Recording - September 2011 - 16

buy these packaged together. I like to stick with the best-selling brands, but read the reviews for each model regardless of brand. ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI are often at the top of the list. Make sure the motherboard has adequate slots for any cards you plan to install and adequate spacing, as many cards are wide and overlap the next slot. Motherboards include onboard audio features, but most DAW users have their own audio interface to install in a card slot, or connect via USB or FireWire. So don’t be swayed by advanced on-board audio features unless you need them. I usually end up disabling the onboard audio anyway, in the process of eliminating potential conflicts with my own audio interface and software. Motherboards often come with utility applications that can be loaded to your hard drive. Utilities can be very useful. But some utilities are made for power management or overclocking, or are otherwise intrusive. Motherboard utilities can interfere with DAW operation. So it’s best to tell your builder not to load any utility software, at least until you can evaluate it. Video Card (ASUS nVidia GeForce GT210 with 1 GB VRAM): For video cards, I like to keep it simple and stay with an inexpensive, major-brand, general-purpose card. A silent video card (ie. no fan on board) is typically less powerful but easily sufficient for DAW work, and nicely quiet and cool. If you’re running multiple displays, make sure the card supports the type and number of displays you want to attach. Be aware that many video cards now include an HDMI connection, which means another audio device sneaking into your DAW PC. I would change BIOS settings and Device Manager to disable this high-definition audio driver to prevent DAW interference. RAM (Super Talent DDR3-1333 MHz 12 GB [3 modules @ 4 GB each] Triple Channel): RAM speeds continue to climb, but you may have to “over-clock” your RAM to achieve that speed, depending on what speed your motherboard supports. The Gigabyte motherboard defaults to 1066 MHz. However, I’m currently doing fine running the RAM at the 1333 MHz speed, which is not a big leap up from 1066. But be aware that overclocking means running components faster than manufacturer specs, which could be risky to DAW operation. The reason I installed three modules is to take advantage of triple-channel architecture. With three modules in three slots, the RAM modules are accessed in an alternating pattern, increasing the RAM bandwidth/performance as opposed to using one or two RAM modules. Hard drives (Samsung SpinPoint F3 SATA2 7200 RPM, 1 TB size): When it comes to hard drives, look for high reliability, and speeds of at least 7200 RPM. Most DAW vendors recommend at least three drives, so you can keep your programs, project files, and sample files on separate drives, for the best throughput when your DAW is accessing all three types of files concurrently. That’s what I did. The latest trend in hard drives is Solid State. Solid State Drives (SSD) store everything on a memory chip. With no moving parts, they are fast and reliable, and offer great potential for DAW performance. But they are significantly more expensive per GB than a traditional hard drive. Power supply (Seasonic S12 SS-650HT, Energy+ 650W SLI EPS): A power supply needs to be quiet, reliable, and provide ample power for your PC today plus any expansion you may do in the future. Typical DAWs recommend at least 500 watts or more. PC Case (Cooler Master Centurion 590 Mid-Tower): Use a mid-size or large-size case—avoid the smaller ones. The bigger cases have better airflow, room to expand, and room to move around in there as needed. Thanks to a blue LED fan in front, the Centurion gives off just a touch of ‘gamer glow’ and manages a hip appearance while still looking classy enough for your next session with Céline. Some cases allow for the use of larger fans. Larger fans are typically less noisy than smaller fans, and also provide for better cooling.
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Case Fans (Antec TriCool 120mm Case Fan with 3Spd Switch 120MM): The TriCool fan has a 3-position variable-speed control, which allows you to tune the speed of each fan, and thereby the noise level as well. Go for the slowest/quietest speed on each fan that still keeps the PC cool. Should you ever run into heat problems, you’ll still have some “fan headroom” available to bump up the speed and keep the system cooler. Burn-in and delivery It took just under a week for the shop to build the new PC, including their two-day burn-in period to check it out. Then I added my existing Microsoft mouse, keyboard and Samsung monitor to complete the system. Including Windows 7 (see below), the PC cost me about $1400 plus tax. Now it was my turn to get busy with my new machine. BIOS Tweaks When you get a new PC, it’s a good idea to check BIOS settings to make sure BIOS is optimized for audio processing. Always make a backup of your BIOS first. Or, at minimum, take a digital photo or a screengrab of each screen so you can recreate the original settings if needed. In this case, there were some settings I wanted to disable. Turbo Boost – Disabled. Turbo Boost is an Intel feature that kicks up the processing speed on demand when the operating system requests more speed. This concept is also called “dynamic overclocking”. Like other types of overclocking, it has been shown to interfere with audio processing for some DAW software. CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E), CPU EIST (ie. Speedstep) based, C3/C6/C7 – All Disabled. Power Management features like these should be disabled, as they have a way of causing glitches in the middle of your audio operations. I’m all for being green, but not when it crashes your audio projects.

Upgrade #2 – Windows
As a happy Windows XP Pro user for almost ten years (!), I viewed Windows 7 64-bit Pro with a mix of hope and fear. Most of the old XP features are still there, if some are in a new location. The user interface looks cooler, startup and shutdown are faster, and it’s 64-bit! There’s a lot to like in Windows 7!

To go with the new 64-bit operating sytem, I also needed a 64-bit Antivirus/Antispyware package. I canvassed several DAW user forums to research current products and how they work with various DAW software. Based on that, I decided to try the free Microsoft Security Essentials, and so far it’s working very well. It’s fast, reliable, and has a small footprint that doesn’t interfere with my music workflow. I hope they don’t change it! In the past I’ve used Norton, AVG and PC Tools products for a few years each. But I had to move on as each one eventually grew to a larger footprint that caused dropouts during my recording and playback operations.

Recording - September 2011

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