I am to buy a new PC this year. Probably around chrismas.
Problem is, i am complete daft when it comes to whats actually good and what is only sales pitch.
Whats your guys recommendation for PC CPU, motherboard, RAM?
What is more important, cores or speed? Is a Mac an option? And why?
Lets say i need 5+ tracks of Diva in my DAW.
Modern PC for CPU hungry VSTs
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- KVRAF
- 4130 posts since 11 Aug, 2006 from Texas
I believe getting the best possible Intel CPU your best investment for a music-making PC/Mac. AMD is starting to disrupt the market with Ryzen and Threadripper but I still think it's too early to switch. It takes time for developers to purchase the CPUs and verify all their optimizations work well on both micro-architectures. If I were building a PC today I'd probably go with an Intel Core i7-7700. I think that's a good balance of price and performance. If you can wait a bit Intel is expected to release their new Coffee Lake cores in about a month.
RAM is more important for sample-based instruments. Nowadays I'd recommend 16GB for a good overall experience, and 32GB if you're using a lot of Kontakt, Omnisphere, or other big library tools.
A decent SSD is plenty for pretty much all audio-based tasks. The motherboard doesn't really matter as long as you're buying from a reputable builder like Asus or Gigabyte.
Mac is definitely an option if you like that ecosystem. I prefer to choose all my components and perform incremental upgrades over time. Macs are much more of a turn-key solution, but there's nothing wrong with that.
On the argument of cores vs speed. My take is that both are important for different instruments (and DAWs). Reason, for example, doesn't make as extensive use of extra cores as Reaper does. If your DAW and plugins (like Diva) are all multicore tuned then getting more cores can help with multiple instances. If not, try to get the fastest clock you can afford.
And I stick with my recommendation for Intel. The developers of audio software is a relatively small market. These developers have to optimize their products for what they anticipate their customers will have. Considering that Macs are Intel-only and for the last few years the PC world has also been dominated by Intel, it's a safe bet to purchase with this in mind. I can hope AMD changes this in the next few years but for now I think it's just a bit too early to take the risk. I have no doubt others will disagree.
RAM is more important for sample-based instruments. Nowadays I'd recommend 16GB for a good overall experience, and 32GB if you're using a lot of Kontakt, Omnisphere, or other big library tools.
A decent SSD is plenty for pretty much all audio-based tasks. The motherboard doesn't really matter as long as you're buying from a reputable builder like Asus or Gigabyte.
Mac is definitely an option if you like that ecosystem. I prefer to choose all my components and perform incremental upgrades over time. Macs are much more of a turn-key solution, but there's nothing wrong with that.
On the argument of cores vs speed. My take is that both are important for different instruments (and DAWs). Reason, for example, doesn't make as extensive use of extra cores as Reaper does. If your DAW and plugins (like Diva) are all multicore tuned then getting more cores can help with multiple instances. If not, try to get the fastest clock you can afford.
And I stick with my recommendation for Intel. The developers of audio software is a relatively small market. These developers have to optimize their products for what they anticipate their customers will have. Considering that Macs are Intel-only and for the last few years the PC world has also been dominated by Intel, it's a safe bet to purchase with this in mind. I can hope AMD changes this in the next few years but for now I think it's just a bit too early to take the risk. I have no doubt others will disagree.
Feel free to call me Brian.
