Audio workstation + some video creation + gaming build

[sonro]

Hi there,

I am trying to get a well balanced setup for multiple uses. This will replace my old workhorse of a MacBookPro and hopefully my PS4.

USES:

• Primary: Audio workstation - mainly using Cubase and Abelton. Single threaded performance is key here. I also develop audio software.
• Secondary: Video content creation/editing - mainly for product demos/tutorials.
• Tertiary: Gaming - not a priority, but with a good graphics card I will probably play some Counter Strike, Warzone and some new games.

MONITOR:

• Getting a new one for this build
• £500 budget
• 27", 144Hz, 2560 x 1440
• ASUS TUF VG27AQ / MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD / any other suggestions

BUDGET:

• £2000 - £2500 (not including monitor)

INFO:

• Going to dual boot with linux for additional development work/snobbery.
• External Soundcard/Audio interface: Steinberg UR-44C
• 32GB Ram for Sample librariers and Virtual Machines.
• Windows 10 Pro for VM support

QUESTIONS

• Processor: From my research the 5800X looks good but is the 5900X worth the price increase?
• Motherboard: This board looks the most future proof for further upgrades without going overboard, would there be one more suited to my needs?
• Case/extra cooling: I am really lost here. If I can reduce the noise of the PC then that would be great. Extra fans/different cases - what are good options?
• Any other spec changes: Please let me know your advice on any other component.

Thank you for taking the time to look over my queries.

Case
BE QUIET! BASE 601 TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Price: £2,399.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/!AQuuykuZc/

 

[sonro]

Bump,

Updated power supply, from further research it seems 750W is a good number and the RMx series are high quality.

Crossgraded cooler from H115i to H100x as it boasts quieter fans. Not sure I need the 280mm radiator for the 5800x.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Youve got an old cooler design in there, I would switch to the H115 RGB XT Pro or Cappilix (spelling) ones, and 850W on the PSU is a happier number, and leaves a little spare for future upgrades.

If the fractal design 7 is in stock, I think that would be the recommended case as well. Might be worth buying and sending it in?
Not sure what other tweeks there might be, other than perhaps the storage options. Its a healthy budget so you should be able to tune it quite nicely.

 

[MrWilson]

Hi there,
Sorry we've missed this post. You've done a really good job with the build, and outlining the use case. I've only made a couple of adjustments.
Case-wise, the Be Quiet should be solid. Another option is ordering the Fractal Define 7 case from elsewhere and sending it in, but the Be Quiet should be fine. (Looks like @sibun1 agrees with me here!)
For single core performance the 5900x doesn't offer a huge amount over the 5800x for the price increase; it's multithreaded workloads where you'll the most benefit.
Switched out your 970 pro for 1tb PCS m.2, gives you a little extra fast storage for basically the same price.
£4 to upgrade from 750W to 850W is well worth it.
Upgraded your cooler to a newer model. It uses Magnetic Levitation fans so will be nice and quiet.
Solid monitor choices, I'm personally a big fan of the VG27AQ.

Case
BE QUIET! BASE 601 TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £2,437.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/rHJpWACQWT/

 

[sonro]

No worries about missing the post, lots of people asking for help at the moment it seems.

Thanks for the suggestions. Great info on the cooler and my suspicions were correct about the CPU.
Maybe I was being a bit too eager on the 2nd M.2 drive read/write speeds. The one MRWILSON has recommended is over double SATA SSD speeds which is still rather fast.

I have just been reading about the 4x8GB vs 2x16GB ram options. I doubt I will need to upgrade past 32GB total in the near future. Should I go for the 4x8GB for the supposed benefits?

 

[Deleted member 17413]

How far into the future is the question, 4x3600MHz is also problematic atm and (i think) still waiting on a fix from AMD.
If not immediate future, id take the 3600MHz while on two sticks and when you upgrade take 4 x 3200MHz or add two more 3600MHz and underclock the RAM slightly to stabilise it (BIOS option, just drop down a profile on the RAM).
3533MHz is whats been mentioned by mods etc in posts about it.

 

[Martinr36]

No worries about missing the post, lots of people asking for help at the moment it seems.

Thanks for the suggestions. Great info on the cooler and my suspicions were correct about the CPU.
Maybe I was being a bit too eager on the 2nd M.2 drive read/write speeds. The one MRWILSON has recommended is over double SATA SSD speeds which is still rather fast.

I have just been reading about the 4x8GB vs 2x16GB ram options. I doubt I will need to upgrade past 32GB total in the near future. Should I go for the 4x8GB for the supposed benefits?

if you go 4x8 then keep to 3200MHz as there are problems associated with 4 sticks of 3600MHz RAM

 

[Stephen M]

Not sure but may be of interest, Cubase and Ableton are Windows/Mac only I believe but there is some great free and open source software about for music production, Ardour is among the best DAWs.

If you dual-boot with Ubuntu Studio that has a low latency kernel which is much better for music work. Also gives you a chance to try a lot of software but not having to waste money on it.

 

[sonro]

How far into the future is the question

I think 32GB should cut it for at at least 3 years. One benefit of 64GB would be 4K video editing, which is not a use case of mine; I'm doing 2K max. Another would be more audio plugins - in my expiereince CPU is more of a bottleneck here. Finally, sample libraries, this is probably my only real reason to go for 64GB. But its a complete luxury and thus unnecessary for at least 3/4 years.

I'll take the 2x16gb 3600MHz based on this advice. The benefit of 4x8GB at 3200MHz (gaming) doesn't seem to be impactful enough to warrant the slower speed in my main applications.

 

[sonro]

Not sure but may be of interest, Cubase and Ableton are Windows/Mac only I believe but there is some great free and open source software about for music production, Ardour is among the best DAWs.

If you dual-boot with Ubuntu Studio that has a low latency kernel which is much better for music work. Also gives you a chance to try a lot of software but not having to waste money on it.

I already have a licence for both these apps. Nevertheless I have been looking at open source alternatives; in particular Ardour. Thank you for the tip about Ubuntu Studio. Will definately check it out.

 

[Stephen M]

I only dabble with music for fun but have friends who are serious about it and the love Ardour, it is used by a lot of pros.

Jack and Guitarix are good as well, nice to be able to plug a guitar straight into the PC. That said, one of my mates uses his old Vox AC30 amp for most guitar stuff, it is a fantastic amp.

 

[sonro]

I only dabble with music for fun but have friends who are serious about it and the love Ardour, it is used by a lot of pros.

Jack and Guitarix are good as well, nice to be able to plug a guitar straight into the PC. That said, one of my mates uses his old Vox AC30 amp for most guitar stuff, it is a fantastic amp.

I use a handwired AC15 when tracking guitar. They truly are one of the best for amps for recording - your mate has great taste. I mostly work with pre-recorded audio which is why my audio interface isn't too expensive.

 

[sonro]

I have decided to pull the trigger on purchasing today using the spec by @MrWilson. It seems to accomplish all my needs. As I understand it, I am able to change the configuration post-purchase while I wait in the queue for the 3070, is this correct?

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Once you place the order, it will go into processing.
I think its once processing is done and its pre-production (so a day roughly) it then gives you the amend option next to the order when you go into your account. The build sits on preproduction until its turn/all parts are in and then it'll go into building, until that stage theres no amendment fee, just the cost of parts.