If I was to replace my recording PC...

[Greg_L]

Reading this thread for me is probably exactly how yall feel in my amp threads.

[vomitHatSteve]

Right, RAID 1 is the "mirroring" kind. So it's redundantly writing the same thing to both disks in the array. If one drive fails, you can still survive on the other one until you replace the bad one and rebuild the array. RAID 0 is the "striping" kind where it's writing across both drives as if they were a single drive. But if one drive dies, they're both useless until you reformat the surviving disk to work alone or rebuild a new (empty) array after replacing the dead disk.

RAID 0 is significantly faster than RAID 1 though. Just last week at work, I was testing out a new server and I couldn't figure out why it was taking literally twice as long to complete its work (3 hours instead of 90 minutes). Turns out it was configured as RAID 1 instead of 0. But that was in a scenario where the machine has to read, parse, translate, link, and write hundreds of millions of records to/from files. I don't think the difference would be so pronounced in scenarios that you or I would run into in our daily lives. Even running with one hand tied behind its back, figuratively speaking, an NVMe SSD running in RAID 1 would surpass any requirements for reading and writing many channels of high resolution audio.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with RAID at all in a personal machine. I did it once with 3 1TB spinners in RAID 0 just to see if I could. It worked, it was faster than any one of those drives on their own, and it satisfied a nerdy itch that I can now tell people about on the internet My advice would be to stick with normal disk configurations, just back up your important stuff periodically (and if you know of a good backup utility, let me know. I'm in the market...I'm fed up with the built-in Windows File History junk).

Yeah, reading further on the topic I was sort of reaching that conclusion myself. I think my inclination would be to get an additional identical SSD, leave the RAID alone, immediately partitiion the main drive, then put all software and samples on the second partition, then use the second drive for the recordings, then back the whole lot up to an external drive of some sort, sort of like I do now.

I can, apparently, put a third drive into the machine and use that for backing up - problem with that I think is that one of the data risks is theft, so having your backup IN the machine may not be so smart.

I was just playing around with the various configurations and you can essentially get 500GB SSD and i7 and 16 GB DDR5 OR 1 TB SSD and i7 and 32 GB DDR5 OR 1 TB SSD and i9 and 32 GB DDR5 - so you can add all the extra additional SSDs you want, but you can't add RAM. Now I've added RAM to a PC before - not hard, but then you have to deal with whether what they give you as stock is in two slots or one.

I hear you on the back up. I bought something for the current PC a decade ago because the Win version simply disappeared somehow and hasn't reappeared to this day - along with Media Player. So I was religiously using it but eventually it twigged that you needed the software installed on the new drive, assuming a crash, to recover everything and how would you do that anyway, especially if you'd forgotten what it was and where you got it. Then a bit later it became more an issue that if the current PC drive died, then there's no way I'd be tying to replace the drive with a similar one running Win 7 and it'd be time for an upgrade anyway. So these days I just manually copy every folder over that's in any way music related to a badkup external drive, so I could reinstate everything on a more modern machine if I needed to.

Anyway, I have a clearer picture in my head now and I wasn't doing this immediately, so perhaps there'll be another generation of stuff which will reduce the price further in future. And I did want to know what it was going to cost so I could set some pennies aside.

I've also never really seen much advantage to using RAID in a PC. None of my data needs real-time backups. I just have an additional disk inside my tower which is much bigger than the main data disk, and I archive about once a week.

I have had an SSD fail within a few years. I can't guarantee that it was from too many writes, but I did have my sandbox software using that disk, which meant several GB of writes and erases per day of use.

[CrowsofFritz]

Reading this thread for me is probably exactly how yall feel in my amp threads.

Maybe analogies would help?

Basically CPUs (the brain for most stuff) and GPUs (the brain for visual stuff) are comprised of four things: architecture, cores, clock speed, and transistor count.

I think if transistor count as the number of cylinders in an engine. I think of clock speed as RPM the engine is able to obtain, and number of cores is probably not able to be analogous to cars. I can get to that later, though.

Architecture can kind of be analogous to cars, I guess.

You can have a V8 that’s able to achieve high RPMs, but old muscle cars with big ass engines can still get smoked by some weird I3 car today in a 0-60. That’s essentially architecture—the structure of how all the data gets processed. It’s more than just one component.

Maybe the I3 car is lighter, has a better compressor ratio, better exhaust, just more advanced technology in every way.

In a somewhat similar way to cars, you can really only compare clock speed and cores between CPUs when the architecture (structure) is the same. Just like how you can’t compare a V8 from the 60s to a V8 engine made today.

I’d much, much, MUCH rather have the worst i3 on the market right now than the absolute best Core 2 Quad that existed in 2012–before it was discontinued.

Anyway, so all things being the same, more transistors mean the chip can perform more calculations and store more data. A higher clock speed tells the engine to do its job faster.

More cores means the CPU can handle more applications at once—if the software even utilized them.

Anyway, just know it’s pretty difficult to even make an analogy for CPUs and that it’s way, way, way, way more complex than this.

For instance, in this Reddit post, OP asked everyone to give him a “simple” explanation of a CPU. The answers are not fucking simple at all. They make my head spin, and it only gets more complex from there.

[Armistice]

The problem with trying to understand this stuff is that in the intervening years between purchases the technology changes so much that unless you're actively interested on following it as it goes along - and most people aren't - then it's difficult to work out some of the details. The core structure is the same, just the parts and the way they operate are different.

If you work with hardware and/or pursue it as a personal interest then you'll be across it all as a matter of course as things evolve and change. If you don't, and you regard computers as just a useful tool, then you don't keep across all developments. That's a world away from not being able to understand the details. I like to know what I'm buying and what the options are and why and am perfectly capable of understanding it all, once I get back up to speed with the current tech.

This is compounded by the unwillingness of the people selling computers to explain the details to the people buying them - you have to really go looking for it. The HP and Lenovo websites are rubbish for this - Dell is better, but not really good. Incredibly bad for people who want to understand what they're buying and why they would or wouldn't buy A or B.

[Lt. Bob]

The problem with trying to understand this stuff is that in the intervening years between purchases the technology changes so much that unless you're actively interested on following it as it goes along - and most people aren't - then it's difficult to work out some of the details. The core structure is the same, just the parts and the way they operate are different.

If you work with hardware and/or pursue it as a personal interest then you'll be across it all as a matter of course as things evolve and change. If you don't, and you regard computers as just a useful tool, then you don't keep across all developments. That's a world away from not being able to understand the details. I like to know what I'm buying and what the options are and why and am perfectly capable of understanding it all, once I get back up to speed with the current tech.

This is compounded by the unwillingness of the people selling computers to explain the details to the people buying them - you have to really go looking for it. The HP and Lenovo websites are rubbish for this - Dell is better, but not really good. Incredibly bad for people who want to understand what they're buying and why they would or wouldn't buy A or B.

If I were to replace my ChadPro 5000 I would absolutely just get the new updated ChadPro 6500 .... good builds and excellent customer service although I would prolly have to beg the WifePro to allow it ..,... lol.

[Armistice]

The problem with trying to understand this stuff is that in the intervening years between purchases the technology changes so much that unless you're actively interested on following it as it goes along - and most people aren't - then it's difficult to work out some of the details. The core structure is the same, just the parts and the way they operate are different.

If you work with hardware and/or pursue it as a personal interest then you'll be across it all as a matter of course as things evolve and change. If you don't, and you regard computers as just a useful tool, then you don't keep across all developments. That's a world away from not being able to understand the details. I like to know what I'm buying and what the options are and why and am perfectly capable of understanding it all, once I get back up to speed with the current tech.

This is compounded by the unwillingness of the people selling computers to explain the details to the people buying them - you have to really go looking for it. The HP and Lenovo websites are rubbish for this - Dell is better, but not really good. Incredibly bad for people who want to understand what they're buying and why they would or wouldn't buy A or B.

If I were to replace my ChadPro 5000 I would absolutely just get the new updated ChadPro 6500 .... good builds and excellent customer service although I would prolly have to beg the WifePro to allow it ..,... lol.

I would do it in a heartbeat as well - but shipping the ChadPro to Australia would, alas, be prohibitive, I expect. And then there's the tricky issue of 240V vs 110V power...

But the assistance of the ChadPro CEO, young @Tadpui, and indeed also @vomitHatSteve with bringing me up to speed and pointing out some of the interesting decisions is most appreciated. And Crows and ray and your goodself too.

As for Greg's comment - anyone who can build amps like he can could be all over PCs and their specs if they wanted to be, but it's quite fine to be uninterested and regard them as just useful tools. I'm that way about lots of stuff.

I don't have a WifePro, but GFPro is fine with whatever I want to do and/or spend on.

[musicturtle]

Funny, I just sent a private message to ChadPro this weekend about upgrading my PC situation. He is a great rebel resource.

I think I have talked myself into building my own though.

I will be interested to see what you get into @Armistice

[Lt. Bob]

Funny, I just sent a private message to ChadPro this weekend about upgrading my PC situation. He is a great rebel resource.

I think I have talked myself into building my own though.

I will be interested to see what you get into @Armistice

we need a logo for ChadPro ...... time to expand!

[Armistice]

Hey @Tadpui - back onto the SSDs wear out over time thang...

My understanding is that (and it makes sense really) what you really don't want to be doing with SSDs is filling them up to far. My current machine has only a baby 125GB one with the OS on it, but that almost never gets written to, and so it's fine, if rather full. Before I knew what I was doing I installed stuff on it.

Anyway, given it's taken my 10 years to nowhere near fill up 1.25TB of storage, if, as I proposed further up the thread, I got a 1 TB main disk and a 1 TB second disk, both SSD, and didn't RAID them - partition the main disk as soon as I got it, keep OS etc. on it, programs/samples on the other partition, audio files on the second disk - as I understand it, the SSDs use "wear levelling software" to optimise storage on these drives, so the less stuff you actually have on it the longer it'll all last as new writes are going onto different sections all the time as a way of sharing the load.

Is that how you understand it all works?

Essentially, all things being equal 800GB (say) of various stuff - OS, files, programs etc. - spread out over 2 TB of storage space should, in theory at least, mean the drives should last longer than cramming that 800 GB onto a single drive? Of course, having two drives means a greater risk of one failing anyway, but not being mechanical, you'd think that'd be minimised.

[Tadpui]

That's pretty much how I understand the workings of solid state storage. There is deliberate over provisioning that helps spread out the reads and writes so it doesn't wear out any one section of storage.

With the current price of dollars per gigabyte of storage, I don't think I would even bother partitioning a drive, I'd just use multiple drives. Not that there's anything wrong with partitioning, I think the performance hit is minimal. Just personal preference.

[Armistice]

With the current price of dollars per gigabyte of storage, I don't think I would even bother partitioning a drive, I'd just use multiple drives. Not that there's anything wrong with partitioning, I think the performance hit is minimal. Just personal preference.

Yeah, I thought about that option, but the issue with Dell - and I seem to be headed in that direction - is that they tie the main drive and RAM and chip together. Ideally a main drive of 500GB and a second and third drive of 1TB each could last me forever, but the 500GB main drive gets you only 8 GB RAM, and a less powerful chip.

Could go custom build from a local builder I guess, but I'd prefer not to. Dell are making mega bucks on the subsequent drives, so three just gets to stupid money, but there's no way I'd put one in myself I wouldn't think - although perhaps it's no harder than installing RAM chips and I've certainly done that before.

[Lt. Bob]

Just have a nice external .... I've got a couple of Lacey's .... portable as hell and 1TB each ...

[CeeBee]

Have you thought about a mini pc. I got one to replace my aging laptop and I am very satisfied. I took an intel i5 because it was cheap and about four time as powerful as my old i7 in the laptop. They are super portable and you can hook up any number of external hardware and drives, and quiet as a mouse. Check these out https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=556

[rayc]

Have you thought about a mini pc. umber of external hardware and drives, and quiet as a mouse. Check these out https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=556

Yeah, I've been interested in those fr a while BUT I have no need, at least for the moment. I do use a VERY old laptop with wireless keyboard & mouse because the build it keys are dying BUT the machine works & I'm loathe to toss something when I can mend/make do.
They are impressive these days though.

[Armistice]

Have you thought about a mini pc. I got one to replace my aging laptop and I am very satisfied. I took an intel i5 because it was cheap and about four time as powerful as my old i7 in the laptop. They are super portable and you can hook up any number of external hardware and drives, and quiet as a mouse. Check these out https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=556

Interesting... quite cheap really, but I don't want to be buying a bunch of external drives of various types for various purposes if I don't have to. I have space, so having a tiny PC is of no particular advantage to me. Too much work. I want something with everything in it already - setting it up as a new recording PC would be enough work without having to source and install additional external storage drives, USB hubs, DVD drives, display ports etc. and then getting them all to work. Not to mention an operating system.

[CrowsofFritz]

I might make a Chad Pro logo in my free time lol