Building a music production PC that will last 10 years

[QuestionAsker]

To have less Windows DPC problems, go for AMD GPU.

This is quite common. NVIDIA is only interested in AI, not audio.

I'm thinking the benefits outweight the cons of going with the Nvidia GeForce 5060 Ti. I figure if I'm not doing anything too crazy with VST's, and running a lightweight Windows 11 LTSC OS, any DPC Latency won't really be noticeable?

And if it is, won't be a crazy difficult fix?

I do like the specs of the Nvidia more, might need 4 monitors in future, and might have a need for local LLMs in the future... which is why I'm hoping I can get away with Nvidia GPU.

To create a de-bloated Windows 11, check viewtopic.php?

Thanks - I will definitely do this.

If I plan to run Windows 11 LTSC, would I follow the same guide? Or does Win 11 LTSC pretty much come debloated out-of-the-box?

ASUS X870E Creator

Yes, it is USB4 and some TB(Thunderbolt) compatibility.
Looks like it was working well with TB, but at some point in the latest bios
seems to having compatibility problems, if you really want TB, better go Intel.

I could always add a TB PCIe card in the future? Or just roll back the BIOS to the previous working version, for the Asus x870e creator?

Muito obrigado amigo pela ajuda

[QuestionAsker]

Regarding ECC Ram... I've tried reading about it a few times already, I understand it's for data integrity... but how does this translate to real-world use in audio production? How often would one actually use it in real life?

First, understand that ECC/non-ECC RAM and registered.unbuffered RAM are different concepts.

To answer your last question - if you don't have ECC you can't tell how often you would have used error correction if you had it. ECC memory includes both error detection and reporting. Non-ECC memory has no reporting.

For me the reporting is the important part. I want to be notified when a RAM module goes bad or overheats or whatever. If I don't get that RAM errors would slowly (or not so slowly) scramble the contents of my filesystems. I don't like that.

Thanks uOpt. I'm too much of a computer noob to implement this atm but I will keep it on my radar.

Another project I'm looking at to up my computer game is turning my old desktop into a local NAS backup server. I have 5 or 6 USB external HDDs mucking around, and I know that isn't a good backup solution (one's already failed).

[Pictus]

I'm thinking the benefits outweight the cons of going with the Nvidia GeForce 5060 Ti. I figure if I'm not doing anything too crazy with VST's, and running a lightweight Windows 11 LTSC OS, any DPC Latency won't really be noticeable?

I can not answer this type of question.

And if it is, won't be a crazy difficult fix?

Didn't you check the guide?
https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... st-5485008
But the guide will not fix a very crap driver, may need to use an older driver.
I do not know what NVIDIA driver version is good or not.

I do like the specs of the Nvidia more, might need 4 monitors in future, and might have a need for local LLMs in the future... which is why I'm hoping I can get away with Nvidia GPU.

Check if the LLMs you're interested in are AMD compatible.
Also, check the minimum VRAM requirements.

If I plan to run Windows 11 LTSC, would I follow the same guide? Or does Win 11 LTSC pretty much come debloated out-of-the-box?

It is the same guide.
Win 11 LTSC is not 100% de-bloated and also not proper tweaked for the lowest DPC as possible.

I could always add a TB PCIe card in the future? Or just roll back the BIOS to the previous working version, for the Asus x870e creator?

There is no TB card for X870e motherboards.
If you want TB with AMD, get the Asus ProArt X670E-CREATOR or ASRock X670E Taichi
or ASRock B650E Taichi Lite or ASRock B650E Taichi.

Muito obrigado amigo pela ajuda.

You are welcome.

[lunardigs]

Glad to hear your 10 year old setup is still doing well. I think I can revive my old setup, I'm thinking of doing so just to access my old files, etc. I think if I manage dust better, and get it a dust cover, it can still last another few (or another 15?) years.

Regarding ECC Ram... I've tried reading about it a few times already, I understand it's for data integrity... but how does this translate to real-world use in audio production? How often would one actually use it in real life?

Thanks! I'm glad it's lasted this long too.

ECC RAM detects and corrects memory errors. Yet, it's really the memory controller that does the work, while the RAM stores "ECC bits" (like checksum but more advanced). Which means the motherboard and chipset play a big role in ECC. Hence the added cost there.
The result is a computer that rarely ever hard-crashes.
But more importantly perhaps, it makes a system with many peripherals and storage devices much more stable and not suffer under load. So heavy I/O and thousands of processes and memory used up to the max, no big deal. Mine also runs cool, like 66C no matter what it seems.

So in terms of music production it's great. That is except for the compromise of top end performance and added cost. Also complexity, since you have to learn about server stuff ... Still I'd say it's worth it and I'm probably going to do it again.

On another note, I have a 3U rack mount chassis and since server stuff is designed for rack mounting it makes a lot of sense for me. For instance, cooling/airflow goes from front to back, instead of upward with the usual tower, so the RAM and CPU are laid out to take advantage of that. Otherwise if I use a regular ATX board it would defeat that and I'd have to direct air through it another way.

[uOpt]

Regarding ECC Ram... I've tried reading about it a few times already, I understand it's for data integrity... but how does this translate to real-world use in audio production? How often would one actually use it in real life?

First, understand that ECC/non-ECC RAM and registered.unbuffered RAM are different concepts.

To answer your last question - if you don't have ECC you can't tell how often you would have used error correction if you had it. ECC memory includes both error detection and reporting. Non-ECC memory has no reporting.

For me the reporting is the important part. I want to be notified when a RAM module goes bad or overheats or whatever. If I don't get that RAM errors would slowly (or not so slowly) scramble the contents of my filesystems. I don't like that.

Thanks uOpt. I'm too much of a computer noob to implement this atm but I will keep it on my radar.

Another project I'm looking at to up my computer game is turning my old desktop into a local NAS backup server. I have 5 or 6 USB external HDDs mucking around, and I know that isn't a good backup solution (one's already failed).

ECC isn't difficult. You just have to have a mainboard that supports it, which is pretty much all the better AM5 boards except MSI. And then ECC (unbuffered) memory. Just plug it in normally.

In a NAS ECC becomes more important since you have more disk I/O to protect.

A NAS backup is much better than no backup.

[Pictus]

I do like the specs of the Nvidia more, might need 4 monitors in future, and might have a need for local LLMs in the future... which is why I'm hoping I can get away with Nvidia GPU.

People on https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLM/ and/or https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/
might be able to help you get the correct GPU.

[Kaine]

For the motherboard, I was thinking of going with ASUS X870E Creator, since it has Thunderbolt built in (for upgrading audio interface down the line), as well as lots of connectivity ports etc. Would that be a good choice?

As noted above and if you check the product page for that board, there is no support currently listed for Thunderbolt.

Some boards in the range launched with suggested TB support, but it was dropped in the first few weeks of the X870 lifecycle as the third party USB4 solution AMD focused on doesn't quite meet the full spec in supporting TB. Outside of the £1000 MSI Godlike, I don't think you'll find much AMD wise currently doing Thunderbolt, you're better off going Intel for that.

[Steve Bolivar]

For dust control, in addition to filters on the air intakes be sure to have a positive airflow. Set up your fans so that there is more air being pushed in than drawn out from the fans. That way the only air coming in is going through a filter. This keeps air from being drawn in through unfiltered openings/cracks/seams.

In this thread there is a lot of info for optimizing settings for an Nvidia GPU. I have a 1050ti that's been in an Intel Win10 and an AMD Win11 system. In both I had/have audio dropouts (less than a second of silence) anywhere between once every 10 minutes to not for a few hours. It only affects playback. Even if it happens when recording, the recording is not affected. I haven't been bothered by them enough to do any of the fixes below but the setting to restrict the GPU to access only one CPU core with the Microsoft Interrupt Affinity Tool seemed promising.
viewtopic.php?t=503585

[legendCNCD]

Have GTX1070 on R7950X and it was on i7-4960X. Zero drop outs. Did not install Geforce Center or what it is, no HDMI. Only pure (studio) driver. Maybe I am lucky.