Hey There
I am buying a new Workstation for my Filmmusic Studio.
I compose, and produce Filmmusic (most projects are a mix between many VSTs and Audio Tracks. We also do recordings of our own Music, but max. 12 Tracks at the same time.
What do you think about this configuration: Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 SCHWARZ – LEISES MID-TOWER-GEHÄUSE Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Kern-Prozessor (3,4 GHz - 4,9 GHz / 72 MB CACHE / AM4) Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) – RGB-fähig! RAM
64 GB-Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200 MHz (4 x 16 GB) GPU
PNY QUADRO P2200 – 5 GB GDDR5, 1280 CUDA-Kerne – 4 x DP 1. M.2 SSD-Drive
1 TB-SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (bis zu 7000 MB/R, 5000 MB/W) 1. M.2 SSD-Drive
2 TB-SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (bis zu 7000 MB/R, 5000 MB/W) Power supply
CORSAIR 750 W-TXm-SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRALEISE Processor cooling
Corsair H100x Water cooler with PCS ultra quiet fans Additional case fans
2 x Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 120 mm Fans Network card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT-LAN
Very fine kit!
Well balanced, with quality components.
Maybe a bit overkill for what you described. ( OK… it might be jealousy speaking… )
Personally, I favor a quieter machine, but this preference depends entirely on your environment, workflow, and patience. I just hate noise.
Make sure your liquid cooling gear is assembled by a “pro”, or invest hours (many!) of YouTube training before jumping. Too many amateurs end-up regretting.
Minor stuff to consider:
Might be a bit noisy, even if liquid cooled. Consider routing the radiator/pump in a separate room, esp. if you record in same room, or need low-level monitoring. Or even put the whole computer in a separate room and run cables! (might not be an issue for you?)
Probably do not need a GPU this big. Opportunity for some $$ savings, and noise reduction. A smaller fan-less GPU might better fit your needs.(to consider ?)
Those SSD run hot… make sure you provide them with sufficient cooling. The 980 “non-Pro” version provides very similar (real) performance for less heat.
Some vendor’s applications or drivers are sometimes more thoroughly tested (stable) on Intel CPUs… but currently AMD’s value is hard to beat!
Leaves some money in the budget for good monitors (A+V), but I bet you already have those…
Thank you Y-D very much for your respond! You are right, it probably is a bit overkill, but I just wanna make sure I won’t regret anything
But, I don’t like noise eather! The Recording happens in a different room, so that’s ok, but for Mixing and mastering I still want “as quiet as possible”…Unfortunately Computer in an other room is not an option.
You are probably right about the GPU, do you think a PNY Quadro 620 - 2GB would be sufficient?
What other parts do you think are especially noisy? And how could I make it less noisy?
About the SSDs. In the describtion it sais the Samsung 980 pro run up to 7000MB/R, 5000 MB/W, where as the 970 EVO plus “only” run up to 3500 MB/R, 3300 MB/W.
Wouldn’t that be an argument for the Pros?
Or else they do have the Seagate-Firecuda 520 Gen 4 (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400MB/W)
By the way, here is the link of the company, that would build the PC. There you can see what other parts they offer, if you are interested and have time to look around to advise me further - it is highly appreciated!
The 980PRO have a longer life expectancy than the 970EVO. Worth the price imho. And they are faster.
I have both in my computer, I also have a Corsair H100.
That one is loud, they make a 100pro that is almost identical, but measures the temp of the coolant itself and ramps up/down the fans according. The 100x is controlled by the motherboard and reacts to CPU temp. Expect a lot of fan speed ramping up and down. More annoying than a higher but more even fan speed.
I would expect a quality Air cooler to be less annoying to deal with.
Just my experience, YMMV.
Not sure if the speed matters, that’s pretty application specific I think, but the life expectancy of SSD these days are so long it’s virtually a non-issue. I think that’s especially true since we’re supposed to back up data anyway.
Basically doing the math on the amount of data we’d have to write to those drives every day for X years is really, really high, especially for audio. Had it been 8K video it’d have been a different issue.
The price difference is not that big anymore between the 980pro and the 970evo. The difference is most noticeable with IOPS, the system feels a little bit more responsive.
If already spending money on a 5950 and a premium board, it is imho no reason to be cheap when it comes to M.2
But Yes, a 970EVO would do fine for audio.
Got it, thank you!
I just read from another forum, that for cubase/nuendo use the AMD Ryzen 5900X is actually better than the 5950X.
The guy said, that the speed of a single cor is more important, and that more than 12 cores could even be a obstructive.
Is this something that you guys would confirm or deny?
And agein, do you think a PNY Quadro 620 - 2GB would be sufficient?
If you set the CPU to run only at base speed the 5900x indeed does have a higher clock speed. On the other hand, if you need the boost speed to be maximum for any single core at short bursts of time then the 5950x can obtain a higher maximum frequency.
I think the number is actually 14 logical threads, which on a multi-threading CPU means half as many cores, in other words 7. Since they come in pairs the hypothetical problem would show up at 8 cores and up (with multi-threading).
You would have to read up on the experience of users though because as far as I recall people have gotten the best performance with the CPUs that are top-of-the line almost all the time. In other words from what I recall the 16 core outperforms the 6 core.
Having said that there could probably be edge cases where you really manage to max out one CPU and not the other, and it might not be intuitive.
If I were you I’d read up on the experience by users that do what you do on forums like Gearspace. Just do a search there and see what people are saying. If it was me I’d pick the hex core, but I do mostly post mixing and don’t use VSTi so…
PS: Here’s the results on the virtual instrument test using DAWbench on last generation CPUs, done by Scanproaudio
More cores appear to be better. The only question is if it applies equally to Cubase.
Something current, don’t use an old GPU, driver updates will sooner or later be a problem. Specially now that Win11 is on its way. I could see Microsoft being even more aggressive on what hardware is allowed, in the future.
GPU’s are coming down in price, it is a matter of how long you can wait for them to normalize in price.
Not sure why you are comparing the 980 to 970 series here.
The 980 “non-pro” has the same endurance/reliability as the pro version.
Either are already plenty fast (comparing two models of Ferrari here…), the “pro” will be marginally faster on brief occasions and only if properly cooled, otherwise it heats-up and throttles quickly. The non-pro is a bit easier to cool and quite less expensive (esp. so when you buy 2). If the near $200 gap (2 units +tx) is non-material to you, just go for it! But only if you provide proper cooling, otherwise it’s a waste.
Good info on the H100 cooler.
It shows that liquid cooling is not always a panacea to have a quiet machine.
It’s usually targeting gamer machines more than quiet/studio machines, so make sure you inform your PC builder of your priorities and they should be able to help making the right choices. I would definitely agree a well-built air-cooling can be better/quieter than a poorly selected liquid-cooling solution! RGB lights don’t make things quieter
And yes, having the ability to force a fixed fan speed can be valuable to reduce the perceived noise.
It all starts with generating less heat, so scaling down the GPU to only what you need is a good practice. The Quadro 620 is probably still 2x more power than needed, bust just make sure you have all the monitor connections you need. Using a recent model as someone suggested is also important. Personal note: the GPU fan is presently the noisiest part of my setup.
The Corsair PSU they offer is not the most quiet, but still a good pick. I would spend my money on an HX850 (or SF750) for silent operation under moderate load. (use the $$ you saved on the SSD )
Regarding CPU now. Both 5900X or 5950X are good picks again, but the 5950 will run a hair cooler in theory (lower watt per core ratio). If money is no object, go for the 5950, but you won’t regret using the 5900 either.
Boy… that post is already too long…
In summary, this PC vendor seems to be credible and use good components, but oriented more on gamer machines than silent PCs. Get someone on the phone to talk about your ‘silence’ preferences to see how they react and if they can make recommendations in that direction.
I’m waiting on that ZEN3 threadripper to drop in a few months…
I’m definitely intrigued to my next video card. Was there anything in particular about this one?
For a video editing rig, you’re gonna need a lot more storage than that but something tells me you’ve got that covered. All in all a really nice rig…may it find fortune.
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