Members nuke_diver Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 Hopefully there will be some response on this...not sure if anyone can actually get on the forums regularly My computer is 6years old and I'm starting to think about upgrading. I run XP with Pro Tool LE 8. Everything works but it's getting pretty slow taking maybe 5 min to boot up and takes 2-3 min to load up PT. There are pros and cons to building a new system now particularly with Intel planning new processors early in the new year (Mar/Apr timeframe) and I would probably need to go to Windows 7 from XP so I'm not sure how my software licenses allow me to upgrade. Looking to hear if anyone has done a similar upgrade either in Hardware or software and what advice you can give meThanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Surrealistic Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 I've upgraded my hardware lots of times but I've held off on upgrading my OS and my recording software. I'm still running Cubase SX2 on Windows 2000. It works just fine so up until the point where it doesn't I'm going to carry on using it. I know I'm not going to be able to harness the full power of multi-core processors and I'm limited to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BG76 Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 I use PTHD but I still use an old Mac Pro. Maybe put new hard drives and more ram in your current system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ancient Mariner Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 It's worth maxing out your RAM on an older system = 4Gb on 32bit XP, plus having the fastest HDDs you can find. If the system is slowing (no way should XP take more than about 45sec to start) then you need to back up (or pull the HDD, pop a new, faster one in it's place) and reinstall from scratch.No reason you can't buy or build a new machine, but if what you had worked well then is there an advantage to changing it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 If you're not pushing too many VSTs, even an older system, as long as it's been kept in good shape, should be fine.If you want a bit more speed, try formatting and reinstalling the OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted October 30, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 Yeah it still runs ok though I am admittedly a bit reluctant to drop in some cash on such an old computer. One option would be to get more memory (cheap) and/or an SSD (not as cheap) but I understand cloning a SSD in XP isn't that straightforward though I have not fully researched that yet. And I do need to get a LCD monitor I suppose...the CRT does cause a lot of noise on my Single coils (yes I said CRT...it's about 15 years old and on Computer #3) I hate throwing away stuff that works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members milosch Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 Cloning the drive wouldn't be too difficult. But, imho, worst case, install XP again onto the new drive then build it up from there. Put the old drive in as a secondary. You can always go back to the old drive if it doesn't work out as long as you only copy from the old drive. Windows 7 or 8 would be an improvement as long as your hardware is supported. I paid $39 to upgrade from Windows 7. Not sure if that intro price is still available or if it applies to XP upgrades.As far as XP, basically the registry eventually gets so big it bogs the system down. It is a set of files but has to be loaded into memory on every boot. There are several cleanup utilities out there for that but in my experience they will only take you so far.And yes, 4G is the max ram you can get unless you go 64-bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JoeBoy Posted October 30, 2012 Members Share Posted October 30, 2012 Do this and be amazed at the reults. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/mainte...nualtempxp.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members warriorpoet Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 PM me with exactly what you want and need to use your PC for and I'll recommend a couple hardware configs to get you there long-termPC hobbiest> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members warriorpoet Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 PM me with exactly what you want and need to use your PC for and I'll recommend a couple hardware configs to get you there long-termPC hobbiest> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PeaveyPlayer Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 Free up hard drive space by saving files to flash drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeadNight Warrior Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 Originally Posted by nuke_diver Hopefully there will be some response on this...not sure if anyone can actually get on the forums regularly My computer is 6years old and I'm starting to think about upgrading. I run XP with Pro Tool LE 8. Everything works but it's getting pretty slow taking maybe 5 min to boot up and takes 2-3 min to load up PT. There are pros and cons to building a new system now particularly with Intel planning new processors early in the new year (Mar/Apr timeframe) and I would probably need to go to Windows 7 from XP so I'm not sure how my software licenses allow me to upgrade. Looking to hear if anyone has done a similar upgrade either in Hardware or software and what advice you can give me Thanks guys Is this a music-only computer, or is it used for general stuff as well? I've got a fairly old computer, maybe 8 years old now, for my music stuff and it still runs perfectly. Boots up in a flash, everything loads up quickly, etc. For the internet or whatever else, I use a different computer. There's no unnecessary crap on my old music PC, just what I need for recording. Unless there's something actually wrong with the hardware, I'd just format it and start again. If you're using it for other stuff too, I'd consider buying a cheap computer to handle those duties to let the recording PC be just a recording PC. If you're only messing about on the internet, watching movies, etc., you don't really need much at all. Or do it the other way around, spend a bit more for a new recording set up, format and run the old one for browsing and whatnot. That's assuming you're using one for both at the moment. But I probably wouldn't bother putting money into upgrading it. You upgrade one thing, the bottleneck will just be something else. If I was spending money, I'd get something new to last me another however many years. You don't have to go all-out to get something that'll last a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mistersully Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 Originally Posted by warriorpoet PM me with exactly what you want and need to use your PC for and I'll recommend a couple hardware configs to get you there long-termPC hobbiest> i'd take up this offer nuke... having someone that knows what they're doing guide you is the best and most affordable option imoi agree that if possible, keep your old one for all non-music ralated tasks... i use a macbook pro for recording, and it gets used for nothing elseof course all that depends on how much you're into it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mnewb1 Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 I shifted away from PC about a year ago and work on an iMac now with Logic...using logic has been a learning curve, but I am glad I made the switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted October 31, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 I kind of know what I'm doing I built this computer myself and was looking to build the next one as well. I found this site pcpartspicker a useful one for comparing components and also am on Tom's Hardware for opinions/benchmarking etc. It is a general use computer with the main usage being internet (mainly the wife), music playing (backing tracks) and recording when I get the occasional good ideas and some gaming and misc stuff like bookkeeping. The idea of a music only computer is appealing but I have limited room so I don't think I can fit 2 computers into the space I have. I wish I had a studio space like some of you guys do. Originally I was thinking about a laptop as the general use computer and keeping this one as a music only computer and that's still an option though since I got an ipad the laptop idea seems less important. A desktop is easier (IMO) to have a bunch of peripherals hooked up too and is more expandable if needed and the ipad gives me portability now. Switching to a mac isn't a bad idea I do like Apple software and if my old drummer would resurface I could probably score logic on the cheap (he works for Apple). But since I do build my own I think I get a lot more for my $$ than I would if I bought an apple and all my current software would be obsolete. And my drummer is MIA so the in is out This is helping me lean toward not doing anything right now and waiting at least to see what the Haswell processors look like. Maybe just do a ram update and a disk cleanup on a rainy day. And possibly getting an SSD (I would need to be sure that it was compatible) which could be used as the boot drive and eventually migrated to a new computer when this one starts to give it up. That's the reason I asked here, going to Tom's Hardware and people are all about upgrading so the opinions are skewed. Here its all about the music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members undergod12 Posted October 31, 2012 Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 If you are considering building your own system, I strongly recommend checking out silentpcreview.com. That plus pcpartspicker, and you should be able to spec out a dead silent system for less than an off the shelf system from your local box store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted October 31, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 31, 2012 When I build a new system I definitely check out that site.Right now I'm only trying to figure out if adding an SSD is going to be a major PITA or not (given that some of the suggestions are to reformat adding an SSD might help alot but I'd rather not reformat if I could get away with it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted November 1, 2012 Members Share Posted November 1, 2012 Adding an SSD is pretty easy, but really, how do you plan on adding a drive to your computer without some level of reformatting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted November 1, 2012 Author Members Share Posted November 1, 2012 Originally Posted by honeyiscool Adding an SSD is pretty easy, but really, how do you plan on adding a drive to your computer without some level of reformatting? Because I reading about this cloning stuff and it seems to be able to bypass that but it seems less straightforward on XP than on W7. If I added a SSD I'd like it to take the place of my C drive which is my system drive and leave the data drive as is (and reformat the current C drive but that would be very benign if this cloning works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted November 1, 2012 Members Share Posted November 1, 2012 First of all, you'll get the most benefit of all this if you start with a fresh install. Don't dread it, it's something I do quite often and as long as you have at least a backup drive for data transfer (and you should, everyone should), reinstalling programs and all that is much faster than you think it will be. What's more, you probably don't need most of them anyway, so reinstall is a good time to ditch the non-essentials.Secondly, SSDs are very expensive per GB, so chances are, you'll need to reorganize the way you have your drives set up, to a system/program vs. data drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted November 1, 2012 Author Members Share Posted November 1, 2012 After more reading last night I think I understand how to add a SSD to an existing computer and I believe it is doable for me. I can see that if I start to go that way it gets to be a slippery slope to a new computer (1st the SSD and maybe new ram then new OS and before you know it you've built a new computer anyways ). So more research on upcoming processors etc before taking the plunge. The best solution really would be to somehow convince the wife that the old computer would be perfect for music and a new computer would be perfect for her Oh and HIC, I have a different perspective on SSD. SSD's can be had for less than a $1/GB. It doesn't seem that long ago when I had a conversation with a Seagate Engineer coming back from Japan where he told me wait until prices get less than $1/MB for HHD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members knotty Posted November 2, 2012 Members Share Posted November 2, 2012 Run an ssd as second drive and make that the home of the swapfile. Also upgrade graphics card to save cpu power. Make sure all memry is highest speed mb can take. These in addition to previous advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members *BLEEP* Posted November 2, 2012 Members Share Posted November 2, 2012 I've upgraded my hardware lots of times but I've held off on upgrading my OS and my recording software... ... I know I'm not going to be able to harness the full power of multi-core processors and I'm limited to Nothing wrong with what you are doing, as long as you do not surf the Internet with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members *BLEEP* Posted November 2, 2012 Members Share Posted November 2, 2012 Because I reading about this cloning stuff and it seems to be able to bypass that but it seems less straightforward on XP than on W7.If I added a SSD I'd like it to take the place of my C drive which is my system drive and leave the data drive as is (and reformat the current C drive but that would be very benign if this cloning works First of all, you can format a new SSD, but it won't matter a bit once you make the SSD the target of a clone job, because those sectors will be overwritten with blocks of data during the imaging process. Actually, it probably isn't a bad idea to first give your new SSD a test by performing a full format (as opposed to a quick format) on it before using it, since one of the functions of a format job is testing sectors. A long format will write digital zeros in consecutive sectors (called sector filling) in a track, then immediately read back those sectors in that same track before advancing to the next track. Of course, the hard drive "tracks" and "heads" and "platters" of an SSD are emulated by the SSD's onboard firmware so that they appear to be normal hard drives to the storage controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members *BLEEP* Posted November 2, 2012 Members Share Posted November 2, 2012 And yes, 4G is the max ram you can get unless you go 64-bit. ...unless it's 32-bit Windows Server 2003 "Datacenter Edition" or 32-bit Windows Server 2003 "Enterprise Edition" (on certified hardware), then it's up to 64 GB of RAM. Physical Address Extension (PAE) will allow a 32-bit x86 system to address more than 4 GB of RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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