Question Hardware selection for measurements and audio analysis software

[arivel]

Hello everyone.

So far I have used an old laptop combined with REW and LIMP, E-mu USB sound card, power amplifier and microphone. I do measurements and audio analysis, to study the boxes that contain the speakers I need impedance and SPL response graphs including THD and harmonics. Slowly I have transformed a small unused room into a simple unpretentious laboratory to do my experiments.

The time has come to retire my old laptop and replace it with something else. unlike what I have done so far, the new hardware will always remain in the room without ever leaving it and therefore I am not forced to buy another laptop. I will use two sound cards, one to measure the impedance and the other to measure the frequency response. this way I do not have to continuously assemble and disassemble the connection circuit every time I want to change the type of measurement. I ask you what could be the characteristics and specifications to take into account before proceeding with the purchase.

The following are some of the specifications that could become useful or even indispensable:
- at least 2 native legacy PCI slots in case I need to use internal sound cards like the RME 9632 HDSP. apparently, the best choice is a socket chip with native 32-bit/33 MHz support.

- external PCIe card with dedicated controllers for each individual USB port (to reduce latency and improve communication with the processor).

- WIN7 support
I need hardware that can run the audio software and the driver of the old sound cards without problems. I could orient myself towards a computer already assembled and ready to use or buy a motherboard, CPU and accessories, power supply, RAM, video card and screen but there is a problem, I have no idea which product to orient myself towards.

Can you recommend me?

bye and thanks

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You could look into any platform up to the Haswell era of processors since they had native Windows 7 support and the motherboards(Z87 chipset/Z97 chipset) of that era had PCI slots. Finding a legit installer for the OS is another topic since the OS has long been off the support list courtesy of Microsoft.

IMHO, you could invest in something concurrent and run the drivers for your sound cards in compatibility mode;
i.e, Right click installer>Properties> Compatibility Tab>Windows X(from down menu), where X refers to the OS you're trying to emulate/install under.

You're advised to stylize your thread with info asked of in this thread;

*How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice*

How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice First off, respect where respect is due - this is an adaptation of the Animal's *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I created this because there's a lot of posts nowadays asking for upgrade advice both on here and on the CPU forums, and I feel...

forums.tomshardware.com

and the community can chime in with worthwhile suggestions.

Moved thread from Motherboards section to Systems section.

 

[ARICH5]

alot of the music production pros are moving to legacy mac workstations or trolling ebay for old amiga stuff.

you could look into the intel xeon. some of their platforms use legacy agp and pci mobos.

if your work is a job and you are financially supported doing this, be prepared to spend money. ive seen amd EPYC systems and 2TB of ram 80/160 cores over 15000$.

these are the barebone workstations starting at 5000$.
https://www.titancomputers.com/Tita...yg9mLsaBNlc962WZ3eew8wSlSTxp3ZQJPMWFFxeVmod9x