Recording work station upgrades

SteveTMB

Looking for some guidance. I want to upgrade to a new motherboard/processor/ram for my PowerSpec PC. 

It's exclusively used for a music recording workstation. 

Running windows 7 professional os. I can't upgrade windows because of my ProTools 8.0.5 hardware interface and hard/software plugins(all are rtas) won't run on later windows versions.

Currently installed is an Intel DH55TC board, 4gigs ram(max for this board) and quad i5 655k processor(max also).

I've a new plugin (BFD3, rtas) that requires a bit more umph, so I'm aiming HIGH above my needs. I'm thinking about 32-64gigs ram and 

i7 8 core processor. 

With all my ProTools graphics, sound processing, bells & whistles, I might guess this would probably be similar with some exceptions to a gaming setup?

I got a little overwhelmed combing over all the specs in regards to compatibilities for each part. I describe myself as a renegade Luddite living in denial -i love new toys!. I'll occasionally need some clarifications but will answer your questions the best I can.

Thanks in advance!
-Steve

TSTonyV

To be quite honest, if you're locked into Windows 7, I think you'll be much better off looking at the used market for hardware that's definitely compatible with Windows 7. E.g. an i7-7700k+motherboard. It would still be a very significant upgrade over your current hardware and you could avoid any stability or compatibility issues. 

If you still want to try with new hardware, I'll provide two recommendations, one Intel based, one AMD based:

This is probably what I'd go with on an Intel i7 build: 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=fde0aedf-c728-4fca-b0aa-8d241f9b581a

And this is what I'd do if you want to go the Ryzen route:

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=a567e11b-d854-406c-9ab4-de1e59b699c6

Between these two, the Ryzen 9 build offers an extra 2 cores over the 10700k for the same price so I think it would be the better performer, but it's riskier for your Windows 7 install to just plug in and work, because you're switching platforms and there's more likely to be driver related compatibility issues that could prevent it from booting properly. 

Again, I do think the safest option for you is probably to look around on the used market for something like an i7-7700K, because of the headache that can come with using Windows 7 on the newest hardware. 

TSTonyV

I'm not very familiar with Protools but I'm pretty sure you can run it fine with just integrated graphics on a CPU or a light GPU. Your primary focus would be CPU and RAM. As it stands, ANY modern CPU would be an absolutely massive upgrade over an i5-655k, even the budget ones. 

That said, being limited to Windows 7 is going to complicate things, because the newest hardware on the market unfortunately no longer officially supports Windows 7. It's not that it can't work on newer hardware, but there's no guarantee it will work or be 100% stable. 

Which Powerspec model do you have? You'd probably also want to consider a PSU upgrade depending on what's already in the system. 

SteveTMB

Not in my studio at the moment, but 98% positive it's a power spec B707. New it was a powerhouse! But the newer standalone drum programs and plugins have become much more demanding for CPU and buffer headroom. I totally get the Windows 7 no support limitations, alas it's the hand I'm delt (me along with a slew of ProTools audiofiles around the world!) On a good(?) note, specs say Windows 7professional can handle a max of around 160gigs? RAM. Not that I'll ever need that.
Yeah, ancient proverb "student, find thyself a teacher". Gonna need your guys help picking out what I'll need to make this work...

SteveTMB

Researching, I've come upon a game changer. I've found in a pro tools chat room folks with pro tools 8 running on windows 10 in compatibility mode for 7.

TSTonyV

If you can make your software and all the extra plugins and interfaces work with 10, then you'll be in the clear. Hopefully you don't run into any issues with any of that!