Optimize Windows 7 for music PC

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Naturelover

Naturelover

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Hi

Following the advice of forum members, I have taken the plunge and ordered the following for a music only PC build:

Cabinet: Antec ISK 110 Vesa Mini ITX Case With 90W Power Adapter
MoBo: Asus J1800I-C 8GB DDR3 Intel Motherboard
RAM: G.skill 4GB (4GB x 1) DDR3 1333MHz Laptop RAM (F3-1333C9S-4GSL)
SSD: Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW
ODD: Asus 8X Slim External DVD Drive - Black (SDRW-08D2S-U LITE)
HDD: WD My Passport Ultra 1TB Portable External Hard Drive

I intend to install Windows 7 OS. I have been reading that this should be optimized for a music PC application instead of a normal install.
I have no idea on how to go about doing this and need advice in some detail.
The actual install will be done by a computer guy. I only need to tell him exactly what I want.

Thanks
 
Hi
Other members will surely guide you on how to optimize win 7 for music pc duties

I myself dont have much experience in that

All i wanted to suggest is that you go for 850 series evo rather then 840 if its available in india.

If you cant go for 850 for long run i would suggest go for atleast a 250 gb 840 evo ssd.

Also if possible 8 gb of ram or install a board with an extra slot so you can increase ram capacity if needed
 
Mostly the advice will be in regards to not installing any programs or s/w that will run constantly in the background like antivirus, malware scanners, chat clients, firewall, etc. Probably not even have the system on a network and not use it for browsing or any other functions i.e. don't install browsers either.

IMHO that's carrying things too far since a PC is created to multitask so my recommendation would be to get Foobar for the player and use a RAM-Disk addon that will isolate the music playing functionality. Other applications like Fidelizer will also achieve the same results by stopping various background and network activities till the PC is restarted.

Increase the RAM, use SDD and have an i5 or an i7 processor and you will be set with Foobar + RAM-Disk or Fidelizer. I personally use Foobar + RAM-Disk though I will be upfront and honest that the RAM-Disk does not make much of a difference IMHO. However, addons like SoX Resampler, WASAPI output do indeed make a huge and perceivable difference. Finally, use the equalizer on Foobar (I like and use the rock preset) but it can be tweaked to any preference you like and makes a huge difference too.
 
You should disable your page file first.

By doing that, you ensure that your PC always plays from physical RAM and never from the much much lower speed hard drive.
 
Thanks a load guys :clapping:! It will be a few days before this will be done due to travel plans.
Musicbee, I intend to run this fanless so minimum specced setup.

musicbee said:
Mostly the advice will be in regards to not installing any programs or s/w that will run constantly in the background like antivirus, malware scanners, chat clients, firewall, etc. Probably not even have the system on a network and not use it for browsing or any other functions i.e. don't install browsers either.

IMHO that's carrying things too far since a PC is created to multitask so my recommendation would be to get Foobar for the player and use a RAM-Disk addon that will isolate the music playing functionality. Other applications like Fidelizer will also achieve the same results by stopping various background and network activities till the PC is restarted.

Increase the RAM, use SDD and have an i5 or an i7 processor and you will be set with Foobar + RAM-Disk or Fidelizer. I personally use Foobar + RAM-Disk though I will be upfront and honest that the RAM-Disk does not make much of a difference IMHO. However, addons like SoX Resampler, WASAPI output do indeed make a huge and perceivable difference. Finally, use the equalizer on Foobar (I like and use the rock preset) but it can be tweaked to any preference you like and makes a huge difference too.
Click to expand...

asliarun said:
You should disable your page file first.

By doing that, you ensure that your PC always plays from physical RAM and never from the much much lower speed hard drive.
Click to expand...

dheerajin said:
Hope this helps...

Optimize Your PC For Music Production

PreSonus | Learn - Optimizing Windows Vista and Windows 7 for Music Production

10 Ways to Optimize your PC for Music Production

The Most Out of Windows 7: Choosing and Optimizing Windows for Music - Create Digital Music

Optimising your PC for audio on Windows 7 | Focusrite
Click to expand...
 
Naturelover said:
Musicbee, I intend to run this fanless so minimum specced setup.
Click to expand...

Which is perfectly fine for playing music.

My only contention is that processors don't die, we retire them as browsers, system applications, etc. evolve and need more processing power and RAM and going for the latest/greatest increases the lifespan/replacement cycle which is inevitable anyways.
 
You can always regulate fan speed by some device which is called as fan speed controller

I have no use of it so never read much about it, but you can do little research on it and see if it works for you


That way you can go for a i5 / i7 cpu based machine and regulate fan speed when doing critical listening or completely switch off system fan.

Some noctua cpu fans make very less noise. Can check reviews where they measure the noise made in DB
 
I posted earlier in a hurry. Didn't realize you already have an SSD. Here are some things I do to keep performance maximum. I haven't read the other article so please ignore if this is a repetition.

- Make sure that you install the OS on the SSD
- Disable page file if you have enough RAM (at least 8GB)
- If not, make sure the page file is hosted on the SSD. Actually, having the page file on an SSD is a very decent compromise
- Specify a custom size of the page file, (say, 8GB), and keep Intial size and Max size the same. This prevents Windows from resizing the page file constantly. As you can imagine, resizing a multigig file is an expensive and wasteful operation for the OS, CPU, and harddrive
- Disable Visual Effects you don't need. Personally, I only enable "smooth edges of fonts" and "visual styles for buttons". Especially disable crapola like transparent glass and aero peek.
- Ensure in the Advanced tab that "adjust for best performance of" is set to Programs
- Start -> run -> msconfig -> Startup. Here, uncheck all crapola that is getting loaded in Startup
(Note: Do NOT disable windows services from msconfig.)
- Start -> run -> services.msc. Here, disable Windows services you don't need. Be careful and don't go overboard. And yes, please disable superfetch or whatever it is called. You don't need it.
- Avoid installing random stuff. Also, stuff like iTunes and Office are notorious for polluting your hard drive. Worst part - it will take up gigs upon gigs of space in places like AppData and you can't even delete that stuff safely
- Avoid screensavers
- Avoid background wallpapers, especially the dynamic kind
- Avoid installing antiviruses as much as possible. Most antiviruses are resource hogs. If you really need it, try something that is gentle on system resources. I have had good experience with Avast. And yes, it is free. McAfee is horrible.
- You could also disable Windows search as search indexing can kick in randomly and will slow down your system like anything. I am not an expert here, but I think the interwebs should be able to tell us how to disable search indexing in Windows the right way.
 
Last edited:
Forgive the late reply.
Here I am more worried about electrical noise rather than audible noise.

rikhav said:
You can always regulate fan speed by some device which is called as fan speed controller

I have no use of it so never read much about it, but you can do little research on it and see if it works for you


That way you can go for a i5 / i7 cpu based machine and regulate fan speed when doing critical listening or completely switch off system fan.

Some noctua cpu fans make very less noise. Can check reviews where they measure the noise made in DB
Click to expand...
 
A question from my side. How does disabling random stuff like Antivirus, wallpapers etc help in improving music playback! Won't the 4gb ram be more then enough to handle everything? I have seen windows 7 running fine even on 2 gb ram and a celeron. Curious to know the improvement in music playback on a clean system.
 
rohan{_mhtr said:
A question from my side. How does disabling random stuff like Antivirus, wallpapers etc help in improving music playback! Won't the 4gb ram be more then enough to handle everything? I have seen windows 7 running fine even on 2 gb ram and a celeron. Curious to know the improvement in music playback on a clean system.
Click to expand...

First of all, why not? If you are getting a nice performance boost by doing some simple stuff, it is likely worth it.

But the real reason is that a lot of these programs run as background processes that can cause big spikes in CPU and memory utilization - which in turn affects your audio program and thus the audio quality.
 
Have been using Windows Server 2012 R2 eval version on my Asus Nettop for past 3 months and i like the response & stability when compared to Windows 7/8. no customization scripts or other unwanted tweaks, just prioritized JRiver and its working wonderfully well. Listening to gratefuldead as i write this...
 
thx911 said:
Have been using Windows Server 2012 R2 eval version on my Asus Nettop for past 3 months and i like the response & stability when compared to Windows 7/8. no customization scripts or other unwanted tweaks, just prioritized JRiver and its working wonderfully well. Listening to gratefuldead as i write this...
Click to expand...

Great...please enjoy as long as you can..

This audiophile world is full of shitty things...ignorance is always bliss:D
 
Hi Dheeraj
No offence but surely it would be much better if you explain that cryptic remark for the benefit of some of us who are trying to learn the ropes.
dheerajin said:
Great...please enjoy as long as you can..

This audiophile world is full of shitty things...ignorance is always bliss:D
Click to expand...
 
Hi naturelover...no offence accepted ...only thing thx911 is happy with his music..that is the ultimate thing...if you want to lose your happiness then fall into a world of audiophile...where for everything there are two camps..
Flac vs Wav
Foobar vs jriver , jplay
Eac vs dbpoweramp
Solidstate vs hard drive
Normal powersupply vs linear PSU..
so...if you see another thread ( CD player relevant)..then it is obvious that no one is satisfied with his system..they are searching for mote deatails and musicality is absent...
I have seen people happy with listening to radio, average music system(Nad, marantz,+wharfdale,Ba+ what not)...and their happiness quoitient(musicality) was worth million dollars...
So the bottom line is....
The day you stopped listening to sound and start listening to music ,your system would become worth million dollats...so keep enjoyoing music..and that is your only nirvana...
IMO... Pc Playback is best and ...evey human being has different frequency response...thats why so many systems are there...belive in your ears...and rest of the things dont matter...all the best for quest...
 
Last edited:
dheerajin said:
if you want to lose your happiness then fall into a world of audiophile...
So the bottom line is....
The day you stopped listening to sound and start listening to music ,your system would become worth million dollats...so keep enjoyoing music..and that is your only nirvana...
Click to expand...

+1, well said. :clapping:
 
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