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Old 11-18-2017, 11:45 AM   #1
Jae.Thomas
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Default looking for opinions on a great computer build.. 2017

I have always been happy with Jim Roseberry's suggestions and will await his response to my email to him first and foremost.

But what configurations for a windows PC have you all gone with recently?

I am looking for something which I could edit video on and maybe do hackintosh with if needed.

My old PC will be my studio PC still, and the new PC will be inside for editing and media, and it would also be cool to get an awesome, small audio interface, something 2 channel with mics and guitar/line inputs.
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Old 11-18-2017, 09:10 PM   #2
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I'm really happy with the new PC I have in my studio right now.
Not sure if you've seen my post about it but here's the details...

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=193154
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Old 11-18-2017, 10:23 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaDave View Post

Here's what my new build will consist of:

Case: Carbide 330R silent Titanium edition

PSU: Corsair 550W RMX 80+ Gold

Motherboard: Asus Prime Z270a

CPU: Intel i7 7700K

CPU cooler: Coolermaster MasterAir Maker 8

RAM: Corsair 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3000MHz Vengeance LPX

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 3x 500GB 2.5"

OS: Win 10 Pro 64 bit


Thank you for this!

Looks like a great build. My PC is a 2700k i7, so this might be an improvement?



There was talk about fractal cases etc...

would you have any other suggestions on building the thing, and also any other materials i might need?

thank you so much!!!
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Old 11-18-2017, 11:40 PM   #4
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I second the 7700k, it's a beast. You'll notice a difference over the 2700k, it's not subtle.

Only suggestion - consider an m.2 drive for OS (I use one for both OS and sample libraries, and it's been smooth sailing). That Asus MB has two m.2 slots, for which I salivate... [But, I went the mATX route, and that's the kind of sacrifice you make ]

A build like that (7700k, m.2 drive, 32GB of RAM) is as good as it gets on a respectable budget, unless you want to go with the 8x series Intels. I'm pissed they drop into an 1151 socket, but aren't compatible with older chipsets :\

EDIT: Leave room for Noctua fans, they're just awesome.
EDIT2: ReaDave, I saw your comment on the Sata SSD vs M.2, and agree. The speed difference on paper (personal test) was significant (2.8 GBps vs 550 MBps), but in actual practice, they're both pretty damn snappy. But computers are my fast cars, and easier to get wife approval on
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Old 11-19-2017, 01:59 AM   #5
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Things changed. i7-8700(K) (Coffee Lake) would be an even better upgrade right about now.
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Old 11-19-2017, 10:15 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Jason Brian Merrill View Post
Thank you for this!

Looks like a great build. My PC is a 2700k i7, so this might be an improvement?



There was talk about fractal cases etc...

would you have any other suggestions on building the thing, and also any other materials i might need?

thank you so much!!!
You're most welcome.

Most of my projects, even really big ones with tons of plugins, are pushing around 10 - 15 percent CPU usage at 128 samples buffer so I am stoked with the performance.
A big surprise for me is just how good this is for video editing considering I didn't build it with high end video performance in mind. I'm only using the onboard graphics on the Asus mobo which uses the 7700K GPU and I can edit 1080p in REAPER with H264 source files with smooth playback even of unrendered transitions and overlays. Even 4K editing is decently smooth here too.

Another unexpected video related surprise is how good H265 runs with the onboard graphics at 4K. It plays back perfectly smooth with CPU usage in the range of 2 percent! My old rig wouldn't even play back 1080p H265 without major frame dropping.

Probably the only thing I'd change if I was building my new rig right now would be what ED has mentioned. That would also require the latest mobo. I'd still go with Asus and get whatever the equivalent to the Z270 Prime is that supports 8700K.
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Things changed. i7-8700(K) (Coffee Lake) would be an even better upgrade right about now.
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Old 11-19-2017, 12:18 PM   #7
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The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x and especially the Intel Core i7-7820X @ 3.60GHz are still the champions of performance/price ratio under $800, according to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

These two are 50% more powerful than the 7700K and should easily handle most stuff thrown at them. Of course they are 2-3x the price of the 7700K.

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Old 11-19-2017, 03:45 PM   #8
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The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x and especially the Intel Core i7-7820X @ 3.60GHz are still the champions of performance/price ratio under $800, according to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

These two are 50% more powerful than the 7700K and should easily handle most stuff thrown at them. Of course they are 2-3x the price of the 7700K.
One big thing the 7700K has in its favour over the 7820 is clock speed. Most of those benchmarks are useless for determining real world audio performance, particularly with record armed tracks and VSTi's where single core clock speed is the bottleneck.
The 8700K would be my pick still for a new build today.
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Old 11-19-2017, 05:39 PM   #9
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Unless you need thunderbolt, I highly recommend checking out the used market for mac pros, before rolling your own, at this point in time.

Whether you plan to run windows or mac, the old cheesegrater mac pros are industry-standard hardware, and by far the most common computer in commercial recording, mixing, and post-production studios. They are quiet, reliable, and compatible with just about everything, at low latency and with stable performance, since they are the standard hardware everyone was designing for.

The one downside is that they were spendy, but right now, you can get more processing power per dollar on a used mac pro, than you can get with a custom built PC, and you'll have something that is much lower-risk, with better resale value, and that can run any OS.

You can pick up a used mac pro with an 8- or 12-core xeon processor, 32GB ram, SSD Raid array, etc for like, $500~$700. A computer that would have been maybe $6,000 a few years ago. (N.B., you can similar or better deals on used windows machines, but it's a much messier market)

When Apple moved to the trashcan design and started pushing Thunderbolt, they gutted the value of the old cheesegrater macs that were industry-standard in AV production. Bad news for people who owned them at the time, but great news for people shopping for a plug-and-play DAW workstation that will deliver huge track counts and low latency with just about any hardware/software combination (except thunderbolt).
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Old 11-19-2017, 08:47 PM   #10
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are any of these recommendations compatible with thunderbolt on windows?
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Old 11-19-2017, 09:47 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaDave View Post
One big thing the 7700K has in its favour over the 7820 is clock speed. Most of those benchmarks are useless for determining real world audio performance, particularly with record armed tracks and VSTi's where single core clock speed is the bottleneck.
The 8700K would be my pick still for a new build today.
You mean single core speed ? Indeed, it's the most important for Reaper.
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Old 11-19-2017, 09:55 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaDave View Post
One big thing the 7700K has in its favour over the 7820 is clock speed. Most of those benchmarks are useless for determining real world audio performance, particularly with record armed tracks and VSTi's where single core clock speed is the bottleneck.
The 8700K would be my pick still for a new build today.
so is there a motherboard that would fit into the above setup and also have thunderbolt for windows?
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Old 11-20-2017, 07:43 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by Jason Brian Merrill View Post
so is there a motherboard that would fit into the above setup and also have thunderbolt for windows?
The Asus mobo I'm using is thunderbolt capable (with their TB card) but I don't have a TB interface to test it with. To be honest, I haven't looked into it much.
To use TB with this mobo though, I'd need to purchase their add-on card for it...
https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Acc...underboltEX-3/

EDIT - I've heard mixed reports on people using these for thunderbolt though. Some say it works well. Others have had no such success. Research which interface you plan to use and who has that interface working with the mobo you use. TB wasn't a consideration for me so I didn't bother with the research. I'm happy with my Fireface UFX and can't foresee replacing it in a hurry.
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Old 11-20-2017, 07:45 AM   #14
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You mean single core speed ? Indeed, it's the most important for Reaper.
Yep. That's what I said.
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Old 11-20-2017, 07:50 AM   #15
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You can pick up a used mac pro with an 8- or 12-core xeon processor, 32GB ram, SSD Raid array, etc for like, $500~$700. A computer that would have been maybe $6,000 a few years ago. (N.B., you can similar or better deals on used windows machines, but it's a much messier market)
An i7 7700 or 8700 will totally blow one of those out of the water for low latency use with REAPER and be every bit as stable. There are no 12 core Xeons with clock speeds anywhere near the 7700/8700K chips.
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Old 11-20-2017, 04:27 PM   #16
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Also looking to get a new PC ...

So does this look OK? Replacing my 7 yr old quadcore with 4 gb ram

Intel i7 8700k
32 gb Ram (16 may be enough?)
500 gb ssd
2 tb 7200 rpm hdd #1
2 tb 7200 rpm hdd #2
Audio optimised noise dampened case & coolers/quiet case fans
Decent passive graphics

Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro (which should I get???)

dB
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Old 11-21-2017, 06:04 AM   #17
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Things changed. i7-8700(K) (Coffee Lake) would be an even better upgrade right about now.
what mobo would be suggested to go with this which would have TB on it?

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Old 11-21-2017, 06:12 AM   #18
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https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-Z370-A/
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fata...TXac/index.asp

For example.
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Old 11-21-2017, 07:56 AM   #19
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The quote I have for the build with a 3.7 Ghz 8700K is quite pricey due to the high price (in the UK) of the processor.

Any disadvantge going for an AMD solution these days?

Spec'd machine so far is:

Cooler Master Silencio 452 Mid Tower Chassis (Black)
Intel i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked CPU
Corsair Hydro H100i v2 All-in-One Liquid Cooler
Gigabyte Z370-HD3 Intel Socket 1151 ATX Motherboard
2 * Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3000MHz DDR4 RAM
Samsung 960 EVO (500GB) M.2-2280 NVMe SSD
2 * Seagate BarraCuda (3TB) Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
EVGA GeForce GT 1030 SC (2GB) OC GPU
4 Port PCIe SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card
Corsair TX750M (750W) 80 Plus Gold Modular ATX PSU
Microsoft Windows 10 Home - 64-Bit DVD (OEM)

About £1750.00 (with VAT etc)

Is this about right pricewise, or can I do better? This does inclue a 3 year parts and labour come to your house and fix it warranty (or new machine if unfixable!).

dB
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Old 11-21-2017, 08:29 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Bob View Post
The quote I have for the build with a 3.7 Ghz 8700K is quite pricey due to the high price (in the UK) of the processor.

Any disadvantge going for an AMD solution these days?

Spec'd machine so far is:

Cooler Master Silencio 452 Mid Tower Chassis (Black)
Intel i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked CPU
Corsair Hydro H100i v2 All-in-One Liquid Cooler
Gigabyte Z370-HD3 Intel Socket 1151 ATX Motherboard
2 * Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3000MHz DDR4 RAM
Samsung 960 EVO (500GB) M.2-2280 NVMe SSD
2 * Seagate BarraCuda (3TB) Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
EVGA GeForce GT 1030 SC (2GB) OC GPU
4 Port PCIe SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card
Corsair TX750M (750W) 80 Plus Gold Modular ATX PSU
Microsoft Windows 10 Home - 64-Bit DVD (OEM)

About £1750.00 (with VAT etc)

Is this about right pricewise, or can I do better? This does inclue a 3 year parts and labour come to your house and fix it warranty (or new machine if unfixable!).

dB
You could save a fair amount by not adding a dedicated graphics card. Honestly, for DAW use and even video editing with REAPER, the onboard graphics on the CPU and mobo work really well. I'm using onboard graphics (Asus Z270a Prime mobo) and run 3 x 1080p screens and edit video without any issues.

Do you really need the USB 3 card? The mobo has plenty of USB 3 & 3.1 ports and if you need more, grab a hub.

I'd personally steer away from Gigabyte and stick with Asus for the mobo. Had some bad experiences with Gigabyte but all the Asus gear I've used over the last two decades has been rock solid. I'd strongly recommend this for your 8700K build... https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/PRIME-Z370-A/

I'm also not a fan of Seagate hard drives. My personal preference is Western Digital Black. Every Seagate drive I've owned has died catastrophically and suddenly. I've had no WD drives die and some of them are nearly 20 years old!

You could also save a fair amount of money by using a Samsung 850 EVO rather than the 960 and not really notice a huge difference in the real world. I was going to go with the 960 m.2 drives but ended up going with 850 EVO drives and am very happy with the performance.
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Old 11-21-2017, 08:33 AM   #21
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Definitely don't go with Seagate (yeah, WD Blacks are great), there's no need for USB 3 card, there's no need for graphics card.

On the other hand I've had great experiences with Gigabyte. And AsRock now.


I would also suggest going with 950 Evo SSDs, but it's definitely a great idea to have a 128 or 256 GB 950 Pro m.2 as OS drive.
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Old 11-21-2017, 09:20 AM   #22
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Definitely don't go with Seagate (yeah, WD Blacks are great), there's no need for USB 3 card, there's no need for graphics card.

On the other hand I've had great experiences with Gigabyte. And AsRock now.


I would also suggest going with 950 Evo SSDs, but it's definitely a great idea to have a 128 or 256 GB 950 Pro m.2 as OS drive.
You wanna move to Australia and start a DAW PC designing and building compay?!!
We seem to be in agreement on many things in this regard lately ED.
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Old 11-21-2017, 09:50 AM   #23
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The price difference between 850 vs 960 is only £50 ... so in the grand scheme of things, not a big deal. Any reason to not go for the 960?

I'll see what the quote comes to with onboard graphics which look fine and no extra usb card, and WD black.

dB
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Old 11-21-2017, 10:21 AM   #24
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The price difference between 850 vs 960 is only £50 ... so in the grand scheme of things, not a big deal. Any reason to not go for the 960?

I'll see what the quote comes to with onboard graphics which look fine and no extra usb card, and WD black.

dB
If that's the only difference in price then go with the 960. Price difference here in Australia is MUCH greater.
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Old 11-23-2017, 11:24 AM   #25
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Building a new DAW today-tomorrow. Took the i7-8700k route, after a lot of thought. Fact is, I purchased a used Lynx Aes16 % d/a first, so I needed at least one "old" PCI slot. Oddly enough, that led to my decision on both the mainboard and the cpu.... as follows:

Found a non-gaming ASUS 370Z board that included a single PCI (old-version) slot, plus 2 m.2 slots. So I took the plunge. The Z370 rules out the 7700k, which would have been just fine. With the 370Z, i5 or i7 compatible cpus were my only choice.

Probably won't be necessary to OC to get decent performance, but truth is that the 8700k is all about over-clocking and gaming.

I DO want a DEAD SILENT DAW, so the 95w cpu rating will help. No video card to cool. The PSU is the other big source. Probably I'll do the RMx 850 Gold route. My wife has one on her desktop, and I never hear it.

But if there's something better, I'm open. Noctua on the cpu fan, which I hope is inaudible.

Corsair makes a quiet case, which I'll use.
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Old 11-23-2017, 12:03 PM   #26
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I'm also going to be doing a new build. I've never done one before so I might hire someone to do it for me if it isn't too expensive. Here are the parts I'm using, will report back when it's done how it all works. I'll be using it with an audient id22 usb interface. Used pc part picker and got good ideas from a couple of these kind of threads on the forum.

My Custom Build

CPU--Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler--be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler

Motherboard--Asus - PRIME Z270-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Memory--G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

Storage --Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
--Western Digital - Black 1TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Case--Fractal Design - Define S ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply--Corsair - RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Operating System--Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit

Wireless Network Adapter--Gigabyte - GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac

Case Fan--be quiet! - SilentWings 3 59.5 CFM 140mm Fan x 2

I can't wait, I'm so sick of freezing tracks and rendering taking so long. To be able to play a song with all tracks and effects running without problems will be like heaven. Not looking forward to moving all my plugins and projects to new computer, that will probably suck.

Sam
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Old 11-23-2017, 04:31 PM   #27
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Probably going the 8700k route. 500gb ssd, 2 * 2TB WD black, 32gb ram, cooler etc ... quiet case ... 750 gold psu (so I can add more disks and possibly a graphics card if the onboard isn't up to it)

Not cheap, around £1800.

Any views on which Windows 10 to get? Home or Pro???

dB
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Old 11-23-2017, 08:41 PM   #28
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Probably going the 8700k route. 500gb ssd, 2 * 2TB WD black, 32gb ram, cooler etc ... quiet case ... 750 gold psu (so I can add more disks and possibly a graphics card if the onboard isn't up to it)

Not cheap, around £1800.

Any views on which Windows 10 to get? Home or Pro???

dB
That sounds good to me. I paid around $2500 AU for my 7700K system which was a fair outlay but WELL worth every cent.

I went for Win10 Pro for the extra options, especially regarding configuration of auto updates. The extra price for the Pro version doesn't add much to the overall system cost so I figured it was a no brainer.
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Old 11-24-2017, 09:56 AM   #29
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Thanks Dave - will go for Pro then - probably get a passive (no fan) graphics card - given the company is building the system, it's probably easier in the end to have it installed and configured in at build time.

Just need to check on the warranty if I drop my WD 2 TB Green data disk into the box.

Otherwise, looks like a go-er as they say, and should support Reaper etc for a while to come.

Old system is Q8300@ 2.5GHz Quadcore. Been good for 7 years.

Looks like the Focusrite 2i4 will be my interface of choice.

dB
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Old 11-24-2017, 10:06 AM   #30
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Very happy with my 2017 MBP, which is running Reaper side-by-side on MacOS and Windows 10 (via Boot Camp) seamlessly.
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Old 11-24-2017, 10:52 AM   #31
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Hey everyone! I am mixing the ideas here with a consultation from Jim Roseberry (the results of which I obviously can't share here) but I am super appreciative of all of this, and it has informed my choices. thanks guys!
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Old 11-25-2017, 12:40 AM   #32
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Thanks Dave - will go for Pro then - probably get a passive (no fan) graphics card - given the company is building the system, it's probably easier in the end to have it installed and configured in at build time.

Just need to check on the warranty if I drop my WD 2 TB Green data disk into the box.

Otherwise, looks like a go-er as they say, and should support Reaper etc for a while to come.

Old system is Q8300@ 2.5GHz Quadcore. Been good for 7 years.

Looks like the Focusrite 2i4 will be my interface of choice.

dB
You won't be disappointed. My old DAW PC (which is still in use in my studio alongside the new rig) is similar in age to yours and similar architecture (Q9450) and the difference is absolutely profound. I'm getting around ten times the processing power in REAPER.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Brian Merrill View Post
Hey everyone! I am mixing the ideas here with a consultation from Jim Roseberry (the results of which I obviously can't share here) but I am super appreciative of all of this, and it has informed my choices. thanks guys!
Looking forward to hearing how it all goes once you have your new rig up and running. Good move contacting Jim too. Can't go wrong there.
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Old 11-28-2017, 08:13 PM   #33
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Originally Posted by EvilDragon View Post
Things changed. i7-8700(K) (Coffee Lake) would be an even better upgrade right about now.
Now that I'm finally getting around to building my new DAW, I'm curious about going with the 8700k. Since my priorities are low-latency tracking and stability, wouldn't I be better off with the 7700k's 4.2ghz top speed vs the 8700k's 3.2? I don't have any experience overclocking, but I'm guessing I'd need to permanently overclock the 8700?

I'm tempted to be conservative and go with a setup like ReaDave's. Thoughts?
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Old 11-28-2017, 08:43 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by michaeltonight View Post
Now that I'm finally getting around to building my new DAW, I'm curious about going with the 8700k. Since my priorities are low-latency tracking and stability, wouldn't I be better off with the 7700k's 4.2ghz top speed vs the 8700k's 3.2? I don't have any experience overclocking, but I'm guessing I'd need to permanently overclock the 8700?

I'm tempted to be conservative and go with a setup like ReaDave's. Thoughts?
The base clock speed of the 8700K is 3.7GHz and turbo is 4.7GHz. 7700K base speed is 4.2GHz and turbo is 4.5GHz. The 8700K also has two more cores and four more threads which will give greater performance for mixing (making use of REAPERs anticipative FX processing). The extra cores won't make much difference for live tracking with VST instruments though.

I have my bios settings at auto and have windows set to 100 percent CPU for minimum and maximum performance. The clock speed is sitting permanently on 4.3GHz and it is rock solid and runs cool.
I'd hazard a guess that the 8700K would run at the same speed as my 7700K all day with similar temperatures and stability.
If I was building my rig right now, I'd go with the 8700K. As it is though, I am extremely happy with my 7700K build and haven't gone anywhere close to maxing the CPU on mixing of even my most complex REAPER projects.
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Old 11-28-2017, 08:51 PM   #35
michaeltonight
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The base clock speed of the 8700K is 3.7GHz and turbo is 4.7GHz. 7700K base speed is 4.2GHz and turbo is 4.5GHz. The 8700K also has two more cores and four more threads which will give greater performance for mixing. That won't make much difference for live tracking with VST instruments though.

I have my bios settings at auto and have windows set to 100 percent CPU for minimum and maximum performance. The clock speed is sitting permanently on 4.3GHz and it is rock solid and runs cool.
I'd hazard a guess that the 8700K would run at the same speed as my 7700K all day with similar temperatures and stability.
If I was building my rig right now, I'd go with the 8700K. As it is though, I am extremely happy with my 7700K build and haven't gone anywhere close to maxing the CPU on mixing of even my most complex REAPER projects.
Thanks, ReaDave. What are the reasons for going with 8700k other than clock speed? Are there any?
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Old 11-28-2017, 08:54 PM   #36
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Thanks, ReaDave. What are the reasons for going with 8700k other than clock speed? Are there any?
The extra cores for mixing primarily. Although at present, I'm not even close to needing that and all my current mixes are in 3D, third order Ambisonic format with tons of plugins!
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Old 11-28-2017, 09:27 PM   #37
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Ah, of course! Dumb question on my part. Thanks for all the info!
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Old 11-28-2017, 10:05 PM   #38
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Ah, of course! Dumb question on my part. Thanks for all the info!
Not a dumb question at all.
You're welcome regarding info too.
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Old 11-29-2017, 05:15 AM   #39
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Well, ordered my new system. Coming a week tomorrow. Lots of setting up to do of course, but am looking forward to it.

Will report back to this thread about my experiences ...

Thanks al for the tips and I may come back for any BIOS and Windows 10 tweaks I may need to do - not used Windows 10 yet!

Cheers,

dB
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Old 11-29-2017, 06:19 AM   #40
Dannii
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Well, ordered my new system. Coming a week tomorrow. Lots of setting up to do of course, but am looking forward to it.

Will report back to this thread about my experiences ...

Thanks al for the tips and I may come back for any BIOS and Windows 10 tweaks I may need to do - not used Windows 10 yet!

Cheers,

dB
Looking forward to hearing about your new rig.
In the meantime, grab a copy of this guide by Brad from Cantabile. This has everything you'll need to tweak Windows for best audio performance.....
https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/
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