Building a PC for Music Production!

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Mehrunes_Dagon3e433
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Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:26 am

Building a PC for Music Production!

Post by Mehrunes_Dagon3e433 »

Hey everyone! So as of now, I'm currently planning to build a PC for music production. I've been using a laptop for a while, but I plan on acquiring a lot of audio technology.

First and foremost, I will be building a Windows 10 PC, but I'm wondering if anyone can see whether or not the components I'm purchasing will be completely compatible.

The link below is my PC Part Picker. I already have the monitor, the Optical Disk Drive and a Wireless Dual Band Adapter for Wifi, but the other parts I'm nervous to get unless I know what I need. Thanks if you can help! :).

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XQfhnn
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Rolling Estonian
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Re: Building a PC for Music Production!

Post by Rolling Estonian »

16gb ram would be better but definitely a SSD or 7200 as a main drive. Also, I'd go with an intel i7 if possible. For a bit more money you're spending you could find a decent machine already assembled. Do you have to have a desktop or can it be a laptop?

http://blog.logicalincrements.com/2016/ ... roduction/

https://www.wirerealm.com/guides/top-10 ... production

Lots of good info above. With a machine dedicated to music production, getting a great chip, getting as much ram as you can and getting fast drives are the big three.

M
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chibear
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Re: Building a PC for Music Production!

Post by chibear »

I agree. Definitely NOT a 5400 rpm drive and if you plan to be doing much MIDI streaming from sample libraries I would suggest at least 1 more drive from which to stream the samples: drive C OS & apps; Drive D sample libraries, both Acoustica and 3rd party. I also put my projects on a drive other than C.

16GB is probably the minimum these days for music production. Some of the new gen libraries take more than 2GB per instrument.

There have been problems in the past with AMD processors and DAWs in general. A few ppl on these forums have hefty systems powered by AMD and I haven't read any complaints. However EWQL and a few other developers use only i7s in their test machines so they may know something we don't.
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bestazy
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Re: Building a PC for Music Production!

Post by bestazy »

I recommend taking an SSD atlest for 128 gb for your system performance.
And hdd definitely with 7200 rpm 2-3TB (its cheap)
Get 16-32 gb ram with 2400 speed.This will give a very smooth and stable performance.
"Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow."All the best.
mixyguy2
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Re: Building a PC for Music Production!

Post by mixyguy2 »

chibear wrote:16GB is probably the minimum these days for music production.
Disagree. I'm working on a mere 4GB and doing fine, though I'm not using much in the way of VSTs. Even with that unless you're really going heavy on them, 8GB is probably fine for most. That said, memory is cheap, so I would probably buy a 4GB or 8GB RAM system and upgrade to 16. :) I would not build one, unless you just enjoy the process. You won't save much money. Re. hard drives, basically none are 5400 any more, so not a concern.

Re processor, my comments on RAM apply here...sure more is better but there are so many variations or "models" now that the diff between an i3/i5/i7 vary a LOT and aren't necessarily much. Sure get as much as you can but people have to consider budgets too. :)
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Mark Bliss
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Re: Building a PC for Music Production!

Post by Mark Bliss »

The OP's "parts picker" originally showed a 5400 drive.

While it's obviously correct that "need's and budgets" vary widely, I can say that I am REGULARLY hitting or exceeding the limitations of both my I5 quad and 8 gig's presently.
Stay in tune, Mark

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