Upgrading my machine

[Thomas]

Bill,

There's a feature in Windows called Readyboost. It allows your old hard drive to have a cache file to write to/from. Recently, I noticed there are HYBRID hard drives out there that use NAND memory coupled to old school hard drives to improve performance. Readyboost may be similar in function to that. You may have some flash drives laying around the house so no need to make a new purchase. Of course the faster (and bigger, it utilizes up to 32GB)the drive the better, but if you set it up right, you should see some improvement in performance.

[Torton5]

Torton5 -

Much appreciation for a very honest assessment. Intuitively I felt what you were saying, but my heart and wallet were hoping I'd get SOME benefit from the two upgrades.

I must say moving to 64bit Mixcraft is time consuming - and you allude to that as well. That is, even if I solve my Kontakt issue (in another thread) I still need to move to 64 bit for the plug ins as well. I have such a mess of plug ins all over the place that I'm not even sure which are which. Plus I've only downloaded 32 bit (including the ones I've paid for) - so I'd have to go through and see which have 64bit available.

Running 32 and 64 bit - as you say - just adds confusion that is counter-productive. I have to commit to one or the other given the computer I have - not the one I wish I had.

The fact is - a new machine is outside my budget - especially given this is a hobby. I'd be looking at $500 minimum. (If I'm wrong about that - if I'm overstating the expense - please tell me I'm wrong. I'd love to hear that.) Can't justify that for a (very) part time hobby when it would be overkill for everything else I do on this computer.

Sorry if I seemed a bit blunt but it seemed you needed pushing in one direction or the other. The whole upgrade thing can tax the brain a bit, especially if it is attempted when you have lots of ongoing projects with lots of VST's/Plugins.

I have been looking into upgrading my computer, while I have an i5, it is 4th gen, I found I can upgrade to the most powerful i7 I can fit in my generation motherboard. I was going to do that but I then realized with further research looking at the Passmark performances of CPU's, that the upgrade would not significantly change the Passmark score. I would be moving from something like 5500 to 7000. Yet a brand new i5 can take it up to 12000.

I looked at getting a second hand computer with a better generation CPU but there were only a few and those were priced too high compared to new. You should be able to find a 4th gen i5 like mine at a pretty good price, it depends how much power you need for your application. I run 64bit everything on mine and do not go wanting for tracks for my purposes and have offset latency issues by buying an audio interface that does that for me.

My hard drives are starting that "whine of impending death" upon start up and the software I am using is struggling with windows 7, too many patches required.

I came to 2 conclusions regarding my upgrade, given that I don't want to buy secondhand because there are limited options for me there and they cost just as much as new.

Either replace the guts of your current machine or have a new machine built.

While I can build computers, the local guys don't charge much in terms of labor to build one or replace the guts ($50-$70 aus). I thought given that I am installing new parts, may as well let them do it so then there is no problem with any warranty issues.

You can have the motherboard and cpu/ram replaced in your current machine, you may need another power supply depending on if the number of pins on your current power supply is compatible with the new motherboard. Given that you already have win 10, this might be an option. All the hard drives dvd burner etc can still be used. If you want to go this route and don't feel confident doing it yourself, discuss with the local guys. You could go to a 6th gen cpu or all the way to an 8th gen. Stay with 8 gig ram if you want, buy another stick later. Kontakt works great with ssd's, lots of ram not required.

So you could replace your current motherboard and cpu/ram, don't know what the prices are in Trumps USA (but no doubt he is working on that) but here in Aus, that would be under $500.00...Motherboard $100.00, 8th gen cpu $250.00, ram $100.00 (16gig), labor $50.00. Total = $500.00! In USA your parts are probably going to be 30% cheaper, worth looking at. For the sake of $350.00-$400.00 us, you might be able to step into a 8th gen i5, that's a massive upgrade to what you have now.

This could be a good solution for you because your current computer probably isn't worth that much to sell regardless of what harddrives or ram is in it. If you built a new one you wouldn't get much back on the other one to offset that cost. If you replace the guts, the value of your computer skyrokets, no one knows you replaced the guts, they are just chasing after the latest computer, which yours will be if it has an 8th gen cpu in it.

I chose to build a new one from scratch because of my bad harddrives and needing to upgrade to win 10. I can also probably get $350-$400 for my current computer to offset the cost of new. Looking at parts and prices currently.

[Mark Bliss]

Just for a point of reference, I happened to stroll through the local big-box store today.
They had an 8th gen i5 2.8 GHz 8400 (6 core) 8 gig RAM desktop with a 1Tb SATA drive on sale for $499. Ram expandable to 32G.
A similar machine with an additional 4 Gigs of RAM and an added 128G SSD was $599, though the processor was downgraded to 1.7 GHz.

Neither is necessarily a suggestion point or recommendation. In fact the common rule of thumb would indicate it might be a year or less before you wish you had saved up for the i7 16G model.
Or maybe that's just how it works for me......

[BillW]

Torton5 and Mark -
Thanks for the response. Much appreciated.

I'm back (probably) to the small steps approach. I already have the memory - and if I buy a SSD I can always use it in whatever next machine I get

Options of course being
a refurbed model,
or replace the board, cpu., power supply (if necessary) of this one,
or a new one.

I'm looking at benchmarks on CPUs to help determine incremental benefit of various options- assuming that the percent increase measured on these benchmarks translates reliable to that I'd see in MX.

The fact is, anything from a 4th gen quad core i5 on up will be much faster than the dual core Pentium I have now.

I'm just ecstatic I solved my Kontakt issue (see my other thread)

[mixyguy2]

Just for a point of reference, I happened to stroll through the local big-box store today.
They had an 8th gen i5 2.8 GHz 8400 (6 core) 8 gig RAM desktop with a 1Tb SATA drive on sale for $499. Ram expandable to 32G.
A similar machine with an additional 4 Gigs of RAM and an added 128G SSD was $599, though the processor was downgraded to 1.7 GHz.

If I thought I could get those with Win 7 I'd ask for a link......