Help with PC purchase for Adam Szabo Viper synth

[biscuitdough]

If you can spend $300 or so, you should be able to find a refurb HP Z-series or Lenovo S-series with an Xeon E5, 16GB RAM and an SSD.

https://pcserverandparts.com/hp-z420-wo ... furbished/

This is a great deal!

I got my S30 from this company and have been very happy with it. For what it's worth, these workstations aren't compact and they draw a fair amount of power. I think it's worth it though.

[joniqwest]

Thanks went to the site was thinking about desktop but really hoping to get a small as possible form factor. But desktop is not a deal breaker.

If you can spend $300 or so, you should be able to find a refurb HP Z-series or Lenovo S-series with an Xeon E5, 16GB RAM and an SSD.

https://pcserverandparts.com/hp-z420-wo ... furbished/

[joniqwest]

Thanks everyone ! Will follow up once I make the purchase

[ferez21]

1) For max performance, always favor desktop over laptop

2) Favor the highest single core performance.
You can get a rough idea on that by checking things like Geekbench and Cinebench for scores.

3) Get the highest tier processor, from the most recent generation you can get, with the highest clock speed your current budget can allow.

4) 8GB RAM is sufficient enough for 95% of audio hobbyists

5) SSD is very nice to have for overall performance, but will not affect the performance of your synth vst

[PieBerger]

4) 8GB RAM is sufficient enough for 95% of audio hobbyists

This is barely enough to run the operating system and a DAW. I'm using around 8GB on my office PC, just for Windows, Outlook and the two ERP/MRP desktop applications we use. 16GB minimum for audio, up to 32GB for use with chonky sample libraries (not applicable to OP).

[ferez21]

4) 8GB RAM is sufficient enough for 95% of audio hobbyists

This is barely enough to run the operating system and a DAW. I'm using around 8GB on my office PC, just for Windows, Outlook and the two ERP/MRP desktop applications we use. 16GB minimum for audio, up to 32GB for use with chonky sample libraries (not applicable to OP).

I run projects with dozens and dozens of plugins and tracks with no issues, RAM is by far the least of the issues, it's usually the CPU that gives in way before the RAM runs out, if ever.

RAM will become a problem if you use a lot of huge samplers and audio libraries.

RAM is also upgradable, my suggestions take into account that the OP is on tight budget, and as such, worrying about more than 8GB should be the least of his/her concerns.
But still, I've been doing fine with 8GB for years, so 16GB should most definitely not be the "bare minimum" for audio for a hobbyist.

[PieBerger]

4) 8GB RAM is sufficient enough for 95% of audio hobbyists

This is barely enough to run the operating system and a DAW. I'm using around 8GB on my office PC, just for Windows, Outlook and the two ERP/MRP desktop applications we use. 16GB minimum for audio, up to 32GB for use with chonky sample libraries (not applicable to OP).

I run projects with dozens and dozens of plugins and tracks with no issues, RAM is by far the least of the issues, it's usually the CPU that gives in way before the RAM runs out, if ever.

RAM will become a problem if you use a lot of huge samplers and audio libraries.

Come to think of it, I have ancient MBP that only has 8GB IIRC, that will run smaller projects, so I'm talking b*llocks here

[chk071]

Yeah, 8 GB is completely sufficient if you're only using soft synth and FX. Until two years ago or so, I had 8 GB in my desktop PC, and I never ran into problems with music making.

[BONES]

Anyone care to share their PC setups and what performance they are getting with multiple instances of Viper.
Would an Intel i3 with 8gb RAM and 128GB SSD be robust enough ? I am trying to stay under $500.00.

No, it probably wouldn't. My advice is to do what I have done and buy an ex-lease Surface Pro 4 on eBay. I got one with a Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for Au$550, which was about US$400 at the time. It's a 6th gen CPU, so not incredibly fast, but it does a good job for us - we'll be using it from now on when we play live, so it will be doing all our backing.

Here's the kind of thing I'd be looking at - https://www.ebay.com/itm/184836532940?h ... SwXV9gnWeh

I just tested mine with Studio One and I got to 8 instances of Viper, playing the same four note chord with each playing a different PAD preset. The 9th instance started to play up a bit, so 8 seems to be the limit.

This is barely enough to run the operating system and a DAW.

He won't be running a DAW, just a barebones VST host. 8GB will be plenty.

[ferez21]

MAC user taking a plunge into Windows world. I used to own a Ti 61 and Ti Polar but with Access seeming to no longer support the Virus' future development. I am buying a PC with Viper and a VST host as a " synth dedicated module".
Anyone care to share their PC setups and what performance they are getting with multiple instances of Viper.

Would an Intel i3 with 8gb RAM and 128GB SSD be robust enough ? I am trying to stay under $500.00. Also anyone using AMD chips vs Intel Chips?

I am currently looking at the these options :

https://www.newegg.com/intel-bxnuc10i3f ... lsrc=aw.ds

https://www.tigerdirect.com/application ... 190a82b82d

Thanks !

Since you've mentioned a NUC, take a look at this one:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... _w10p.html

I got it used with 2.5 years warranty remaining for 250$, and this is an incredible machine for the price, sporting an i5 10th gen with 6 cores and 12 threads.
If you can get your hands on a used or refurbished one this is the best value you can get.

[Passing Bye]

If you can would love to hear how many instances with voices before you max out the system

As I promised, did little test, Viper x64 Demo with PD Monster Pad AS from Viper Factory 1 bank using 4 notes chord progression, Bitwig 3, Mbox 2 Mini 512 buffer, Windows 8.1 PC with i7 3770, I could get 5, barely 6 instances.

Gonna leave MIDI file of the progression, if anyone wants to test on their machine.

[BONES]

NUCs are quite expensive for what they are. I don't think they are good value at all.

[jancivil]

1) For max performance, always favor desktop over laptop

I run an 8-core, 16 logical core 64GB 'laptop' with 8GB VRAM. I'd bet money it outperforms whatever you're doing.

2) Favor the highest single core performance.

assumes everybody uses software that works that way. I do not. my projects use cores. I would venture to guess that most of us are using things which do not simply hammer on the first core. Multicore wouldn't be much of a thing were this true, yet I bet it is, if we polled it. Even if not, I exploit multicore and would not use things which don't at this point, and at this point has been at this point for some 12 yrs.

3) Get the highest tier processor, from the most recent generation you can get, with the highest clock speed your current budget can allow.

Comports well with the single-core rules ok assertion.
Well, the machine before this had a faster clock. This one, with two more cores/4 logical is significantly better performing because of a few other factors in addition to that, which taken as a whole evidently means more, holistically, than that does in itself. Agree pretty much with most recent generation, but the most recent generation means numerous cores.

4) 8GB RAM is sufficient enough for 95% of audio hobbyists

Have you done a study? Can you back up this argumentum ad populum gesture? Why would we care.

5) SSD is very nice to have for overall performance, but will not affect the performance of your synth vst

Every single part of this is an assumption and none of them appear to be based in knowing things.

[mgw38]

As a longtime Mac user you might have an old Mac system lying around. If that‘s the case give it new life by installing Windows on it.

[AnX]

4) 8GB RAM is sufficient enough for 95% of audio hobbyists

This is barely enough to run the operating system and a DAW.

absolute rubbish