PC Spec for palying music files

Hi

Hopefully I can pick up some knowledge from the membership on how to proceed, apologies if this is wrong forum for this post and if so please could a moderator move it.

For years I used a PC predominantly for various non intensive tasks and had music playing constantly into a decent speaker set up though an Audigy sound card. Video requirement was only for cards or backgammon so only ever fitted mid range video cards. Switched OS from 7 to 10 and now I find that I cannot use a browser and listen to music without distortion or drop outs. Task manager shows CPU up to high 90s when a page with multiple ads loads and despite setting all the music related processes to high it still ruins the output to the point where I have given up playing audio unless I am just playing cards, if i have a browser open it will cause probelem. Varies between browsers but only since switching to - which I like apart from this.

So I may have to buy a new PC but I do not want to find that this is going to be a problem even if I replace my 5 year old AMD 4350 Quad Core / 8 Gb set up wit hsomething more singing and dancing.

So has anyone experienced and sorted this problem or do I have to move the music on the 4 external hard drives to another control unit?

Thanks in anticipation
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Hi

Hopefully I can pick up some knowledge from the membership on how to proceed, apologies if this is wrong forum for this post and if so please could a moderator move it.

For years I used a PC predominantly for various non intensive tasks and had music playing constantly into a decent speaker set up though an Audigy sound card. Video requirement was only for cards or backgammon so only ever fitted mid range video cards. Switched OS from 7 to 10 and now I find that I cannot use a browser and listen to music without distortion or drop outs. Task manager shows CPU up to high 90s when a page with multiple ads loads and despite setting all the music related processes to high it still ruins the output to the point where I have given up playing audio unless I am just playing cards, if i have a browser open it will cause probelem. Varies between browsers but only since switching to - which I like apart from this.

So I may have to buy a new PC but I do not want to find that this is going to be a problem even if I replace my 5 year old AMD 4350 Quad Core / 8 Gb set up wit hsomething more singing and dancing.

So has anyone experienced and sorted this problem or do I have to move the music on the 4 external hard drives to another control unit?

Thanks in anticipation

I'll let others make suggestions on hardware though a budget would help them.

However, having said that there are a couple of things you could try such as ad- and script-blockers for your browser. Also, have you tried different browsers?

Generally though, when a browser is sucking up resources, I've found it's because of some garbage script half-heartedly knocked out and let into the wild.
 

Frank100

Rising Star
Hi,

On the might replace it part of your thread.........

In terms of the music side of things, if you can afford it I would recommend a motherboard with optical audio out as this doesn't allow any noise interference, (electricity and fans), to pass into your speakers, (which might be sensitive and would result in some unpleasant hum). I'd save some money for an external DAC (obviously with an optical input) and then have speakers connect into that.

Saying all of that if you don't get hum now then you wouldn't in a new PC with less electricity running through it. You could re-use your sound card but for listening to music an external DAC will sound fuller with the right speakers.

I personally have a pair of KRK Rokit RP5 G3 speakers attached to an external DAC and used to get hum when I first bought these speakers but not with cheaper (still £100 a pair) speakers. I fixed that by switching from a USB DAC to an optical DAC and fortunately my motherboard has optical. (Hence the suggestion of getting optical so you can add any quality speaker later on).

As for build I would suggest you don't need a discrete GPU. An 8000 series Intel i3 would make a good purchase. With Intel processors I would always recommend one of the aftermarket fans but you don't need to go crazy because you aren't going to be stressing this processor.

If you have 4 disks worth of music can that be combined down onto one larger disk? It will reduce noise, heat, dust and of course electricity bills. Johnny Polar Bar would also be grateful.

If you have the option of putting all your music on a NAS my ideal recommendation for your PC would be just to have a M.2 SATA or SSD in the computer for your OS and programs. Then the PC really would be whisper quiet. You could set up your NAS so you can access your music from any smart device at home and even when out of the house.

You didn't post a budget for a prospective build so I thought I would provide some things to consider rather than a suggested spec.

Post back some more requirements if you decide you do want to buy a replacement computer rather than fix this issue and persevere with your existing PC.

Frank100
 
Thanks to both members for their reply

Take the point on optical audio output which may be the way forward. The problem was not from interference it was literally as resources were gobbled up by Firefox the MediaMonkey output became distorted or stretched unpleasantly. Previous PC had a decent Audigy card fitted new one a cheaper one but still decent spec and I nver experienced it whilst using Win 7 so i may vene revert one old machine and keep it as the music production unit. If I do replace then I was palnning on sending the sound all around the house by a wifi or ethernet system and so need it to be rock steady. Also take the point on pc noise (my sone is into high end gaming and has had all manner of water cooled beasties) but again this has not been a issue.

Budget wise I was looking at circa 1500 for the new machine but also considering the option of making one machine a pure much production system and putting the work and games onto another.

Will probably formally link the the hard drives at some point it just happened as I bought an initial 128 Gb and then replaced it with a 500 Gb as the collection grew. Then as prices dropped and Grateful Dead concerts accumulated I added another 1, 1.5 and 2 Tb through a USB hub. There is a lot of duplication as back up but it is not a RAID setup.

Will investigate the board with optical options. Cheers for the response

John
Not Quite Dead
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
If I read between the lines in your posts it would seem that you'd be happy with your existing PC if things were as stable as they were with Windows 7? Your issue seems to be that Windows 10 doesn't seem to suit your (old) PC?

Since you seem to have no special needs for a more powerful PC than you have now it seems to me that your best option is to go back top Windows 7. Presumably that was the OS it originally came with? If Windows 7 does all you need then I'd recommend going back to that. That would be a no-cost option for you too... :)
 
This is a valid point and I am looking at a dual boot setup to see if I can have the best of both worlds. However I do like 10 (as much as you ever like an OS) and I suspect that 7 will be difficult to keep secure and use with future software updates as it gets ver longer toothed. The part that I find perplexing is that it does not seem to be a wider issue and that it is not possible to kepp one process stable whatever elese is going on. My disk being continually indexed is of very little use to me and I have already suspended or removed all the waiting to update monitor programs. I may just separate the music from the rest and use my phone as a remote. Cheers
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
There's always Linux. Maybe Ubuntu, or Lubuntu if that's too much for your aged PC. That said, even an old and weak CPU like an FX series should be more than fine for Windows 10 and casual use, even casual gaming.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
This is a valid point and I am looking at a dual boot setup to see if I can have the best of both worlds. However I do like 10 (as much as you ever like an OS) and I suspect that 7 will be difficult to keep secure and use with future software updates as it gets ver longer toothed. The part that I find perplexing is that it does not seem to be a wider issue and that it is not possible to kepp one process stable whatever elese is going on. My disk being continually indexed is of very little use to me and I have already suspended or removed all the waiting to update monitor programs. I may just separate the music from the rest and use my phone as a remote. Cheers

It is certainly true (from what we see on here) that a slow hard disk is a big problem for Windows 10. Hard disks are always the biggest performance issue in almost any PC.

You can turn off disk indexing in Windows 10 in much the same way that you turned it off in Windows 7.

I'm not trying to put you off buying a new PC but, purely from a cost point of view, it may be that you have cheaper options? If you think that your existing HDD is the problem then adding a cheap and smallish SSD for Windows and programs would be cheaper than a new PC and might give your existing rig a couple of more years of useful life?
 
Thanks guys for the further suggestions, only just checked back in, the joys of a batch of night shifts. May try the linux route as there are a couple aimed at music recording and reproduction. I have disbled most of search functions or set them to low so will dig deeeper. I am beginning to think the disks will be converted to a single duplicate array and clipped on to a system to stream around the house. This will leave me losing at backgammon to pc and internet alike.
 
An update in case any one is suffering the same problem. I did a selective disable or uninstall on various programs to see what efficiency I could get and it turned out to be quite simple. I replaced Zone Alarm (which I like and have used for aeons) with the Win 10 version built in and I am currently listening to music, playing cards, 6 tabs open on Firefox and CPU usage is under 20% most of time and memory 58% and stable. I assume ZA was intereacting with something else on system but happy days and I can spend the computer money on a new Seiko Samurai, which I do obviously need in case one of the other 20 has a moment.
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
An update in case any one is suffering the same problem. I did a selective disable or uninstall on various programs to see what efficiency I could get and it turned out to be quite simple. I replaced Zone Alarm (which I like and have used for aeons) with the Win 10 version built in and I am currently listening to music, playing cards, 6 tabs open on Firefox and CPU usage is under 20% most of time and memory 58% and stable. I assume ZA was intereacting with something else on system but happy days and I can spend the computer money on a new Seiko Samurai, which I do obviously need in case one of the other 20 has a moment.

Ah that's good work.

I'd also recommend downloading the free version of Malwarebytes Antimalware and run that once a month/every couple of weeks.

I like Defender and it's integration into Windows and some of the management tools from Microsoft but I still like to have a third party occasionally take a look over things as well :)
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
This is what we like :) Problems being solved and perfectly functional hardware being kept in service is always the best outcome!

I'm sure that CPU should keep ticking along for some time. Watching system resources is smart, but it sounds like you don't need to be too hands-on with it now. And I'm about done for timepiece puns.
 
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