My now 6 year old computer was completely outdated and never really functioned well as a DAW. It exhibited significant latency and ran very loud. I also wanted to upgrade so that I could 64 bit Windows 7 so that I can get more then 2 gig of ram and run the newest version of Ableton Live 8 which recommends 4G of Ram. I have used Windows 7 at work and I was pretty impressed. I like WIndows 7 almost as much as I like Os X. I did a bunch of research on low PC DAW latency systems (Springpad Notes) and found the most appropriate systems to be around the 2-3K level. For example I wanted a dedicated video card as much of my reading said that you should have a dedicated video card to reduce any drain on the cpu which could affect audio processing. Any system I saw with a dedicated card was at least 2K.
Although I have installed lots of components in a PC before I have never built a system from scratch. I decided to speck out a system that used the most recent consumer level chips, was optimized for quiet operation and low latency. I went to a few on-line resources for buying parts as well as Micro Center site. The value I was getting from Micro Center was as good or better then any other online stores and since I have a local store nearby I knew I could go to them if I have any trouble. I put together a shopping cart of parts copied the list to a google doc and went to the store with my Android so I could show a sales guy what I was thinking about.
I went to the store and found a rep. He was very helpful and seemed to get exactly what I was going for and didn't over sell me on anything. For example he suggested a cheaper mother board but did not suggest a cheaper Power Supply since that would be more important for noise reduction. He suggested a cabinet which he though would be perfect since he remembered that it was heavy and had a door which closed over the drive bays and he thought that would be quiet. It ended up that it was the same one I had been interested in (Antec Sonata Proto ATX Mid-Tower PC Case). He also didn't over sell me on warranties. He asked if I wanted any and I said is there anything you strongly suggest and he said that I should get it for the processor incase I accidentally fry it out.
I bought the system for $1036.43 which was about $1000 less then I thought I was going to spend with a DAW vendor. I went home and built it that night. The build was mostly fun and little pain. A couple of challenging moments and I still think I need to organize the cables better but it was a nice project. I was concerned that I would need to get a new sound card. The Delta-66 card I have uses PCI and I wasn't sure if a good motherboard would support non PCIe, if there were drivers for Windows 7 or if my latency issues where tied to my card. I installed the Delta-66 and found the Windows 7 driver online.
There are some optimization hints I found for Windows 7
I then reinstalled my Ableton Live 5. I had to ask for an extension on my activation key since I had installed this on two of my Mac Laptops and on my PC and I think the limit is 3. Ableton rapidly responded when I requested more installs for the key. I ran the latency check with the ASIO driver and there was zero latency detected.
My old system is living out it's retirement as an Ubantu server. I am thinking of using it mostly for backups and as general Linux playground.
Here is the complete list of parts and prices:
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