New Computer Intel 13700 build working great with Cubase 12!

Cubase
1

After months of research and being afraid to upgrade due to the supposed 13th Gen core issues, I finally upgraded from my Skylake 6700 Intel system.

The new build works like a dream and exceeded my expectations as to to how much faster it works and how low the latency is. Also haven’t had any crashes (so far) and really impressed with how stable everything seems.

In case you’re curious what worked for me…

Intel 13700K processor
Thermalright socket frame instead of the spring loaded default that comes with the LGA 1700 boards (helps ensure best contact with cooler and reduces average temps so fan doesn’t work as hard)
MSI Carbon Wifi DDR5 Z790 motherboard
98Gb (48X2) Trident Z5 DDR5 RAM
Crucial T700 PCI 5.0 M.2 SSD 1TB
Noctua DH-15S cooler with low noise adapter installed (can’t even hear any noise through my silent case)
Win 11 Pro
GeForce 1080 (used my old video card and have 4 monitors attached)

I also ran a separate USB 2 back panel expander from the header on the motherboard to give my RME Fireface UFX (OG from 2011) singular access to a USB 2.0 channel. The UFX has issues when plugged into USB 3.0 and higher (at least that’s been my experience)

I used my old 1000 watt gold rated power supply as well as the 6 ssd’s I already had in there via e-sata

I chose the Trident 48X2 RAM because I found out that using 4 sticks of DDR5 will run much more slowly than just having 2 (1 per channel). If you have 4, XMP won’t work, at least that’s what the prevailing wisdom is at the moment.

The only trouble I had was when installing Windows, there was no Ethernet driver installed so it hung up the install process. I had to open CMD prompt and type in a command that bypassed the network in order to be able to get into Windows to install the driver from the included USB stick that came with the motherboard. It’s easy to Google but I can see that really throwing someone off. It took me about a half hour to figure it out.

There’s no indication so far that there’s any issue with the P and E cores affecting performance. I was afraid that after the upgrade I would have more problems than sticking with my 8 year old CPU or that performance wouldn’t be worth the upgrade. Happily I was wrong and the performance improvement is noticeable in every aspect of Cubase’s performance.

The only thing that really still bugs me about Cubase as far as major workflow issues is the save times (and close times) for big projects. That seems a bit improved with my new system but still really slows down workflow when auto saves happen every 15 minutes and grind me to a halt for up to a minute. Maybe if I have more confidence in the stability of my system now I’ll stretch autosaves out a little more but I wish Steinberg could somehow make saves happen in the background like the new version of Adobe Premiere has.

That’s all. Hope that helps someone hesitant to pull the trigger or wanting to know which hardware plays nicely with Cubase 12. Happy to answer any questions you may have about the build.

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2

So what was the total price if the upgrade ?
Thanks for posting the info on your upgrade.

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I think the price all told was about $1700. The memory and the PCI 5 SSD were expensive compared to alternatives.

4

Thanks for that, I’m assuming that’s US dollars

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Yes, USD. I used as much as my prior hardware as possible to save money.

6

I imagine the price will be around a 3rd higher here in Canada.
I just bought another Samsung 2TB SSD which was on sale at Amazon.ca for $150, normally $200. Down your way it’s Around $100 , just to show how lucky you are being in the USA sometimes.

7

Great news.

But it’s so confusing.

Is there or is there not an issue with 13th gen Intel CPU’s.
Steinberg who make Cubase seem to think there is.

I’m in your boat and trying to decide between Mac M2, AMD or Intel and every time I’ve made a decision I read a new post that counters my thinking.

Strange times for computer technology.

8

It is confusing. I’m still wondering if an issue will emerge with 13th Gen and I put off upgrading because of Steinberg’s statement. No one wants to spend all that money and time upgrading only to have issues.

From what I see so far opening big projects is that there are no issues as I’m having no pops or cutouts even at 128 sample buffer where my old system I’d have to set it at 512 and even then I’d have some pops. I could probably even go lower on the new system but just haven’t yet.

I think a possibility is that Windows Thread Director has been updated enough to resolve this issue. However, it seems like Steinberg would update their advisory if this was the case.

I know people love their Macs but they also have their issues with processor compatibility and the price for performance is so much better building your own studio PC. AMD might be a great option, but I don’t have full confidence that all the VST’s etc will work perfectly since Intel has been industry standard for so long.

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