system recommondations sought

I upgraded to Cubase 6, but can’t run it. My old DAW is XP. I need to buy a new system. I want to be able to record drums with more than 8 tracks, and possibly other instuments simultaneously. I thought by getting a Presonus Firestudio Project and linking them, this would be the route, but after reading lots of negative reviews and posts about lack of support, I may just return the one I just acquired, as my call to Presonus for help on why it doesn’t sync on a Vista computer, has not been returned.

Anyway I do need to upgrade my system for Cubase 6 with a Win7 computer. Besides what was mentioned above, I would want to be able to play back 2 dozen tracks ( probably less than 3 dozen) and also include some video, which I would edit with Premiere Pro. I had my present DAW for Cubase SX, built years ago, after advice on an earlier incarnation of the Cubase forum. Recommended, were MOBOs, RAM, HDs, fans, power supplies, etc. I wonder if I could get such useful advice again, based on my needs.

Does anyone answer these kind of posts? Am I just expecting too much help here?

Have a look through the posts theres a wealth of info there.

The sticky here has also a link to some usefull information.

Maybe narrow the questions down after some googling/forum reading?

Greetz Dylan.

I had twice previously read the Steinberg link info, but it had no suggestions on MOBO, fans, power supply needed for building a computer. I also read many posts, though not hundreds, trying to look for such information that seemed to be common on the old forum.
My situation is this: I had a fire in my house that didn’t cause too much damage, but the firehose water made the house unlivable for a year while being rebuilt. Much of my personal property was put into 3 dumpsters, while the rest was taken to a restoration center to dry out and salvage. While in temporary housing, I didn’t have access to any of my studio stuff. I bought a new laptop and thought I could at least put Cubase on it to play drums with some headphones to Band in a Box. Though I had a license, and proved it by sending copies of my purchase documents, I didn’t have the dongle as it was somewhere in hundreds of boxes at the restoration center. So I had to buy Cubase 6 with no discount. When I moved back to my house a year later and started setting up the parts of my studio that still worked, I found I couldn’t use my Cubase 6 on my older Win XP PC, nor my Vista. I bought a Presonus Firestudio Project and that won’t work on any of the 3 computers, as the laptop doesn’t have Firewire. I know that this has to have a special chipset to work on any computer I have built.
So I hoped that by listing what my intentions are, that someone could suggest what is needed to get started again, as I moved back home last July, and 6 months later, plus a year before that have been unable to have my home studio running as before the unfortunate event.
At the time I found that I had to pay full for Cubase 6, instead of as an upgrade, I considered going with AVID, but thought that since I already had hundreds of files with Cubase SX, that would probably set me back further, but now it seems I may have been wrong, as I haven’t progressed in 18 months.

I’m getting no specificity. Now I’ve had the Presonus for 6 weeks with no computer to use it with. Perhaps no one has computers built anymore, just buying store models?
I was hoping to get recommendations as indicated in the first post.
The links only have general information.
Maybe no one on this revised forum knows this kind of stuff anymore.
I suppose I need an i7 or xeon processor, and at least 8G RAM but no suggestions on Power supplies, quiet fans, housing.
Since I need the Firewire, which is recommended over USB, by professionals, with a specific chipset and consumer computers seem to have dropped this, I can’t just buy what I need at Best Buy.
Perhaps one needs to be part of a clique to get any answers here, as I haven’t had one person list the components of a powerful computer to handle what I posted about.
The help seems to consist of “figure it out yourself” but if I thought I could do that without finding that I ordered something built and it was noisy or insufficient power, etc., then I wouldn’t be hoping to find someone more knowledgeable to share their insight.
It seems that maybe I am wasting my time expecting such.

You’re getting insulting, but I’ll help you… :angry:

For fans: use as large a fan as possible. Larger fans can move more air at a lower speed (and less noise). For smaller fans, Noctua fans are quite quiet (and darn expensive too). My DAW is going to be cooled by 2 200mm fans and 2 140mm Noctua fans.

Processor heatsink: Noctua make good coolers (expensive though). Again, bigger the fan, the better.

For hard drives: Go for a SATA3 SSD for sample content. Nice & fast. Otherwise, a normal 7200RPM SATA drive will suffice.

MOBO: Look for one that can take a LOT of RAM. I personally am going with a gaming motherboard. Usually has a good chipset too. ASUS make quality MOBOs. Get one with SATA3.

RAM: Fast, but make sure that the motherboard can take it.

Power supply: Find a quiet one. Corsair recommended for this. One with a gold efficiency rating will be quieter under lower loads. http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/ is a good power supply requirement calculator.

CPU: Make your your MOBO is matched to it (or vise versa). An i7 is a good choice. Experiment with hyper-threading.

Um actually:

You CAN get a lot of good PCs from brand-name places.

Not Best Buy, but perhaps check out Dell?

Thanks. I’ve been very frustrated because I’ve had the Presonus for months now and unable to use. You are the only one bothering to answer. I had Directron build some other computers and emailed and left phone messages with what I needed, but they never bothered to reply either.
Yesterday I tried to call Presonus to ask and there was no phone number in the manual. Then I tried to go to their web site on 2 different computers and there was a problem and neither accessed anything.

The biggest problem is that only certain chipsets are listed as compatible, and it requires Firewire ports, and I don’t know which, if any brand computers even have these any more.
Your post is a good start. I thought when I checked, “notify if replies” I would get an email notice but didn’t.

google “pro audio computer”

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=building+pro+audio+computer

thats awesome :mrgreen:

true…

guess i should answer
to the OP whilst technaically any computer will work its a matter of how well.
most off the shelf or name brand tend to be not recommended particularly for pro work
for a hoobyiest it may be ok. and you get what you pay for. buy a $700 system you are getting cheap junk.

you can always add a TI firewire card to any computer for 100% compatibility with firewire interfaces
however most including presonus work fine with the newer Via chipsets.
the cheap brand names will have no firewire or even cheaper than via (ricoh and others)

Okay my serious input, and likely not constructive to the OP.
I had exactly the same problem, so I went to a store that sold Steinberg software and build computers.
I told them I wanted to use UAD cards in the future, wanted to go 64 bit, It needed to be silent for master purposes, and I have a firewire soundcard.

I got it plug and play pre installed and work on it without any significant problems the past 6 years.

The Computer cost me 1200,- euro’s including Windows, tweaked for audio etc.
For something that I use 40 hours a week that is a real bargain.
So why go to the trouble of doing it yourself if it’s not your cup of tea is my question.

Greetz Dylan.

Euro’s Steve, not dollars :smiley:

Well, and he’s a bit of a friend of mine, so some discount was involved.

Greetz Dylan.

Here’s the shop with the latest computer, I have the same casing. Really ultra silent.
I will never build my own system for shure since I worked on this one.

http://www.teachmusic.nl/Studio-computers-en-DAWs/19inch-DAW/PRODAW-max-19-inch

I haven’t been here for a while, because, despite the checkmark, I still do not get notified when there are replies. I am glad to see that there are a number.
In the meantime I had been trying to get Presonus, and finally on my 3rd call, after a wait of about 1.4 hours, I reached a technician. I told him I had the Firestudio Project since January, sitting unused as I could seem to find any new computers with Firewire ports. Also I had tried to email and call the company, Directron, that built 2 previous computers and they never bothered to reply. Anyway, Rain computers were recommended. I went to their site at Raincomputers.com and they specialize in audio and video production computers, though they seem rather expensive. Any knowledge or reviews here about them? I’ll try searching the forum.

way over priced… for what you get…

google “pro audio computer”

Perhaps so, but after over 3 months of accomplishing nothing, I went ahead and ordered a Rain Nimbus M2 Multimedia computer tuned specifically for audio and video.
3.6Ghz AMD “Zambezi” 8-Core Processor (8Mb cache)
16G Dual Channel SDRAM
1T SATA III HD (64meg cache 7200 RPM)
3 more bays for adding more HDs
NVIDIA Quatro 600 (1G) video card
Storm Drive Dual Layer CD/DVD writer
500 Watt silent 80+ certified power supply
1 year tech support and warranty
3 USB 3.0 ports
11 USB 2.0 ports
FIREWIRE PORT guaranteed compatible with Presonus Firestudio project.
http://raincomputers.com/products/nimbus-m2/specs
I feel pretty assured that I will be satisfied so, perhaps not.

This was about $2500 including shipping, so I would be interested in what a comparable system might cost elsewhere.

You could build one based on a Z68 board and i7-2600k, 16gig, 750w 80+, Fractal R3 case and a couple of good fast drives for £800 ($1266 us) with a graphics card (if you wanted) and run up to 6 monitors from it!!!