NEW PC TIME!

Support and feedback for Acoustica's Mixcraft audio mixing software.

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TrevsAudio
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NEW PC TIME!

Post by TrevsAudio »

OK - cannot go without my beloved Mixcraft, so where I was going to go Mac, I've decided on a new (refurbished) PC.
A technophobe of note, I'm looking for SENSIBLE advice on the following.
My current system is as seen in my signature.
Would I be committing suicide if I went from i5 to i3; 3.0 to 2.4Ghz; 16 to 4 Gig RAM and SSD to conventional Hd?
NOT intending to record full orchestras or work with more than 50 tracks - 90 percent is one-man-band overdubs and perhaps recording a 4 or 5 piece band with a max of 8 inputs.
Speak to me o thou of technical comprehension :mrgreen:
Old Dudes Rock!
Trevor
OFC™ Founding Member
Dell 3050 SSF i3, 32gig RAM; MX 8, 9 and 10.5 Pro; Win 11 Pro
Focusrite 2i2; Sennheiser HD650 cans

Sample Projects: https://soundcloud.com/trevs_audio
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@trevsaudio
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outteh
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by outteh »

Don’t downgrade! Especially the hard drive, keep it SSD. You will also have problems if you reduce RAM! :D
bigaquarium
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by bigaquarium »

Morning!

I am a fan of getting surplus enterprise machines from government/health care institutions. These machines are often fairly high spec or upgradable, easily serviceable, often ruggedized, and dirt cheap. Both of my MC machines are retired healthcare PCs and are built like brick sh*thouses.

Don’t skimp! And if you do skimp, make sure it will upgrade in the future!

-N
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Mark Bliss
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by Mark Bliss »

Suicide, no. Recipe for frustration, probably.

My current "lower end" machine is i5 8g and an ssd, and I am often finding myself wishing for a little more performance capacity even on modest mixing projects. Not that you cant work with less....
And having experienced the improvement of an ssd, I cant imagine going back!

Ive been looking around at desktop systems to replace my W7 box (that has never worked out for me), and am surprised how much prices have come down on some upper-mid range performance combinations.
While I admit gear lust for an i7 32g ssd+hd configuration..... :shock:
Price wise an upper-end i5 16g ssd combination looks pretty attractive to this economy minded hobbyist. Leaves a little left over for the interface upgrade I wish for i guess 8)
Stay in tune, Mark

My SOUNDCLOUD Page
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Rolling Estonian
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by Rolling Estonian »

I really wouldn't go less than a new i5, I have an early i7 with 12gb ram, SSD and HDD, and even my 'one man band' stuff can tax it with a couple vsti and vsts running. The best advice, already mentioned, is to get the most you can afford but make sure you can upgrade your ram and drives.

Mark: Have you looked at Xotic gaming laptops? You can get that i7, 32gb ram, SSD and HDD for about $1500, or get upgradeable for a lot less, I know it's still a lot but better than most out there.

M
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outteh
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by outteh »

Trev, can you order from here in Europe? Great prices and options! :D

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... No=5520645
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Mark Bliss
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by Mark Bliss »

Agreed. TigerDirect is a great source, if you know what you are looking at. I know just enough to get in trouble..... :lol:

Yeah I've seen those Laptops RE, but that's not what I am looking at right now.
The i5 system I mentioned is my laptop used for mobility. It fits the bill for the most part even with the typical laptop issues. One common frustration is that nearly every time it updates (W10) the power preferences reset to a default power saver mode and I have to go back into settings and reset to performance mode. Not a big deal but its annoying when suddenly there are performance problems and I have to mess with that. But it works well for working on stuff while away from home. USB3 external drives capabilities are another advantage.

The desktops I have been looking at are in the $500 range, (Example) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... ignId=8671
I don't really need to go overboard.
But I have to learn more about moving beyond USB2 interfaces for the home desktop rig.
I know little about this and see that Thunderbolt seems to remain the industry standard for the class of interface I am looking at. And I don't know squat about Thunderbolt/PC combinations. I see Thunderbolt cards but damn they are pricy!
I really thought the roll out of USB3 would effect this market, but so far not too much. And it appears it will soon be upstaged by yet another standard. The market just seems too small for the manufacturers to bother I guess.

Sorry to sidetrack your thread Trevor :lol: Its a wormhole question though I reckon. 8)
Stay in tune, Mark

My SOUNDCLOUD Page
Drdish007
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by Drdish007 »

Hi,
I upgraded my pc 2 years ago. I looked at what was being sold for daw pc's at music stores on line. I noted the different prices and features. I went to a local computer store to see what the cost would be to have made. My signature shows what I had made. I have a i5 processor and it works fine. I use virtual instruments occasionally and had a third hdd for the sound samples. I recently recorded a drum kit using 8 mic's going to separate tracks without any problems. It cost about $1300.00Cnd. Mounted in a gaming enclosure with a large fan on the side, smaller fan on the front where the sex and hdd are located. It is quiet.
Hope this helps.
- Myran
Mixcraft9RS(469)64Bit, Win. 10 64Bit, Intel i5 @ 3.20GHz, ssd 250GB(os),1TB hdd(library audio),1TB hdd (recorded audio),Nvidia GeForce1050i video,16GB RAM,Focusrite 18I20 2nd gen usb,Motu 5 ch.midi interface, D5,U220,Keystation88,B4000+,Leslie,Rhodes73mk1
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TrevsAudio
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by TrevsAudio »

Thanks Mixcrafters for all the great advice! Knew you wouldn't disappoint :D

Spent literally hours pouring over ebay machines (budget is a bit tight because of all I've recently laid out on my new studio)

Bottom line, I picked up one with the same spec as I had - but double the SSD storage. It has 8 gig RAM, but I can steal from the old one.

Mark, how right you were. My original was built by my computer guy about 5 years ago and I paid £400. This new one was just £150 with a year's warranty! So I'm a happy chappie!
Old Dudes Rock!
Trevor
OFC™ Founding Member
Dell 3050 SSF i3, 32gig RAM; MX 8, 9 and 10.5 Pro; Win 11 Pro
Focusrite 2i2; Sennheiser HD650 cans

Sample Projects: https://soundcloud.com/trevs_audio
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@trevsaudio
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Ian Craig
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by Ian Craig »

Glad you got sorted Trev (just seen this post). Personally, I think the best option generally is RAM. 8 GB seems low and if you can upgrade it cheaply I'd suggest doing that (only if it's cheap enough). I needed to upgrade from 16gb to 24gb just to get enough headroom to make videos without things crashing all the time, but also for virtual instruments and FX
Note: any hardware that does the job should be seen as a serious choice, just as any software that does the job without eating system resources should be seen as a serious choice and not dismissed because it doesn't cost £2,000 or get used by some industry bigwig - all the iZotope stuff, which is really expensive, I find causes Mixcraft to take 2 minutes to load after boot up (because of all the copy protection nonsense) instead of the 15 seconds it would take without any of it. Hardware is the same. It is all limited in lifespan and prone to problems, so if you get stable ex-government machines they work to a reasonable level and will last because they are not overclocked gaming machines. It's all about compromise and just making it work (including the music itself). Sorry, I'm waffling on, I'll shut up now 8)
Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio (build 470) recording output using MRecorder
AMD Ryzen 8 Core 3.0 GHz (40 GB Ram) & Intel i9 11th Gen 3.5 GHz (64GB Ram),
Windows 10 Professional
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 & 8i6
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TrevsAudio
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by TrevsAudio »

Appreciate your input Ian!

Here's the blurb from the supplier -My Digital Tech is the retail branch of one of the world’s largest electronics reuse and recycling companies, for refurbishing and disposing of their surplus IT and telecoms equipment.

Our stock comes from the companies and agencies who bought top-quality new stock and kept it well maintained. We collect these units and bring them to our asset recovery facility where we work our IT magic! First we data wipe the equipment, ensuring that it no longer contains any data from a former user. They are then put through a rigorous testing programme before being cleaned inside and out.

Finally, as one of only a handful of Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers in the UK, we install a genuine Windows operating system on all compatible products.

Should be good to go for a while yet :D
Old Dudes Rock!
Trevor
OFC™ Founding Member
Dell 3050 SSF i3, 32gig RAM; MX 8, 9 and 10.5 Pro; Win 11 Pro
Focusrite 2i2; Sennheiser HD650 cans

Sample Projects: https://soundcloud.com/trevs_audio
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@trevsaudio
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Ian Craig
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by Ian Craig »

Sweet :D
Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio (build 470) recording output using MRecorder
AMD Ryzen 8 Core 3.0 GHz (40 GB Ram) & Intel i9 11th Gen 3.5 GHz (64GB Ram),
Windows 10 Professional
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 & 8i6
botface
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by botface »

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I'm in the market for a new PC and I had a look at mydigitaltech's stuff. I notice that hey have several Xeon based PC's.

My knowledge is very patchy when it comes to processors but aren't Xeon's used for their superior multi-threading abilities compared to i7? If that's true wouldn't they be ideal for use with Mixcraft? On the other hand I've never seen an audio workstation based on a Xeon processor so maybe there's a good reason not to use them for a DAW.

Does anybody here have the technical knowledge to comment ?
mixyguy2
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Re: NEW PC TIME!

Post by mixyguy2 »

I will just add that the chipset is more important than if it's i3 vs i5 vs i7. A top-end i5 will blow the doors off of a low-end i7. Unfortunately this has become an insanely splintered affair with only about 800,000 diff chipsets available and an Engineering degree practically required to decipher which is better and by how much.
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