Building your Music Computer How to perform a full CPU/Motherboard Upgrade for a screaming fast digital audio workstation Page 1 by Rich the TweakMeister Page 1 23To successfully make music on your PC, your machine has to be able to work well in real time. Unlike using a word processor, web browser, spreadsheet, or even games, where a slight delay or slowdown of operations is not going to bother you too much, with music, even a slight occasional glitch can totally ruin a mix or mastering effort. It is the desire to have a glitch free music computer, one that is fast enough to handle every music task, that has led to the building of the DAW. There are two main areas we are going to look at. First is the building of a DAW--that is the purpose of this article. Second is the tweaking of the machine and the drivers, busses, memory and operating system. Those running pro studios can attest to the need of being able to quickly diagnose, repair and eradicate problems with the smooth running of their sequencers and digital audio programs. It's much like tuning up a car, and requires one to have a good bit of technical knowledge. So lets get going with building a machine. I am going to show you pics of the process. Here's the disclaimer: Use my tips at your own risk. I will not be responsible if you mess something up. Yet if you are comfortable with taking apart your gear, have never done an upgrade before, but think you might be able to handle it, then this article is for you. I have been tweaking computers since my days with the Commodore 64, and have a garage full of hot-rodded Atari machines and old PCs. My main PC was built from scratch and is on it's 4th CPU/MOBO/Memory upgrade. It started as a Home built Celeron 300a with an Abit BH6, which I overclocked to give it similar performance to a Pentium 450. Then it was a Pentium 550 which lasted about 2 years. I made a major upgrade to an AMD Athlon 1.4 gHz with an Asus a7m266 MOBO. Just recently I upgraded to a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ with a Gigabyte GA- K8NS-Pro MOBO with 2 gigs of RAM. Heh, you might be wondering what is left from the original machine. Nothing. On the 2nd upgrade I replaced the CD Roms and video card on the third the case, floppy and power supply got replaced and of course memory and MOBOs get replaced each time and I install new larger hard drives in between upgrades. See, you can keep a main machine up to date by simply installing a few new components on a scheduled basis, for much less money than it would take to buy a new system every one or two years. Another advantage is I have plenty of parts around to build a second machine. Time Out: Q) What is a DAW? A) DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. Simply it is just a computer system optimized for digital audio software and audio and MIDI production. The choice of components and peripherals, such as soundcards, videocards, memory and hard drives are chosen to enhance recording, playing and processing audio.
How to perform a full CPU/Motherboard Upgradefor a screaming fast digital audio workstationPage 1
by Rich the TweakMeister Page 1 2 3
To successfully make music on your PC, your machine has tobe able to work well in real time . Unlike using a word processor, web browser,spreadsheet, or even games, where a slight delay or slowdown of operations isnot going to bother you too much, with music, even a slight occasional glitch cantotally ruin a mix or mastering effort. It is the desire to have a glitch free musiccomputer, one that is fast enough to handle every music task, that has led to thebuilding of the DAW.
There are two main areas we are going to look at. First isthe building of a DAW --that is the purpose of this article.Second is the tweaking of the machine and the drivers,busses, memory and operating system. Those running prostudios can attest to the need of being able to quicklydiagnose, repair and eradicate problems with the smoothrunning of their sequencers and digital audio programs. It'smuch like tuning up a car, and requires one to have a goodbit of technical knowledge. So lets get going with building amachine. I am going to show you pics of the process.Here's the disclaimer: Use my tips at your own risk. I willnot be responsible if you mess something up. Yet if you arecomfortable with taking apart your gear, have never done anupgrade before, but think you might be able to handle it,then this article is for you.
I have been tweaking computers since my days with theCommodore 64, and have a garage full of hot-rodded Atarimachines and old PCs. My main PC was built from scratchand is on it's 4th CPU/MOBO/Memory upgrade. It started as
a Home built Celeron 300a with an Abit BH6, which I overclocked to give it similarperformance to a Pentium 450. Then it was a Pentium 550 which lasted about 2years. I made a major upgrade to an AMD Athlon 1.4 gHz with an Asus a7m266MOBO. Just recently I upgraded to a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ with a Gigabyte GA-K8NS-Pro MOBO with 2 gigs of RAM. Heh, you might be wondering what is leftfrom the original machine. Nothing. On the 2nd upgrade I replaced the CDRoms and video card on the third the case, floppy and power supply got replacedand of course memory and MOBOs get replaced each time and I install new largerhard drives in between upgrades. See, you can keep a main machine up to dateby simply installing a few new components on a scheduled basis, for much lessmoney than it would take to buy a new system every one or two years. Anotheradvantage is I have plenty of parts around to build a second machine.
Time Out:Q) What is aDAW?
A) DAW stands forDigital AudioWorkstation . Simply
it is just a computersystem optimized fordigital audio softwareand audio and MIDIproduction. Thechoice of componentsand peripherals, suchas soundcards,videocards, memoryand hard drives arechosen to enhancerecording, playingand processingaudio.
If you want to run the latest music and audio applications youwill find you have to. Some of the applications coming outtoday will not function on older machines. Five years ago, whenthe Pentium II 450 was the king of the popular processors, wewere all surprised at the speed and snappiness with which ithandled typical audio processing. Nowadays, a pII450 is sortof like a broken down city bus. It might get you there; it mightstall up the next hill running modern software. Softwaredevelopers add features every year that take advantage of faster CPUs. For example, a few years ago PCs were not ableto do convolution reverb in real time. But now we see themcropping up everywhere. Just try to run it on your old duff Pentium 2. The same with disk streaming soft samplers that add synth engines ontop. You want the power? You pay the price by making your own hi performancedesktop PC. The best thing is that if you do your homework, your PC will be fasterand better than a top of the line PC you find at your local computer retailer. So if you want to keep today's hottest audio products on your PC, upgrading is aninevitability. For now, the wise thing is to get your PC prepared for the migrationwith a fast CPU, lots of RAM, and bigger drives.
What is entailed in upgrading a computer? Is ithard?
It's agreat
time toupgrade
to afaster
machine,andcheaperthan you
think.
Time Out! Q: WhichSoundcard/Interfaceshould I get?
A: Tough question. Buthere's a site that willhelp. Check out
Cakewalk's OpenHardware Guide . Excellent rundown of hardware audio interfacesthat work with Cakewalk'sSonar.
No. It's not hard. If you are adept at using ascrewdriver and can insert cards into slots you cantransform your machine. Even with totalmotherboard/cpu swaps there is no soldering.
Your 1st time doing this, you want to proceed slowlyand deliberately. Writing down and labeling differentcables so you know which is which. With hard drivesthe orientation of the cable is important so pay heedto the red stripe on the cable and verify it was closestto the little zero on the motherboard. Somemotherboards will not allow you to plug something inbackwards, but others might not offer this protection,hence the importance of labeling. Also, those littlewires going to the power and hard drive leds mayhave positive/negative leads. Usually there is adiagram in the manual of the new MB which tells youwhat goes to what. After you go through this once itsfar easier the next time, and by your third upgrade,you'll be able to whiz through it in a little more thanan hour. As I did my 4th upgrade, I was down to 35minutes and only glanced at the manuals forreference.
I want to build a powerful musical computerfrom scratch. Are there any tips?
Plenty of tips. First off, get a real good big case with
a hefty 300-400 watt power supply, quiet fansand one that is easy to take apart. You should go fora case that has a of of drive bays , whether youintend to use them or not, and that have plenty of internal power connectors. The more space insidethe case, the easier it will be to connect things, get tothe memory when you want to slap in new RAM, addand remove hard drives, cdr drives, soundcards.
Avoid "onboard" Video devices. This may be a"feature" of the ultra cheap MOBO. "Look, dude, youdon't even need to buy a video card!" Don't bite,
man. Its far better to get an AGP video card than usethe "onboard" video chips, which are usually severelycompromised. Same with audio. An onboard audiochip is a cost cutting feature that allows a computermaker to make really cheap PCs, since they don'thave to add a soundcard to get sound. You can stilluse these for monitoring system sounds andmetronomes, but don't think about recordingsensitive audio with them. They usually soundaverage, at best, compared to a consumer level PCIsoundcard and may sound worse. So if themotherboard touts "onboard" video cross it off thelist.
Quick and Dirty:Step by StepGuide toUpgradingyour DAW
1. Before you touch anythingyou should pull the plug.ground yourself by touchingthe metal chassis.
2. Then start disconnecting,starting with the powersupply connector. PC partshave uniform connectors, sotypically you just disconnecteverything, noting on apiece of paper what it wasattached to on the oldmotherboard.
3. Unscrew the old boardand pull it out of the chassis.
4. Then you install the newCPU on the newmotherboard and when it'ssecure, place the newmotherboard on the chassisand screw it down.
5. Finally you reconnect thecables to your hard drives,floppy drives, and to thesignal leds.
6. Stick the memory in, putin all the cards (sound,video, etc.). Make sure itsall nice and tight and flip iton.
7. Your new motherboardwill let you set the BIOS.
8. Once successful, you runwindows and it will find allyour hardware again, justlike the 1st time you ranit. You should dig out yourWindows CD Rom, becauseit may need it to load driversfor new motherboardcomponents. All your oldapplications are there, andthey all work as before, onlyfaster and hopefully,better. I say "hopefully"because there is always achance of system conflictswhen new drivers areinstalled.
Always check and double check and triple check that the Motherboard works withthe type of CPU and the speed of the CPU you plan to use. There aremotherboards for Intel's Pentium 4 and others for AMD and they are notinterchangeable. They use different chipsets and have different CPU socketsand slots. There are many variations. You have to do your research here. Also,different motherboards require use of different memory types. Some may onlywant you to use a certain type. See, just like the motherboard manufacturers,the memory makers want you to upgrade your memory every time too.
The point:
CPUs and memory and motherboards are not interchangeable. Don't fall into theerror of thinking, as many newbie upgraders do, that you can save money byusing the same motherboard for your next upgrade too. The industry is hip tothat. They want you to buy a new motherboard for every upgrade and make italmost impossible not to. It keeps their factories busy. Save yourself aggravationof thinking you'll find a motherboard you can re-upgrade in 2 years. It won'thappen. Instead, focus your motherboard search with criteria of features andreliability optimized for the CPU you want to run. Or go with amotherboard/memory/CPU bundle that is known to work. You are very likely toget burned if you try to mix and match things without checking.
How much RAM?
Answer: Its a compromise between the the motherboard can take and what youcan afford. It makes little sense these days to build a DAW with less than agigabyte and 2 is definitely better. This is assuming you are running windowsXP. More RAM means better performance with softsamplers and better streaming
of audio files. If you are running 24 bit, 96khz audio tracks, your RAM will helpkeep things running smooth.
So How much is all this going to Cost?
Most important of course is whichprocessor (CPU) a re you goingto buy. AMD and Intel are thetwo major options.
Don't think that an Athlon XP2100 means it is 2.1 ghz. Here'show AMD interprets the clockfrequency spec:
3700+ operates at a frequency of 2.4Ghz3400+ operates at a frequency of 2.2Ghz3000+ operates at a frequency of 2.0Ghz2100+ operates at a frequency of 1.73GHz.2000+ operates at a frequency of 1.67GHz.1900+ operates at a frequency of 1.6GHz.1800+ operates at a frequency of 1.533GHz.1600+ operates at a frequency of 1.40GHz.
But this does not mean that an Athlon 3400+ is equivalent to aPentium 4 2.4 Ghz. We have been conditioned to think that way bythe years of Intel's domination over the CPU. Clock speed does nottell the whole story. It's more a matter of how much work the CPUcan do in an interval of time.
1. What type of RAM do you want? Always a greatidea to buy RAM matched for the motherboard. Isuggest you not try to deviate from the specs on themotherboard.
2. How many slots for PCi cards do you need? Onecool thing is that many MOBOs now come with onboardFirewire, USB2, Ethernet. This may replace some of your old PCI cards, so you may not need as many slots.If you have an older ISA card you need to use, note thattoday's motherboards no longer support them. Irecommend you dig a little hole in the yard and say aprayer for any ISA cards you have. They have nobusiness being in a fast computer. Just by sitting therethey might slow the machine down.
3. What Chipset do you prefer? Always best to goto Google and type the following once you have a
configuration in mind.
Problems AND [name of soundcard] AND [name of chipset]
4. Do you want to Overclock? Should youOverclock? Note that you will have to take extraprecautions to cool the CPU if you decide to overclock,and you may trade off stability for speed. In the balance,for now, considering today's prices, I'd say don'toverclock. Just get a fast CPU and fast RAM.
5. Other things that vary from board to board are thetype of hard drives you can install. Some go with theATA (IDE) style drives and others with the newer SerialATA with its smaller connector. If you are going to bebringing over your old drives make sure it has the rightdrive slots.
If you have gone through all of these items, there shouldbe only 1 or 2 motherboard/memory combinations tochoose from. Congratulations. You should now know what you want.
Generally, the cost of upgrading CPU and RAM and Motherboard can be anywherebetween $400 and $800 depending on the components you choose. The latestCPUs are always going to be expensive but the one's that came out last year areusually very reasonable.
Where does on find out more information on motherboards, CPUs and memory?
Of course, you should check out The BUZZ on this site so you can tailor yournewsgroup searches like I did for the above results. On the Web, a place I go forinfo on stuff is Tom's hardware guide is also a good place on the net to educateyourself on these issues. You can get VIA drivers and great MOBO info from
Viahardware.com In addition to having great information, there is a message
board where thousands of users post their experiences with varied hardwareconfigurations. There are plenty of pics of building computers from scratch.
Which OS?
Windows 98SE or Windows 2000 or Win XP, or Vista 32 or 64? Wait tillWindows 7?
updated April 2, 2005
98SE? Is this a joke? It wasn't when I first wrote the question when Microsoftreleased XP, on October 25th, 2001. W2k and XP have proved to be a muchmore stable and robust platform for running sequencers, software samplers, andaudio editing programs than 98 ever was. If you ask me whether you should gowith Win2k or XP, I say XP. Win98SE is dead. Cubase SX and Sonar 4 all workgreat on XP now. New drivers have been written, tested, and released. Win 2kremains a viable platform, though I think it's best for corporate environments.
I'd stick with XP, then re-evaluate when Win 7 has been out a year.
And you can read more about this in my article on upgrading to Win XP A
64 Bit OS are not far away but don't bleed on the edge.
Tweak's Spin: Soon a 64 bit version of Windows will be released. You might wantto get a CPU that can handle 64 bit operation. The main advantage, once thenew Windows version is released will be greater memory. The old barriers will beshattered and it will soon be conceivable to run softsamplers with a terrabyte of memory (that's 1,000 gigabytes). This will mean even larger virtual studios willbe possible at extremely high audio resolutions. Let's hope the soundcardmakers can keep up! While there may be plenty of compatibility issues at first,once they are ironed out we will find a much more powerful and stable platformfor our work.
• CPU: AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" at 1.4 gHz (today I would go for anAthlon XP 2200+)
• Motherboard: Asus A7m266• Video: ATI Radeon VE, 32m• RAM: 512m of DDR• 80 gig WD hard drive @7200 rpm• Server (full height) tower case w 300 watt Power supply (go 400w if you
have lots of drives)• Soundblaster Live Value (for monitoring and soundfonts, system sounds,
cd's, etc.)• M audio Delta 1010 (for recording, playback, digital transfer, mastering)
I ran into some difficulties, which I will blame on old drivers on the Win98 SE CDRom. I had a bad crash while installing the video drivers (takes a while torecover from one of these) There were many reboots to get the Microsoft USBoptical mouse to work, so I was forced to use the keyboard to navigate. Once Iupgraded the USB drivers and got rid of the ones from the win98se cd, all startedflowing. I had no significant problems with the sblive card (it took a few rebootsto get the resources straightened out). The Delta 1010 was the smoothest installof a sound device I have ever experienced. Perfect the 1st try. I was expecting
trouble with my network drivers, but once I found the floppy disks, for the hub,all was fine. MIDI and SCSI came up easy
Installing the cpu, ram, hard drives, getting power to hard drives...setting harddrives master/slave, on primary and secondary busses exactly as they were onyour old computer. This makes sure what was drive E on your old system, forexample, is still Drive E on your new system. This is the easy part.
Then adding cd roms then cards, then finally booting and dealing with bios, thendrivers, system conflicts. Your new motherboard and CPU have to negotiate withall your PCI cards and ports. The trickiest is video, and it should be done beforeadding other cards into the mix. Get the basics down first--keyboard, video, yourmouse. Then add your most important cards next. Before you do, get all yourinstallation cds out for your peripherals. Yep, go find them before you start, so
you're not a screaming banshee when you windows will not recognize hardwaredue to a problem with drivers. Did I say this was easy? The windows "where'sthe driver" part can be frustrating if you can't find the right disk. (keep in mindyou might not be able to get on the net till you get your modem up).
We have solid video, and 90% of the conflicts are resolved. The new systemmoves to its very own closet in the TweakLab. A day later, all is well with a
100% stable system with tons of speed, memory, and audio horsepower.
Which Soundcard/ Audio Interface?June 2001
If you are to go through the trouble of upgrading your computer, you may alsowant to upgrade your audio interface. You now have a super fast computer, youdon't want to compromise on the quality of your audio. The critical issue here isthe quality of analog to digital conversion and digital to analog conversion. Don'teven think of going with an old SoundBlaster AWE 64, or even an SB Live. Infact, forget soundcards all together. By virtue of residing in the computer amidintense electrical fields, and to the low 16 bit bandwidth of these cards, the resultwill be stressed, compared to the great sound possible today with 24bit 96kHzaudio interfaces with outboard converters. Another factor to consider is thecabling to and from the interface. Soundcards, again, won't cut it with theirunbalanced 1/8th inch phone jacks. The fact that that are unbalanced makes allthe audio traveling through cables susceptible to picking up hum and radiofrequency interference, no matter how good your mixer is. Going to an interfacewhich allows you to use balanced cables is a difference you will hear!
One of the things made possible by having a fast DAW is that you can run moreaudio tracks in your sequencer, use more plugins, and keep things in the digitaldomain longer. You can transfer digital audio files from one application toanother easily and can do digital mixdowns easier, and you'll finally be able torecord your MIDI tracks as audio, and really do your entire mix in your sequencerif you want, even elaborate pieces with lots of tracks. I could never get this towork right on my P550, but now it's a new technique to explore.
My choice for doing this was a Delta 1010 , using my Mackie 1402 as its frontend for mic and line preamps. Of course there are many other possibilities here.The main thing is to be able to get the audio into the computer as cleanly aspossible. Limiting, if possible, the number of conversions from analog to digital toone, keeping you bandwidth as high as you can till your final digital mixdown to16 bit 44.1 kHz. I've written more about this method in my article Doing it withDigital (link below).
One last tip on Soundcards and audio interfaces--read the feature list carefully.Make sure you see "Windows 2000 compatible" somewhere. I huge issue with
older, even high quality cards is that they may not run on Win2000. The older thecard, the less profitable it is for companies to update it with new drivers. If itdoesn't work in W2k, most likely, it's not going to work on Windows XP either.Unlike CPUs, RAM and motherboards, which you may need to replace every yearor two, you don't want to get into this habit with an expensive interface. Planahead, get one that will get you through 3 years or more.
The Tweak's Kitchen Table after the upgrade
Tweak's Current PC Daw
Built Spring Break 2005
• Home tweaked PC with AMD Athlon 64 3400+ CPU,• 2 GB Kingston PC3200 400mHz RAM• GigaByte GA-K8NS-Pro motherboard Dual BIOS• ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Video card• EMU 1820M Audio Interface • Antec TruePower 2.0 430 Watt Power supply•
320 gigs of storage on 3 drives• Sony DVD-RW.• In a connected enclosure is a SCSI bay with CDRW, and 2 SCSI hard
drives which are dedicated to an emu sampler.
Working good here. Excluding the RAM which was expensive the MOBO and CPUcost a mere $320. Had some trouble with the ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Video cardin Vegas doing analog video capture. Overall its a very fast machine
To sum up
The computer landscape is changing fast right now. With a little research intomotherboards, CPU's and memory you can turn your old machine into ascreaming fast audio processor usually for 300-600 bucks that is ready for new
developments with the Windows OS. You will achieve new levels of performancefrom your sequencers, plugins, audio editors, and software synths. You can buildan entire system from scratch for less than $1000 that performs as well, or youcan buy a 'barebones" system where you simply pop in your cards and drives.This is not only easier and cheaper, it's better than a brand new off the shelf hiend Dell or Gateway computer that retails for over 2300. In fact, this is exactlyhow such companies make their profits. You don't have to reinstall all yourprograms, reinstall an OS and copy thousands of files from old drives to newdrives. With luck, you can be humming away on some new tunes in an hour ortwo, but now on a machine that can keep up with your audio demands. The finaladvantage to doing it yourself is that you will never again feel you are a hostageto your computer's hardware shortcomings. After building your system you willhave the confidence to continue to tweak it into a better, faster and more usefulmachine for your studio. May you will always have a state-of-the-art musicmachine.
I hope you enjoyed watching this upgrade and that this article hashelped you build the DAW of your dreams.
