Music Production New PC Build

M

musicprodpc

Member
Hey All,

Looking to assemble the ideal music production machine and have put together these specs:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB 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 (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
250GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet 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 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

Price: £1,745.00 including VAT and Delivery

Hardest parts to decide on were the case, cooling and power supply as I know the least about these but picked the ones above as they seemed to be the quietest options and looked enough to stop overheating.

Appreciate any thoughts on if I've overlooked anything or if there's a better option for audio production.

Thanks.
 
M

musicprodpc

Member
Just bumping as this is my first PCS build and looking for some advice on the case and cooling components and whether they will work for this setup?
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Sorry for the delay.

The case is perfect for Audio, it's a great case.

The only changes I would suggest would be:

Mobo, up it to the Strix as the 5900x requires really solid VRM's.

RAM, there have been compatibility issues with 4 x 8Gb at 3600MHz, leading to instability. It may be better to configure 2 x 16Gb

GPU, you can happily reduce this to the GT1030 which will be more than enough.

Drives, what's your reasoning behind the 250Gb SATA SSD? The other two are great. I would always recommend an HDD in the build to keep as storage. SSD's fail catastrophically without warning, you don't want data stored on an SSD.

PSU is great. The RMx is semi passive so fans only kick in when under extreme load, so pretty much 100% of the time, it will be dead silent.

Cooler, you really have to have a minimum of the H100i Platinum on that CPU.

Up the wifi card to the next one up as it supports dual band and modern connectivity standards. The one you have is very old and not recommended.

Otherwise it's spot on! (y)
 
H

Heartfeltdawn

Active member
As a music build, it's fine. Dunno what type of music you're doing, if it's first steps into Ableton then it's absolute overkill but you can be sure that you won't be running out of CPU with this one.

Things I'd change:

Graphics card: something passive and basic and Radeon ideally. Even consider going secondhand and installing it yourself. Why? The dreaded DPC latency and NVIDIA issue. It's better than it used to be however. Passive NVIDIA if needs be which will help keep things quiet.

The drive situation needs sorting. In the modern world of SSDs, there is far less need to have separate OS and apps/samples drives. On mine I go with a 1TB NVMe for everything and utilise my Pcloud account for system backups and sharing stuff between computers. For you, I'd go 1TB NVMe and an external drive for backup.

CPU fan is a win.

Pony up for W10 Pro and get the latest 20H2 version installed. My tests this week on both my i5-8300H and R5 3600 machines say that it's the best W10 in terms of DPC latency for ages.
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
Heartfeltdawn said:
I said it was my preference, that's all. I'm wrong. No need for a mod pile in. This is why you're mods and I'm a pleb! :)
Click to expand...
As keen tech enthusiasts, if there's something we don't know about (like the recent 'four sticks of RAM/5000 series AMD CPU benefits' enlightenment we recently had), we're always keen to be educated. Or to debunk...

That's why we'd tend to hone in on statements such as your earlier comment about Windows 10 Pro.

EDIT - @ubuysa is the more fleet-fingered of the two of us, evidently.
 
H

Heartfeltdawn

Active member
Then I'm happy to take it all back and inform the gent that W 10 Home is indeed the way forward :)

The advice on 20H2 does stand though. Cracking when it comes to DPC latency. Not like the problems I and others had with 1903.
 
M

musicprodpc

Member
Thanks for the feedback here @SpyderTracks and @Heartfeltdawn

This machine will be used for advanced production and running a lot of CPU heavy plugins so I don't think anything is overkill. Happy to increase in areas if there's room for improvement.

I've made the changes suggested and swapped out the RAM to a slower type to avoid instability, swapped the SSD to a HDD to use as a backup drive, and downgraded the graphics card to a GT1030
- would this still allow me to plug in two monitors?
- and is the AMD Radeon RX 550 a more stable option? I didn't understand what was meant about the nvidia causing latency

This is now the new build:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 1030
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB 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
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/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 H100i RGB PLATINUM 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
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]


Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.
 
H

Heartfeltdawn

Active member
@musicprodpc

DPC latency is evil. The mods could give you a far better technical explanation that I could. From the musician's point of view, too much DPC latency means your audio will suffer pops and clicks. You can reduce it if you know what bits of the PC you should tweak but it can take time.

"This machine will be used for advanced production and running a lot of CPU heavy plugins so I don't think anything is overkill. Happy to increase in areas if there's room for improvement."

-What audio interface are you going with?
 
M

musicprodpc

Member
Heartfeltdawn said:
@musicprodpc

DPC latency is evil. The mods could give you a far better technical explanation that I could. From the musician's point of view, too much DPC latency means your audio will suffer pops and clicks. You can reduce it if you know what bits of the PC you should tweak but it can take time.

"This machine will be used for advanced production and running a lot of CPU heavy plugins so I don't think anything is overkill. Happy to increase in areas if there's room for improvement."

-What audio interface are you going with?
Click to expand...
Ok interesting, I'd have thought that would be a sound card issue (adjusting buffer size etc), definitely want to avoid any issues in that area. I use an RME Babyface Pro.
 
H

Heartfeltdawn

Active member
Excellent soundcard choice. I'm using a Babyface Pro FS and an SPL Crimson.

Desktops generally don't have so many DPC problems as laptops in my experience so you should be fine.
 
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