Can you describe what issues you are facing on Mac? I have read here someone said that it is easier to fix Windows than OSX if things go wrong. What is your take on this? I am on Windows at the moment, but I am looking to get a Mac in a very near future…
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I know you were asking uarte, but my take on it is that when people build a computer they have to go through a bunch of steps, and when they go through those steps they learn a lot about the computer they’re building - and that is the biggest reason that computer might be easier to troubleshoot and maintain compared to a computer that’s just assembled for you.
Just my two cents…
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Apple Studio M2 Max. From the base model just upgrade to 64GB ram and a 1TB internal drive. Fantastically fast, dead silent and a refreshing change from the bloated Windows operating system, bloated apps (they are much smaller on a Mac) viruses and malware. I switched at age 57 to Mac after a lifetime of DOS and Windows and would never, ever go back.
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I did this a few years ago and asked the music and recording software companies whose products I was going to use how they would design a system to best run their stuff. Then I had a company (Micro Center) build a machine to those specs. It has worked swimmingly. So I’d recommend > identify what you want to do > find the software that will do it > build a machine that will best run that software. Good luck!
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Here’s the deal on Windows versus MacOS for DAW work, from my perspective. Other people may have different opinions, which is of course fine. I’m not going to engage with this, we’ve all been around the block for many years and people can bark at each other all they want, I don’t get involved any more. This is not about which one is better than the other.
Over the course of decades of DAW work on both platforms (and now I also use Linux for DAW work), I have found that over an extended view of the evolution of DAWs, IMO, there is NO consistent, long-term, real-world advantage to running your DAW on one platform versus the other. OF COURSE, YES, there are SOME times when it seems like Windows offers a more stable home for DAW work, and then there are SOME times when it seems like MacOS offers a more stable home for DAW work. And sometimes those cycles can go for a few years here, a few years there.
Now, before someone goes crazy on that statement above, I will give one exception to that statement of long-term usage, which is the longevity of discontinued plugins, which in this one specific case, may give an important edge to users of Windows, since you may be able to run an ancient, long-discontinued plugin for longer than you can on the Mac. That’s a use case you have to consider, which is a big discussion TBH.
However, in practice, I have found that to be a lower level issue than I thought it was, as I find plugin standards have been evolving in recent years where it’s less of an issue to me, personally, forcing me to adapt, and maybe I just caved in, and that might be a sad thing, I don’t know. It’s a discussion that could fill many pages. But, I will concede that it may still be an important issue to someone else, in which case, Windows may offer a better solution for their needs.
Here’s the bottom line with regards to stability in general though – there are SO MANY factors that contribute to your DAW stability over time, that in my decades-long experience, an overwhelming percentage of issues are attributable to one of FOUR things:
1 - User error, which comes in many forms, from outright incompetence to not reading release notes thoroughly, to not installing properly, to not knowing how to operate the software, etc. And then SOME people like to blame it on Steinberg or Apple or Microsoft, but if you dig deeper, they may be the ones that screwed up or don’t know what they are doing. And because the Internet is a cesspool of complaining people, some of them will enjoy the delightful experience of complaining and complaining without giving a really good technical, repeatable, scientific breakdown of what is really happening, so they aren’t really helping themselves or anyone, except for the psychological benefit of venting their frustrations. For the really smart and patient ones who take the time to properly document their issues, they usually will get help sooner or later.
2 - Jumping the gun on OS updates, which is similar to reason 1 above, but some people just don’t like waiting for the DAW developer and plugin developers to test the OS, and they jump the gun on an OS update which has not yet been validated for a specific DAW, plugin, driver, app, etc… and it breaks something. The simple solution to that scenario is DON’T JUMP THE GUN. JUST WAIT.
3 - Microsoft or Apple breaks something - yes, sadly, it happens to both OSes. Some might argue that Apple likes to break things more often (which anecdotally can be proven depending on which timeframe you are biased to look at), but I can provide plenty of examples where Microsoft breaks something too. Not to mention how performance issues may plague one platform or another for various reasons, including optimizations for high thread count, etc. Over decades, my experience is that they are roughly equal in their overall breakages over time. But within any given sequence of years, you might have one OS or the other have a better (or worse) track record at it, thus leading to some people chanting MY OS IS BETTER THAN YOUR OS, which is an overly simplistic statement, and my advice is to ignore people who constantly chant that mantra.
4 - Steinberg or a major plugin developer breaks something. This happens regularly too, and it’s a pain in the neck, and sometimes they break it on one platform, but not on the other. Just be patient, smart, don’t panic, and try to help the situation instead of create useless noise about the situation. Steinberg and your favorite plugin developers don’t WANT to break anything of course, but when they do, they need calm and thoughtful HELP to get to the bottom of the issue so they can fix it. Yelling about it will not help.
So that brings me back to the OP, which mentioned:
So that makes it easy to recommend the M1/M2 Macs in this specific situation since they are very quiet. I’ve got various machines in my studio, including carefully hand-built DAWs where I specifically bought the quietest components at the time, including the very quietest fans, and they are still louder than the M1/M2 Macs I have. And as for which one has the most issues, well, see above, neither is perfect. Just pick the one that works best for your studio, your budget, your technical requirements, read the release notes, follow directions, read the manual, learn your DAW, and make music, and have fun. Music is supposed to be fun. Hope that helps.
EDIT: And BTW, as a point of clarification that may seem like a contradiction, as I mentioned above, one might argue – as I have in other threads! – that Apple breaks things more often. But again, that’s also based on what time period you look at. I think that when Apple is involved in major changes to their platform, as they are right now with Apple silicon in the last few years, then it can probably be shown they break more things more often, and I do think we’re in a recent cycle where they are doing that. HOWEVER, over the long-term, I think it balances out IF you don’t jump the gun on updates, take your time to read the release notes and plan OS updates intelligently, then it’s not as big of an issue in practice. And I also think we’re heading into a period where things will be settling down a bit more with Apple, as more and more apps will be native Apple silicon, and we can leave some of those issues behind us.
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I just realized I missed your answer, really interesting thread you posted there, helped me a lot. Thank you! Helped me understand some decisions better thanks to your thought process you described in detail.
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You have no business being in this forum…
…You make too much sense!
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I now ordered components to build my system based on the ryzen DAW build from silentpc linked by @Timo00 … I could have bought it at their store, but since I live overseas and knowing how our delivery guys treat packages I will build it myself and at least give verbal credit to them and the user bringing up their site.
Thanks again to all of you for the great contribution that really helped me to decide which route to go.
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Thanks @CologneEnthusiast for the thread, and everyone for the comments. I’m going to be starting a build soon for (hopefully) Cubase 13 - going to wait for Black Friday to try and save a bit!
@User131231 - just wondering how this build is working out for you? It’s pretty much what I was considering except maybe a slightly newer GPU since there will definitely be some gaming on it too.
Just finished with testings and overall build. XMP/Post/Temperatures/ everything clicked right out of the box without any hassle.
I took RX6600 in the end. And from tests it seems reliable as RX560
Mobo: ROG MAXIMUS Z790 HERO
CPU: i9 13900k
RAM: CORSAIR CMK96GX5M2B5600C40
GPU: RX560 RX6600
Cooling: Noctua NH-D15
PSU: Seasonic PRIME PX-1000
Case: Fractal Design Define 7 gray/black solid(no window)
vs my old 4790k new build is huge leap like 5x more DSP with 64 buffer on 13900k, althorugh i open quickly some projects on 32 buffer and seems good with little to non buffer glitches. And I am mostly on DSP demanding tasks.
Keep eye on GPU since its not latest is the best and often you can find big DPC latences with expensive newest GPUS, the reason i take Radeon route for the first time in my career.
DPC latency is unrealisticly good and stable with youtube and with some cubase project on.
And on DSP side pretty powerfull:
This is without any huge settings and tweakings i am still getting into new build but overall really happy.
The one thing I am not happy is that Define 7 Case have some brink which take around 5-10mm space from L bracket of my PCIe RME AIO and I am unable to connect my digital breakout cable (which i dont use anyway) for the same reason I cannot use lowest PCIe slot cause that brink is also present on bottom side as well. Solution is to buy PCIe extender cable and move AIO to extender place in PC case. Or… Chainsaw 
my older Define 5 didn’t have that problem. Pitty.
Hope it helps 
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Very nice. How is your evaluation of that Noctua? Is it really very quiet? With a lot of time I am starting to think in a computer upgrade, maybe for next year, and for me is very important that the supply is quiet. At the present time I must cover my notebook (it is not on my desktop but on a shelf at one desktop side) with some featherbed ¡! when I want to record something. And I prefer to avoid having the pc in other room.
Congratulations on this configuration @User131231 - very capable setup.
Did you have to do anything special to get these results in LatencyMon? You said everything clicked right out of the box, but were there any unique settings or tweaks you recall needing to tune it down to highest DPC of 231? This tends to be hard to achieve with nvidia without some attention, so if not, it’s a very good example of why to go Radeon.
Noctua is the best and quiet air cooling on the market atm. Keep in mind that 12,13,14gen is hard to cool with air cooling when usage is 100% on prime97 I got 100c° on some cores. On most modern PSUs you have hybrid mode when it’s not taking much power it doesn’t spin the fan. Overall I am happy with silence of the new build with Cubase project I opened.
Just disabled power saving modes in bios (all Steinberg recommend but didn’t turn off turbo boost and multicore) and on system side practically nothing I am still in installation plugins process and making sure I can open all projects from 2015 onwards, and that’s quite logistic for me when I finish with installation I will make system ghost image and after will try system tweaks will start with Chris Titus, O&O etc aps and see how much I can debloat win 11.
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I love my Noctua , due to lack of space in my sound proof case i had to come up with a cooling plan for my old i7 9700 because of the first iteration of the new processes in SL10 which knocked my cpu to 100% instantly ,so with a case with only room for two intake fans at the front (Artic P14 pmw’s ) and one extractor at the back i changed the fan on my Corsair i100 to a Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 3000 PWM and this baby deals with any hard work that Spectralayers required , i just setup the ramps in the bios to suit and jobs a gooden , even on 3000rpm it’s pretty quite , But also if i am rendering in spectralayers im not critical listening at hte same time , but i think the Noctua are lovely and the Artic P14 pmw’s are not bad either
Thank you very much for these advices and your answer.
Thank you. I will keep it in mind.
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Just a quick followup question: Are there any concerns using Cubase 12 Pro under Windows 11 or should I use Windows 10 for the remaining time until the end of october 2025 when Windows 10 no longer gets updates?
I’d stick with win 10 personally. I have heard of some people having problems with 11 (although not everybody!)
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I guess I go with Windows 10 aswell, its still two years till I have to reconsider or maybe Windows 12 is out by then and works better.
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Get Windows 11. I see no reason to get 10. If you wait until Win 12 comes out what do you gain? Windows 11 is generally improved over 10 and any performance improvements surely are going to appear in 11 if they do appear.
What Mattias said, especially with 12-13-14gen (i think the same is on ryzen) i can load around 20-30 dawbench plugins more on win11 than on 10. Also there is article on steinberg’s kb page about new update for win11 that solve performance of efficiency cores in cubase.
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