Recording and the internet

[Ancient Mariner]

Bilbo - it might be worth spending £100 or so on a 4 YO refurb machine with W7 pre-installed, rather than £500 on a moderately current system. This is basic, but many times more powerful than you present system likely is: https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Lenovo+M57p+Core+2+Duo+Windows+7+Professional+Refurb++Desktop+PC+?productId=61445

[Dad3353]

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1422904323' post='2678190']
Bilbo - it might be worth spending £100 or so on a 4 YO refurb machine with W7 pre-installed, rather than £500 on a moderately current system. This is basic, but many times more powerful than you present system likely is: [url="https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Lenovo+M57p+Core+2+Duo+Windows+7+Professional+Refurb++Desktop+PC+?productId=61445"]https://www.aria.co....productId=61445[/url]
[/quote]

A good move for some, surely, but this is almost the exact wheezing, gasping PC that, for me, is at the end of its useful life..! It can't handle 64-bit, so memory is limited to 4Gb. The dual-core is good for office work, but comes to its end-stops when trying to use music apps such as Reaper, even when only moderately laden with tracks and FX. I've been happy with mine for several years; it was also my work PC when I was IT Manager; it's in tip-top condition, with no bugs or illnesses. It's just no longer able to go further (64-bit OS and apps, more memory and more raw processor power...).
On the other hand, the notion is fine. Personally I'm looking to upgrade (later, when/if I'm rich enough...) to an i7 spec system, but i4 or later should be pretty cost effective. Other than that, Lenovo (ex-IBM...) are fine machines; I've had hundreds in the park in a previous life.

[paulears]

I always did the muso thing and avoided the net, however - it's simply not practical any longer. The software you install needs the net - Cubase with the licensers and Adobe with the CC continuous validation. I put AVG on my system, the cheapest paid for one, and everything is fine. I don't go to the kinds of website where dodgyness seems likely, and frankly, the advantages of it outweigh the potential issues. However - I always have my data backed up, and I have another machine that would run my business if the main one died. In fact, with Adobe's system, I have music and video on the sound studio machine and the edit suite machine, and vice versa, so all I need to do is swap the Cubase dongles. Windows 7 and 8, on the two machines and to all intents and purposes, they perform identically.

[alyctes]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1421442922' post='2661428']
I would recommend, in any case, to adopt a 'worst case scenario' attitude and take precautions such that, if there's a total loss of service (virus, house fire, burglary, whatever...) any and all of your information (software and their 'keys', projects and files etc; most especially anything unique that can't be bought...) is stored very regularly somewhere safe (off-site..? Cloud..?...) 'Ghosted' partitions, back-up software, regular duplicating to another medium... If none of these precautions are actually invoked, it will be because there's been no 'incident'. One can be sure, though, that if there is no back-up plan, an incident will be very troublesome. This, independent of platform, OS, or such. It's all too often neglected.
Just sayin'.
[/quote]

This.

Make backups, folks. Really.