X99 chips for Music Production??

[radaget]

Hi

Can someone please explain to me if a new pc used mainly for music production (complex software instruments with high CPU usage, large GB sampled instruments that need alot of RAM, 10's to 100's of tracks at once using a mixture of these etc) would benefit from the new X99 / 5820 / 5930 processors and DD4 RAM?

I don't understand if the advantages of these would be applicable to this type of work or are they designed for something else. I'm wondering if the previous processors would be just as good. One limiting factor would be maximum amount of RAM?

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Karsten75]

You can most certainly add more RAM, and quad-channel (as opposed to dual) channel DDR4 RAM on the new X99 motherboards. Since DDR4 is also faster, then overall your experience would improve. Choosing a Xeon processor and a workstation motherboard will get you into the 100s of GB of RAM, as opposed to the 64GB maximum of consumer-oriented motherboards - provided of course that you want that much and can afford it.

 

[radaget]

Thanks for the response Karsten.

I'm still stuggling to find anywhere on the www advice specifially to music production and how the specific tasks of this work would benefit from which processor.

I'm hoping someone can give me a run through of why a 5820k would be better than the 4790k (if indeed it is because clock speed is lower?) and why the 5930 would be even better because it had all channels open / available (if that would make a difference to music production). Do mu software instruments need to support multi-threading??

Given that I'm making do with my old Sony Vaio Core 2 Duo (which isn't up to it all and I'm not able to use many of my VST's), I'm obvioulsy someone who doesn't want to change system very often (nightmare to re load all of the software mainly) so I want this to be up to scratch for a long time.

I'm not able to stretch to the Xeon processor and I think 64GB would be enough RAM. I was thinking of a system in the £1000 to £1400 range but that's when you start to have to consider the new processors (5820 / 5930).

Thanks...

Tim

 

[Karsten75]

How do you use your PC? is it in a recording studio where absolute quiet is important, or is it more post-production? Midi?

Do you work in one location only or do you move between locations?

 

[radaget]

Hi

It will be located in the same room as audio recording will take place so absolute quiet needed.

It will also be used for midi via an audio usb interface.

I think I will be after a semi portable (really liked the aerofoil dead silence design) design so that I could transport it if I wanted too. But this wouldn't be the norm.

Thanks

 

[Karsten75]

Sorry, I've been out of town for a few days. That Aerocool looks like a very interesting case. The leather finish is also unusual and mighty stylish. Don't get a windowed version - that is less noise dampening.

I'll have a bit of a look and also try and see if I can answer your other question a bit later.

 

[Cowtung]

I think that for music production, the difference between 5820K and 5930K will be negligible. The first thing to consider when deciding between 5820K and the 4790K is whether your software will actually use all 6 cores (12 threads) of the 5820K. If it will, then go for it, but the other components of the machine will be more expensive. If you want to go with 64GB of RAM, you're better off going 4790K, because DDR3 is cheaper than DDR4 (5820K). The X99 chipset will give your computer more life, if you want to upgrade in the future without getting a whole new mobo/RAM/CPU combo. The 5820K is nice (I've got mine OC'ed to 4.4Ghz with temperature headroom), but is really geared toward people who want to stick a ton of PCIe cards in their box (it supports more lanes for quad SLI). If all you are going to have is video and audio cards, then the 5820K will work fine. I don't know how price conscious you are. £1400 will not cover 64GB of good quality DDR4. Will your music apps really use that much? At this time, DDR4 does not perform noticeably better than DDR3 (according to what I've read).

As a side note, if you're looking for absolute silence, sadly liquid cooling might not be the best route. Maybe there's some alternate way to install the thing, but I'm using Swiftech H240-X (http://www.coolerguys.com/840556102717.html), which was supposed to be quiet, but the motor noise on the pump is audible and the fans that come with it are noisy. I replaced the fans with Noctuas, to good effect, and now everything is silent except the pump. If I set the pump "fan speed" in the BIOS to 0%, it runs at the lowest speed, which is not so bad, and cools effectively. If you are going for silence, get a big Noctua 6 NH-D14, and then don't overclock it. You should be able to set the fans to inaudible speeds and stay under 50C easy.

 

[Karsten75]

Here is the issue. If you go with the Aerocool Dead silence case, you are limited to a maximum of 64GB of RAM since the case only supports micro-ATX boards - and that's if you use the new processors. On the older processors you are limited to 32GB.

I've added SilernPCReview's top cooler - but I have a few concerns on whether it will fit in the case easily - they say they accommodate radiators of that size, but...

Memory is another issue. With DDR4 memory so recent, it's both expensive and a little hard to find. You need 4 DIMMs to maximise the quad-channel memory usage on the board/processor, but that means you have to make a difficult decision on how much you want to spend on memory.

Here is the supported memory list for the motherboard: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99M%20Extreme4/?cat=Memory

Decide if you will go all-in for 64GB or 32GB. Maybe if you go for 32GB, you may consider an overall cheaper solution with a LGA 1150 motherboard and a Xeon E3 processor instead of the E5. While talking about processors, note that the Xeaon E5 I configured is both cheaper and outperforms the Intel Core i7 processor while still having 6 cores and 12 threads. It does need a graphics card, but you can use a cheap, low-end card since you won't be gaming.

We haven't talked about storage either, but since you need silence, you will go with either SSD and PCIe/M.2 solid state storage. The only question is how much and what you want to pay. SSDs will work in the cheaper LGA 1150 solution, but the others won't.

So, as a work in progress:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2620 V3 2.4GHz 6-Core Processor (£312.88 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X41 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£79.19 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99M Extreme4 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£163.84 @ More Computers)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£184.24 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£154.80 @ Aria PC)
Case: Aerocool DS-Cube Black MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£91.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £986.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-08 22:01 GMT+0000

 

[Cowtung]

The fanless Zotac GTX 750 might be good for silence too. http://amzn.com/B00MO4MOPE

Can you please explain further your choice of a Xeon chip? It appears to me to be inferior due to lower clock speed and no ability to overclock and not much cheaper.