Hey, I want to build my very first dedicated Music Production PC.
So I have asked around which parts I need (1200€ Budget, 1500€ max) and some friendly person came up with this:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/AirSeller/saved/#view=H6qCdC
Looks good and all, but I am just afraid of loud fans distracting me from monitoring my music.

Here is another audio PC that comes close to what I want:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/NerdyKyogre/saved/kV7bLk
Is the fan quiet enough for music production?

There is also this site:
https://www.da-x.de
They even offer a 19" Rack version, which would be preferable for me since I don't have much space and a rack, anyhow they overshoot my budget.

How complicated is building a DIY computer with a 19" Rack case compared to a normal one? Does that impact the quietness or whatever... fuck I have no clue when it comes to hardware -.-

Here are the details I want for my PC:
- 64Gb RAM ideally, 32Gb minimum
- CPU should be as fast as possible and suited for music production (dont blow money on features like high turbo boost)
- Maybe a graphics card if on board graphics suck too much (I want to run triple A titles from the past years on lowest settings), again thats just optional for now
- Thunderbolt 3 Port, Idk if TB4 is downwards compatible, just sounds like another headache tbh.
- Small internal SSD
- Mountable on a 19" Rack
- As quiet as possible

 

I would take this one, but with the quiet "PURE BASE 500DX" housing https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/AirSeller/saved/#view=H6qCdC

 

Does quiet housing for 19" mountable Cases also exist?
Do the requirements for fans, motherboard etc. change depending on your PC Case?
Should be more about your mainboard, or not?

As you see I'm a super noob :/

 

Disadvantage of 19":
-less products (and I can't suggest one because they all are not really great)
-not the best fan options (like only 92mm at back instead of bigger and quieter fans)
-the big and silent tower cooler won't fit due to the height (most of those cases use 4HE)
-older products still have USB2.0 ports at front

If you build it yourself, you will have to optimize your fan curves (and spin up/down time). Else your system might run unnecessarily loud even if your system's temps are all good. If your fans run at idle at around 300-400RPM it will be real silent.

 

Just my 2c. I'm sure here are much more experienced guys that will advise you on such a build.

19" cases are super cool looking and all. But regarding the noise - it just goes against the physics. Same cooling solution will be (almost) always more effective in a tower than in a rack. And because of this racks are usually built for performance/space/mounting and not quietness in mind..

That is not to say the do not exist in A/V production environment. Fact is they are usually located in another room or in an AC closet. You can look at the Junkie XL's setup etc..

If by "producer" you mean composer/songwriter, having a PC in the same room is sort of OK. As quiet as possible ofc.

If you mix, let alone master your work (I don't, except for demo purposes), you have to start to think about the room itself, treatment, monitors and all that..

Absolutely. But IMO it is the other way around:

Usually you first choose the motherboard and all the other components (cooling solution inc.) and then pick the case.

 

This rack idea is great, but not feasible. Forget it, as the previous speakers have already described. Many of us have the PC under the desk or next to the desk, the advantage is that it is secure and the cables from the hardware can be connected easily.

I have a Silent PC - the inside is attenuated against noise and a fan control that limits the fan speed. Large 120 mm slow rotating fans are quiet, so that no noise penetrates outside.

The motherboard: MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1200 motherboard is very good.Do you have someone to put it all together?

 

This one looks good. The other one had a motherboard that didn't have Thunderbolt (which you said you wanted) and no M.2. drive, which is a no brainer these days. The case it had might be good for gaming, but not what you want in a studio.

Someone will probably advice you about the GPU issue. My gut feeling is you probably still want an dedicated GPU for memory etc. reasons.

I would go with the Pure Base 500 (no window) case rather than the one linked. It's their cheapest case but it is also said to be the least noisy case money can buy. On the other hand for other reasons I would perhaps look for other more premium case options. It could be a good idea also to go with even beefier power supply. The brand and model are good, but get the 750 or even 850 version. Not because you need more power but because it will help keep the power supply fan from running as much.

To save money, think hard do you really need 64gb of RAM. Probably not. Unless you are working with totally crazy projects, 16gb is ok and 32gb surely more than enough. The motherboard also is very expensive of course. You are paying a lot of money for that thunderbolt. If you don't absolutely need it, you could go with AMD.

It's always a balancing act between noise and temperature. The hotter things get, the more the fans need to spin, which causes noise. The more restricted the airflow is, the quieter and hotter the case is. So you can never really win. The trend is away from cases like the Pure Base 500 (heavy, padded, airflow restricted) and toward the type of high-airflow mesh cases the other PC you linked had.

In my opinion the old school "silent" cases still make more sense in a music studio. Gamers max out their stuff and need to worry about temperature and airflow more. In a music studio you are not straining the GPU and don't want to max out CPU either. You want good amount of "processing headroom" at all times to avoid the otherwise inevitable audio stuttering, cracking etc. Moreover computers make all kinds of bizarre buzzes, chirps and other noises. The "silent" type cases can help you get rid of those. It's not just about the noise level but the type of noise too.

Putting the parts together is not that difficult, but can be very stressful, time consuming and still the results may be less than ideal. Since you have a reasonable budget, I would absolutely pay for build service. Saves you from a lot of headache and potential disaster.

Anyway, those parts will give you a very quiet PC unless you place it right on your desk. If you can put it on the other side of the room, for example, most of the time you will probably not be able to tell whether it is on or off at all.

 

Last edited: Sep 26, 2021

ther are cheap rack cases
like this one
and you have to do the silencing yourself, kits are available in places like caseking or similar
but like all of the posters have said not necessary to go for a specific silent case

here is a amd comp
its a bit cheaper and you could upgrade in 2 years to a 5950x when its way cheaper (and get 16c 32t)

the loudest thing will probably be the GFX Card, i myself have bought a used Quadro (some 2000 variant)
which is, Silent, small and energy efficient (50w)
and therefore, the whole system is very silent, and sips energy.
this could net you some 50-100 bucks over a year(depending on usage)


but with the above system we do Voice-overs and Vocal rec in the same room without a mic picking it up

Only if you do super fine i.e. silent guitar or whisper vocal recording with
a super fine Ribbon mic

 

I put my desktop in a double door Ikea closet next to the desk. The doors are always open at least a crack when I'm recording with a mic and open more fully all other times. The hanging clothing dampens the sound.

Thanks for posting, it reminded me to de-dust the inside of the case and the fans this week.

Silence is golden.

 

Or Spitfire Audios Serverroom
You convinced me, fuck the 19" case for now, I want a normal PC case.

Nope, I am basically just running around clueless like a headless chicken just gathering infos.
How hard is it to build a PC?
I guess my local PC store can help me in the worst case so that's no biggie.

Person on Reddit said onboard graphics are more than sufficient for running DAWs smoothly nowadays. Who to trust :/

32Gb would be okayish, yeah - aren't there multiple RAM slots so I can upgrade later?
I still have flashbacks using my mac machines where you can't upgrade your shit

Damn I need Thunderbolt, is there a cheaper option for the mainboard? I haven't looked at the price of the individual components except CPU&RAM just until now lol.

Would you guys go for the 8 core or 10 core CPU? is the 100€ price difference justified?

Edit 2: this is what I came up so far:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/3Yrs9N
any suggestions?

 

Last edited: Sep 26, 2021

would a USB4 thing work? what do you need Tb for
you can always upgrade later or even exchange things, easy!

normally i ask what do you do and how do you work first
so?

 

Apollo x6 interface

No clue, I just read that TB4 and/or USB4 needs some kind of adapter now too or isn't 100% downwards compatible somehow, made me wanna throw my laptop out of my window instead of wanting to finish that article :D

Hm, except mainboard that one could be the most tricky to swap I guess

 

I'm not sure how good these pc's are for music recording but they can be configured with some excellent parts and do offer some room for your own addons (cards ... etc).

Airtop3 – fit IoT (fit-iot.com)

They're fan-less so I imagine about as quiet as it can get.

I did also hear in a podcast (themixingmusicpodcast) where there is a certain limit to the amounts of cores and ram that you should consider in an audio pc. 8 cores and 64GB ram were their sweet-spot. More ram causes higher cpu usage due to seeking the ram and more cores cause similar "logistics" issues ... something along the lines of "the more of things you have (cores/ram) the more resources are needed to manage them". I don't recall the actual answer they gave but it was something I've thought about since hearing it. I think this is the episode of the podcast, give it a listen for yourself, maybe it will help your choices.

‎Mixing Music | Music Production, Audio Engineering, & Music Business: What's the Best Computer for Audio? | All About Computers with Lu & Henry on Apple Podcasts

 

what do uad say, they always have preferred hardware right?

adapter is not always necessary, it depends on power usage i believe.

what is the stress about? are you on a deadline?
make a list and go from there, stress is just a consequence of
unordered thoughts.

 

intel thunderolt on AMD board, this should be save for uad!!
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Creator/index.asp

and a new list with a new motherboard
pcpartpicker.com/list/sDZCGq
this is with 2 (intel) TB4´s

ah i read the quip with onboard grafix
You still need a gpu somewhere, and that can be the CPU itself
like the G series for AMD and i forgot maybe F series for Intel???
but with that, you´ll loose the (heat) efficiency and most likely they wont be 10 core of cpu maybe 8 with amd?

again it all depends on what You are DOING!

 

Last edited: Sep 26, 2021

they are like d-a-x, way too expensive, plus I don't need an iMac sized machine, my space problems aren't that severe

Someone told me that single core performance is key, so as many cores as possible would be good, just don't look for useless options like turbo boost, you need constant power from CPUs for music production.

Well, why do they exist then? And get sold pretty well?

AMD motherboard? I don't want AMD processors cause they cause issues with a lot of things, from software to my interfaces DSP, are their motherboards just as bad? I hope not...

Ah nevermind, ofc an AMD board can only run AMD processors, like yeah sorry thats not going to happen, i love preventing myself some headaches ^^'

 

hmmm..... i run an uad octo (pcie) on my end, no problems here
its up to you BUT, there wont be an upgrade as big as a 5950x for an intel system later.

 

Don't panic, the main thing is that everything fits together. Before you order, you can show your PC dealer your shopping list, whether it all fits together, give him a few euros. I would have your dealer put everything together. He does it every day and it does it quickly and safely - it may cost 1 hour of wages.

 

If you want silence, use the Fractal Design Define R5 or similar. One without a window plus the sound dampening material

And an AIO Watercooler like the Liquid Freezer II 360