Lot's of new stuff about, time to bring my rickety old system up to date with a bit of an overhaul. Thought you might like to join me in the process of building a brand spanking new system for music making with the latest Intel Core i5 processor and the all new Windows 7. I'm going to split it up into parts to make it more manageable and spread it over a few days:

Part 1 – Preparation
Part 2 – Building the computer
Part 3 – Installing Windows 7
Part 4 – Transferring Everything across
Part 5 – Installing music software and hardware

So, without further ado here comes the least exciting but the most vital bit – the preparation.

Preparation

It's worth giving this a bit of thought because we're not only building a new system we're also adding a new operating system so there's no end of trouble we could run into if we don't make a few preparations before jumping in.

You can of course stick with your old hardware, maybe upgrade the RAM or something and then use the upgrade version of Windows 7 and install it over the top of Vista – bad idea, and if you're running XP then you can't do that anyway. I would strongly recommend starting with a fresh install whenever you feel like upgrading anything. It's like cleaning out your cupboards, hoovering your car out, changing to a new boyfriend or girlfriend – it's an opportunity to get shot of a load of rubbish and start again with something cleaner, tidier, sexier. My system tends to acquire all sorts of rubbish over time – like in trying to convert a youtube video into a format I can use, I can end up installing 6 bits of shareware to try to get the conversion to work for free. Or simply that all those files and programs, music and samples, bits and bobs end up all over the place and you have a desktop like your real desktop – a complete mess – maybe that's just me. Starting from scratch is thoroughly good for the soul.

So, moving to a new system I'm going to want to know what I want to take with me from my old system. Let's try Microsoft's Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor which should tell you what on your system is compatible. Ok, well that was a waste of time, it found like 17 of the hundreds of bits of software I have installed and only three of those were music related so Sony CD Architect, IK Amplitube and Sonic Synth get the thumbs up from Microsoft, the rest is anyone's guess. It did however tell me that it had no clue about my M-Audio Delta audio or my HP printer and completely ignored my Powercore, however, my Korg Kontrol 49 keyboard was a real winner.

So, let's do it by hand then. Make a list of the completely vital bits of software you need on your new machine – ignore anything you rarely use and you'll probably find you don't need it. Once you have your list check to see if any of it is compatible with Windows 7. If the manufacturer doesn't really specify, or if it says it's good with Vista then it's more than likely going to work, hopefully. Next, find the install disks or the download and find the product keys or serial numbers that came with them – everything you need to install it.

Just for added annoyance I'm installing the 64bit version to take advantage of more RAM and potentially better performance but this might be a problem for some software and hardware.

Here's my list for interest sake with any known compatibility info and it's all currently running on Vista 32.

Software

Best place to view this is in Add/Remove Programs (XP) or Programs and Features (Vista):

Ableton Live 7 – Nothing official – some reports of it working on Win7 but suggest running in Vista Compatibility Mode for best performance.
Adobe Photoshop ye olde Version 7 – unknown
Artisteer 2 – Good and bad reports
Arturia  V Collection - unknown
IK Multimedia Total Studio Bundle 2 – website says “Vista and later”
Ipswitch WS_FTP Pro 2007 – Reported problems
Jalbum 8.0 – good and bad reports
Linden Labs Second Life – reported problems
LogMeIn - good and bad reports
MacDrive 8 – Full support, hooray!
Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 – anyone's guess
Movie Looks Vegas HD - unknown
Mozilla Firefox – reported bugs
Mozilla Thunderbird – trouble, suggests using compatibility mode
Napster – good reports
Native Instrument Komplete 6 – looking good
OpenOffice 3 – Not officially supported but runs ok
Picasa 3 – Full support, hooray!
Propellerheads Reason 4 - unknown
Quickbooks Pro 2006 – Not supported
Sony CD Architect 5.2 – Microsoft says yes!
Sony DVD Architect Pro 4.5 - unknown
Sony Sound Forge 8 – good and bad reports
Sony Vegas Pro 8 – good and bad reports
Spotify – looking good
Steinberg Cubase 5 – looking good
SwishMax – looking good
Syncrosoft License Control – now eLicenser with full support, hooray!
Valve Steam – looking good, some problems with individual games

Hardware

M-Audio Delta 44 – Not currently compatible although i'm on the beta test program so it might work but I couldn't possibly tell you about it
TC Electronics Powercore – Currently in development but the beta is looking good apparently.
Korg Kontrol 49 – Microsoft certified, hooray!
Novation Nocturn – unknown
HP Color Lazer Printer – unknown
Wacom Tablet – Compatible, hooray!
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS - Full support, hooray!

I have to say I'm pretty unimpressed by the lack of information available from most of the manufacturers. The beta and release candidate version has been around for a year and now the real thing is released and only a few have anything to say about it. Not even a note saying “should be fine” or “seems to work, full support coming soon” or even “working on it”. It's a bit pathetic. Still, it makes this install all the more interesting and it might mean that I get to use the virtual XP mode.

The last thing to do is decide how to move all my data. There's going to be a load of stuff knocking about, pictures, music, files and such that's probably not very organised so this is a great opportunity to sort that out. I'll got three drives in my current system, one with Windows on and general files, then one 250GB full of audio projects and another 250GB full of video. I'm going to physically move the two 250GB drives into the new system to use as backup and install a couple of nice new 1TB drives to give me a load more space. That's by far the easiest way to move the data across. Other files and things like email and address books will have to moved manually and we'll look a that in part 4.

So now i've got my disks and found my serial numbers so i'm ready to build this new system. Here's a tip that will save you hours of heart ache – don't destroy your old machine. If you are building a new machine keep your old machine working and ready to go in case you need it for downloading drivers, or searching for solutions or running software that's not working on your new machine. I always have my last computer sitting along side my current one just in case. In the past I've used it to run older plug-ins that wouldn't run on Vista and connected them up with the marvellous FX Teleport. And occasionally there's a file I can't find or some piece of misplaced software that turns up on my old system – it's very very handy. My current “old” system will have to finally get dismantled, put in a box and hopefully go to a deserving cause to be replaced by my current and about to be “old” system. The difficulty is in finding a space of time where I can dismantle and rebuild my current machine, and then build a new one and get it all set up before I start suffering from email withdrawal..... tricky.

All prepared and ready to go. In part 2, which will be along as soon as I've done it, we'll get the Core i5 out of its box and get the system built ready for the installation of Windows 7...