Does anyone have Ryzen 9 experience?

[ppayne]

Hi all,

Does anyone have experience with the AMD Ryzen 9 processors in general and in conjunction with Mixcraft and Focusrite?

I want to get this tiny and extremely quiet Mini PC and I'm wondering whether I'll be happy with it or whether I'll just have driver problems and crashes.

https://youtu.be/ca_5e5Yrv8M?si=b4FLN_XryTREOx7T

MINIS FORUM UM790 Pro Mini PC AMD Ryzen 9 9 7940HS up to 5.2 GHz 64 GB DDR5 1 TB SSD Con AMD Radeon 780M, 4X USB3.2, 2X USB4, 2X HDMI 2.1, 2X PCIe4.0, Wi-FI 6E / BT5.3, RJ45 2.5G

Overall, performance is a minor matter for me. This thing is 10 times faster than I need for Mixcraft and currently costs 800 euros. My point is that it is super portable, absolutely small under my desk and there is no fan to be heard.

Until now I had always relied on Intel and have no experience with AMD processors. What do you think of AMD, can I use the processors properly and stable with Windows 11, Focusrite, OpenGL plugins and Mixcraft or will I stumble into a compatibility nightmare with AMD?

Thanks in advance for your experiences.

Patrick

[cactus-head]

Hi,

I think my friend has one (the mini pc). He says it's great. He has 64 gigs installed on it. I think the only thing he mentioned was the graphics card seems to be behind a generation or two. As far as the graphics card, I don't think that should matter. I run mixcraft with an HD 4000 from 2012 and it works. He loves the size, but he had some trouble getting his VSTs installed and running properly with reaper. It had something to do with how his storage was configured.

I have both intel and AMD processors on a series of different computers spanning decades to present. Generally AMD has been solid with low power consumption. Intel has always seemed to have a little more kick and graphics cards in general seem to work better with intel (except on linux).

I got an AMD laptop for my wife and it works very well - though it's an AMD 5. It's quite snappy and has 40 gigs of memory.

Check with the acoustica team the benefits of the 8 cores. If I recall, mixcraft was designed to use either the cores or threads per track for optimized performance when possible.

If portability is an objective, unless you are going to be carrying a display around with you and a power source, shelling out a few more bucks for a decent laptop may be a more desired option.

[ppayne]

Hi cactus,

thanks for the information. Sounds like I could go in the AMD direction. The lower power consumption also makes the fans quiet because I want to take microphone recordings directly beside the computer.

At the moment I have my i5 laptop which I carry back and forth between two locations. Mixcraft runs on it without any problems. Unfortunately my HDMI port is no longer working properly. I have the same Focusrite, screen, keyboard, etc. on both sides. I would actually just carry the little box around with me.

With laptops you get a lot less for the money and the special feature that it is supposed to be quiet excludes all Intel H and P processors. That's why I find this mini PC very interesting.

Thanks for your experience

[ste_p0270]

Hi,

I use the lower speed Ryzen 7 CPU (5800X) coupled with 32GB DDR4 3200 and a 1TB NVME.

No issues whatsoever with speed or reliability.

[ppayne]

Thanks Ste for your experience, that sounds good. Then I'll stop refusing AMD and move in that direction

[cactus-head]

I think the "AMD" vs "Intel" argument is really for niche users. Any general user that isn't a scientist who needs 64 cores in a threadripper or doesn't care to overclock their intel i9 to 9.1ghz with a liquid nitrogen tank attached, isn't going to notice a difference between categorically similar modern processors.

I don't think you could go wrong with the ryzen 9 processor. I just wonder, does the mini keep cool after hours of use? The ram, the ssds, the cpu and gpu are all crammed on top of each other. How does it stay cool?

[ppayne]

I just wonder, does the mini keep cool after hours of use? The ram, the ssds, the cpu and gpu are all crammed on top of each other. How does it stay cool?

It has a fan. But it seems to be larger than in a laptop and runs very quietly due to the lower CPU voltage. The ventilation is probably better. If my assumption is correct, then I only need 20 percent of the performance with Mixcraft. I think the box should then be silent

Things might be different when it comes to gaming. But that's not what I want to use it for.