I have been thinking of moving to a MAC mini/laptop as a 2nd computer for a while, but I am not a MAC guy at all and the limited small storage drives/ram is the main thing holding me back (and the pricing of their upgrades) - I see a lot of happy MAC users, but then again - my MAC knowledge is limited and also I see some disgruntled users and I fear I will be 1 of them
I have a USB 4 hub and a couple of USB4/TB4 external drives, I would like to stay on Windows, and I have a few places I travel to work where keyboards and monitors already are in place so I kind of want this to be a great solution (and very decent pricing)
so the main concern would be latency (I will use an RME Digiface) as many laptops etc during the years have always enticed me with great CPU and RAM values, but everyday life has let me down.
Does anyone have experience with this brand or another similar computer?
No personal experience but here is more than you could ever want to know!
I see several other favourable reviews of this machine. As to latency figures, I have no idea. I’m sure it would be adequate.
The only thing that disturbs me, is that even the cheapest models come with Windows 11 Pro and seem to be cheaper than the retail price of a Pro OEM disk. Perhaps they have a business relationship with Microsoft, but it makes me slightly uneasy, or I would have bought one on the spot myself. But I am no expert.
if I was living in an area where ordering/returning to Amazon was easy I would order and try it out. I guess these sorts of PCs will be popping up with the latest AMD soon too 8000 series, but from what I understand they are very similar in performance and are mostly referred to as “refresh” rather than a new generation CPU. sure would be fun to try out something like this as a 2nd device to my main studio machine.
The Windows 11 Pro is probably one of those OEMs that is connected to the mainboard in the machine and is only valid for that computer. I see a lot of YouTube guys promoting these for super cheap.
I’m running latest Cubase Artist on an Intel NUC with 85xx proc, 32G RAM, 1,5T SSD, but I needed place it into fanless case. In its original case the fan’s been too noisy and I couldn’t record anything via mic. The computer is used only for music making, so no other SW installed but browser and mail client.
I have no problem with latency, some heavy guitar VST effects caused problems - drop-outs - mainly if used reverb pedals and heavy distortion. That’s I solved with guitar processor.
I hope this can help you in your decision.
