huge difference in upgrading the CPU though.
 
If that cpu is running at stock before blowing hundreds of pounds try overclocking it. Many would hit 4-4.2Ghz easily enough. Intels current prices are ridiculous and socket 1150 is about to be killed off by 1151 when Skylake launches with DDR4. I just don't see the point in spending a fortune on components that are about to be replaced.
 
lude1962 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £379.98
1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £155.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2003FZEX) HDD £106.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R) £99.95
1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 5.5g / 1.5 ml £10.99
1 x Arctic Silver ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover and Surface Purifier - 60ml Kit £6.98
Total : £770.48 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



If your 1tb drive is almost full you'll need a 2tb, the one above is fast and has 5 yr warranty
In use you wont notice any difference between the ssd you've listed and the one above
Included cpu cleaner to remove old TIM from your old heatsink
Click to expand...

If you do upgrade I would go with this hard drive above, the 2TBs are better value anyway.

My Western Digital Green does well at sequential reads/writes so that should be even faster, 5yr warranty is worth it.

I misread your post, the SSD you quoted would be faster. OcUK don't seem to stock it though so you'd have to look elsewhere or call them. So maybe its looking more like this now:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £379.98
1 x Samsung 850 EVO Series M.2 500GB SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (MZ-N5E500BW) £172.99
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 960 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N960-1DDV-E5CNX) £158.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2003FZEX) HDD £106.99
2 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01) £99.95 (£199.90)
1 x EVGA Supernova GS 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 5.5g / 1.5 ml £10.99
Total : £1,116.43 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Your current GFX card is very dated and only supports openGL 3.2, the plane9 software claims to support openGL 4.0, the 960 is 4.4.

If your PSU is as old as the CPU then its worth changing, it will be suffering from capacitor aging by now and corsair PSUs have seemed to have more frequent issues that some of the better manufacturers.

Also you would need new board & CPU for the M.2 SSD.
 
Last edited:
Derp said:
I really don't think you need to upgrade the CPU, and you're right you definitely don't need to upgrade the graphics card or PSU.

I agree that upgrading the RAM will definitely bring you a massive improvement. If you're looking at going to 16GB then you won't need to replace the mobo, but if you do go to 32GB then you'll need a new one (24GB is the maximum your board can take).

SSDs are awesome so that will make a huge improvement too. I don't know anything about the one you linked to, but I have a Samsung Evo and it's very good.

I think you can achieve your aim at a fraction of your budget. RAM and SSDs are all you need, imo.
Click to expand...

I agree, loads of ram and a super fast SSD but not upgrading my CPU? If you look at the benchmark scores link I posted, my CPU is performing second to last.
 
Woden said:
"gaming" in the name doesn't actually mean anything. But generally when its used they are built to a better spec than standard models.

A new GPU will help with your work. A lot of programs are using the graphics card for extra processing power, and it makes a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Is this true for music program's ?
 
The Steinberg page talks about disabling hyperthreading, so that means you want an i5 CPU, not an i7, as the difference between the two is that the i7 CPUs have hyperthreading.

I would suggest a staged upgrade. First, add RAM (12 GB of DDR3 will cost you £50) and a suitable SSD, then overclock your CPU. Maybe add a more modern GPU too. If those upgrades fail to give you the performance you require then Intel are releasing their new Skylake platform in a few months and you'll then be able to transfer the SSD and GPU (but not the RAM) spend lots of money on a new motherboard, CPU, and DDR4 RAM.
 
Last edited:
pastymuncher said:
If that cpu is running at stock before blowing hundreds of pounds try overclocking it. Many would hit 4-4.2Ghz easily enough. Intels current prices are ridiculous and socket 1150 is about to be killed off by 1151 when Skylake launches with DDR4. I just don't see the point in spending a fortune on components that are about to be replaced.
Click to expand...

Hi, i didnt mention i bought it already overclocked to something like 4ghz. In the last couple of months the computer because unstable and after talking to OC customer services they advised that it would seem my CPU can no longer handle the overclock. :-(

I understand what you are saying but unfortunately, it seems no matter what you buy its quickly been overtaken by a new piece of tech. When are the 1151 Skylake chips coming out? Surely they will be really expensive at launch? And a mate of mine said stay away from DDR4 ram at the moment, something along the lines of it being a relatively new tech and there are still issues with it when DDR3 has matured and works. Im not too sure if he knows exactly what he is on about...
 
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