Audio editing PC/ Hackintosh (dual boot)

[Thomaslainguk]

i am looking to build a hackintosh with dual boot into windows. the specs i was looking at are:

intel 3570k

16GB Ram

!tb hdd

Gigabytee nvidia 650ti

CIT 750w psu

gigabyte skt-1155 z77 dsch motherboard

bitfenix merc alpha midi tower chasis

is there anything else i could need. i already have a usb interface. Is there a different route i could go down for this?

[Guest]

a) what's the budget and b) what programs are you planning on using?

[Thomaslainguk]

Budget is around £550. Program's: logic, ableton, cubase eat.

Thanks

[Locke]

Hello! Sounds like fun, building a computer for audio stuff. I am a certified audio engineer and I can answer any and all questions related to building a DAW.

I think the motherboard is a good choice for the 32GB RAM expansion. 16GB is solid, especially if you plan to use a lot of VST plugins. As for the HDD, one album for me is about 8 - 15GB. If you don't want to spend a lot of money for a big HDD, you can always buy another one later (helpful as a scratch disk too). Also, I would recommend investing in an external blu-ray burner later down the line. That way, you can burn old projects that you don't need anymore, but might need to get back to.

However, if you plan to buy VST plugins with high-quality samples (piano, choir ahs, strings etc.) some of them take up to 30 - 100+GB. It would not hurt to start with 500GB of space.

Just as a side note, if you ever upgrade to an audio interface that uses fire wire, you will have to get a dedicated PCI fire wire card. Using the port on the motherboard usually causes syncing issues, especially in Cubase.

Good luck with the build and you can send me a message if you want more details on anything! I don't have a Mac, but I love Logic!

[notenoughtv]

Hello! Sounds like fun, building a computer for audio stuff. I am a certified audio engineer and I can answer any and all questions related to building a DAW.

I think the motherboard is a good choice for the 32GB RAM expansion. 16GB is solid, especially if you plan to use a lot of VST plugins. As for the HDD, one album for me is about 8 - 15GB. If you don't want to spend a lot of money for a big HDD, you can always buy another one later (helpful as a scratch disk too). Also, I would recommend investing in an external blu-ray burner later down the line. That way, you can burn old projects that you don't need anymore, but might need to get back to.

However, if you plan to buy VST plugins with high-quality samples (piano, choir ahs, strings etc.) some of them take up to 30 - 100+GB. It would not hurt to start with 500GB of space.

Just as a side note, if you ever upgrade to an audio interface that uses fire wire, you will have to get a dedicated PCI fire wire card. Using the port on the motherboard usually causes syncing issues, especially in Cubase.

Good luck with the build and you can send me a message if you want more details on anything! I don't have a Mac, but I love Logic!

Burning blurays for backup is not really cost effective. Linus made a video about it not so long ago or talked about it on a live stream, not sure.

Hard drives are a better choice

[mr-nipples]

I would recommend a second HDD just for backups - Around 200gb. It's a lot of work to get a stable hackintosh running and it only takes a minute error before you need a fresh install (trust me I know)

If you do go down this route I would backup with Carbon Copy Cloner - Unlike time machine, It backs up the WHOLE drive (bootloader and all)

P.S.

Dont bother with cubase - once you go logic, you dont go back ;)

[Locke]

Hello! Sounds like fun, building a computer for audio stuff. I am a certified audio engineer and I can answer any and all questions related to building a DAW.

I think the motherboard is a good choice for the 32GB RAM expansion. 16GB is solid, especially if you plan to use a lot of VST plugins. As for the HDD, one album for me is about 8 - 15GB. If you don't want to spend a lot of money for a big HDD, you can always buy another one later (helpful as a scratch disk too). Also, I would recommend investing in an external blu-ray burner later down the line. That way, you can burn old projects that you don't need anymore, but might need to get back to.

However, if you plan to buy VST plugins with high-quality samples (piano, choir ahs, strings etc.) some of them take up to 30 - 100+GB. It would not hurt to start with 500GB of space.

Just as a side note, if you ever upgrade to an audio interface that uses fire wire, you will have to get a dedicated PCI fire wire card. Using the port on the motherboard usually causes syncing issues, especially in Cubase.

Good luck with the build and you can send me a message if you want more details on anything! I don't have a Mac, but I love Logic!

In most cases, CDs or DVDs usually work, but Blu-ray would be for a whole project (which is an extremely rare case). I guess I'm also thinking about the possibility of distributing to clients, though I'm not sure what OP's intent of the studio will be for. I last worked at a professional studio seven years ago (yikes) and we always burned the raw tracks on CD or DVD to give to our clients. Plus, we didn't have large flash drives back then we could pass around, so I guess that would work better now to transfer to another studio / fellow engineer.

[Thomaslainguk]

would i need a gpu for audio editing?

[xzero]

would i need a gpu for audio editing?

Not really, unless you are working with video (Post production, foley etc) or want to use a multi-monitor setup.

[orangecat]

I wouldn't recommend a Hackintosh just buy a mac mini if you really want to run a mac os. it may not be a powerhouse but for audio editing as long as its not professional it should be enough. Tell us more so we can help.