When was the last time you up-graded your recording (DAW – digital audio workstation) computer?

If you’re like me, it’s been a while. You watch as update after update rolls out. 2 cores, then 4, 6, 8 ! What’s next, a cellphone sized machine that will just record and mix what we hear in our heads? I know, don’t give them any ideas, right.

You have spent a lot of time and energy putting together a DAW that has all the necessary pieces and parts for your style of work. MIDI controllers, audio interfaces, processing cards, USB, Firewire, Light-pipe. You’ve learned all kinds of stuff about things you never imagined – not the least of which is getting all those handy gadgets and bits of software to actually do what they are supposed to, and why certain ones won’t when you try to use them together. Over a few years, you’ve had to work out all sorts of kinks on a system that was really obsolete the day you bought it.

Oh, did we mention all the cash you’ve dumped into making all this work?

New toys, bigger projects, major developments

in soft-and-hard-ware, failure and all sorts of things inspire an up-grade to the heart of a system that is precariously balanced on a precipice of one’s and zero’s. It was lightning that inspired my latest. A topic for a later post.

When the old machine went, I switched to an even older backup unit. And began researching how to start over, again. It’s always a toss-up. How do you take advantage of the latest improvements without spending $1,500, and come out with a machine that works with all of your (sad to say) out-of-date add ons?

Ah, the research,

At the same time my quest was really getting deep, a friend started a conversation about the older versions of some of the processors I use. Of course, some of our questions over-lapped a bit, so I gathered my findings to share with him, and thought they may be helpful to you, too.

I tend to work with computers from a generation or two back. This usually lets me use most of my old devices, and the kinks have mostly been worked out before I have to deal with them. After the following research, I went with a Pentium E processor on a Gigabyte board with 4 GB of DDR2 ram. Yep a bit dated but much more computer than I am accustomed to.

Here is my email to Lou.