New recording PC incoming....

Snap · March 2020

After months of procrastinating, I've finally ordered a new set up to dedicate to recording. Hadn't realised, but my current one is 5 years old, on it's second motherboard and is very much creaking at the seams.

Here's the main info on what's coming from PC Specialist

Case	FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 1030
1st Storage Drive	2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply	CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-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

Snap · March 2020

And then I have the "joy" of installing all my various software.

Part of my is thinking this will be great: a fresh ordered set up, of only stuff I use and need.

Then I start to think about how long it will take...….Komplete Ultimate itself is huge, never mind everything else.....

I'll note how long it takes, and what I end up with etc, should anyone be interested.

World of pain or cathartic rejuvenation awaits?????

Strangefan · March 2020

Now that will a beast........ Graphics card is f@#&ing awful tho....... Says the gamer in me

Snap · March 2020

ha!

I thought about getting a better graphics card, but it's not for gaming at all, and this card is near silent, which is the main thing. Last thing I wanted was a big card with a fan on it.

My gaming days are well behind me.

Strangefan · March 2020

Snap said:

ha!
I thought about getting a better graphics card, but it's not for gaming at all, and this card is near silent, which is the main thing. Last thing I wanted was a big card with a fan on it.
My gaming days are well behind me.

Pah I'm 40 and I love my pc gaming

never too old

midiman1962 · March 2020

This is a helpful post as i need to embrace a new set up which i too have been procrastinating about.
Just out of interest, what is your DAW ?
I'm a Cubase person (back to Atari 1 meg days!)

Snap · March 2020

Strangefan said:

Snap said:

ha!
I thought about getting a better graphics card, but it's not for gaming at all, and this card is near silent, which is the main thing. Last thing I wanted was a big card with a fan on it.
My gaming days are well behind me.

Pah I'm 40 and I love my pc gaming never too old

I just don't have the time any more. If I get a bit of spare time, I would rather do music. I used to be into gamin quite a bit, but just can't be arsed anymore. Doesn't really hold my attention like it used to.Mind you, Call of Duty series was great, loved that.

@midiman1962 - I currently use Sonar Platinum, but it's no longer supported and has been morphed into Cakewalk by Bandlab, which is now free. I'll be putting Cakewalk on the new system as I'm familiar with it and have used it for donkey's years.

Tbh, most DAWs are as good as each other, for most people. Each one has it's quirks and positives/negatives, but IMO it's all about how you get on with it and if it does or does not hamper you.

Sonar was a bit glitchy but the new version is supposed to be a lot more reliable. We shall see.

I've got Reaper too, but don't really get on with it. I considered Logic Pro, but I can't be arsed putting in the time to learn a new DAW.

If I was starting afresh it would be a choice between Reaper and Cakewalk, as they are free and well featured. I don't think any hobbyist needs to shell out good money for a DAW anymore. Most of the fancy features will never get used.

oaf · March 2020

Looks great! I have a Threadripper setup and have been very pleased with it.

Freebird · March 2020

If you are using Windows 10 I would look into optimising it, or installing one of the other versions.

thegummy · March 2020

Same CPU I plan on getting, it's really a belter for audio.

Definitely zero point getting a better graphics card when you're not gaming, would be totally redundant.

I'm the same as you with gaming, any spare time I have I spend doing music.

Actually was recently off work sick for half a year and played a lot of Borderlands which was thoroughly enjoyable but not as much as music and now I'm back to the real world and have to choose.

Ultimately, games are enjoyable but at the end there's nothing to show for it whereas with music, even if it's just practicing, the skill has improved.

Hope you enjoy it mate.

midiman1962 · March 2020

Snap said:

Strangefan said:

Snap said:

ha!
I thought about getting a better graphics card, but it's not for gaming at all, and this card is near silent, which is the main thing. Last thing I wanted was a big card with a fan on it.
My gaming days are well behind me.

Pah I'm 40 and I love my pc gaming never too old

I just don't have the time any more. If I get a bit of spare time, I would rather do music. I used to be into gamin quite a bit, but just can't be arsed anymore. Doesn't really hold my attention like it used to.Mind you, Call of Duty series was great, loved that.
@midiman1962 - I currently use Sonar Platinum, but it's no longer supported and has been morphed into Cakewalk by Bandlab, which is now free. I'll be putting Cakewalk on the new system as I'm familiar with it and have used it for donkey's years.
Tbh, most DAWs are as good as each other, for most people. Each one has it's quirks and positives/negatives, but IMO it's all about how you get on with it and if it does or does not hamper you.
Sonar was a bit glitchy but the new version is supposed to be a lot more reliable. We shall see.
I've got Reaper too, but don't really get on with it. I considered Logic Pro, but I can't be arsed putting in the time to learn a new DAW.
If I was starting afresh it would be a choice between Reaper and Cakewalk, as they are free and well featured. I don't think any hobbyist needs to shell out good money for a DAW anymore. Most of the fancy features will never get used.

@Snap i did try and wean myself from Cubase to reaper but just couldn't get my head round the midi set up in reaper - thanks for the bandLab commect - useful

Lodious · March 2020

@Snap ; I'd be interested to find out how much of a performance upgrade it is, my PC is about 5 years old, and I've been wondering if I should upgrade.

Snap · March 2020

@Lodious - oh very much so, so will I mate!! It's cost me a few quid so I am expecting it to rip through stuff. This system now (i7, but 2015) is dropping audio and suffering performance loads. Especially once i put a few juicy plugins in. Omnisphere is the main culprit. Often I have to bounce a track to audio just to remove the CPU drag.

Looking forward to seeing how it runs, esp with the OS on a M2 drive.

5 years is a long time to run a PC really. Mine is on all day every day, so this one has done well. Had a new motherboard in it last year, but apart from that it's been pretty good. Only a matter of time before something fatal goes though. Can't complain though, it's done well. This one was PC Specialist build too.

Snap · March 2020

It has arrived. Once all set up, I will report back on performance etc. Hoping it will be slick and fast, if not, I will be gutted!

thegummy · March 2020

Snap said:

It has arrived. Once all set up, I will report back on performance etc. Hoping it will be slick and fast, if not, I will be gutted!

With that amazing processor it'll be pretty much as fast as a DAW can currently be!

If it still doesn't satisfy you you've become spoiled by technology :P

I'm looking forward to you reporting back though. I'm going for the same CPU and I already know it will be very very fast but I wonder if it'll be to the point of being able to run the whole of my heaviest project in real time at low latency with no rendering. If it does it means I'll never need a new PC until they make big advances in available software.

Which would be a good thing because it's not like the old days where computers were getting much faster every year, it's reaching limits now. Thankfully for us, adding cores is the way they're upping things now and that's beneficial for multi-track work.

Snap · March 2020

ha, well yes, I suppose I would be a tech brat if not happy.

Last night got set in to get this beast all up and running. Wouldn't work. No signal to the monitors. Proper monk on was had.

quick call to tech support and after a bit of faffing, found that the graphics card wasn't seated right. All working now. So, a bit of delay to getting going. So I did a short track on the old PC in about an hour, as a sort of swan song....!

Snap · March 2020

btw, the CPU is absolutely massive! Incredibly quiet though, so it's worth considering getting the quiet fans as it will no doubt need a fair bit of cooling.