Music Production Computer

U

UnkNowNGenius

New member
Instead of going MAC (Which I THINK I won't do) I'll be build a PC.

But a got some problem, I have absolutely NO idea what Motherboard and Power supply I need.

For processor I'll be getting an Intel i7
Memory:8gb
Hard drive:SeaGate or Western Digital haven't decided yet, prolly going 1TB there.
Case:I'll decide later
Graphic Card:I'll decide later

Need help with Motherboard and Power supply.

And if there's any advices and tips, share them!

Thanks.

Dont worry about budget... I think motherboards and Power supplies aren't that expensive?
 
With that much RAM, you want to make sure you're taking advantage of it, since you have to be using 64bit applications to actually access it.

What DAW are you using? Does it has a 64bit version? If it doesn't... you'll also need to grab JBridge. It will allow you to access the additional RAM in your DAW, if your DAW doesn't have it's own solution to the problem.
 
^
I would save some money for other stuff If I get a PC

I said dont worry about the budget, I meant for motherboard and power supply ONLY, because i think those 2 things doesn't cost much.

I would go Logic if i had mac and not fl ^^
 
JBlongz said:
Why exactly won't you get a mac? Consider this article first: Mac vs PC - General - ProducerBay
Click to expand...

The form factor of Apple's consumer products are less than ideal for serious production work compared to an expandable tower system that allows users to add powerful CPUs, lots of RAM, connect hard drives and cards straight to the motherboard without going through an intermediary such as USB and this is exactly why creative professionals are biting their nails over the fate of the Mac Pro. Despite being quite old the Mac Pro is still prohibitively expensive, especially if you live in Australia where despite parity with the US dollar the same model Mac Pro is $1000 more expensive for no other reason than Apple can risk being even more greedy in a smaller market.
 
Last edited:
This is why Apple and Intel introduced Thunderbolt, it can faithfully replace the Mac Pro when used with an iMac. Its faster than ANY other standard, even Sata III. Lacie makes "Little Big Disk" Which allows you to take that storage with you when you need it. Can't do that on the Mac Pro without opening it. I have two of these and each fits 2x 2.5" disks. I have one with two 512 SSDs (for plugin/sound library) and the other with 2 HDD (Audio/Video Recording). The fact that I can just take one plug and switch from the iMac to my macbook is priceless! The iMac can already take 32gb of RAM sold by MacSales.com and a few others. So the Mac Pro isn't really necessary anymore unless you need 8+ cores....which overdoing it for music. I use plugins to the extreme through Vienna Ensemble Pro, and I haven't reached CPU limit yet.
 
JBlongz said:
This is why Apple and Intel introduced Thunderbolt, it can faithfully replace the Mac Pro when used with an iMac. Its faster than ANY other standard, even Sata III. Lacie makes "Little Big Disk" Which allows you to take that storage with you when you need it. Can't do that on the Mac Pro without opening it. I have two of these and each fits 2x 2.5" disks. I have one with two 512 SSDs (for plugin/sound library) and the other with 2 HDD (Audio/Video Recording). The fact that I can just take one plug and switch from the iMac to my macbook is priceless! The iMac can already take 32gb of RAM sold by MacSales.com and a few others. So the Mac Pro isn't really necessary anymore unless you need 8+ cores....which overdoing it for music. I use plugins to the extreme through Vienna Ensemble Pro, and I haven't reached CPU limit yet.
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt is something that is absolutely necessary in order to make laptops and all-in-one computers more comparable to a tower system and even though it forces you to have an inside out system scattered over the desktop like it's the 80's at least it finally bridges the gap between the needs of the average consumer Vs the needs of the producer. Unfortunately external peripherals tend to be slightly more expensive compared to internal ones and at the moment Thunderbolt is not cheap unless you make an iMac Vs Mac Pro price comparison but compared to a PC tower its game over for the iMac/Thunderbolt combo until the price drops.
 
But, you won't know how to fix it if it suddenly farts in the middle of the night...... jus' sayin', you know! ;)
 
Well Lacie's "Little Big Disk" is $500 with two 500GB drives. So yes you're paying $300 for the enclosure. But its an investment. I guess if music is just a hobby, then it may not be worth the stretch. But if you need Mac Pro performance in a smaller form factor, then its the best route. Plus the lacie is very neat and compact. Looks nice on the desktop. dsc01863s.jpg
 
LOL i finally found which section of this forum i can go
newbie on making music,daw
but if computer, i know a little about it

i will recommend you to get i5
they are same, 4core..... but i7 have 8thread which is double from i5
but i don't think making music with daw will need this class of pc, for i7 user most of them are gamers,RAW computing, graphic designer
but if you got too much money to burn.... then get something faster
how about xeon processors ?(obviously i am kidding = =)

Memory 8gb(4x2) is enough, you won't even exceed using full memory
a high end game such as bf3 only use around 2gb of memory.... not higher = better ..... sometimes 16gb ram cause bsod with alot of possible reason

HDD i would recommend u to get WD

oh yea get ssd if u got extra money =.=

power supply, depends on how much watts u need, normally if u didn't use high class gpu or sli/crossfire 500W-700W is enough

oh forget to ask, are u plan to oc ur processor ?
and what kind of processor u want ? sandy bridge or ivy(latest tech) ?
 
Cyyap95 said:
Memory 8gb(4x2) is enough, you won't even exceed using full memory
a high end game such as bf3 only use around 2gb of memory.... not higher = better ..... sometimes 16gb ram cause bsod with alot of possible reason
Click to expand...

If you're computer can't handle 16GB, then that shows how unstable Windows can be. I'm using 32GB in my Mac (ROCK SOLID)...and my sessions are easily using 12GB because of plugins from Spectrasonics, EastWEst, and NI...I use top quality sounds with a lot of detail. Perhaps other producers are not interested in pushing the bar, but 8GB doesn't cut for my serious projects.

Cyyap95 said:
oh forget to ask, are u plan to oc ur processor ?
and what kind of processor u want ? sandy bridge or ivy(latest tech) ?
Click to expand...

Overclocking is not necessary and shouldn't be done for music production...it also shortens the lifespan of your CPU. Its simply an enthusiast activity. It also voids CPU warranty and can destroy your RAM.
 
Last edited:
JBlongz said:
If you're computer can't handle 16GB, then that shows how unstable Windows can be. I'm using 32GB in my Mac (ROCK SOLID)...and my sessions are easily using 12GB because of plugins from Spectrasonics, EastWEst, and NI...I use top quality sounds with a lot of detail. Perhaps other producers are not interested in pushing the bar, but 8GB doesn't cut for my serious projects.



Overclocking is not necessary and shouldn't be done for music production...it also shortens the lifespan of your CPU. Its simply an enthusiast activity. It also voids CPU warranty and can destroy your RAM.
Click to expand...


Ok i didn't say can't handle 16gb, but 16gb sometimes cause bsod maybe many reason, and it's a common issue, and i don't think that everybody will use 12gb mem in a time, at least not for me, and quality of sound and the process are done in ur audio interface, i can't imagine how much vst u use in a time, 100? 200? 300? or more :)

For oc, ok i doesn't familiar with daw maybe you're right, it doesn't need that speed purpose, and yeah it shorten lifespan , void warranty too
but if composing really nid higher speed, oc to a stable level won't be a big problem
and you can't tell how much life are cut down by oc, my oc-ed 2500k still works without any problem, temp just goes higher few Celsius than other
 
Cyyap95 said:
i don't think that everybody will use 12gb mem in a time, at least not for me, and quality of sound and the process are done in ur audio interface, i can't imagine how much vst u use in a time, 100? 200? 300? or more :)
Click to expand...

I use multiple instances of Kontakt, Omnisphere, EastWest Play, and Nexus. Each instance of Omnisphere and Play has 8 audio/midi channels...I use 16 channels per Kontakt instance. Even when I had 16GB, I reached the limit sometimes because I also had Final Cut Pro running (part of the project) in another screen. Thats another reason to max your RAM out.. Sometimes you're doing more than one thing, and dont want to close other programs you jump between.

Another unique feature that a Mac has is the "desktops" feature (previously called spaces) which allows you to have multiple desktop screens (up to 16). I easily switch between the several, and designate music, video, and productivity apps to their own respective desktops. Here's noob video to what I'm talking about:

 
Cyyap95 said:
LOL i finally found which section of this forum i can go
newbie on making music,daw
but if computer, i know a little about it

i will recommend you to get i5
they are same, 4core..... but i7 have 8thread which is double from i5
but i don't think making music with daw will need this class of pc, for i7 user most of them are gamers,RAW computing, graphic designer
but if you got too much money to burn.... then get something faster
how about xeon processors ?(obviously i am kidding = =)

Memory 8gb(4x2) is enough, you won't even exceed using full memory
a high end game such as bf3 only use around 2gb of memory.... not higher = better ..... sometimes 16gb ram cause bsod with alot of possible reason

HDD i would recommend u to get WD

oh yea get ssd if u got extra money =.=

power supply, depends on how much watts u need, normally if u didn't use high class gpu or sli/crossfire 500W-700W is enough

oh forget to ask, are u plan to oc ur processor ?
and what kind of processor u want ? sandy bridge or ivy(latest tech) ?
Click to expand...

I dont know... 8 gb only costs like 65$ I might get 16 gb if I have some money over but I guess 8 gb enough, (the comp is for music production mainly AND gaming (bf3,dota2,d3,cod the popular mainstream game, you name it).

Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, are there a big difference? and how much does the price differ?

and no im not going to oc my processor.

what is bsod btw?
 
BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death...Its windows has a fatal error usually cause by hardware driver issues.

Sandy Bridge vs Ivy Bridge: Ivy is the successor built off of SandBridge foundation. They will be considered i3, i5, or and i7 chips....just a later generation. Performance wise it will not matter enough to spend more. What may matter is the motherboard features you want and whether any of the CPUs are supported on that board...which again doesn't matter if you're not building it yourself.

I use a Sandy Bridge Quad i7 @ 3.4GHZ (model: i2600k). I haven't maxed it out yet and I use all the top notch Music and Video applications aggressively. If you're not going as extreme as I mentioned earlier in the thread, then the cheape$t option will work for you. If you want to be ultra efficient, pay attention the that "watts per hour" spec of all the CPUs you use. Most Ivy bridge chips will be more power efficient than the previous generation...saving you a few bucks.
 
UnkNowNGenius said:
I dont know... 8 gb only costs like 65$ I might get 16 gb if I have some money over but I guess 8 gb enough, (the comp is for music production mainly AND gaming (bf3,dota2,d3,cod the popular mainstream game, you name it).

Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, are there a big difference? and how much does the price differ?

and no im not going to oc my processor.

what is bsod btw?
Click to expand...

actually the main different between gen2(sandy) and gen3(ivy) processor is
sand is 32mn , ivy is 22mn nanotech
so ivy can oc to higher but lower temp(20%-30% higher)
and save up more power

I use multiple instances of Kontakt, Omnisphere, EastWest Play, and Nexus. Each instance of Omnisphere and Play has 8 audio/midi channels...I use 16 channels per Kontakt instance. Even when I had 16GB, I reached the limit sometimes because I also had Final Cut Pro running (part of the project) in another screen. Thats another reason to max your RAM out.. Sometimes you're doing more than one thing, and dont want to close other programs you jump between.

Another unique feature that a Mac has is the "desktops" feature (previously called spaces) which allows you to have multiple desktop screens (up to 16). I easily switch between the several, and designate music, video, and productivity apps to their own respective desktops. Here's noob video to what I'm talking about:[/QUOTE]

video editing especially h.264 x264 quality video sure we need 16gb..... but he say use for music production not video editing
another thing is, mac using amd tech for multi display... and again multi display doesn't use alot of mem as a software do, everything is done in GPU and GPU has it own ram......
Click to expand...
 
Cyyap95 said:
video editing especially h.264 x264 quality video sure we need 16gb..... but he say use for music production not video editing
another thing is, mac using amd tech for multi display... and again multi display doesn't use alot of mem as a software do, everything is done in GPU and GPU has it own ram......
Click to expand...

What I am saying is, sometimes you want to keep other application open, but don't want them in the way. So having enough ram, you can simply place these applications out of sight until needed. If you're only sporting 8GB, you may have to close some applications.

Overall, let 8GB be the minimum​, 16GB recommended, 32GB optimal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top