Help With Possible Computer Upgrades

[Roymega]

Well I'm thinking it's about time for me to make some upgrades to my computer and was wondering if you guys could help point out the weak spots of my current setup. Keep in mind I'll be using this to record vocals/guitar, as well as produce instrumentals in studio software such as FL Studio 9.0.3 XXL, Reason 4, Cool Edit Pro 2.1, as well as various other little programs here and there. Any and all help/feedback is welcome

Computer Specs:

Windows 7 32-bit Operating System

AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 4200+ (2.21GHz)

2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 ram (with 2GB of the same on the way)

NVIDIA GeFoce 6600 256mb DDR

2 160GB Western Digital Hard drives (w/ a 1TB Western Digital external drive on the way)

Onboard sound (also have a Creative Labs SBLive soundcard installed)

Music Gear:

Crate CMX42FX Mixer

Audio-Technica AT2035

Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500M Acoustic Guitar

Fender Strat Telecaster Electric Guitar

Orange Crush 15R 15-watt Reverb Guitar Amp

[Roflcopter]

Video card is 5yrs old minimum? Seems a bit odd. Would also maybe check out higher quality soundcard. SB is decent for games, but not really for music (trying to ignore the onboard, those are usually only good enough to draw tears).

PS: don't forget that upgrading hardware can put extra strain on your PSU - if that's underpowered you are bound for trouble.

[Roymega]

Ahh yes of course, a sound card... Any suggestions? I've been outta the loop for awhile as far as input devices are concerned

[Retrosaurus Rex]

Ahh yes of course, a sound card... Any suggestions? I've been outta the loop for awhile as far as input devices are concerned

I've heard mostly good things about M-Audio, here's their mid-line product... http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FastTrackPro/

I've heard less good things about PreSonus, but their similar product is slightly less expensive... http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AudioBoxUSB/

Cakewalk is owned by Roland, so the quality should be good, also the D/A-A/D converters are higher grade... http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UA25EX/

Basically just a mic pre w/USB, but that might be all you need... http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBDualPrePS/

I have an analog mic-pre from still going strong after 10 years, granted I don't use it all the time, but the build quality is superb.

I know your mixer has a lot of these features, but pretty much all the input devices coming out now have phantom power, the difference is in number & types of connections. Actually, I think there are some mixing boards with USB for only a little more than your Crate...

For guitar/vox a USB or FireWire connection should be adequate, but for sure I'd put it on a separate bus from the ext HD. If you think you might need more simultaneous connections than that you might consider PCIe card with a breakout box, but that'll set you back considerably more green...

BTW, if you have the budget for it you should definitely consider upgrading the graphics card to GeForce 275 or equivalent, because Win 7 is very graphics intensive (I'm running x64, so it was basically mandatory...), and the upgrade will really improve your experience.

[Roflcopter]

Firewire still will be around for a while, but be advised it's being phased out by a lot of companies (thanks, Steve Jobs) - it does however mean you can pick up stuff cheap - real cheap.

Same thing with the GTX 275, if that's a bit over the budget, an oldie GT8800 (preferably the single slot version) will run circles around that 6600 of yours, and they can be had for something like 50 bucks (vs 200 or more for a more recent card).

These cards (together with that bigger HD) will probably max out your power supply, as I warned previously. A 550 (or more) watt PSU is pretty common these days.

[Roymega]

is there a program I can download that will tell me the wattage and 12V+, 5V+, and 3.3V+ ratings of my power supply? I know it's on the actual power supply, and I have no problem opening up my computer, but if I can do it without that'd be nice to know...

Also, I've tried SiSoftware Sandra Pro, but they don't list it

Edited August 29, 2010 by Ryan

[Roflcopter]

Wattage should be listed on your PSU somewhere (or inferred from the type designation visible on the back - no need to open up the hood), and I wouldn't worry overmuch about the actual voltage on the cables, it's either correct or wrong, and the latter would mean your stuff gets fried/your box doesn't work at all.

The 'program' is called a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzjMIcER4EU, BTW.

[Roymega]

is there a reason why you're suggesting I get a USB audio interface? The mixer I have has more than enough inputs/outputs

[Roflcopter]

Ah, not everyone has a mixer, and then a 'break-out box' is preferable over a card in he back of your PC with only so much connector space. That's why quite a few more serious interfaces are of the box type, with a USB or Firewire connection to the PC.

[Roymega]

If I do these upgrades in steps, what would you recommend upgrading first: the video card or the sound card? And also what video card would you recommend for under $100?

[Roflcopter]

It's a total toss-up: they both need replacing, it's just what you plan on using more seriously first, some demanding music app or some heavy graphics software.

If you read back I already told you that an old second hand 8800 GT (or better even, GTS) will run circles around your 6600 - it's actually just as fast as the 9800GT, and probably still outperforms some 'newer' series cards - which is why I got one too, dirt cheap. I paid something like 65 bucks, converted from euros

[FinnArild]

1: better firewire/usb soundcard (external)

2: 2 more gigs of ram

3: A couple of active reference monitors

4: A a proper large membrane mic (allthough many use a shure sm57 for most everything)

5: UAD card + plugins

For your music application I would get as noiseless videocard as possible - i.e. something crappy.

Allways connect directly to the soundcard when recording - it will save you the added background noise of the mixer. Most home studios these days don't even need a mixer (allthough I use one for monitoring purposes).

These are my opinions only, of course ...

[Coises]

What’s the motherboard, and the power supply?

You do realize that a 32-bit operating system won’t be able to make full use of 4GB of memory?

A good, simple check to see what’s bottlenecking a Windows system is to open the Task Manager (right-click the task bar to get to it), select the “Processes” tab and from “Select Columns...” on the “view” menu, add “Page Faults Delta” to the columns shown. Then load the system in a typical fashion enough to make it drag a bit and watch what happens. If your CPU Usage is going to the high percentages, your CPU can’t keep up. If CPU is low but one or more lines show PF Deltas frequently hitting the high hundreds or even thousands, the amount of RAM you have is insufficient. (“Page Fault Delta” counts the number of times in each update interval — usually set to one second — a program tries to access memory that is not actually in memory and must be “paged” in from your hard drive.) If neither of those things happens, something else, like disc drive throughput or video card performance, is probably the limiting factor.

That’s not a foolproof diagnostic procedure, but frequently it will give you a good idea whether CPU, RAM or something else is the weak link in your system, and hence suggest what to upgrade first.

Once my impending move is done and I’m settled, I’m hoping to do a sound card upgrade myself; my 8-year-old Audigy is getting flaky. In looking around, I’ve seen two devices that get really good reviews.

E-MU 1616M V3 PCIE Digital Audio System: The word is that the preamps in this thing are spectacular, and since it uses an internal PCIe card with a breakout box, it gets the best of both worlds — the low latency and high throughput of an internal interface and the low noise of an external box.

Tascam US1641 USB 2.0 Audio and MIDI Interface: Loads of inputs, good price for that many inputs, and USB 2.0 means it’s not tied to a single computer... it can even work with a laptop. I don’t know how good the preamps are, though.

I’m looking to do away the need for my mixer (a 17-year-old Tascam M-1508), though, because it’s old and getting erratic. If you’re happy with your mixer and you only care to record the 2-channel stereo mixdown (not the direct channel outs), you could get by with a much simpler sound card. The Echo Gina3G seems to be well-liked, but there are many 2-input choices; something as simple and inexpensive as the Cakewalk UA-1G might do the trick.

Edited September 23, 2010 by Coises

[Roymega]

I have a Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 mobo with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+

I just haven't upgraded to 64-bit cause I really had no need for it til now

[Coises]

I have a Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 mobo with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+

I’m not a hardware expert, so I certainly might be missing something... but I’m wondering why you’re running PC2-5300 (DDR2 667) and not PC2-6400 (DDR2 800) in this board. If you’re getting new RAM (which your initial post implied), I’d suggest moving to the board’s full rated memory speed.

I just haven't upgraded to 64-bit cause I really had no need for it til now

And you might not want or need it now, either. I was just pointing out that 32-bit operating systems generally can’t “see” a full 4GB of RAM. That board runs its memory dual channel, though, so you do want to work in matched pairs. I’d be inclined to start by replacing what you have with one pair of 2x1GB DDR2 800 (PC2-6400) sticks (e.g., Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/2G) and looking at some of the other suggested upgrades before going above 2GB memory or changing to 64-bit; or, if you’re set on eventually going 64-bit and/or to or beyond 4GB with this machine and don’t mind an extra $40, put in a matched pair of 2GB sticks (like Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/4G) instead. In either case, you move yourself up to PC2-6400 low-latency memory and still leave 2 slots available for future expansion.