Building a DAW

Svetti Arss

Hello,

I built an ESXi 5.1 machine four years ago with RAID 10 and a phenom x6 1090t Processor. I way over spec'd the processor for that machine
and am thinking of replacing the x6 with something less powerful and using the x6 in a new DAW with win 8.1 running Propellorheads reason 8. ESXi runs fours little used VM's.

So if I remove the x6 which processor should I replace it with? Or should I leave the x6 where it is and get a new processor for the DAW? I've been told Reason 8 prefers non-hyperthreaded real cores.

1. What is your budget? €500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? DAW (Propellorheads Reason 8), very occasionally a game but nothing too demanding

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Yes phenom x6 1090t, Samsung SSD drive, External DVD writer

5. Do you need a monitor? No

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard, Mouse

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? bank Transfer,Laser, paypal

9. When are you purchasing? within two weeks

10. Need Case, PSU, 8GB memory


TIA

circadian

Reason 8 will use 4 cores no problem, mutlithreading I'm not so sure.

I'd upgrade the CPU to something a bit more modern. When running a DAW the main workhorse is your CPU and RAM.

If you are doing light gaming a new i5 integrated graphics shouldn't be an issue, otherwise you could consider upgrading to a small GPU later. This would also lighten the load when running the DAW as the GUI is rendered by the GPU instead, although not a life or death difference.

I've thrown this build together quickly,

http://www.hardwareversand.de/en/Sockel+1155/63549/Intel+Core+i5-3570+Box%2C+LGA1155.article

[URL]"http://www.hardwareversand.de/en/DDR3/79667/Sale:+MSI+Z68A-GD55+(G3),+Intel+Z68,+ATX,+DDR3.article"[/URL]

http://www.hardwareversand.de/en/1600+Low+Voltage/125973/16GB+Kit+Crucial+Ballistix+Sport+Series+DDR3-1600%2C+CL9.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/en/300+-+400+Watts/213446/SeaSonic+SS-400H2U+F0+80%2B+400W.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/en/Midi/204939/Sale%3A+MS-Tech+CA-0186-U3+Case+USB+3.0+Midi.article


That's a decent, silent PSU. It will make the world of difference when mixing as the only fans going will be CPU and any case fans, but it should be a quiet enough machine. I thought 16 Gig RAM would be more appropriate as it really does give a boost in performance when using a DAW.

Dravokivich

What were you planning on doing as a sound card?

USB2/3?
Firewire?
PCI?
PCIe?

What would be your budget for that?

The on board sound cards on Motherboards would be of very little use.

circadian wrote: »

That's a decent, silent PSU. It will make the world of difference when mixing as the only fans going will be CPU and any case fans, but it should be a quiet enough machine. I thought 16 Gig RAM would be more appropriate as it really does give a boost in performance when using a DAW.

It is also recommended to use a second HDD in DAW builds.

First for OS / Software, which the SSD he already has can do.

But will need a second for Project directories.

DAWs will do a lot of HDD seeking.


back to OP,

A lot of that will also depend on what you depend on doing in Reason. Initially it was basically a Midi Programmer, Sampler and Synth Rack. But now it's a full fedged piece of kit that does Audio Recording, and Mixing.

Svetti Arss

Thanks for the answers. I already have a tascam mk122 II audio interface.

S A