A good day to all!
I'm upgrading my hardware to a 6-core system and I'm preparing to rebuild my DAW OS around it. The related hardware thread can be found in the System Builders Anonymous sub forum here.
Question 1:
Currently I run a dual-boot system with my office applications on one boot and Cubase, Sonar, and other audio applications on the other boot. The ideas was to separate the DAW from all the day-to-day flotsam and the defrags, backups, and antivirus scheduled processes. This has worked well for me, but it's a hassle keeping two systems updated and I'm beginning to wonder if it's even necessary anymore with a new 6-core SB-E processor and 64 GB of RAM running either Windows 7 or Windows 8.
I'm thinking of building one partition for all my stuff, Office, internet, and DAW combined. What do you think?
Question 2:
I've been using Windows 8 lightly (RP and RTM trial). It seems to perform just fine for audio work (at least for the light testing that I've been doing) and I think there may be a good new opportunity to develop and sell RT apps in the future. Some of the tools under the hood of Win 8 are actually pretty good, and I just realized that I'm not looking forward to going back to my Windows 7 systems while I wait for Win 8 to be officially released in October.
Given my interest in possibly developing apps and the fact that I've mostly stopped whining about the Metro interface, what do you think about going all-in for Win 8?
Question 3:
I do plan to run a multiboot system so that I can have access to the other OSs for things like running antivirus on a friend's infected hard drive, reviewing my web pages for proper look and feel on older browsers, etcetera. I would also like to build the latest version of 64 Studio and have that available for content creation. So I need an overall multiboot plan that makes other systems easily available but also protects their partitions while their related systems are dormant.
Do any of you build a sort of "service system" that contains repair, backup, or antivirus tools? Maybe on the first primary partition of your main hard drive? Or would I be better off just maintaining such a system on a hot-swap removable hard drive? Any ideas on this would be appreciated.
My old system is nearly 6 years old, so I'm excited to be getting started on this project. Thanks in advance!