Hi,
I am a home music producer primarily working with lot of VSTs, FX, etc. and record very little audio.
My PC is very old, I have i-5960x haswell e processor, 3 TB SSd, few external drives, 32 gb DDR4 RAM, gigabyte UD4 motherboard, Audient Id4 audio interface.

I am looking to upgrade my PC. Can someone suggest a new PC build for my kinda usage?
What processor to get?
Should I try GPUs? Not sure what they are and how effective it can be.

Thanks

 

No. You will be wasting your money.

 

Budget?
Reusing drives in new system?
Intel CPU only?

Agree with @clone. GPU audio processing still in early stage of development & adoption. You are better off using a second computer as a DSP processor over a hard wired network connection (various paid & free software for that purpose).

 

yes i would be reusing my SSDs.. But others need replacement.. Can go upto $1500 or a little more.

 

The only thing you'd really need is more RAM, since that's actually pretty good for most things. Keep in mind what the earlier poster said about just offloading some of the DSP to another computer via network. Two mediocre computers running in parallel are actually faster than just one really high end one, i.e. you might be better off just building a second one out of parts that have hit the point of diminished returns, then running all the FX on one and the instrument VSTs on another.

The number of cores matters, but DSP is pretty lightweight compared to anything that's GPU intensive. I was looking into this at some point, and DSP has very much hit the point of diminished returns, i.e. there's a point where you get very little for every extra $1 you spend, and it's relatively low. Keep in mind to avoid comparing a DSP computer to most other "high end" computers, since they're aimed a graphics and you're doing sound. "Technically", you don't even need a GUI for most VSTs, but we like looking at things, so they keep making fancier and fancier looking ones. . . I'm typically pretty suspicious of of VSTs where the major selling point is a GUI feature.

 

your machine is a 8 core 3.0 ghz i7 and still running correctly? I'd get a mac mini with an ethernet port for about 600$, a crossover "like kind" cat5 cable, audiogridder or VEP for software to use one as the DAW computer, and the other to run all plugins. I realize you said PC, but that would cost about half a good gpu; just to throw that out there.

 

how do I offload some of the DSP to another computer via network? Are there any tutorial videos on the same?

 

examples, you can probably find better ones, but you will get the idea. they don't have to be macs:

AudioGridder https://audiogridder.com.

or VEP Vienna Ensemble Pro https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Vienna_Software_Package/Vienna_Ensemble_Pro

 

with new intel processors coming in december, I'd wait to upgrade at least until cyber monday to see if you can score some upgrade deals (if you can wait, which apparently you can ). new mobo/cpu/ram is where you should start though

 

That's what I build some month ago. I'm very happy with it.
Important detail, it uses the new AMD socket, so it will be upgradable at least for next 5 or 8 years.

Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS AMD X670 Zócalo AM5 ATX

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor 4.70 GHz / 5.6 GHz

Installed RAM: 32.0 GB DDR5 6000Mhz

Graphic card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC 12G NVIDIA 12 GB GDDR6 PCIe 5

SSD M.2 2.0 TB WESTERN DIGITAL GREEN NVMe

 

Possible selection of parts for upgrade/build. Added case as an additional option.

• Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor
• ASRock Z790 Pro RS ATX LGA1700 Motherboard
• G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory
• Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler
• Fractal Design Define 7 ATX Mid Tower Case
• Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Two RAM modules should provide better overall system performance & stability while keeping added heat in check.

If you do not like the choice of the AK620, then go with the Noctua NH-D15. Available in black if preferred.

ASROCK has improved reliablity & BIOS over ASUS & Gigabyte as of late. ASROCK Rack is my choice for custom workstation builds.

 

Nahh this is not "fact". I prefer Gigabyte much over ASRock

 

Fact it is. Maybe you are just not aware or, hopefully not, biased towards one brand or another. Had issues with ASUS going back to the first quad core CPUs. One board I had decided to self destruct taking CPU & memory with it.

Recently, both ASUS & Gigabyte have had issues with board components & BIOS settings. ASROCK on the other hand has used the pandemic time period to improve manufacturing & software. They have brought their server/workstation ideology to the consumer/pro-sumer space.

 

NEVER buy something without return on experience.
Motherboard should be out for AT LEAST 1 year to get a real perspective (BIOS, stability, updates ...).

About makers, i'm old enough to remember the "death caps".
See the names in the list ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

 

i wouldn't do it for a couple more years and then maybe gets some sh*t off aliexpress (with like xeon processors or some motherboard with a laptop cpu embedded, they seem pretty good right too)

 

To be quite honest, the specs you laid out for your current machine should in most cases be more than adequate for doing audio production work. You can increase (if the hardware allows) your RAM to 64GB (or 128GB) which should cover anything you would ever do audio wise. If you are having playback issues (artifacts like pops/crackles) I would suggest updating your audio sub-system to a RME baby/fireface or similar quality device. You might also look into optimizing your system for audio production. Regardless of whether you're running Win7, 8, 10, or 11 none of those systems can do audio production smoothly without some kind of optimization (goes for apple as well).

IF, you would be working with video as well as audio on that machine I would recommend an NVidia RTX GPU (or if you have the $$ a Quadro) using the absolute latest driver package and firmware. AMD GPU's suck ass for video work as there is no CUDA. I just updated my rtx 3070Ti GPU to the latest driver and firmware and did latency tests before and after. The new firmware and driver are now performing well above the norm on win10 for a NVidia GPU regarding latency when doing audio production. If, in your case, it's a NO on the video work, just stick with the integrated video or whatever it is you current use if it's working for you.

 

Which intel processor is coming out? where do I find benchmarks on CPU and how do I read daw benchmark on CPUs?
https://dawbench.com/

 

Is there any comparison chart between intel 13th gen and AMD? What does DDR5 with tight timings mean?

 

Mostly synthetic workload benchmarks outside of audio production. Most modern DAWs work with 16 logical processors. 16 real cores (no hyper-threading/SMT) or 8 cores/8 threads as a maximum. Well designed software uses would it can & ignores the rest.

Search result for AMD vs Intel:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comparison+chart+for+intel+13th+gen+&+AMD+Zen+4+CPUs&t=ffab&ia=web

Tight timings for RAM determine data throughput/latency & RAM stability in relation to other hardware & settings. AMD CPUs work best with tight timings and, Intel CPUs benefit as well.

• DDR5 36-36-36-96 is a tight timing
• DDR5 40-40-36-96 is a loose timing (there are worse than this out there)

 

Last edited: Oct 14, 2023