Why “boring”?
I simply wanted to get to
- a relatively high performance system
- for a medium price
- stay highly backward compatible
- avoid too much fiddling with low level CPU mysteries and settings (like CPU affinity)
- keep most of it for 5-10 years
And just in case, someone else here has similar high level priorities, and would like a high level starting point, this is an attempt to document my thinking and what I ended up with.
The resulting, more specific technical goals for this build became:
-
Avoid asymmetrical CPU architectures, since most software doesn’t really deal with those intelligently yet.
- that eliminated the newer 12th and 13th Gen Intel i5, i7 and i9 and some of the high end AMD Ryzens with 3D cache
- Get to pretty fast single core speed, since I see myself migrating to ever more modeled instruments and fx
- that eliminates a lot of workstation CPUs (which also tend to become more expensive builds all around)
- that led me to the second from the top Ryzen - also because it was quite a price jump to the top end
- Get to a decent core count, so multi-core optimized software can spread out.
- that got me to a Ryzen 9 series
- Have generous number of m.2 slots (so I can keep using my older NVMe SSDs)
- that led me to X670E based motherboards, since they have more of m2 slots than some of the less expensive motherboards.
- Have decent upgrade potential
- that also led me to the new Ryzen AM5 socket based systems rather than the prior (less expensive) generation, since this would facilitate a potential CPU upgrade sometime later, while keeping the rest of the system intact.
- Try to get to low latency as best as possible
- According to AMD, the sweet spot for the new Ryzen CPU’s is 6000MHz RAM, so I got that with CL32 latency, which was the lowest I could easily get.
- And to get to good RAM clock speeds, one has to stay with just 2 RAM slots for now, even while the motherboard may allow for more - so 2x32GB sticks was the best currently feasible configuration. Since I don’t run large orchestral projects, 64GB should serve me well for quite a while.
- Have a reasonably silent system
- that was one of the motivating factors to over-provide on the power supply and also go pretty big on air cooling. Big power supply means it doesn’t have to use its fans most of the time. Big air cooler means, its fans can spin more slowly.
- liquid cooling didn’t end up in my specs, because it’s not necessarily quieter, and I’m not into extreme overclocking - and it’s also slightly more risky
- Try to stay on Windows 10 for the near term, just to stay in the environment that’s still the most well tested and debugged by software makers in general. Also with Win11, Microsoft made it even more effort to have full control over one’s own computer.
So as a result of the above converging subjective priorities, I ended up with my first AMD based system after building and running quite a few generations of Intel based systems before for a couple of decades:
- CPU: Ryzen 7900x: 12 cores, 24 threads 4.7/5.5 GHz
- Motherboard: ASUS Prime X670E-PRO WIFI with 4 m.2 slots
- RAM: Trident Z5 64GB DDR5 6000MHz CL32 Dual Channel Kit (2x 32GB)
- Storage: 3 NVMe SSDs, and 2 traditional hard disks: one large 18TB drive for internal backups, and another 2 TB drive for keeping installation programs and other “spare” stuff, that’s rarely used.
- Power Supply: CorsairRMe Series 1000W 80+ Gold, Low-Noise, Dual EPS12V Full Modular
- CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
- Case: Ended up going with a high air-flow case this time around, specifically the
- Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Computer Case (note: this case is a tight fit for the large cooler, but I could make it work).
- The general idea is to keep fan speeds very low because of the superior air flow rather than having a really boxed in and sound proofed (often called “silent” or “quiet”) case where the fans have to do more work to move air past the hot items. – *However: This strategy may or may not work out, but would be relatively easy to correct later.
- Video: For now I’m just using the integrated video from the CPU, since that’s plenty for DAW use. So a separate video card may or may not end up in that system - I’m just not sure yet.
- And, as I had hoped, so far that system appears to be working well with Windows 10 Pro. I can now take my time to go beyond Windows 10 at some time in the future.
- Maybe I’ll skip 11 entirely, if there’s a 12 before the support for 10 ends and assuming 11 doesn’t add highly desirable features and/or performance benefits. Historically I’ve skipped every second Windows version - going from XP to 7 to 10.
I haven’t done any overclocking other than the kind of stuff that comes as easy configuration within the BIOS, like using the faster RAM at it’s full rated speed. I’ve typically preferred overclockable CPUs, even while I’m not really into the overclocking game. That’s because those CPU’s tend to be made from the higher quality batches of wavers (chip binning)
p.s. I’m using the Apple ecosystem (MacOS, iOS) for my daily personal computing and had considered going MacOS for my music computer as well, but ended up deciding against that for the time being, because:
- My music computer continues to address my desire for fiddling and tweaking to a degree, while still having access to a very wide and well supported ecosystem (Linux is still a much more tricky platform for music making)
- In music, I still enjoy the use of older hardware and software, and that’s simply easier with Windows
- On a very subjective personal level, I very much enjoy being multi-platform, using MacOS, Windows and Linux for different parts of my computing life. Not being stuck in one world has been meaningful to my self-definition pretty much all of my adult life. But I wouldn’t recommend it for most individuals, since it’s difficult enough to become good at using one eco-system. – There’s also the (old man shaking fists at clouds) bonus: I get to complain about the shortcomings of every computing platform! !
p.p.s. I’m using Linux for my server needs and some IoT fiddling, so I get my Linux kicks that way.
