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[GreggP]

My PCs are getting pretty old and I'm thinking of upgrading the components and consolidating some of the systems. The PC that I'll end up with will be used to run MCv23 along with other essential apps like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. This is the PC that stores my main library for my music collection, TV settings, movies, etc. The actual media files are stored on an unRAID server.

The current PC providing this functionality is starting to fail on me. At least once a day, it will automatically reboot and Windows will display a blue-screen error after recovering. I'm not sure what's causing the problem, but since it's over 10 years old, I figured it's in need of an update. I'm looking at swapping out the guts and replacing with the following components:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700
Motherboard: ASRock H270 Pro4
RAM: G.SKILL Aegis 1x16GB 288-Pin
SSD: WD Black 512GB Performance SSD - M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
will probably replace the power supply, but haven't determined requirements, yet
I have a bunch of HDs that will be moved into the system for additional storage.
Will be using an existing Antec mini-tower for the case.

The cost of this upgrade will be around $800. I'd like a system that matches the performance of these listed components. Any recommendations for improving or saving money with other components are welcome. I prefer to stick with Intel CPUs. I assume the above CPU has integrated graphics. Since it's been a long, long time since I've built a system and never with integrated graphics, I just wanted to make sure.

This is not necessarily intended to be a silent HTPC, so I'm not too concerned with ultra quiet components. I would like to get decent performance, especially for photo editing and running MCv23. The PC that will be replaced currently works as the music server for our home audio. It has multiple soundcards that are connected to different zones. One of the zones is connected to an M-Audio FireWire 410 audio interface, which is connected to the PC with a 25' FireWire cable. I'm thinking of just using these audio devices with the new system. It seems none of the current mobos have FireWire, so, I'll just use a PCIe FireWire adapter. However, the FireWire 410 is also an old device (but works fine under Windows 7) and is no longer supported by M-Audio, so I don't think it will run on Windows 10.

If I install Windows 7 there shouldn't be much of a hassle with this upgrade. If I decide to move to Windows 10, I'll need to replace the M-Audio FireWire 410. Can anyone recommend a relatively cheap replacement that will connect to an audio system 25' away?

After reading another thread here and a quick Google search I see the Behringer UMC404HD and Focusrite 2i2 might be good replacements. Does anyone know how long the USB2 cables can run? I might be able to move stuff around and shorten the length to 15'.

[GreggP]

Doesn't anyone have any opinions on PC hardware???

[Awesome Donkey]

Honestly my opinion is you're going to be forced to upgrade to Windows 10. Why? While the 7700 might work well with Windows 7, Microsoft now disables updates while running modern CPUs (e.g. Intel's Kaby Lake CPUs like the 7700 and above, also AMD's Ryzen CPUs and above) on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. It's more-or-less an effort to force people to use Windows 10, but sacrificing security updates isn't worth trying to run Windows 7 with that CPU, in my opinion.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/new-processors-are-now-blocked-from-receiving-updates-on-old-windows/

AFAIK, FireWire is an older technology that isn't really used anymore. I can't remember the last time I've seen FireWire support on a motherboard or a FireWire peripheral for that matter. Kinda reminds me of eSATA, don't see that anymore either! If I were you, honestly I'd look into replacing the M-Audio FireWire 410 (and everything you need to replace along with it).

[GreggP]

Honestly my opinion is you're going to be forced to upgrade to Windows 10. Why? While the 7700 might work well with Windows 7, Microsoft now disables updates while running modern CPUs (e.g. Intel's Kaby Lake CPUs like the 7700 and above, also AMD's Ryzen CPUs and above) on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. It's more-or-less an effort to force people to use Windows 10, but sacrificing security updates isn't worth trying to run Windows 7 with that CPU, in my opinion.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/new-processors-are-now-blocked-from-receiving-updates-on-old-windows/

AFAIK, FireWire is an older technology that isn't really used anymore. I can't remember the last time I've seen FireWire support on a motherboard or a FireWire peripheral for that matter. Kinda reminds me of eSATA, don't see that anymore either! If I were you, honestly I'd look into replacing the M-Audio FireWire 410 (and everything you need to replace along with it).

I think there are still a few people using DAWs with FireWire audio interfaces because they have lower latency and better over-all performance for recording a larger mix of instruments. Anyhow, that's not my situation, so the USB based products will work.