Hi,
Well, if you want to utilise 32Gb of RAM, then you’ll have to have a 64bit OS, as 32bit Windows will not address anywhere near that amount, even if it is installed. The only downside to 64bit OS and 64bit Cubase is simply that some older VSTi’s will need a “bridge” to work - sometimes! Some 32bit VSTi’s seem to open up fine in 64bit Cubase, but some/most don’t.
I recently built a new DAW over the Christmas period and settled for an Asus P8Z77-V Pro motherboard. Others are available in the P8Z77 family, which have different PCIe card slot configuarations. Either an Intel i5-3570 or i7-3770 should be high on your shopping list with a few sticks of decent RAM. I used a liquid-cooling option for my CPU (Antec Kuhler 620) as a standard heatsink can hit the nearest RAM stick if you’re not careful. This is all mounted into an Antec 300 case with an OCZ Agility 3 SSD running everything at the moment!!
Superb performance…very pleased with it all to be honest.
Regards,
Neil.