Building a new PC, tips ?

[DuX]

Thanks for posting DPC results, cause I can now brag that all the PCs I assemble have DPC latency between 10-20 micro seconds when the DAW is running in the bg. With descrete ATI's or Nvidia's VGA. That's nothing spectacular, but it is spectacular in comparison to PCs that you buy in the shop, and especially laptops. I assemble either Intel or AMD based PCs with mostly Nvidia graphics, since I like the Intel and Nvidia drivers best. Especially a bit older ones... Intel/Nvidia drivers combo work great in my experience, but all the other combinations can also work great if you know how to make them work great. The thing is - you have to test a lot, find the solutions, stick to these configurations. And drivers are *really* important, and they really don't necessarily need to be the newest ones. Tested and tried.

My rants can feel like heavy criticism, or even fanboyism at times [but who's fanboy?] but they're not. It's fear, actually. I just like to stick to what I know works great, not lose precious time all the time on what *might* work as it's supposed to, and I invested a lot of time in finding what does work 100% sure. I did have an opportunity to re-install a laptop or two with HD3000 onboard graphics and DPC was also stable and great, especially for a laptop, around 40-50 micro seconds. However, it could have turned out differently, and that's what I hate about laptops, and changing the well known configurations that I know work well - their unpredictability. It might have turned out differently, and when you get those spikes to 1000 micro seconds... it gives me the creeps. What is it? ... and then hours of investigating. Then you might get lucky within just a few minutes... but lose precious time on things you shouldn't lose any time on anyway. That's so unprofessional and looks bad. It's much, much easier when you work with what you know behaves great. So I just don't feel great about using newest and untested components and drivers, and I hate losing time unnecessarily. Cause we do like to make music, do we? Not waste time on fiddling with the OS, programs, compatibility issues, unnecessary programs and services that hog the OS in the background etc...

Speaking of which, thank you for your time to provide us with some valuable info. DPC results are always welcome, especially when you throw in the list of components used. It's good to know that. Saves time. Is it Win7? Stock or tweaked? Or XP? I still work with XPs mostly. Oh, and AMD VGA driver works perfectly well, thank you. You just have to know which one, and how to install it. If you asked me that about 5 years ago you would get this answer: Stay away from ATI!

Cheers!

[Kaine]

My rants can feel like heavy criticism, or even fanboyism at times [but who's fanboy?] but they're not. It's fear, actually. I just like to stick to what I know works great, not lose precious time all the time on what *might* work as it's supposed to, and I invested a lot of time in finding what does work 100% sure.

Yeah, I realised that... hence why I put the

If it works for the end user then that's good enough, gawd knows how many random compatability issues I've seen over the years and anyone who get's a setup working trouble free is clearly doing something right.

part of my response in the post previously. I completely agree on a large chunck of what you wrote on the testing and reliabilty to end client part of your response.

Nothing worse than testing something solidly only for it to ship and have some driver get updated without you knowing about it, followed by a shirtly phone call and all the blame being redirected towards you, when you know damn well it was stable on the bench!

If you asked me that about 5 years ago you would get this answer: Stay away from ATI!

If you ask me in 5 mins time I'll give you the same answer

[HM]

Thanks for posting DPC results, cause I can now brag that all the PCs I assemble have DPC latency between 10-20 micro seconds when the DAW is running in the bg.

Go ahead, brag all you want Chasing DPC can be kinda obsession, so guess I
try leave it alone, as long as its under 50-100, other things also plays in

Btw. Kaine, thanks for the recent ram-help, got my 32 GB HyperX running now

Speaking of which, thank you for your time to provide us with some valuable info. DPC results are always welcome, especially when you throw in the list of components used. It's good to know that. Saves time. Is it Win7? Stock or tweaked? Or XP? I still work with XPs mostly. Oh, and AMD VGA driver works perfectly well, thank you. You just have to know which one, and how to install it. If you asked me that about 5 years ago you would get this answer: Stay away from ATI!
Cheers!

Its a Virgin W7 Ultimate Retail, on a bare Asus Z77?-LX, most is disabeled,
XP would play better DPC-wise I guess, the same with certain old Socket775
systems I guess, but DPC is not all, there is also "raw power" to consider

Right now my biggest concern is a back-up methode, to re-establish my hole
W7 installation, even on a new Motherboard, so a driveimage is not enough,
want to be 100 pct self maintaining, not dependant of MS, or the net, but
with a identical spare-motherboard, bios, and drive-image ready, any time,
and any place,.. but guess I would leave that for another tread

[Kaine]

Btw. Kaine, thanks for the recent ram-help, got my 32 GB HyperX running now

Ahh cool, good to hear

[Kuraudo]

OK, i spent some time building a system in PC parts.
I did not include a monitor, keyboard, mouse or Operating system. I assume that the "EXPLOSION" did not blow these up

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/x33u

If you're dealing with samples, the more ram the better. I currently use 8GB and occasionally it will choke. A bit more headway is important but i haven't foreseen any usage of higher than 16GB, at least for me. Your mileage will vary but you can always add more. I look at Cases a lot and the Cougar Volant had a lot to offer but at a surprisingly low price. The important thing for me is convenience when I build.

DO you have a soundcard? The most important thing to record with!
I put in LINE 6 UX USB by default
but there's also an M-AUDIO Delta for a bit more $199 http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOD1010LT

I've used the LINE 6PODs to record with great success and it's quite impressive how fast the latency is when I plug in the guitar. The headphones out are greatly powered too! For both microphone and guitar, the upgraded one goes $50 more this is my favorite:
http://www.zzounds.com/item--LINPSUX2

If you need a video on how to build a computer that same site has one here:
http://pcpartpicker.com/blog/budget-gam ... on-hd-7750

It walks u through very carefully, only thing it doesn't remember to put on the thermal paste!! DONT FORGET.

With the line 6 ux1 or a Presonus configured it runs just around $1000

[Kaboom75]

If it's an Intel i5 or i7 put a huge third party cooler on it and over clock it otherwise you are wasting potential.

I've had my i7 2.3 Ghz at 3.6Ghz for three years in use eight hours per day no problems and I would of upgraded this year if something far faster was on offer so it has lasted long enough.

Overclocking is easy these days modern motherboards allow you to overclock with just the change of one number setting in the bios.