Music Production PC build

[benmurfinnn]

Hi, I'm new to this custom PC world. I know a decent amount about PC parts - but just wanted to get some more opinions from other producers, Audio engineers ect.
This is the PC quote, what's your thoughts, any changes recommended? Thanks, Ben

 

[JasSpi]

Ben hi. I'm no pc custom expert but have just ordered my own audio workstation pc - aspiring DJ learning Ableton amongst others. I don't have that sort of budget so went for 6 core i5 and 16gb Ram. The rest is peripheral but power supply and cooling are important under heavy strain.

One question though as you are probably more experienced than I in the music game, why Intel and not AMD? I really wanted AMD but had a bad experience with a previous AMD based laptop and my DJ software. From what I can find out online, it seems that AMD processors can have compatibility issues with certain Midi devices and connections. Would you be able to confirm or deny this? I can't find definitive guidance. I just didn't want to take the risk so went Intel again.

Anyway, in my opinion (for what it's worth) having done the research, assuming you have all the usual external audio interfaces, your build should be able to handle most anything. Jason.

 

[Benmurfin]

Hiya mate. I always go with intel, just because I trust their products and I rarely hear an intel chip issue. Also a lot of my buddies use intel so I thought I’d rather just spend that little extra money to be safe.
I’ve heard about the compatibility issues with AMD but stuggle to find anyone that has actually has this issue ever, which makes me think it’s probably just a rumour blown out of proportion.
If you compare the intel chips vs AMD alternative intel are just slightly better in all areas. E.g the core threading speed for the i79700k is 9% faster than AMD’s alternative for the same price range. Another main conflict between AMD and intel in the music sector is the cores - a lot of people think the more cores your processor has is most important, when it’s actually the speed of the cores not the amount (quality not quantity)

When it comes down to it - I think it’s just going with a brand that’s proven many a time they offer good products, where as AMD has only recently been able to keep up with intel. All said, for the right price I wouldn’t hesitate to go with AMD at all, but for my PC build I need a trusted PC which doesn’t let me down half way through a project and I’ve never really had experience with AMD.

 

[Stephen M]

What sort of DAW are you using, if it something like Ardour or any other cross platform software then dual-booting with a Linux Studio distro is a good idea as they all have low latency kernels.

I have heard a few grumbles about AMD and music production but few, if any, specifics and the bottom line is AMD are way out-performing Intel now and likely to for a few years. Added to that is the old architecture of Intel with dreadful thermals and many security vulnerabilities.

You can get a lot of useful info and decent benchmarks from this site: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

 

[SpyderTracks]

What sort of DAW are you using, if it something like Ardour or any other cross platform software then dual-booting with a Linux Studio distro is a good idea as they all have low latency kernels.

I have heard a few grumbles about AMD and music production but few, if any, specifics and the bottom line is AMD are way out-performing Intel now and likely to for a few years. Added to that is the old architecture of Intel with dreadful thermals and many security vulnerabilities.

You can get a lot of useful info and decent benchmarks from this site: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

The AMD issues weren’t with the CPU’s but with older motherboards USB controllers, so long as you get an X570 board there’s no issue and AMD paired with 3600mhz RAM is far better than intel.

 

[JasSpi]

Hiya mate. I always go with intel, just because I trust their products and I rarely hear an intel chip issue. Also a lot of my buddies use intel so I thought I’d rather just spend that little extra money to be safe.
I’ve heard about the compatibility issues with AMD but stuggle to find anyone that has actually has this issue ever, which makes me think it’s probably just a rumour blown out of proportion.
If you compare the intel chips vs AMD alternative intel are just slightly better in all areas. E.g the core threading speed for the i79700k is 9% faster than AMD’s alternative for the same price range. Another main conflict between AMD and intel in the music sector is the cores - a lot of people think the more cores your processor has is most important, when it’s actually the speed of the cores not the amount (quality not quantity)

When it comes down to it - I think it’s just going with a brand that’s proven many a time they offer good products, where as AMD has only recently been able to keep up with intel. All said, for the right price I wouldn’t hesitate to go with AMD at all, but for my PC build I need a trusted PC which doesn’t let me down half way through a project and I’ve never really had experience with AMD.

Thanks Ben. Other replies seem to have taken over your thread. Apologies! Good luck with the build! J.