About to do a full computer upgrade. Questions!

[Pictus]

Thanks again for all this. I decided that I’m going to have a local shop build this for me. They have most of it in stock and only charge $165 for assembly. The prices are comparable to online and I think it will be good to find a local business. We’re going full speed on trying to move, so figuring out how to build a PC isn’t a project I want to add to the long list of things on my plate.

I am glad to help, yes good idea.

I notice that the mother board isn’t out yet. I’m not in a super hurry, but I’d like for it to be done before the move. Is there a comparable one that is currently available, or is this one worth the wait ?

You quoted the first config, but I guess you are talking about the second
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TZZJQD with the motherboard FULL of USB ports.
Look, in two different places it is there waiting for you ...
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... board.html
or
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E1681314527 ... 6813145270

[zerocrossing]

That's a real killer PC, wished I had something similar. Also good call to not add a dedicated graphics card. You don't really need that with audio. Just raises the price, especially at this time.

I’ve got one from my previous computer that works well enough. I can run three monitors off it. I was wondering if any software takes advantage of the GPU on a video card, though.

[zerocrossing]

Thanks again for all this. I decided that I’m going to have a local shop build this for me. They have most of it in stock and only charge $165 for assembly. The prices are comparable to online and I think it will be good to find a local business. We’re going full speed on trying to move, so figuring out how to build a PC isn’t a project I want to add to the long list of things on my plate.

I am glad to help, yes good idea.

I notice that the mother board isn’t out yet. I’m not in a super hurry, but I’d like for it to be done before the move. Is there a comparable one that is currently available, or is this one worth the wait ?

You quoted the first config, but I guess you are talking about the second
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TZZJQD with the motherboard FULL of USB ports.
Look, in two different places it is there waiting for you ...
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... board.html
or
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E1681314527 ... 6813145270

Huh. The vendor I was looking at listed it as a preorder... oh well. The dude at Central Computers in San Mateo seemed to know what he was doing and suggested a similarly spec’d model.

[zerocrossing]

She’s up and running! Typical weird USB MIDI gremlins, but they’ll work their way out. Thanks again for all the help.

[plbuzz1]

Anyone with recent experience on adding a dedicated graphics card and whether or not it improves DAW performance on a Windows 10 PC?

[ghettosynth]

Anyone with recent experience on adding a dedicated graphics card and whether or not it improves DAW performance on a Windows 10 PC?

I have always had them, but not for performance, rather, for multiple monitors at higher resolutions. I used to buy the fanless ones but I found that they generate too much heat and would just cause the case fans to work harder.

That said, I've always purchased the basic $100 to $150 card for my audio workstations and, in recent years, have had better luck with AMD video cards with respect to drivers and DPC latency, YMMV.

If you're going to do any video editing, they make a huge difference though.

[plbuzz1]

Thanks - will look into an entry level AMD card.

[Pictus]

Thanks - will look into an entry level AMD card.

Good and cheaper AMD cards are hard to find:(
But this Nvidia is good for DAW workloads
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KmM323 ... -2gh-lp-oc
But if want to use for other stuff like Netflix and/or 4K monitor
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6hKhP6 ... x1050ti-4g

But do not forget the tweaks
viewtopic.php?p=7624448#p7624448

[plbuzz1]

Thanks, i will look for one on sale. Another question for anyone - what is the best budget PC CPU you would use on a music workstation build?

[Passing Bye]

Another question for anyone - what is the best budget PC CPU you would use on a music workstation build?

I had opened a thread that kinda went in that direction
viewtopic.php?t=564610

It's not easy answer, you should factor in cost of the motherboard and do you plan on getting into whole Thunderbolt story for your audio interface, also local prices and so on...

Today I was checking out again the prices and all, dunno, for low budget build I would go with Ryzen 5 3600 with MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX, have GPU lying around and it's cheaper than i5-11400 with MSI Z590-A Pro significantly, 250 vs 350, but if you factor in the GPU and went with integrated Intel, than it probably evens out, but if you are going to get GPU nonetheless, than AMD combo looks better again.

Intel got better single core performance over 3600 which is Zen 2, but more than I think about it, more I'm leaning towards Ryzen 5 5600X which is Zen 3 and overall just better CPU than both, for me difference is 100 bucks, but it's worth it in my opinion, I was thinking about going first with 3600 than upgrading to any of those Zen 3 ones down the line, but you get what you pay for here immediately and you can forget about whole thing for few years, knowing you got CPU that have great single and multi core performance, none of the low latency bottlenecks and I'm pretty sure it will be enough for most people anyways, for me definitely.

[plbuzz1]

Thanks for all of this - I will look into all of the products you mention above. My current 6 year old workstation has latency issues and is not worth upgrading.

[Passing Bye]

Thanks for all of this - I will look into all of the products you mention above. My current 6 year old workstation has latency issues and is not worth upgrading.

Sure, glad I could help with anything.

I have almost decade old i7 3770 build that I find actually enough for music making, but started getting random issues and have a feeling I will need to get new one sooner than I planned. One thing I know most modern 6 cores would be more than good enough for my needs and could serve me fine next 10 years.