...besides a large hard drive of course, if you're installing on a desktop. For example - does extra Ram result in noticeably better performance ? If using VSTs - is maxing out RAM the way to go - any other components make a very noticieable difference ? SSD ?

I noticed a much improved performance by moving my songs, VSTi patch data, RealTracks, RealDrums, and swap file to a 2nd HDD and keeping my programs on the 1st HDD.

For comparisons, I'm running two 1 Tb 7200 rpm WD Black drives and 16gb of RAM. I've also noticed that 64 bit Win 10 seems to run faster than 64 bit Win 7, although Win 10 starts much slower! Because of that I'm considering an SSD.

Jeff

Mostly SPEED. You will see a noticeably faster load and rendering time for tracks and projects when you up spec the computer over the basic configuration.

More RAM is always a good thing.... combine that with the SSD's and a really fast quad core processor, and you have a machine that is just plain FAST. And in this biz...fast is good.


That was the first thing I noticed when I moved from my duo core Dell lappy to my custom built DAW with a quad chip..... it was much faster at everything it did. At the time, the i5 chip was still pretty much state of the art.... not so much now, but it's still a fast machine, considering that it's running a 32bit XP Pro OS. And pretty much rock solid and stable.

If you are using VSTi's, more RAM allows for more instruments to be loaded concurrently. There are some Kontakt libraries that are over 1GB, so you can see it can quickly eat through your RAM.

John - will VSTi's actually use all the RAM you buy - even up to 64GB ? I recall that not all programs actually access all the RAM available - but I think this was a 32-bit limitation.

You are probably thinking of the 4GB limit addressable by a 32-bit OS, and that includes almost 2GB for Windows alone. As for a 64-bit Windows, it depends on how the VSTi was designed.

Which VSTi's can use all 64G+ ?

I know of none that individually take that amount of ram. Most people have 16 or 32 gigs of ram; I have 16 gigs myself. Where you need ram is when you are using soft synths like Kontakt or Sampletank 3 where you have many patches and/or multiple soft synths. For instance I have had one Kontakt what had drums, one drum per channel and many channels of percussion instruments, 16 in all as well, another instance of Kontakt running many other instruments as well as a couple of other individual soft synths with no problems. Of course I am using a 64 bit Win 7 pro OS.

I had to have a 64 bit computer because with my old 32 bit and one instance of a 32 bit Kontakt containing one choir patch I could only do 2 measures at a time. I kept running out of memory. So I bounced to wav those two measure then went back to Kontakt. This got old very fast.

Having excellent ram intensive soft synths is why some of us want a 64 bit BiaB.

I don't know of any either, but Mario gave the answer: many instances of VSTis running would require more RAM and you don't want to hit a limit. This is far more likely than one instance (one sound) hitting a limit.

To the original question, I have built all my PCs since 1983. The single biggest thrill I received was after replacing hard drives with SSDs.

Entry level PCs can have lesser processors than mid-priced PCs of 4-5 years ago. This can affect your ability to use VSTi with low latency, no matter what speed your hard drive is. I know this from personal experience. I bought an entry-level Toshiba laptop that simply was not up to the task of low latency audio processing for VSTi and ended up returning it and buying a refurbed machine with a faster processor for about the same price as the Toshiba.

So, now when I upgrade PCs, I typically will buy a prior year model, with a faster processor, than the same priced model that is newly introduced. This is how I ended up with a Core i3 processor lappy last year, when Core i5 was what all the new entry level lappys had on them. I did some homework looking at benchmark scores and the i3 that I bought got much better scores than the i5 models coming onto the market at the same time.

Softsynth performance is very important to me, might not be for you. Unless the softsynth is sample-based, the hard drive speed is almost of no significance, but processor ability to make use of multiple cores, etc. can be much more important. If your main thing is demanding of hard drive performance, like extensive use of RTs, then hard drive or even SSD speed probably trumps processor speed.

My DAW is a gamer in all but video specs. It sports a liquid-cooled Intel 2570K i5 quad-core CPU, 16 Gb of RAM (expandable to 32, or, if I build a new machine, to 192 Gb using Win 7 Ultimate), SSD C: drive, a 7,200-RPM WD Caviar Black 1Gb D: drive, and a 2 Gb dual-head graphics card driving two 24" HDMI monitors. The thing boots to Windows in 20 seconds and handles any task I throw at it with ease. I built it five years ago and don't foresee a change any time soon.

Richard