# Bonkers server motherboard, 512GB max RAM



## synthetic (Aug 28, 2015)

Putting together a new system spec and I just came across this motherboard. 512GB max RAM! Of course it would cost you $7500 for that RAM, so I'll probably start with a bit less. Still, see any problems with this board for a VEP server? 

https://www.asus.com/us/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/Z10PED8_WS/specifications/


----------



## trumpoz (Aug 28, 2015)

hmmmmmmm running the whole of HS diamond with all mic positions in ram........


----------



## Gerhard Westphalen (Aug 28, 2015)

Wouldn't the amount of processing power needed to just keep that many samples running be more than any processor that you could put on that board? Also, I'm assuming that the realtime performance would quickly stop you from running more samples. Perhaps 4x 128GB computers would allow you to run more.


----------



## chimuelo (Aug 28, 2015)

Serious RAM hog.
Rather see 8 x 1Us each w/ Dual Mini ITX and 32GBs each.


----------



## synthetic (Aug 29, 2015)

Well, I'm not going to buy 512GB in one go, not in 2015. But RAM prices will always fall. So I could start with 64GB or 128GB now and work up to 512 in the (distant) future.

This board will support a pair of XEON processors like an E5-2670 8-core. So I could have a 16-core machine on top of the silly amount of RAM.

For the money ($550), this seems like a killer mobo. Unless anyone sees a problem with it. What kinds of things should you look out for when buying a PC motherboard for streaming sampling these days?


----------



## dtonthept (Aug 29, 2015)

Hi synthetic, 

If you check out the majority of posts by Richard Ames, you'll find very compelling evidence that the limitation to the power of your sample machine will not be the amount of RAM you are looking at aquiring here, and that often dual processors will slow things down in this application. He's explained it so much better than I ever could, many times over, I'd suggest doing a search for his posts, and also checking out his very detailed, thorough, and helpful YouTube videos, in particular this:



And this:



When I started researching PC builds I was all about having the single most heavily specced machine I could possibly get my hands on, these days it seems a lot more prudent to spread resources out to whatever degree necessary. The law of dimishing returns certainly applies to computer hardware.

Having said ALL of that, I haven't actually pulled the trigger on my PCs yet! (groooaaan)

D


----------



## ptsmith (Aug 30, 2015)

+1

Richard's video was a real eye opener for me. It explains why I start experiencing pops and drop outs at about 40% CPU usage. It leaves me at a loss as to how to build a fast DAW. It almost seems like a crap shoot.


----------



## synthetic (Aug 30, 2015)

Thanks, I'll check those out. Although I wonder if a VEP server has different performance needs than a DAW. It's more like a web server – outputting random audio files by request. Although the real-time performance argument is applicable.


----------



## FriFlo (Aug 30, 2015)

The way VE is transmitting the audio is another story. It still is a real time audio application, so you will get asio spikes at some point. The thing is, you have to find out how much polyphony you need. That depends a lot on your orchestration and midi mockup choices (e.g. layering multiple libraries). There certainly are pieces, that can easily be played on a single machine! But if you have a lot of streaming going on (e.g. fast legato lines by many orchestral instruments at the same time) there probably is not any PC available, that can play this without bouncing at a low buffer setting. The amount of RAM only expands the stuff you can have available (loaded), but even the fastest PC cannot play significantly more voices (sometimes even less). On the other hand, your electricity bill also plays a factor and more PCs will also cause more headaches. IMO we have come to the pleasant times, where a 2-3 PC setup can do almost anything (and so much more that 12 PCs could do 15 years ago). But I haven't found any prove, that 1 PC can do dense orchestration. As the new Mac Pro came out, there were many people claiming that machine could do it all. I always asked for numbers (voices streamed in Kontakt). Never got a reply on that question ...


----------



## synthetic (Aug 30, 2015)

I need more than I'm getting. I was running everything on one system: i7-4770, ASUS Z87 Pro motherboard, 32GB RAM. This wasn't cutting it so I moved some instruments to a second, less powerful slave. But that computer needs work and I hate having all of these computers sucking power and bouncing between slaves to find things. I just want one beefy system that will last me a while. 

That's why I liked this motherboard. I'm not going to buy 512GB of RAM in one shot, I'm not sure it's even possible to buy right now. I'll probably start with 64. But I like that it has room to grow.


----------



## tabulius (Sep 2, 2015)

Richard's videos were very helpful and after watching his videos and reading few forums I also started to lean towards 2-3 2u Xeon servers instead of "one monster" computer. I'm still not sure what ram, core amount or Xeon model I should aim for. There are so many Xeon models to choose from and no real world information of audio use, just vague CPU scores that don't actually help much. Nevertheless I think my money goes to hi speed Intel 750 Pci-e and M.2 ssds, maybe those help realtime performance the most.

But I think the goal for all of us is to find the setup that just works and we can forget about it and focus on the music. Now my old i7 990X 6-core with maxed out 24gb of ram just isn't enough for larger projects.


----------



## Guy Rowland (Sep 2, 2015)

FriFlo said:


> The thing is, you have to find out how much polyphony you need. That depends a lot on your orchestration and midi mockup choices (e.g. layering multiple libraries).



I think that's the very thing. Multiple mic positions too of course. I do find some libraries seem to just handle things with less fuss too. I've always been amazed at how happy LASS is playing A, B, C and FC simultaneously whereas I sometimes get issues with other libraries loading just 2 mic positions - which logically should be half the load of LASS full. I've ended up tailoring my template so things run as efficiently as possible, making a conscious choice with the more demanding libraries to just run off a single mix rather than do my own mix of, say, 4 different mic positions, and doing that I get no issues on one PC (though my orchestration may well be less dense than some others).


----------



## synthetic (Sep 2, 2015)

I'm always going to upgrade with future expansion in mind. However, I think I'll skip this motherboard and wait for a Z170 server board to hold a Skylake Xeon. That design seems like it has a lot to offer for real-time transfer speed.


----------

