Spec for PC intended for use with Sibelius notation program - comments welcome!

[Krzysz]

Hello guys! -

I'm a composer of classical music, using the Sibelius notation program. The challenge with the current version of Sibelius is the huge sound libraries, requiring lots of RAM. The larger the score being worked on, the more sounds needed. Typically, I produce large orchestral scores with 30 staves (= separate instruments or groups of instruments) or more.

I'm intending to load the Sibelius program and sounds onto the SSD.

I'm intending to use an M-Audio 192 PCI soundcard for decent quality audio output. It is a card I really like, but is incompatible with anything after Windows 7.

I hope that explains my choices!

Comments welcome!

Thanks, Chris
______________

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4820K (3.7GHz) 10MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P9X79 LE: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011

Memory (RAM)
64GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (8 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI, HDMI, VGA

1st Hard Disk
480GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

Office Software
Microsoft® Office 365 Personal (12 Month Subscription)

Monitor
Samsung SyncMaster LS27C45KBSV/EN 27"

 

[SlimCini]

Swap the SSD to the hyper-x and the hard drive to a caviar black. What case and cooling options you gone for?

 

[ricbai]

Sibelius! I was just talking with my wife about it last night - how I used to use it on a 1Mb Archimedes (and it came on a floppy disk). Memories *sigh*

 

[Krzysz]

Thanks for your comment, SlimCini. I'd be grateful, as a relative ignoramus in these matters, to know why you recommend the change for the SSD and the hard drive.

 

[SlimCini]

Swap the SSD to the hyper-x and the hard drive to a caviar black. What case and cooling options you gone for?

The V300 has severe performance issues almost to the point of negating it's use as an SSD. The caviar is a more reliable drive.

 

[Krzysz]

Thanks for your advice, SlimCini.

The case was the basic Black Enigma and the power supply the CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (they say it's unnecessarily powerful, but I wanted the quiet option).

Do you have advice about additional cooling?

Chris

 

[Spuff]

I'm intending to use an M-Audio 192 PCI soundcard for decent quality audio output. It is a card I really like, but is incompatible with anything after Windows 7.

Do you really want to be stuck at Windows 7 forever?
An external interface would provide you with a physical volume control and an easily accessible headphone socket. People sometimes ask about future proofing, wanting to oldproof is unusual.

 

[Krzysz]

After much research and advice from other forums (and thanks to you, Spuff, as well), I now think that possibly my best solution regarding getting high-quality sound is to accept I need to keep up to date with operating systems, rather than lagging behind, so go for Windows 8.1, and couple this with a good USB digital-analogue converter. (I'm thinking the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 100.)

At least that way I avoid the sound card/OS/drivers compatibility issues.

 

[Spuff]

The Cambridge device looks like it will be fine if you are feeding it to a good hi-fi system.