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anonymous 4 April 2009

How do YOU optimize Windows 7, 8, 10 for Music Production?

Here is a starting point: http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/support_subs/support_tech.php?tt=0023
This topic is a sticky. Hopefully it will help us all get better running windows systems. Please share your tips.

NOTE:
Nothing against Mac, I own Macs and love em. However, this is SPECIFICALLY FOR WINDOWS.
Any Mac gunk in here, posted to side rail this topic, etc will be removed.

(y)

Comments

Kuroneku Mon, 02/16/2015 - 19:04

If you take an old Computer, even with the worst Operating System (Windows Vista), that has an edited Registry, potentially containing even Viruses, and has many Applications in stalled on it and clone that hard onto an SSD and use that in your computer, you will soon find out that an SSD will make the hugest difference whether you are Recording or doing other things. Only people who own an SSD will understand how crucial an SSD is to shorten wait-times and lags on a Computer system and increase performances.


A huge mistake that people commonly do:
--- Overbuying RAM to increase Computer speed ---

My friend has the same CPU that I own, an i-7 5820k, and he has 64GB of DDR4 Ram. I on the other hand have 16GB of Ram the same RAM, and my Computer boots faster, loads every single program (with no exception) faster, renders images, videos faster, loads games faster, and I have much, much, much, much less lag in any Digital Audio Workstation.
Why is that? because I have an SSD, and he has a hard drive with 7600RPM, which is even faster than a standard 5400RPM computer hard drive, but still! An SSD is so-so much faster.
Very few people will need more than 8GB of Ram. I'd say for using a DAW 16GB of DDR3 or 4 are more than fine. If you don't believe me or disagree, then I strongly urge you to look up benchmarks that will show you the difference in performance of 16GB of RAM vs. 128GB of RAM. You will find out that RAM for general purposes is a bit over-rated.

To get more out of a Solid State Drive and even further increase your boot times, applications, games, rendering processes for whatever (images, video, etc.), you can purchase a part that will allow you to connect your SSD via PCI-Express onto the motherboard instead of just using SATA connectors.

I promise you that if you use an SSD in your Computer for your Operating System and all your Applications:
1. You will vomit if you use another Computer without an SSD due to slow speed (you will get used to the speed of incredible SSD's)
2. You will want to upgrade every Computer system in your house with an SSD, including your Laptops
3. You will want to spread the word about the incredible performance difference that an SSD makes
4. You will never-ever purchase or use a regular hard drive as your Operating System's and Application's drive-you will only use regular hard drives for storage purposes

Crucial and Samsung offer some good 500GB prices for SSD's. And no, I do not work for them, and neither do I know anybody who works for them, or anyone who knows someone who works for them.

If you are thinking of building a new Computer System to dedicate to a Digital Audio Workstation, then an SSD is a must, just like with any other editing purposes. Even if you already have a System that runs your DAW well, but yet lags here and there, an SSD will save you the headache.

PS: With an SSD you also don't ever worry about how many things you have installed (antivirus etc.) or stored, or how many start-up programs you have, or if you are connected to networks etc., your system simply won't be a snail anymore with an SSD, its a promise!
OK, now I'm done :)

Kuroneku Wed, 02/18/2015 - 00:13

TheJackAttack, post: 425213, member: 34377 wrote: I have SSD and SATA and PATA drives. SSD is not necessarily the answer. It is still relatively fragile and degrades much quicker that SATA drives. SSD is best left for the main operation system drive and SATA is still the best long term option for target audio. This is just plain practical application fact.

Do you have an AIDA or Everest spec file of your Computer that shows your SSD? Curious

What does "fragile and degrades much quicker" mean? I've been using several SSD's for years now, and my main Computers are on all-day and are used daily. I've never encountered anything that would fit "fragile" or "degrades quicker than" when it comes to my SSD's

DonnyThompson Wed, 02/18/2015 - 03:40

TheJackAttack, post: 359638, member: 34377 wrote: Managing your startup programs and services will be the actual source of improvement. I don't care what brand of computer.

Jack.. sorry for resurrecting such an old post, but this caught my eye. Are there any programs or start-up items in particular that you like to remove from your start-up menu that you find makes your DAW run more efficiently?

FWIW, I'm using W 8.1, 3.6ghz Quad-Core CPU (AMD) 16 gig Ram, 2 tB HDD (7200) with about 65% free space remaining.

-d.

pcrecord Tue, 02/24/2015 - 09:53

TheJackAttack, post: 425213, member: 34377 wrote: It is still relatively fragile and degrades much quicker that SATA drives

Sorry to say Jack but it was true with the first gererations of SSD, those sold today are said to last even longer than HDD. It's without saying that HDD Doa arrive everyday and some we sell don't last a year
So I woudn't hesitate a minute to use SSDs as an OS Drives and maybe even as a audio drive.

Here's an interesting read : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923.html (I haven't gone through the whole article but it gives you some good insights.)

anonymous Tue, 02/24/2015 - 15:25

I posted this on another thread but this one seems to be getting more attention so I'll say it again.

I'm told just recently by server support, if I want to improve the forum speed by quite a bit, a SSD is the only thing they suggest. In fact, I have a 64bit OS with 32Gig for RO and they said I would be better off adding a SSD on the OS.
I trust SSD have improved. I wish I had some money to burn because it would be fun to start this test on the server so we all experienced the performance boost.

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