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Budget (including currency): Not really sure? I don't know what my budget should be with my existing parts, I'm not in a dire need to upgrade soon but I wanna know what I should be looking at within the next year or so to have a machine that will last me for a good few years. Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: I use primarily FL Studio, but I also use Ableton Live. I also do some video editing and photo editing, as well as game occasionally. I'm a jack of all trades lol. I don't take gaming too seriously though, the most I play is like minecraft. In terms of the production software I use, I have really large tracks. I make EDM and I'll have around 60-90 tracks a song. I frequently lag out of projects though I'll get into that in the other details section Other details Right now I have an mATX board with an intel i5 8600k. As far as I know it's a perfectly fine chip for most cases, but I'm not sure, we're at the 14th gen now so I'm probably missing out on a lot. I'm not very familiar with the new stuff that's been coming out. I come from the days of SLI and when the 780ti was the best gpu you could get, and haven't extensively looked into upgrading basically since I got this 8th gen chip. I also have a gtx 960 which I know is kind of shit, but it doesn't bother me that much besides playing some bigger games and with video. I also currently have 8gb of ram, but I'm getting a 64gb kit in the mail soon. I also have some SSD's and a seagate hybrid drive to boot off of, but it'd be nice to switch to an m.2 for booting! I also want this to be ITX as I go between places a lot, and am a college student. I was heavily considering a Mac Studio, those things are absolute beasts for what I want to do, however I've been on Windows my entire life and my little experience with MacOS hasn't been great to say the least. I actually had Windows on my Intel MacBook Pro for a while. I'm also not a huge fan of the non upgradability of it. Any pointers into the right direction would be greatly helpful. Thanks!

Budget (including currency): £1500 Country: United Kingdom Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: FL Studio, Reason, Reaper, VCV Rack, Nodal Music, Steam, Wotja, and mand VST plugins (All already owned) Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Fresh build, with many external sysnths and interfaces. I came across your YouTube channel whilst in hospital after breaking my neck in November 2022. It was 8 long months of recovery mainly in various specialist hospital wards around the UK, luckily I can now walk but many things are not the same with my arms and hands. These days I find PC hardware a minefield of protocols, be it processor, memory, motherboard etc. Anyhow, I watched your channel for some time and as of yet not seen you do a bit on professional and semi-professional audio setups, that are often used by the writers of computer/console games as well as general music composition, and come to think of it even bedroom musicians. Well, here is my pitch for something to look towards publishing on your fantastic YouTube channel. Meanwhile, I wondered if you would be graceful and help me spec a computer for a home studio, and here are my considerations, it might help with starting the brain cogs turning. Lovely though they are, LED lights are probably a no, as reducing excess electronics is a great start to reducing noise in an audio chain; I’m happy to be proven wrong on this. Fans used for cooling need to be as quiet as the budget allows. Three, maybe four screen connections are available for future expansion, (maybe motherboard onboard graphics for 1 screen and GPU the rest, (if this is possible). I know that sounds excessive, but Virtual Instruments often require knobs twiddling during a session, so having separate screens can make life easy. The GPU must be able to work with GPU audio, to help reduce CPU load. A motherboard which is somewhat future-proof in terms of memory up to 128GB as my new hobby develops, or popping in a better CPU at some stage. Initially to be at least 32GB of memory. Best CPU bang for bucks (cores/threads). Good CPU cooling which is quiet, but maybe not liquid-cooled (or is that foolish?) I live in the UK therefore a PSU that is designed for 220 to 240v It must have a quiet PSU both electrically and physically (fan). Lots of USB ports as possible on the board presented to the outside world, probably a mixed bag of USB 2.0 & 3.2 Gen 1 and 2 (maybe a nice USB Hub?) The OS has to be at least Windows 10 Pro or preferably 11 Pro (and debloated?) It must be able to run FL Studio All Plugins Edition https://www.image-line.com/ It must be able to run Reaper https://www.reaper.fm/ It must be able to run Reason https://www.reasonstudios.com/en/reason It must be able to run VCV Rack 2 Pro https://vcvrack.com/ It must be able to run MIDInous https://midinous.com/ It must be able to run Nodal https://nodalmusic.com/ It must be able to run Wotja https://wotja.com/ Fast OS drive Very fast drive for recording, it might need to play 24 or even 32 tracks of 24bit to 32bit audio simultaneously as well as record Drive for samples Drive for plugins Backup drive(s) A case with a good number of drive bays LAN as fast as possible Bluetooth 6.x for connection of phone/tablet/instruments sources with built-in BT. WiFi V6 for both Internet access and instruments etc. with wifi built-in. Budget $1300-$1900 USD, $1700-2600 CAD, £1000-1500 GBP on August 16th. Special ASCII Keyboard with FL Studio shortcuts and backlit (my main DAW). UPS (Desirable maybe as a future upgrade). NAS (Desirable maybe as a future upgrade). A better-featured Interface than my Roland Duo-Capture Ex(UA-22) (It will do for now) Various interfaces similar to my old 2 * BCF2000 & 2 * BCR2000 It's a tall order but happy for all help and advice. Regards Milton

Hi, Due to mild/medium electrohypersensitivity (EHS) I decided to use my heavy music production PC remotely via Ethernet to reduce exposure. The DAW I use is Cubase, operating system is windows 11 my workstation desktop. I have two homes, so I could run my desktop remotely from a light laptop or desktop in the other one via ethernet. For me, audio latency and quality should be as unaffected as possible, lossless audio is very important for recording and also playback. A Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface is the interface I use, 2 channels in, 2 channels out. For input, it's important to have 24 bit audio (since I'm using effects on top of my recordings), for output, 16 bit is enough. Lossless quality is more important than latency, since my interface has direct monitoring and I can set up a latency correction in my DAW. I don't mind a few frames of lag, only having 30fps nor some visual artifacts for this purpose. Also, will my internet be fast enough? Download speed is 90 mb/s upload speed is 17 mb/s. Occasionally I also use my PC for strategy gaming, so I should be able to switch to something like Parsec for this purpose. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I'm looking to the best of the best laptop that can handle gaming at highest settings and other task such as video editing using avid media composer & protools. Does anyone have any recommendations i know there is the new alder lake laptops coming but which one should i get?

Hello everybody, I'm currently moving into a new appartment and want to smarten up my future home. I make music and edit video sometimes. Because of sound-issues in one room but plenty of space in it, and great soundin another room but not so much space, I wanted to separate my "creative area" for recording and producing and my "mixing area" for purely mixing audio and achieving the best sound. I want it to go as smoothely as possible, I have a powerful PC for Producing (5900X, 32GB of Ram) and a great Laptop for mixing (4500U, 20GB of Ram). Is there a simple way to reuse an old Laptop or maybe get an old PC to use as a home NAS to store my projects on it and access them from both pc's? And if not, what would be the best alternative for having the project available on both pc's, an external SSD or something else? Any suggestion is welcome, thanks in advance!

Budget (including currency): USD $2000 Country: USA (California) Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: DAW (Music production), Gaming (Overwatch, League of Legends, Apex, Minecraft), Video Editing (Filmora) Other details: I'm not a big computer nerd so forgive me if some of my parameters don't line up. I want something decently silent, cool, 2k to 4k resolution for standard viewing (good 1080p gaming if need be), and I'm aiming for 120hz refresh or higher. I still need a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Here are the parts I'm looking at. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QMPyYg

Is there anywhere on the internet or anyone that I can go to where I could have software tests requested for specific use cases with certain hardware before I shove out the money on parts that I think will fit my use case? For example, a lot of my focus has shifted from gaming to primarily music, video, and photo production. Unfortunately, my 9700k can no longer keep up with the size of my projects and it struggles. I have thought about putting forth the money to upgrade to a 5800X, but I'm not sure the performance increase/decrease for the specific applications I use nor do I know if the money I'd need to shove out for a new CPU, MOBO, and CPU cooler (since I can't find the AM4 brackets and screws). If something like this doesn't exist already, someone should really hop on it. It sounds like a phenomenal service that could be provided, especially to professionals who use very specific pieces of software.

Hello, my name is Juan. This is my first build and I’m very excited about the whole process and I really don’t want to screw anything up. I’ll try to follow the forum’s posting recommendations giving you guys some context and then stating my questions, if its alright with you. Please excuse my English. CONTEXT: 1. Budget & Location 2000 USD. Bogotá, Colombia, but I don’t think it really matters for this post. I would most likely purchase the parts online and have them sent to me from the US. 2. Aim I’m an economist and a musician. I want to use the system mainly for somewhat different purposes between those lines, i.e.: some web browsing, office work, statistics, and data analysis software, maybe automate some web scraping and data collection processes; and intermediate-level home music recording and production. As an added value, I’d like to be able to edit video and ->eventually<- introduce myself into gaming, but this last one is kind of optional in the near future if it gets in the way of the main purposes I mentioned above, to be honest. 3. Monitors At this moment, I’m not planning to spend a whole lot of money on monitors since the main purpose of the system is not going to be producing a lot of graphic content, at least not at first. Nevertheless, I do plan to use the two monitors I currently use with my laptops: - Sony KDL-40EX407 40” 1080p LCD TV with HDMI connections as primary screen and - Samsung SyncMaster 920N 19” LCD monitor / TFT active matrix, with 1280 x 1024 at 75 Hz native resolution and 1 x VGA connection which I use as secondary screen (and I’m very fond of because I’ve had it for a long time, and its been reliable AF). 4. Peripherals I do have relatively new Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and I’m pretty much satisfied with their performance so far, so I’m not planning any upgrades in this area. However, on the music department I’d like to mention I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen and I’m pretty happy with it. Aside from that, I’d like to purchase a Lynx E44 PCIe interface in the future if I feel the need for upgrading since maybe I end up needing more audio inputs and I’ve read PCIe interfaces tend to have less latency and better sound quality as they are connected directly into the motherboard instead of a USB port. This upgrade is not entirely necessary but if in the future I have the chance ($$) I’d like to be able to do it. Regarding the OS, I was considering Windows 10 LTSC since it appears to be pretty stable and bloatware-free. 5. Why are you upgrading? I’m not really upgrading, I’ve been buried in laptops and my company’s work for years and due to the pandemic and the lockdowns I’ve resumed my music practice and fun and I’d like to invest in the proper tool for both worlds. 6. The parts I’ve researched: Here are the parts I’ve picked up from what I’ve researched so far (attached image). QUESTIONS: 1. I’d love to read your general input about this parts selection. 2. CPU: The classic Intel vs AMD, and if the answer is intel: 10th gen core i9 (10900k) or 11th gen core i9 (11900k) AMD vs Intel: I see latest gen Ryzen CPUs have remarkable performances (both single and multi thread), a higher core-count which would benefit multitasking which I do a lot, BUT also from what I’ve read in multiple forums, there are some compatibility issues which may arrive specially with certain DAW (music production software). So, in this category I’d like some kind of guidance in terms of this compatibility issues because if there are none, maybe AMD would be better just from the “horsepower” perspective in my opinion. Intel vs Intel: On the other hand, if Intel is the best choice (in order to ensure compatibility is not an issue), from what I’ve read, Intel’s 11th gen core i9 is not what anyone expected and it turned out to be a disappointment for gamers. However, not being a gamer myself, I saw that in some benchmarks core i9 11900K has a really good single thread performance, which is one of the aspects I’ve read are key for music production software since the audio signal path processing is linear and cumulative (not sure about the terminology but I hope the idea gets through). In order to play it safe, I chose the core i9 10900k, but that’s what I’m here for: doublechecking with knowledgeable people. 3. OS As I mentioned I’m a windows user and I think LTSC version of Windows 10 could be such a great choice due to its stability. On the other hand, I’ve been told by some fellow musician friends that there are some compatibility advantages associated to macOS in terms of music software but, in all honesty, I don’t think in this day and age this should be a problem. I already know that if I wanted a Hackintosh build I should pick up very specific parts and do some procedures I really don’t feel capable enough to pull off. However, I saw a video on LTT channel in which Linus and Anthony explain a way to use macOS on any machine using virtualization (https://youtu.be/ATnpEOo3GJA), but it needs to be done from Linux (which I’d love to learn how to use), specifically Majaro, and a dedicated graphics card using some complex passthrough procedures in order to let the virtual machine to make use of how many cores from the CPU I decide to assign to it and, if I want, the dedicated GPU’s whole processing power. So, here is(are) my question(s): is it too far fetched to use Manjaro and virtualize both Windows 10 LTSC and macOS in that environment in order to avoid dual boots or a Hackintosh setup and “jump” form one OS to another on the fly? Would I need a totally different setup in order to be able to do this? Does this whole thing make sense at all? Because if it does not, I would simply go with windows and that’s it. 4. GPU Either because this virtualization nonsense is possible or not, I’d really appreciate your help regarding this choice since in music oriented systems to be able to achieve a low-noise operation is crucial and if the gaming possibility is ahead I guess I’ll need a decent graphics card, so there is the usual performance vs noise trade-off I cant really solve by myself with the knowledge I have on the subject. I do apologize for such a long post, as you can see I’m curious and I’m very eager to learn and this seemed to be the place to ask this. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME.

Hi guys! I'm on search for a music production laptop. No I don't want a Macbook. Yes I know they're good now, but I don't like them. It's complicated. Are there any good solid 8 core laptops (AMD 4800H territory) that don't have a very powerful gaming graphics card? 'Cause that would be a waste of money for me... I only found the HP Omen 2020 (AMD 4800H, Nvidia 1660), but everyone is saying the fans are really loud. Anything below 1600 EUR will do.

I'm starting to actually make some money off of my music work, and I'm reaching the limits of my current laptop. I currently run a Dell Inspiron 15 5567, i7 7500u, 500gb Samsung 860 EVO, 12gb 2133 mghz DDR4 RAM. I'm looking for something with a much more powerful cpu, and something that has at least 8gb of upgradeable ram and at least 500gb of upgradeable ssd storage. I have an external HDD for bulk storage at the moment so that isn't a huge concern. I'm hoping for something less than $1,000 USD and I am not in a rush to buy. I want a 17 inch, but I also want a 2-in-1. I haven't found anything that fits both. I also want good battery life, but cpu power is much more important. A 1080p screen is the highest resolution I want to go for for cost and battery. I'm a bit torn whether to go 11th Gen Intel or AMD for two reasons: Intel has Thunderbolt, and Intel having better driver support/being more tested in the audio industry. I'm looking at This laptop from Asus which is a 17 inch, Ryzen 7 5700u with 16gb RAM and 1tb NVME SSD for $1,000, but the peak brightness on the screen is only 250 nits. Similarly here, I have an Asus 2-in-1 with a Ryzen 7 5700u with lower but upgradeable 8gb RAM and 500gb storage for $720, but it's only 14 inches and the peak brightness is 250 nits. The Intel Asus 14 inch is not a 2-in-1, but does have Thunderbolt 4, upgradeable 8gb RAM and 500gb NVME storage and an i7 1165g7 cpu. Half the cores of AMD, but slightly better clock speeds. Thank you in advance for any input/advice, and I apologize if I've formatted this wrong as it is my first forum post after watching the channel for years.

I have two laptops here that I am considering for purchasing. If I may ask for some to go through the trouble I would like to ask which is better for my needs and why it is better. I guess I am asking for a comparison of the two from those more experienced than I am. I am not all that experienced so I have little confidence and want to be sure I am making the absolute best choice. I am planing to use it (Abusively) For gaming streaming and video/music editing. I am not really looking for 250fps or all shine but just to have what will do the (abusive) work I need it to do for a (abusively) long time. The specs from the site for the two laptops are as follows. THE FIRST: Display: 17.3” WVA 120Hz GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 4GB Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H RAM memory: 16GB DDR4 2666Mhz 16GB DDR4 2666Mhz SATA: M.2: None 500GB M.2 SSD Operating system: WINDOWS 10 HOME + USB + INSTALLATION WLAN: Intel Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 AX200/AX201 2x2 AX + BT CNVi Modem: None Thermal : STANDARD Price: 1103 USD THE SECOND: Display: 15.6” WVA 60Hz GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX1660Ti 6GB Processor: Intel Core i7-10750H RAM memory: 16GB DDR4 2666Mhz 16GB DDR4 2666Mhz SATA: None M.2: None 500GB M.2 SSD Operating system: WINDOWS 10 HOME + USB + INSTALLATION WLAN: Intel Wireless-AC 9462, 1x1 AC + BT M.2 2230 Modem: None Thermal : STANDARD Price: 1202 USD Also I would watch a LTT video or even another video but out of the hundreds of videos and how every keeps changing I wont be able to trust them and there are so many that I wont know if I am getting everything or just a piece of the picture. Also I just figure why not have fun with the colors just because. And I made the font large for those on mobile or those that my have trouble seeing the smaller font.

Hi Everyone, I need everyone's help and that is only when you can. So lately I have been looking for ways to build my own workstation. For my personal workstation for my line of work it needs to be one that's capable of 3D modeling and render so I'm able to make props, armor, statues of comic book characters or for board games, work on my diorama of the fictional towns/country I'm building. While at the same time I need it will allow me to do some graphic design, adobe illustrator, and other stuff for scenery backgrounds for either theatre and possibly film production. I'd also like my workstation to give me the opportunity to draft, edit video, photos, audio and music. I'd also like to be able to sync up my devices with my workstation, play video games and video chatting with friends and coworkers, and some other stuff. Any help will be greatly appreciated. The list below are some of the software I'll be using. Microsoft Home & Business, Armorsmith Designer, AutoCAD, Autodesk Fusion 360, Adobe After Aftects, Adobe Audition, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro, AutoREALM, Blender, Celtx, Cue Player Premium, ETC Lighting, GNU Image Manipulation Program, Inkspace, OBS Studio, OptiTrack, Pepakura Designer 4, Pro Tools, SFX, Show Cue System, SketchUP, Skype/Zoom, VenueMagic, Vectorworks, vRigger, and Zbrush. Please feel free to contact me as soon as you can. There is absolutely no rush. Thanks PS I know it's a lot of software but for my line of work they will help me.

Hello, I'm posting this in 'Photography and Videography', as it comes closest to my usecase, which is Music Production. As Macbooks are industry-standard in the music industry, I have come to a stage in my career in which I am starting to consider getting one. I currently produce on my gaming rig, but I want a dedicated (and portable) machine just for music production (or content creation, as I might also do some light Photoshop and video editing work on it). I tried doing some research, but I could not find appropriate or detailed enough answers to my questions so I decided to ask here. It should be noted that I never owned any Apple devices other than an iPod Touch and an iPhone so the ecosystem is new to me. I've looked into upgradability, but the only sources I could find are articles about a chinese tinkerer that managed to replace chips in the style of Strange Parts. That's obviously not what I am going to do. What I am looking for, in case that I will need it, is to upgrade RAM and/or Storage. For storage, I could always use an external SSD over Thunderbolt, so the burning question is RAM upgrades. For budget reason, I'd like to go for a 8GB model first and upgrade to 16GB if needed. As I said, I never worked on Macs and don't know how efficient their OS is. In Windows, I'm currently on 32 GB, but I'm also a very heavy multitasker. For my Production Machine, I'd strictly use it just for Production and won't install anything that's not related to my 'professional' needs. As for which generation to use, I've somewhat looked at the differences and I know the heavy performance difference between the M1s and M1 PROs. As I also have to be budget oriented, I am obviously considering the cheapest option: the 2020 Macbook Air M1. Even though there are new Apple chips coming out (or already have, haven't checked: M1X or M2) I'd still consider the 2020 M1 option (in hope for a price reduction when the new chips come out), if it is powerful enough to not notice any lags or stuttering while working on large project files with plenty of processing. Better said, I don't want my workflow to be limited by hardware. Hence why I currently use a Ryzen 5900x. There are usecases in which even a Threadripper would have delays, for instance during realtime encoding, but this is not important during the mixing stage and can be turned off to make edits, then turned on again to preview the result. So ultimately, my question is whether someone is using a 2020 Macbook Air (M1) at a professional or at least semi-professional level and if they had any issues with it. If I had the budget, I could simply go for a Macbook Pro and call it a day, but I don't want to overspend on performance I won't need. Whether a project renders a few minutes faster or not doesn't matter to me. What matters to me that the realtime performance is on point and I'm not limited by using an extra layer or processing or one more virtual instrument. Looking forward to your responses and suggestions. Kind regards

I'm looking for a Quad-core (i5 or i7) laptop for around $1000 USD, it must have an optical drive (that can read blue ray, DVD's and CD's), have a greater than 16" Full HD screen with dedicated graphics and a 1TB HDD and 8GB-16GB or RAM. This is for a multipurpose Machine including audio production, minimal gaming (Not running crisis or anything, just things like KSP, CIV5 etc.) and I'm also doing Engineering So I'll be running CAD programmes on it. I realise a desktop would be better with a daily driver laptop, but it is a lot less convenient and I wouldn't get the use out of a desktop. Any suggestions would be lovely.

Hi, I'm planning a new PC for music production ... it will have to handle lots of VSTs, which chew through CPU power like nothing (the software is able to use multiple cores). So I'd like to know what is better for this task, a Ryzen 7 1800x (8 cores, 3,6 GHz) or a Intel Core i7 6850K (6 cores, 3,60GHz)? In this review, they say that Intel chips handle VSTs better: ... but maybe the 2 more cores would get the Ryzen ahead? And does a soundcard help with VST workloads? Especially for cinematic productions I need like 30 or 40 instruments in 1 project and I don't want to run into bottlenecks concerning CPU, RAM or soundcard. Thanks

I want to sell my current laptop and use the cash to build a desktop computer for Music production. Any tips on the hardware? Should I even sell this laptop? Apple or Windows? Here is the link to the specs: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7HN5AC1732&cm_re=msi_gs70_pro-_-9SIA7HN5AC1732-_-Product

Hello! I was wondering if anyone out there could help me out? I am a musician that frequently goes to and from my church. I was wondering if I should buy MacBook or any type of MacBook (air, pro etc...) or build a mini itx build? or get a different laptop. some requirements would be: A machine that can run Ableton live smoothly while being able to record multiple tracks. around 12 different tracks I will need FIREWIRE capabilities or even if it has thunderbolt i can use an adapter USB will not work. I also plan to make an overkill desktop pc in the future as well to run auto cad or any other gaming,work or anything i need. That is all i ask. if anyone can please show me a low end that will run it smoothly as well as an all out build (if it's a laptop)

Hi guys, I'm new here and already love this great community, looking forward to having a good time. I'll be straight to the point. I've shortlisted some components for the build but have some questions in my mind(asked at the end). Any answers(even short) and advice are highly appreciated. Thank you. // Intended use : Sound design and music production in general, but would also like to periodically use it for video editing(in AE and Premiere Pro). I do not have a huge budget, 1600 USD would be my limit. I'd prefer not going any higher than my current estimate too. Note: I live in India and I've mentioned the approximate local prices of chosen components alongside each. CPU : AMD Ryzen 1700X (460 USD or INR 29500) MOTHERBOARD : ASUS PRIME B350 PLUS (133 USD or INR 8500) GRAPHIC CARD : ZOTAC 1050 TI 4GB (203 USD or INR 13000) MEMORY : CORSAIR VENGEANCE 16GB(2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz (164 USD or INR 10500) - mentioned in the motherboard QVL STORAGE: SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 500 GB (312 USD or INR 20000) + Existing storage COOLER : COOLER MASTER HYPER 212X (47 USD or INR 3000) CASE : NZXT S340 (110 USD or INR 7000) POWER SUPPLY : SEASONIC SSR-550RT S12G (110 USD or INR 7000) ESTIMATED TOTAL : 1539 USD or INR 98500 QUESTIONS : RAM : I can't seem to find the (8GBx2)RAM kit anywhere online. The options are limited where I live. 1. There are a good number of 16GBx1 modules of the same model available, but not mentioned in the QVL. Is it something to be worried about? 2. Do I lose a lot of performance if I go for 2400 or 2666 RAMs? or by going with single channel. 3. Asus's motherboard page says "Due to AMD Ryzen™ Processor limitation, More than DDR4-2666 is supported by one DIMM per channel only". Does it mean only one of the RAMs will run at higher speeds and the other at 2133? M.2 STORAGE : Since I constantly run heavy programs, I'm really inclined towards an M.2 storage but have never had one before. 4. How reliable are they? If they are like HDDs which can fail under heavy usage then I prefer sticking to SSDs. 5. Is the Windows installation straight forward? I'd like to use it as my boot drive. Any general advice/opinion about this build is really appreciated too. Thanks! Please let me know if you see any compatibility issues. Note: I do not game but I'm planning to go for a GTX 1060 if budget allows for it. Just not my priority right now. Any display card that support a 1440p monitor will work for me.

So I have decided to make the large leap into trying to make chill wave music thats not what im asking for help with as much as .... what do I need I have reaper I know I need a audio interface where does one get some kind of sound to mess around with? What is a good budget audio interface lower the better but nothing down right cheap. (50-75?$ American ). What else do I need? I know I can learn just about everything with the actual program on youtube and messing around with the program but what else do I need besides a audio interface.

Hey! I need some guidanse for building my new music production computer, expecially with all the fuzz around new processors and chipsets theese days and i feel very confused about what i should spend my money on. I mainly use my computer to produce music and doing sound design, with a lot of CPU heavy synths and effects such as Xfer Serum and iZotope Ozone and huge RAM consuming sample libraries like Kontakt and East West Quantum Leap. I will also be using the new machine to create videos with Adobe Premier and After Effects and some basic 3D modeling and animation in Cinema 4D, but the first priority is music production. I'm a very casual gamer and already own an MSI GTX 980 graphics card i wish to use in my new build. I want to be able to upgrade my computer in the future if that is needed so this will also be a priority. The computer also needs to be silent so i'm thinking that water cooled CPU is the way to go if you don't recommend anything else. I alreday own 2x4TB WD RED NAS HDD's and a Samsung 850 PRO 512GB 2.5" SSD so i also with to use in the new build altough i'm thinking about switching to an NVMe drive for my operating system and DAW. My budget is 3000$ with a little wiggle room. Theese are the specs i'm currently looking at: - ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe, Socket-2066 - Intel Core i9-7900X - G.Skill Trident Z RGB 3200MHz 32GB - NZXT Kraken X62 CPU Cooler - Corair AX 1500i PSU Keep in mind that i'm very new to pc building so if something seems overkill or like a rookie mistake thats probaly the cause. (Sorry for poor grammar. English is not my primary language)

I'm planning a budget build for my next computer NEXT MONTH (no later, so waiting is not an option) so I can separate my gaming rig from my music production/video editing rig and I need some serious pro advice. I'm from Canada btw. This is my current rig: Intel i7 3770k 16GB AMD RAM Sapphire Radeon HD 7850OC 750W Power Supply Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard the rest isn't important to this topic I've been looking up computer parts and with Ryzen and Intel's Coffee Lake chips on the market and after so many generations since I last built a computer, it's hard to come to a decision on a CPU and motherboard configuration. I am dead set on getting a Thermaltake P3 case because I love the open concept of it and that is going to be the case for my STUDIO setup paired up with a RGB motherboard (Asus/Aorus). So this is my plan: - Make a gaming PC rig just good enough to game and stream - Allocate whichever CPU is the most powerful to my STUDIO setup Things I want cleared up: - Is the lowest level 8th gen i3 actually more powerful than my 3rd gen i7? According to this it is http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-Intel-Core-i7-3770K/3942vs1317 - If so, should I just get the i3 8100 to be my studio brain for now and upgrade in the very near future? Is a 8th gen compatible motherboard immediately "futureproof"? Seeing as it won't take previous gen LGA1151 chips anymore. - What is at this moment or by November, the most powerful CPU for a ~sub $200 price range? Looking forward to hearing your guys' wise words.

Im a music producer looking for a laptop with a very strong processor and a weaker graphics card. It seems that top of the line (consumer) processors always get paired with a graphics card way more powerful/expensive than I need. Anyone know of a laptop that fits this criteria? ...also anyone know when the ryzen laptops come out? Lol

I currently have a full 1tb drive with Music, Games, Media, and Backups of my Main SSD. I have an 256gb Evo SSD with 70gb Music Production files and Windows. Plus 120gb Evo used for cache and recording footage. I am almost out of storage, and its time for some more space. My Motherboard is MSI z97 SLI Krait Eddition. I need help Choosing new storage soloutions, and making ill have enough ports on my mobo for good speeds. My data is more important than my budget but I don't wan't overkill. Seeing as I won't be needing more than 2tb anytime soon considering its taken me two years to fill what I have, I don't think it makes sense for a multi, large capacity HDD setup. Instead I would rather focus the money on less capacity SSDs to elevate my over application performance. How much better is 3D nand? Are there any drivers around $150 that provide speeds greater than 550 mb/s? I'm intrueged by the price of this WD Blue 3d NAND 500gb SSD. How does it compare to the $10 cheaper 500gb 850 evo? Or will I be fine with a Crucial BX300? I have about 400gb total worth of semi-archival media, meaning most of it is only there for a short amount of time or I never touch it, so It doesn't make sense to spend tons of money on an SSD for it. Could I setup a small SSD as a cache for the 1tb drive? Less important, but I hear crashplan is going away and MS Onedrive Sucks with multi drive support and it likes to delete my files. Any suggestions for new online backup solutions?

Hello everyone, I'm planning to build a new desktop later this year. I will primarily be using it for music production, light video editing, and light gaming. I'm considering going Ryzen for the first time and wanted other peoples opinions on the new 3000 series and music productions. I do a lot of direct recording, so I need a processor fast enough to provide me with low latency between my midi controller and DAW. I was thinking of going with the 9700k but now I'm contemplating going with ryzen's 3000 series. To sum things up, does anyone have experience with the new ryzen 3000 series and music production? What has your experience with it been like? Which processor are you using? Also, what mobo would you recommend if I went ryzen 3000, and planned to upgrade to the 4000 series when it eventually comes out?

Hey guys, planning to upgrade from my 6600k, z170 (gtx 1070) pc this year. during work / gaming I get a few hiccups here and there with my dual 1440p monitors, but more importantly I want more speed for making music (plus: stable and silent work + gaming). I have two questions and I'd be super thankful, if you guys could help me out (once more :D) 1. Now, I couldnt really find out how important the given chipset is for when you're making music and how much the quality of the board in general really affects making music (latency etc). If yall could help me decide between B450, X470 and X570 - that'd be great. I have the money to buy either, but Im not one keen on wasting money. (or say: Id rather go X570->B450 - in exchange - 3600->3700x). I am keen on good quality though, I dont like spending cash on garbage products / products that dont fit my needs. Prices in my country: - B450: 80-150€: quality seems to be good in general - X470: 120-180€: same here, though I dont see an upgrade for my use case if the chipset doesnt better the audio quality in any way (say, by improving communication between all the pcs "devices" / components) - X570: 170(!!)-several hundred: 170 seems to be an amazing deal on a good board right now, BUT: the only benefit - again - would be if the more advanced chipsed improved upon quality in any way. I'd also get pcie gen 4 and better IO. quick and fast usb ports seem to make a lot of sense with the audio interfaces and all. So I was about to buy this, until I started thinking of the fan. I am concerned with its durability in general, and with its noise, as I'll be recording very near to the (new) PC. What are your thoughts? [bear in mind: 3600 and b450 can be 289€; X570 changes that to a whopping 379€; I'd have no problem putting a 3900x into that board in say maybe 2 years - will a b450 board really be a solid, stable, silent board for that kinda scenario?] 2. I have few experiences with different DAW software. I am currently using Studio one 4. I make music quite a bit, although id range the CPU workload in the lower to mid hobby segment - heck, my 6600k is objectively up to the task, I just dont like the minor lags and feeling like Im working at a limit. Making music - you shouldnt be thinking about your cpu usage when youre about to add sth to your song - that kinda kills creativity and fun for me. SO: will most DAWs rather benefit from more cores or top of the line frequency, or both? (like where in some games the 9900k still pulls ahead of the 3700x and 3900x), or am I better off just getting a 6700k for my board for the hyperthreading? (since the security flaws are major, I dont actually wanna spend on a broken cpu generation anymore, though ). Whats your experiences? 3. Have any of you benefitted from going SSD->faster M.2, when making music? Is it worth maybe going for X570 and using a quick to react, super fast pcie gen 4 nvme ssd? (probably a lot of cash for basically no noticeable effect for hobby musicians, right?) Thank you guys so much, for some reason I am simply not capable of posting a short question, so thanks a lot for bearing with me haha Greetings, Chris