Upgrade PC

[C-Level]

Hi there, I am looking for some help and advice on upgrading pc. Its a big investment so I want to choose wisely and make sure I am taking everything into account, get the best performance possible for the budget, optimised for music production with heavy plugin usage (some external inputs for a synth + microphone & vocoder).

(I currently run live 5.2 on windows xp, using a 4gb pc and a motu 828 mk2 firewire. Obviously a very old setup.)

I will be getting live 11 and push, I am thinking I will keep the motu interface.

The pc I am looking at is:

https://www.paradigit.nl/paradigit-work ... 12/product
(i9, 32GB ram, 1TB SSD)

I will need a pci firewire card for the motu as it doesn't come with the machine, and I am also looking at an additional 2TB traditional hard disk (both of which would be fitted by paradigit as part of the overall order):

https://www.paradigit.ie/delock-pci-exp ... 65/product
https://www.paradigit.ie/seagate-barrac ... 30/product

The overall cost of the pc + the pci firewire + hard disk is 1700euro, approx.

I am looking for any advice on this, do people have any feedback on paradigit built pcs for music production , any alternative suggestions for the budget of 1700. Any other considerations I may not have thought about?

Many thanks, all advice is greatly appreciated

[Guest]

Check out Scan UK, they make great audio machines.

Highly recommended.

https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs

[James Perrett]

I think that it is probably about time to think about a new interface too. I find that I already need to faff around with different Firewire drivers to get devices to work under Windows 10 and I'm not sure how much longer it will be supported.

If you like the sound of the MOTU then I would probably set it up to run in stand-alone mode, sending all the inputs and outputs to the ADAT connections, and then feed the ADAT signals to an RME Digiface USB. This gets you an expandable setup that will be fairly future proof as RME have a great reputation for long term driver support. I do something similar to this but with a Focusrite interface rather than a MOTU.

[resistorman]

I think that it is probably about time to think about a new interface too. I find that I already need to faff around with different Firewire drivers to get devices to work under Windows 10 and I'm not sure how much longer it will be supported.

Very good advice.

[sonics]

Windows 11 still has a firewire driver, apparently. Is anybody using it for audio interfaces?

[C-Level]

Thanks folks yeah I am a bit concerned about the audio interface alright and considering replacing.

The 828mk2 still sounds great but if there is a concern around it going obsolete due to driver support, replacement might be the best option.

Possibly a stupid question but could I get a usb to firewire adapter, would that affect performance, drivers etc?

any thoughts on the quality of paradigit pcs for music production?

The spec on that one is fairly high (i9, 32gb, 1TB SSD) but I guess other factors such as motherboard, bus speeds, component quality etc come into play.

Thanks again

[James Perrett]

Possibly a stupid question but could I get a usb to firewire adapter, would that affect performance, drivers etc?

I'm not sure that such a device exists because Firewire works too differently to USB to make the conversion practical. However, I have heard of people using Thunderbird to Firewire adaptors successfully with audio interfaces although this has been mainly on Macs rather than PCs.

[C-Level]

ok thanks for that I am pretty fast moving to the realisation that I need to get a new the audio interface alright.

My reservation about paradigit is that they are not a specific daw computer supplier and are probably not optimising the pc build and config towards music production

I found this website, they sell DAW computers, it looks good but I have never heard of them.

https://i4studio.eu/

Would anyone have any experience with i4studio?

(btw I am in Ireland, they are in Netherlands but they can sell/deliver here)

thanks again

[Mike Stranks]

any thoughts on the quality of paradigit pcs for music production?

If I recall correctly - and I've been around here for quite a while - this is a company whose name has never come up in the context of music PCs before.

But multiple people here have used - and recommend - Scan. Me included. A link has been provided above.

[James Perrett]

Thanks to Brexit Scan aren't an option as they no longer deliver to Europe. However they do list all the components that they use in their systems on their website so it may be worth asking a local supplier if they can build something similar.

[C-Level]

Thanks yes I did see that site and thanks to the poster for providing that. It seems to be out of the question for me in Ireland

on initial look, i4studio.eu seem to be a very decent looking op but I am reluctant to take a jump on a company I have never heard of.

[James Perrett]

A quick search brought up

https://www.pcspecialist.ie/pro-audio-computers/

who at least list the components that they are using. No idea how good they are though.

[C-Level]

Thanks James yeah good point, some of the component manufacturers are not listed on i4studio... motherboard, memory, storage.. hmm I will have to look into that. Any suggested pointers or pitfalls to avoid on that front?

I will contact the manufacturer anyway

[James Perrett]

As I mentioned before, take a look at the components used in Scan's offerings (if you are looking at one of their pro audio systems then scroll down the page to see the list). They put quite a bit of effort into testing their configurations before they offer them for sale (do a search for Pete Kaine on this forum if you want to know more about the way the company works) so the parts that they use should be reliable.

[C-Level]

ok, thanks again for the advice

[djangodeadman]

Do you have anyone in the North who can act as a delivery address for you? Scan will sell to there.

[C-Level]

In the end I went with pczone.ie they are based here in Ireland.

They do gaming builds mostly but I discussed DAW focused build with them and I've just cut back on the graphics and focused on max cpu,ram & storage for the budget. Got this for just under 1400 euro which seems good for the spec.

Cases: Kolink Mid Tower - Black €15.00
CPU: Intel Core i9 11900KF 3.5GHz (5.3GHz Turbo) €+75 €75.00
Cpu Cooling: Jonsbo ANGELEYES TW2-240 Pro €+75 €75.00
Motherboards: Gigabyte B560M DS3H
Memory (RAM): G.Skill 32GB 3600 MHz DDR4 Memory + €120 €120.00
M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD): 1TB M.2 NVMe Fast Drive €+75 €75.00
Solid State Drive 2.5" (SSD): Not Wanted
Hard Drive 1 (HDD): 2TB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive 3.5 SATA III €+70 €70.00
Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 2GB €-120 -€120.00
Power Supply (PSU): 700W Aerocool 80+ Certified + €18 €18.00
Wi-Fi Card: 600Mbps Wireless Dual Band PCI + €35 €35.00

I also went with focusrite 8i6 audio interface, I've given up on the firewire