Hello there fellow musicians

Unfortunately my creative mind does not make up for my lack of knowledge about specs.

Any help/advice would be appreciated guys !

I've just got about done bringing my dekstop case to the hardware shop. And i've planned to get my pc rebuilded using these parts.

CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K

Motherboard: MSI Z390-A PRO

RAM: 4X8 Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHZ CL16 1.35v (32gb in total)

Video/Graphics Card: MSI GeForce GT 130 2GHD4 LP OC 2GB

The rest:

Power: Corsair Builder series vs650 650watt

Ssd: 2x crucial BX500 480GB 2.5" 3D NAND

Hdd: 2 regular ones around 1tb - 450 gb (i think)

Cooler: Cooler Master MasterAir MA410M RGB

Case: Cooler Master N400

______________________________________________
These parts in combination with the cooler and more results in the total price.

My question really is, did i make the right choices ? Regarding these specs ?

Am i likely able to run multiple effect plugins and vst's without my computer/cpu choking up and freezing this way? That would be my aim.

I chose this intel processor even tough its a i-5, because of the single thread performance.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

I have like 10 to 12 days to make changes to these specs if this would be advised by any of you fellers.

Thank you guys! <3

 

Last edited: Feb 22, 2019

You have to do what you have to do. On the same budget, you do have the option to pass on that graphics card and settle for 16gb ram. You could get the i7 9700k. That chip with the onboard graphics fairs better. You'd be up and running, and still have the door open to add more ram (if necessary), graphics card, etc. later on rather than breaking bread to replace the cheaper components with better ones. It's best if you can draw the map where you target buying something "once". If you stick to your initial plan.. it will work. But then it will only make economic sense to stick with that configuration until you want to do another complete build 3-5yrs later.

 

@dbmuzik

Thank you for reaching out brother!

My Gameplan indeed is as you mentioned, i had to do what i had to do and make an investment that isnt necessarily light on the wallet.

But will pay off in the pc's lifecycle of 4-5 years without me having to break a sweat really, or worry about my app freezing up and the system potentially crashing due to massive numbers of Fx and Vst's.

I will definitely scrap the i5-9600K for the i7-9700k you mentioned. If this make the difference in the cpu being able to handle pretty big sophisticated and complex projects.

I will most likely replace that. As far as the 32 gig ram goes. It might be senseless spending or a overkill. I honestly am not sure. seen mentions of it being helpful and the other way around

Thank you alot for your advice!

 

The most important thing is to buy without Windows 10 usually they selling PCs with Windows 10 Home.
For music production we strictly use Windows LTSB 2016 v1607 with registry & other tweaks.
The cleanest and best is Enterprise LTSB 1607.

Doesn't matter how good is your build you will get pops and cracks with ASIO anyway.

 

@PartyShit

I was making a big deal at the shop
About me not wanting windows 10 and how id love to stick to windows 7. Unfortunately they didnt sell any older ones. I imagine most plugins used with keygens and the likes of those would probably not work on 10 . Im not sure how to downgrade back to 7 or the versions your mentioning? Any idea on what i could do?

(I can live with Asio pops and cracks as long as my system or app doesnt get brainfucked/freeze up)

 

@dbmuzik

Working on switching the i5 9600k with the i7-9700k

 

I would also recommend win 10 ltsb 2016. Best windows I had since xp.
Your ram choice: if you're planning to load a lot of sample stuff (ie Kontakt) The 32gb might be fine, if you're more the virtual instrument guy, go for 16gb, that would be more than enough.
Always buy pairs, as this is needed for dual channel ram. So 2x8 for 16gb or 4x8 for 32. Don't go for 2x16, you definitely will never have 64gb in that computer, you will have that in your next computer and you'll need to buy other modules then. And atm 2x16 is more expensive.
That one ram company I never had a bad module (even at the companies I worked at) was Kingston.
Your cpu choice: are you sure you need the 'k'? Do you want to overclock? No overclock no 'k' needed. Cinebench's CPU benchmark is (IMHO) a good way to check out vsti performance of a cpu. Google the benchmark results. i7 is way more expensive than i5, yet there is not that much difference. The i7 has 2 threads per cpu core, the i5 one. Looks cool in Task Manager, but you might pay twice the price for maybe 20% more performance.

 

@Plendix

This reply was very insightful thank you!

Im going for 4x8 Ram by corsair vengeance LPX 3200MHZ 32gb in total . i think this should do?

And ive chosen the i5-9600K based on this list

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

So upgrading to a i7 wouldnt really make alot of difference in terms of cpu performance in FL right? Well I'll ll stick with the current plan then! Thank you friend

 

@Plendix

And oh i have been planning on overclocking for certain projects that might need that extra efforr. I admittedly do not know about overclocking. And I have been warned about me potentially causing the thing to burn.

Want to learn more about that before I try it.

 

For some reason I thought you were going to purchase each thing online and build the PC yourself. It's super easy, and there's "how to build your own PC" videos all over YouTube. I'm on my 3rd PC build, and I'm glad I decided to build my 1st one about 12 years ago. Best way to go. Regardless, if you go the in-store route you can still stick with Win7. Just erase/reformat the drive that has Win10 on it, and install Win7. It sucks having to pay extra for Win10 when you don't intend to use it though. It's always like that if you buy in-store.

 

musicians still use Fruity Loops ?

 

Unfortunately not tech savvy at all here.

Yes im going to have to cancel that as they charged 90$ for windows 10 home 64bit pre-install

 

Have a look into Xeon Processors as well. They are performing great in the multithreading area and that's why a lot of audio pros use them.

 

Yep, would be 90 bucks down the drain if you don't use it. I've been on Win7 Ultimate 64bit for a long time (no problems). If you got any time, search "how to build a PC" and check a couple videos on YouTube. Trust me, you don't even have to be tech savvy. It's literally just using a screwdriver, and plugging in the existing cables where they go. There's no cutting, measuring, soldering wires, or anything technical. For real, it's more difficult for me to put children's toys together than build a PC.

 

Will def consider thank you

 

decent set,
I'd prefer ASUS mobo as they offer more advanced control over fan speeds (either in bios, or as a windows app)

 

Thank you for recommendation!

 

You can't do that much wrong with overclocking nowadays,
it's not as it was with the first 300mhz celerons we tried to crank up to 450mhz, those had no throttling at all.
today the cpu will start throttling at a certain point, thus getting reeeeally slow and not burn instantly.
But I still strongly advice to google what others did with that cpu and be reasonable.

when you're done overclocking do not forget to check ram
(i use http://www.memtest86.com, it makes a bootstick for that)
not because you overclocked too much, but because you could have gotten an corrupt module and you
won't find that out. you would just experience crashes.

Don't go for watercooling and other fancy overclocking stuff, the money invested will not pay.
Just buy a decent cooler, coolermaster is ok.. but there are better ones for that money
I recommend any Scythe Product ie the Mugen 5 Rev B.

I guess you already got the power supply, right? the corsair is ok, I have one of those round here, but
it's not as silent as a be quiet.
seasonic is an awesome powersupply brand, they're way cheaper than be quiet but of same quality.
but don't trash one you already got, the corsairs are not bad.

concerning your benchmark site: Actually you're not 'that' interested in single core performance.
While (still) a good indicator for gaming, our tracks and plugins spread quite nicely over the cores.

The reason why i recoomend cinebench as a benchmark, is that over the years that one mark always correlated with
what i was able to do with that particular machine.

and it's a good mark to check overclocking. To check if the boost is worth the hassle.
you know... just thinking the machine runs faster.. is like thinking that magic new plugin makes everything sound better
.. you get the idea.

so what can you expect:
my current setup is an i7-8700 with 6 cores. that one does 1393 points.
your i5-9600K does 1072 points, that's awesome for that money, and that's without overclocking.
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/intel-core-i5-9600k-processor-review,7.html

my setup does huge 5.1 projects in nuendo or pro tools, we're talking about like 120 tracks, with about 8 insert plugins
per track and a lot of reverb plugins.
Still it is bored to death. Now there might be a difference to you or other guys: at that stage i don't need low latency any more.
the bore out mode is with 4096samples audio buffer.
But a project like that would work with 256samples.
Now the question is: Do you need to have 32samples buffer all the way through, 'cause you're an totally awsome piano player
and can't work with more than 2 or 3 ms roundtrip latency?
Or would you say "10ms is ok, my timing is'nt that tight".
Or are you more the programming / tracking type, in that case you won't run out of performance for quite some time.

so... cpu... excellent choice.

i had msi boards, they worked fine.. some time ago i liked asus best,
but somehow they got worse over time. my new asus is gigabyte

your gpu: VERY excellent choice. Just had gotten one of those that week. It's a modern core and it stays COLD, not even warm, cold.
It's a good idea not let the cpu do the graphics as it would eat up memory bandwith.
(but i never benched that, maybe there is practicly no impact?...)
but that way you don't have to worry.

The drives... i wouldn't do it that way. i wouldn't go for a 'regular' hd because of the noise.
Why not 2 of those: Sandisk ultra 3d 1tb.
you can partition the first one 512gb (system)/512gb (whatever) and the second one as one data drive.
your choice to have sata ssd for now (instead of the fancy pcie cards on the mainboard) is a good decision.
You won't feel much performance boost but you would pay twice the price.

oh my god i wrote an assay... hope it helps

 

Agreed with most points Plendix has given but do NOT go with the GT 130 graphics card! It will do basically nothing at all, which is probably why it's cold! If you check the benchmark of GT130, https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+130 , you can see it has half the performance of Intel HD 4600m which is the integrated into 4th gen Intel Core cpus... You have the Intel UHD 630 that comes with the i7, which blows GT130 out of mariana trench.

Spend the money on a nice cable!

 

Yes you did. But i rarely learn this much reading !! This was very informative and fun to go over. Thank you friend

if this 2gb gpu stays cold and doesnt make noise. I am all the way for it. Everyone told me to either ditch it or upgrade. But your theory makes sense!!

I am however thinking about upgrading to a i7-8700K or i7-9700k

I bought the corsair 650 watt supply randomly and not even sure that much is needed. So im changing this to one of your mentions!!

Thank you alot!