My Eight year old PC "died", soooo....

[pljones]

Windows had been struggling with an update on my PC for a long (the latest feature update never succeeds and it had now been complaining that it was going to keep trying at every opportunity as it was dangerously open to infection or whatever...). So, after again failing three times or so, it reboots... and hits "Press DEL or F2 to enter UEFI BIOS"... and... nothing.

Hm. So I switched my keyboard from the monitor/hub it's normally plugged into directly into an old USB 2 port on the motherboard to give it the best chance, pushed the off button, switched the PSU off, unplugged the network card and rebooted.

No better... In fact, after about 30 seconds (maybe more) it turned itself off. I tried again later in the day (having left it powered off). Same again.

Now... I've had a few suggestions I've yet to try:
- try a different keyboard (this one seems to work okay with this Chromebook and my work laptop, just not my PC)
- try plugging in a recovery drive
- try switching the CMOS battery

I'm tending more to giving up on the machine - it's had quite a lot of care and attention lately, so I'm starting to feel it's past its best. Which lead to this...

3XS Audio Workstation Pro - Sofa Sounds - £2038.86

• 1xLN110974DLR & Sofa Sounds Artist Workstation
• 1xLN1246423XS Fractal Design Define 7 Black Solid Mid Tower Chassis 3x 140mm Fans USB 3.1 Type-C E-ATX/ATX/mAT
• 1xLN120069ASUS AMD ProArt X570-Creator WiFi AMD X570 ATX Motherboard
• 1xLN111444AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core AM4 CPU/Processor Retail
• 1xLN103875Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 64GB (2x32GB) 3600MHz DDR4 Dual Channel Memory Kit, AMD Ryzen Optimised
• 1xLN119800Samsung 980 PRO 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 Gen4 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive
• 1xLN90662MSI NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 2GB 2GHD4 Low Profile OC Graphics Card
• 2xLN127405be quiet! 140mm Silent Wings 4 PWM Fan
• 1xLN1154993XS be quiet! DARK ROCK PRO 4
• 1xLN1144313XS be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER 11 PLATINUM 650W
• 1xLN118270*3XS* Windows 11 Pro High End DPK MUP-00005

So I'm open to all opinions.

[Jac459]

Sweet !
Do you think the 64GB are needed ?
In my case I am using waaayyy more CPU than RAM (Bitwig, with tons of plugins, not a lot of multi-sampling, tons of complex effects).
Ryzen 9 should let you see the future for a while though...

I think it is a superb config, if I were you, I would just hesitate between 32GB, 2TB instead of 64GB, 1TB...

[pljones]

32Gb hasn't been enough since I put the 8 year old one together. I work with many multi-sampled drum kits at the same time when drumming live - I want as much as possible loaded into RAM, even NVMe doesn't really do it for me. I don't use effects much (so maybe the CPU spec is way higher than I need...). The base system drive was 500Gb, £6 extra for the 1Tb (so no-brainer). I've also got some fairly new replacement drives in the dead PC that I'll look to moving over to the new one - as a minimum to get the data off them, if not use them. (I'd have to open the machine up to check

[Jac459]

32Gb hasn't been enough since I put the 8 year old on together. I work with many multi-sampled drum kits at the same time when drumming live - I want as much as possible loaded into RAM, even NVMe doesn't really do it for me. I don't use effects much (so maybe the CPU spec is way higher than I need...). The base system drive was 500Gb, £6 extra for the 1Tb (so no-brainer). I've also got some fairly new replacement drives in the dead PC that I'll look to moving over to the new one - as a minimum to get the data off them, if not use them. (I'd have to open the machine up to check

Then it sounds pretty fit for your use... Funny as how the genre may define the config hehe.

Anyway having a beefy CPU is not bad, it is the one thing that is boring to change...

[CrystalWizard]

i would add a few terabytes of spinning rust or NVMe, whichever is in the budget. i'm planning to bump all the RAM and internal SSD on my old machines.

[VitaminD]

If you don't game this might be better:

3XS Audio Workstation Pro - AX670 £2062.04

1xEvery 3XS System includes this exclusive welcome pack featuring a co-branded Corsair mouse pad, branded mug, braided cable tidying kit and extensive documentation to help setup your system.

• 1xFractal Design Define 7 - 233 x 465 x 543 (WxHxD mm)

• 1xASUS TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI

• 1xAMD RYZEN™ 9 7950X

• 1xbe quiet! Dark Rock PRO 4

• 1x140mm be quiet! Silent Wings 4 - Ultra Low Noise Option

• 1x64GB (2x32GB) Corsair DDR5 Vengeance 5600MHz

• 1x650W be quiet! Straight Power 11 - 80PLUS Platinum (Recommended for on-board GPU)

• 1x1TB Samsung 980 PRO - 7000MB/s Read, 5000MB/s Write

• 1x1TB Samsung 980 PRO - 7000MB/s Read, 5000MB/s Write

• 1xMicrosoft Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

• 1x3 Year Premium (Parts & Labour) Warranty - 1st Year Onsite, 2nd & 3rd Return to Base including lifetime support.

1xYour 3XS system includes lifetime upgrades - our 3XS engineers will upgrade any component in your system, with no labour charge. Click for more info.
1xEstimated 5-8 Working Days - Your 3XS system will be built and intensively tested, we aim to have it ready for dispatch within 5-8 working days.

----------------------------------------------

5000 series CPUs have no integrated graphics but the newer 7000 series do, so that sheds the videocard. Plus this one has dual 1 TB NVME drives for about the same price as your build.

The Fractal Define case is great. I use an R5 version with the extra fan. This one comes with R7 so even better.

I'm still somewhat leary about NVME and SSDs though so I'd like a conventional HDD as backup of song projects and the like though. Maybe an external drive? But that's just me.

[SHall1000]

I'm still somewhat leary about NVME and SSDs though so I'd like a conventional HDD as backup of song projects ….

I’d be interested to hear why.

[pljones]

If you don't game this might be better:
...

Too late . I've hit the button now.

I'm still somewhat leary about NVME and SSDs though so I'd like a conventional HDD as backup of song projects and the like though. Maybe an external drive? But that's just me.

My backup policy includes internal HDD, external HDD, bluray and offsite ("cloud") storage. What it doesn't include is me running the backups as often as I should .

[VitaminD]

If you don't game this might be better:
...

Too late . I've hit the button now.

I'm still somewhat leary about NVME and SSDs though so I'd like a conventional HDD as backup of song projects and the like though. Maybe an external drive? But that's just me.

My backup policy includes internal HDD, external HDD, bluray and offsite ("cloud") storage. What it doesn't include is me running the backups as often as I should .

Aww well I tried to help. But that 5950x should give you many years of service too.

Yes, I need to backup much more often too. In my case laziness can be dangerous..

[BONES]

I'm still somewhat leary about NVME and SSDs though so I'd like a conventional HDD as backup of song projects and the like though.

Why? There is so much less to go wrong with an SSD.

More generally, f**k that's a lot of money to spend on a computer just for music! I'd much rather spend a quarter as much, four times more often.

[pljones]

I'd much rather spend a quarter as much, four times more often.

... that's what I used to spend on buying music... (Still trying to catch up listening to it all...)

[BONES]

I still spend a decent amount on new music every month, although it's getting harder to find places that will take my money. Several times in the last few months I have had to resort to buying CDs, because it's almost impossible to find digital music to buy on line. I had to buy the recent Boomtown Rats, Fixx and Psychedelic Furs albums on CD. I may get desperate enough to open an iTunes account.

[Jac459]

Qobuz allows to purchase high quality downloadable songs. A very good choice if you are not into streaming...

[pljones]

I try to stick to Bandcamp these days. Plus other reasonably direct means, artists' own sites, etc. Occasional Burnnig Shed purchases.

[jamcat]

I'm still somewhat leary about NVME and SSDs though so I'd like a conventional HDD as backup of song projects and the like though. Maybe an external drive? But that's just me.

My backup policy includes internal HDD, external HDD, bluray and offsite ("cloud") storage. What it doesn't include is me running the backups as often as I should .

• SSDs are WAY more reliable, rugged, and long-lived than platter drives.
• Bluray and other physical media you burn is extremely unreliable. The discs are vulnerable to damage, and even a well cared for BD-R degrades over time.
• Cloud storage is susceptible to hackers, and then there's a question of who actually owns the data you store on their servers. (Granted, it's pretty unlikely hackers or Amazon are going to steal your music and release it as their own.)
  
  Your most efficient route is probably going to be to backup regularly to 2 different SSD drives, and forgo burning backups to discs. If you're worried about losing your music in a fire, use your phone as one of your backup devices, because that's the one thing you'll likely grab before anything else.