New PC build for Music Production

[Hemmel]

Hi everyone, I decided to join here after watching a lot of Linus' videos and I think they're great!

I read quite a few threads and saw that there's a good community going on here.

 

I had a request for advice on a PC build that would be installed in my living room, here's the most info I can give about what I want :

• Location: Quebec, Canada
• Budget: around 1,500$ CDN (flexible)
• Aim: Music Production. I want to use Ubuntu Studio to record my instruments through my current audio card, a M-Audio ProFire 2626 (also would be ready to upgrade this). I already have a FireWire PCI card unless there are FireWire ports in the suggested PC build (I doubt it, but who knows).
• Aim #2: Recording video of me recording music. This is secondary and could be done on another PC if it is detrimental to the audio recordings. I own a Logitech C615 webcam.
• I would set this up in my living room and connect the PC to either a 55" Samsung TV or an older 32" Samsung TV (all through HDMI connections) depending on space
• I already have a keyboard and mouse.
• Would need a basic DVD writer and an ok-but-not-for-gaming graphics card.
• I have an old PC that doesn't start anymore. That was my old music production rig, that ran Windows 7 with ProTools 8 M-Powered (old!).
• I would like a sturdy build, as quiet as can be, with high storage capabilities, perhaps around 4TB.
• As this would go in a living room, I don't want a rackmount but eventually I will have a home studio setup in its own room and if rackmounts aren't too pricey I could get one so I'll already have it for when the studio room is done.

Any other questions will be gladly answered quickly.

 

Thanks!

Hemmel

[TheCheese]

Any size limitations?

 

[.Apex.]

9 minutes ago, Hemmel said:

Hi everyone, I decided to join here after watching a lot of Linus' videos and I think they're great!

I read quite a few threads and saw that there's a good community going on here.

 

I had a request for advice on a PC build that would be installed in my living room, here's the most info I can give about what I want :

• Location: Quebec, Canada
• Budget: around 1,500$ CDN (flexible)
• Aim: Music Production. I want to use Ubuntu Studio to record my instruments through my current audio card, a M-Audio ProFire 2626 (also would be ready to upgrade this). I already have a FireWire PCI card unless there are FireWire ports in the suggested PC build (I doubt it, but who knows).
• Aim #2: Recording video of me recording music. This is secondary and could be done on another PC if it is detrimental to the audio recordings. I own a Logitech C615 webcam.
• I would set this up in my living room and connect the PC to either a 55" Samsung TV or an older 32" Samsung TV (all through HDMI connections) depending on space
• I already have a keyboard and mouse.
• Would need a basic DVD writer and an ok-but-not-for-gaming graphics card.
• I have an old PC that doesn't start anymore. That was my old music production rig, that ran Windows 7 with ProTools 8 M-Powered (old!).
• I would like a sturdy build, as quiet as can be, with high storage capabilities, perhaps around 4TB.
• As this would go in a living room, I don't want a rackmount but eventually I will have a home studio setup in its own room and if rackmounts aren't too pricey I could get one so I'll already have it for when the studio room is done.

Any other questions will be gladly answered quickly.

 

Thanks!

Hemmel

so are you recording Mic'ed instruments? or using VST's?

are you going to master your tracks on low latency?

what was your previous build and what problems did you have with it?

1500$ is pretty damn high for a Music Production PC

[TheCheese]

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/K7rRKB

I could not find an optical drive but I recently bought one for 50$ Canadian so add that to 1100$ for a total of 1150$.

 

[TheCheese]

Just now, TheCheese said:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/K7rRKB

I could not find an optical drive but I recently bought one for 50$ Canadian so add that to 1100$ for a total of 1150$.

 

I excluded some of the niches I did not know about like the sound stuff...

[.Apex.]

1 minute ago, TheCheese said:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/K7rRKB

I could not find an optical drive but I recently bought one for 50$ Canadian so add that to 1100$ for a total of 1150$.

 

first gen Ryzen is not good for music production, i wouldn't recommend that, and depending on if hes using lots of VST's or not that would be too weak.

 

[TheCheese]

May I ask why? Is it single thread perf

[Taf the Ghost]

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=firewire+card&ignorear=0&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

Around 30CAD for a FireWire card.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 minutes ago, syn2112 said:

first gen Ryzen is not good for music production, i wouldn't recommend that, and depending on if hes using lots of VST's or not that would be too weak.

 

My understanding is that it really depends on the programs being used, when it comes to Audio Production, and it's all over the place for the best setups. (I.e. find benchmarks of your program.)

[.Apex.]

2 minutes ago, TheCheese said:

May I ask why? Is it single thread perf

single thread and also because of the seperate cores thing and high memory latency

[TheCheese]

1 minute ago, syn2112 said:

single thread and also because of the seperate cores thing and high memory latency

No, the 2400 combines onto a single CCX since it uses the rest for the iGPU. Yeah the latency is a thing...

[Taf the Ghost]

Oh, this is a Linux build as well. Oh, that complicates matters.

[.Apex.]

2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

My understanding is that it really depends on the programs being used, when it comes to Audio Production, and it's all over the place for the best setups. (I.e. find benchmarks of your program.)

you can get by with a first gen Ryzen but i just wouldnt recommend it, you really dont wanna be having issues when youre motivated to record etc etc

 

ruins everything

[.Apex.]

1 minute ago, TheCheese said:

No, the 2400 combines onto a single CCX since it uses the rest for the iGPU. Yeah the latency is a thing...

either way you still get lower single thread and memory latency

 

second gen is alot better though but intel still dominates in music production

[Taf the Ghost]

1 minute ago, syn2112 said:

you can get by with a first gen Ryzen but i just wouldnt recommend it, you really dont wanna be having issues when youre motivated to record etc etc

 

ruins everything

In this instance, it's more the only optimizations would be for Intel, especially since Ubuntu Studio is an entire slate of programs.

[.Apex.]

1 minute ago, Taf the Ghost said:

In this instance, it's more the only optimizations would be for Intel, especially since Ubuntu Studio is an entire slate of programs.

dont know anything about Ubuntu studio, its only optimized for intel?

 

and i'm waiting for him to reply, cant really build a system if i dont know his exact uses, he might need an X299 platform if hes a heavy VST user (according to that rack mounted soundcard)

[Taf the Ghost]

1 minute ago, syn2112 said:

dont know anything about Ubuntu studio, its only optimized for intel?

 

and i'm waiting for him to reply, cant really build a system if i dont know his exact uses, he might need an X299 platform if hes a heavy VST user (according to that rack mounted soundcard)

Ubuntu Studio is an entire linux distro for sound production. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Studio I'd never heard of it until this thread, but you're looking at a couple of dozen programs that are Open Source. Which normally means "go with the lowest common denominator". So, some sort of Intel build. Depending on the program case, 8700 (non-k) appears to be a popular choice.

 

That it's probably the Price-Performance king of the Intel Coffee Lake range probably has something to do with that.

[Taf the Ghost]

https://support.image-line.com/action/knowledgebase?id=55&ans=214

 

Good discussion on it. Actually a good argument for under-volt/under-clock build, though they don't mention that. It's going to take a lot of fiddling, though.

[Taf the Ghost]

9 minutes ago, syn2112 said:

dont know anything about Ubuntu studio, its only optimized for intel?

 

and i'm waiting for him to reply, cant really build a system if i dont know his exact uses, he might need an X299 platform if hes a heavy VST user (according to that rack mounted soundcard)

https://techreport.com/review/33531/amd-ryzen-7-2700x-and-ryzen-5-2600x-cpus-reviewed/7

 

Those are some wonky benchmarks. What confuses me is how toasted the 7700k gets.

 

In this instance, it looks like the 8700 is probably the best all-around it; 2600(X) is the budget option. You don't often see perfectly 2x scaling with HT.

[.Apex.]

5 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

https://support.image-line.com/action/knowledgebase?id=55&ans=214

 

Good discussion on it. Actually a good argument for under-volt/under-clock build, though they don't mention that. It's going to take a lot of fiddling, though.

i do agree that the 8700k or non k are the best right now for music production, as not all DAWs use more than 6 or 8 cores (maybe non do). 

 

but i can't really comment on Ubuntu studio, i might try it and see what its like, maybe its worth it or its just a gimmick

[.Apex.]

2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

https://techreport.com/review/33531/amd-ryzen-7-2700x-and-ryzen-5-2600x-cpus-reviewed/7

 

Those are some wonky benchmarks. What confuses me is how toasted the 7700k gets.

 

In this instance, it looks like the 8700 is probably the best all-around it; 2600(X) is the budget option. You don't often see perfectly 2x scaling with HT.

i think theres something wrong with that 7700k, theres no way an i5 8400 is faster than it, and yeah 2700x and i7 8700k are really close together but still the 8700k beats it, u cant go wrong either way, really loving what AMD has been doing lately, 2700x might be the best balanced CPU in 2018  unless intel releases a 350$ 8 core (i doubt that) 

[Taf the Ghost]

3 minutes ago, syn2112 said:

i do agree that the 8700k or non k are the best right now for music production, as not all DAWs use more than 6 or 8 cores (maybe non do). 

 

but i can't really comment on Ubuntu studio, i might try it and see what its like, maybe its worth it or its just a gimmick

Yeah, I don't know anything about Ubuntu Studio either.

 

That DAW benchmark would have been freaking hilarious during mid-2017, as Ryzen gen 1 would have toasted the 7700k. 

[Taf the Ghost]

Just now, syn2112 said:

i think theres something wrong with that 7700k, theres no way an i5 8400 is faster than it, and yeah 2700x and i7 8700k are really close together but still the 8700k beats it, u cant go wrong either way, really loving what AMD has been doing lately, 2700x might be the best balanced CPU in 2018  unless intel releases a 350$ 8 core (i doubt that) 

The 8c looks to be a late October/November release. We don't really know anything much else yet. It's probably called Coffee Lake-R, but there isn't going to be any node improvements. It's going to be about a 4.0 Ghz all-core Turbo part at stock. And really, really toasty on a 5 Ghz OC.

[Taf the Ghost]

The next gen of AMD APU's might be quite an interesting cheap/tiny audio build.

[Hemmel]

Wow. I never expected to have over 20 replies in under an hour!!! Thanks to all that replied.

I'm fairly novice in all that is music recording on PCs, and the previous PC I had was barely used as I got lost in ProTools.

 

I'll try to answer your replies in order:

52 minutes ago, TheCheese said:

Any size limitations?

 

No size limitations (if you're speaking physical size of tower). Could be full-atx or whatever, and like I said I could even manage a rackmount case because it will eventually go in its own room all set up for the studio.

53 minutes ago, syn2112 said:

so are you recording Mic'ed instruments? or using VST's?

are you going to master your tracks on low latency?

what was your previous build and what problems did you have with it?

1500$ is pretty damn high for a Music Production PC

1) both, since I have guitars with DIs, mics, but also a Roland V-Drum that I plug in through MIDI and Addictive Drums

2) I don't know

3) The main problem with the previous build was that it wasn't specific for music recording and production, it was a basic custom PC made from salvaged parts. Also as I said, ProTools has a huge learning curve that I never went through.

4) Good! If the price is lower then that, that's great.

 

48 minutes ago, TheCheese said:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/K7rRKB

I could not find an optical drive but I recently bought one for 50$ Canadian so add that to 1100$ for a total of 1150$.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into that closely. However, PCPartPicker warns that there would be a BIOS upgrade necessary and that another CPU should be used for that BIOS upgrade (or something ...)

44 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=firewire+card&ignorear=0&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

Around 30CAD for a FireWire card.

I already have a PCI FireWire card, do I need a PCIe ???

 

44 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

My understanding is that it really depends on the programs being used, when it comes to Audio Production, and it's all over the place for the best setups. (I.e. find benchmarks of your program.)

I'll have a thorough examination of this website : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudioPreparation#Hardware

41 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Oh, this is a Linux build as well. Oh, that complicates matters.

How so?

 

This is getting to be a big post, I'll cut here and reply to the rest in other posts.