DAW Rig Upgrade Time?

jimusic

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Sep 7, 2011
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Hey - for a guy who's thinking of taking advantage of some of the new Intel & AMD CPU's, what do you think of this as a reasonable starting point for getting a newer DAW?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1101394&pagenumber=12&RSort=1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=#ReviewStart

I'd probably add some more RAM as I have 4 Gigs RAM now, and want to utilize the option to go into the 64 Bit Daw & OS's which can access more RAM.

Also, my 2 monitors have only VGA connections, and I suspect my Nvidia GeForce 5200 256MB is the reason I may be having snap crackle & pop in my current DAW set up which is a AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core +3800 - 2.01Ghz with 4 Gigs [3.25] Ram.

So I'd need a basic dual monitor card - [no gaming or internet whatsoever - just a DAW only, with a number of plugins, but nothing over the top as far as track count ].

Maybe I can have dual outs using the one VGA port and an adapter from the DVI - VGA for the other - maybe I need to research that a bit more.

Or would it be better to start from scratch by carefully selecting components like I've seen here at Tom's? It's just that this sarts at $534. vs. $1200-1500 as seen here at Tom's for a custom build.

I'm wondering also if it may be better to wait 2-4 months for even more options as AMD bulldozer comes out and the real price wars may start.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated, as I've been reading the opinions here for 2 days now, and feel that there are many who's knowledge and experience could benefit others like me.

Thank you in advance,

Jim
 
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well i guess the key thing would be to get a good sound recording card/external sound recording device, you would have to research that though. Any quad core CPU should be up to the task AMD or intel. AMD phenom 955 would be a good budget choice., and 8gb ram will be plenty. Any video card out will do at least 2 monitors, you can get dvi-vga adaptors and at least 1 normally comes with the card.
well i guess the key thing would be to get a good sound recording card/external sound recording device, you would have to research that though. Any quad core CPU should be up to the task AMD or intel. AMD phenom 955 would be a good budget choice., and 8gb ram will be plenty. Any video card out will do at least 2 monitors, you can get dvi-vga adaptors and at least 1 normally comes with the card.
 
Solution