build a budget Daw Pc

[greententacle]

hey guys,

wanna build a budget desktop pc for a friend.
i have no clue about windows these days, so iam asking for guidance here.
he' s doing vst synths mainly, with a few Kontakt instruments here and there running cubase and Ableton Live.

budget is 500€

can you recommend some components?

[sempondr]

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS

[anttimaatteri]

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS

i would have shorten that advice down to the 5600g. im using a 3400g and it runs like a weasel after i got settled the pesky ram probs (only with computer games tho)
but only cos i havent yet did research to whats "the best" motherboard for the newest ryzen cpus or the upcoming 6000 (g!) series.

whats the reasoning behind chosing that asus mb?

[sempondr]

whats the reasoning behind chosing that asus mb?

It's good enough, not expensive and proven to work problem free for DAW build.

[audiojunkie]

hey guys,

wanna build a budget desktop pc for a friend.
i have no clue about windows these days, so iam asking for guidance here.
he' s doing vst synths mainly, with a few Kontakt instruments here and there running cubase and Ableton Live.

budget is 500€

can you recommend some components?

That's not much money for a new system. For that budget, if you are comfortable with doing it, you might get more value for your money if you considered using Linux. Ubuntu is great for those learning to adjust to how Linux works.

* The OS itself is free
* Many available synths and tools are free and open source
* Linux works best with Class Compliant devices (which tend to be the least expensive audio interfaces on the market).

If you are considering building your own system, the money you'd save from avoiding the Windows licensing alone will allow you to get better equipment.

Consider the following:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/build-new-pc-for-linux/

https://pcpartpicker.com/

You can run Linux apps, most of the Windows apps (including Native Instruments apps), and maximize your investment.

[chk071]

hey guys,

wanna build a budget desktop pc for a friend.
i have no clue about windows these days, so iam asking for guidance here.
he' s doing vst synths mainly, with a few Kontakt instruments here and there running cubase and Ableton Live.

budget is 500€

can you recommend some components?

i5-12400. Not sure if you get the other parts for 300 € though. But, that's one great budget CPU.

Just good that you don't need to buy a GPU for a DAW...

[anttimaatteri]

whats the reasoning behind chosing that asus mb?

It's good enough, not expensive and proven to work problem free for DAW build.

fair enough. sounds promising, if i may rely on your humble opinion^^.

[greententacle]

thanks guys, iam going for the i5-12400 and bump up the money abit. need 32gb ram too.
what Mainboard would you use for this processor?

[chk071]

thanks guys, iam going for the i5-12400 and bump up the money abit.

Good call.

I just got a new PC a few days ago. Cost 1.500 € though. But, it really rocks compared to the old one. Red Dead Redemption 2 in max details in full HD, wee.

[DarkStar]

^^^
Spec? Or link?

[chk071]

i5-11600K, Geforce RTX 3060 Ti, 16 GB Ram. The CPU is last gen, and I would have liked 32 GB of Ram, and it's probably 200 € too expensive, but, it works nicely, and, it's very performant compared to my last machine.

The times are just nuts in terms of prices, but, as I don't expect it to get better, only worse, I thought why not now.

[jamcat]

I’d pick components from tonymacx86 that are Hackintosh compatible. It doesn’t cost any more, but it leaves options open. I didn’t do that on my last Windows build and I ended up really regretting it because Mac OS runs smoother and more efficiently for audio than Windows on the same hardware.

[legendCNCD]

I’d pick components from tonymacx86 that are Hackintosh compatible. It doesn’t cost any more, but it leaves options open. I didn’t do that on my last Windows build and I ended up really regretting it because Mac OS runs smoother and more efficiently for audio than Windows on the same hardware.

That was not the case back few years... I see OSX being more bloated since 10.10 or .11 onwards. If they've fixed low latency performance then its great, maybe its on Windows's level then.

It does seem as usual from my experience during the years, you'll get less power on mac aka less plugins. I havent noticed any problems on either platforms until CPU inevitably comes to 100%

[jamcat]

I’ve had dual-boot Hackintoshes and dual-boot Macs. I have one right now. MacoS has always performed better on the same hardware. Though my 2012 Mac mini is actually a triple-boot, with Ubuntu as well. At this point only Linux runs smoothly on it. Mac OS is sluggish but usable on it since perhaps 10.13 (High Sierra), but Windows 10 is completely unusable. It is 10 year old hardware, after all.

My previous MacBook Pro (prior to my M1) was a dual-boot 2016 Intel, and there was no issue with it right through Catalina. Window 10 was fine on it too, but I got better audio performance in MacOS. It of course had much quicker boot times in MacOS, fewer network problems, and took a fraction of the HD space.

Anyways, the point here is not to start another Mac vs Windows debate. It is to say that you can keep your options open with just a little extra care in your PC part selection.

[legendCNCD]

Well, OSX has not performed better on same hardware for me, nope especially on low latency. It has always been slower than whats on the Win side.

Here is the old test I referenced https://original.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-1.htm

And no, I dont either care on which one one does their job, but just talking what I've seen and experienced in and out of studios.