KVR Audio

CircuitTree · Post by **CircuitTree** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 1:42 am

Deep Purple wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 1:19 am
jancivil wrote: ↑Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:49 pm Strange. I bought the 2018 i9, turbo boost, 32GB RAM and it runs amazingly cool. It's on my exposed thighs right now.
Same year and specs here, and no heat issues at all.

No hiccups from the cpu when you’re running your daw either?

Deep Purple · Post by **Deep Purple** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 2:03 am

No, nothing.

I run Ableton Live, Propellerheads Reason, have experimented with VCV rack, connect my iPad to run iOS apps, and none of them cause heat or audio issues.

CircuitTree · Post by **CircuitTree** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 2:13 am

Deep Purple wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 2:03 am No, nothing.

I run Ableton Live, Propellerheads Reason, have experimented with VCV rack, connect my iPad to run iOS apps, and none of them cause heat or audio issues.

That's good to hear. I'm still curious about apple's future regarding the rumors of them wanting to create their own proprietary cpu's.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:13 am

Deep Purple wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 2:03 am No, nothing.

I run Ableton Live, Propellerheads Reason, have experimented with VCV rack, connect my iPad to run iOS apps, and none of them cause heat or audio issues.

If you have time, can you load in a big patch in VCV Rack - one that only leaves ~200 mS remaining (a few instances of Dexter and one or two Portland Weathers should do it) - and tell me what your processor temperatures are?

I am interested to know if I had a bad copy on temperature as well as audio and video.

You may not see very high temperatures in Live because it does not use the dGPU, whereas VCV Rack runs the dGPU at vSync rates (pushes the Vega 20 to above 50% use). I don't know whether Reason uses the dGPU or not.

Another test would be a modern demanding game perhaps (I have none myself) - that would also push the dGPU.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:27 am

If you haven't pulled the trigger yet, I can't recommend a Dell Precision workstation highly enough. I've had four over the years - three work machines and one of my own - and they've all been bulletproof. In fact, the one I bought in 2007 is still being used by my band mate's kids, 11 years later, and my band mate still thinks it's the best computer keyboard he's ever used (as did I when it was mine). Here's a link to their current 17" offering. It is very configurable but it's easy enough to go through step by step and choose your options. I'd recommend the nVidia Quadro over the Radeon for video editing and the base option will be more than good enough. You'll probably want to upgrade to the 4k screen, too, which is right near the bottom of the configuration page.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/ct ... op7730emea

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:37 am

BONES wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:27 am If you haven't pulled the trigger yet, I can't recommend a Dell Precision workstation highly enough. I've had four over the years - three work machines and one of my own - and they've all been bulletproof. In fact, the one I bought in 2007 is still being used by my band mate's kids, 11 years later, and my band mate still thinks it's the best computer keyboard he's ever used (as did I when it was mine). Here's a link to their current 17" offering. It is very configurable but I'd just be looking at the cheaper Xeon if you think you need the oomph, plus doubling the RAM. Then you can configure your drives (up to three of them) and you're done. They seem to be on special at the moment, too.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/ct ... op7720emea

Thanks. No triggers have been pulled yet and after a weekend of reflection they're not going to be just yet.

I looked at that, but once I configure it up to similar specs to the i9 MBP I'm at £4330 (albeit with a 17" screen). It is also 3.4kg minimum, which is a bit too heavy for my lap.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:38 am

I just found a better deal and changed the link. This one is a much better buy - more options, cheaper starting price -

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/ct ... op7730emea

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:41 am

I just checked and it's lighter, too.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:43 am

That's certainly better £3.2k and 3.2kg for very similar specs to the MacBook Pro - it includes 3 years on-site. The MacBookPro I had was £4k + £400 for Applecare.

That seems to be thermally compromised too though:

https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/lapto ... ision-7730

"The Precision 7730 failed to stay cool after we played a 15-minute HD video on YouTube. While the touchpad maintained a comfortable 83 degrees Fahrenheit, the underside (108 degrees) and the keyboard center (96 degrees) warmed up to above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The vent on the underside reached a troubling 110 degrees."

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:53 am

I'm not sure about the UK but here in Australia, Dell's on-site service is phenomenal. The spare power supply died on one of the work machines, and Dell had a new one to me within 3 hours of me calling them. Another time my first ever personal laptop (non-Precision) died on me in China (a known fault with nVidia chipsets that affected everyone, even Apple) and the guy was on my doorstep less than 2 hours after I got home to replace the motherboard, even though it was officially out of warranty by several weeks.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:58 am

BONES wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:53 am I'm not sure about the UK but here in Australia, Dell's on-site service is phenomenal. The spare power supply died on one of the work machines, and Dell had a new one to me within 3 hours of me calling them. Another time my first ever personal laptop (non-Precision) died on me in China (a known fault with nVidia chipsets that affected everyone, even Apple) and the guy was on my doorstep less than 2 hours after I got home to replace the motherboard, even though it was officially out of warranty by several weeks.

As I said in the OP I used to buy Dell before I switched to Mac, though my last PC purchase was 20 years ago. I also used to manage a Rack of Dell servers at that time. Their onsite is fantastic. Applecare works well if you live near an Apple store - my nearest is 2 hours away and the nearest certified engineer an hour and a quarter. I had a lot of problems with my 2011 17" (on its 4th logicboard), each requiring a long drive, leaving it for a few days, and another long drive to pick it up.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 6:01 am

Thermals are always a trade off but one thing Pete Kaine at Scan convinced me of on the phone is that they go to incredible lengths with their builds to cool their computers and not to overspec where this caused problems (in their thinner model).

kev2525 · Post by **kev2525** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:29 pm

Longtime lurker here who would like to pose a question if I may. Is there a large gap in performance between a high spec'ed laptop and a desktop these days? I get that the desktop is likely to have better connectivity and long term upgradabilty, but do you still take a knock on the grunt your laptop can handle if you choose to downsize?

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:59 pm

It depends but given that high-end, workstation-class laptops from Dell and others offer Xeon CPUs and Quadro graphics as options, it's hard to imagine they won't be as fast as a desktop machine with similar spec.

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Sat Oct 19, 2019 2:37 pm

Anything new?

Laptop for music - buying advice needed