# Building a New Recording Computer



## noiseinmymind (Oct 26, 2019)

Hi Guys, I am building a new recording computer and I am curious what you guys think. Any tips? I am also using a RME Fireface 400 and am looking for a PCIe card with a compatible chipset, so if anyone has any ideas for that it would be of great help too.

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor 
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler 
Asus PRIME X570-PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard 
Corsair Vengeance LPX 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-2400 Memory 
Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (For Music files)
Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (for main C drive)
Asus Radeon R5 230 1 GB Video Card


EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Addional Samsung SSD's with my Libraries


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## vitocorleone123 (Oct 26, 2019)

Cooling - I have a bias for Noctua - they're everything they say they are. That goes for coolers, but especially fans. I replaced all 3 case fans in my Fractal R6 with A-14s. Speaking of which, you didn't list a case. The Noctua D15S also came with an A-14. They do peak at ~25dba if running at 100% without the low noise adapter, but they also push 82 CFM each.

Memory - with a 3900X, you want 3200+ DDR4 to get the most out of your CPU/system performance. If you're sticking with lower speed, at least make sure they're quad channel, not dual.

Storage - if you're building a new computer, don't bother with hard drives, only SSD.

PSU - I prefer Corsair. Regardless of the brand, get one that 1) doesn't engage a fan until a % of load is reached, and 2) has 850+ watts so that that % is higher. You can get a fanless PSU now, but with higher-end desktop chips I personally prefer one with cooling because they will be sucking down watts when the CPU is highly engaged = heat.


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## J-M (Oct 26, 2019)

For a case I'd highly recommend the Fractal Design series (without the windows). They have lots of space and have some sound isolation material.


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## Damarus (Oct 26, 2019)

Both replies above nailed it OP


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## Pier (Oct 26, 2019)

Yeah you need faster RAM otherwise it will be a bottleneck for the Ryzen CPU. These include something called the Infinity Fabric which runs at half the speed of the RAM and coordinates communication between all cores.

Since I assume you want a silent build (otherwise why pick the Dark Rock Pro 4) you should look at the Asus Strix GPUs. These turn off the fans unless you are playing a game. Also look at the Corsair high end power supplies (AX, HX and RM) which also turn off the fan when the power load is less than 40% I believe.

Also I would rather buy a 1TB SATA SSD than a 2TB HDD... and then buy another 1TB SSD once the first one is full. Not only for the speed gains but also the noise.


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## HCMarkus (Oct 26, 2019)

Although I concur with the recommendations re: SSD, spinning HDs still have their place for backup *unless drive noise is an issue*. Approximately $100 gets you a 1TB SSD. $150 gets you 8TB of spinning rust. 

In my commercial studio the workflow involves separate SSDs for Boot/Applications, Projects and Samples. End of Session backup goes to two internal spinners, and Time Machine backs up hourly to an external spinner (where speed is not an issue) connected via USB. The computer and drives are out of sight and sound in a ventilated machine closet. 

Alternately, spinners can be spun down during critical acoustic recording periods.


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## vitocorleone123 (Oct 26, 2019)

I'd strongly recommend planning for a NAS out of the room with 8TB+ storage instead of on-board hard drives, or at least an external USB drive if you need spinners.


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## chimuelo (Oct 26, 2019)

The beauty of that Infinity Fabric and synced DDR is it only will get faster.
Not meaning that above the sweet spot will be a benefit, but these firmware updates and special drivers for certain games makes AMD extremely flexible.

Their female CEO actually was involved in the architectural design from what Ive been reading where she made a decision to avoid reverse engineering as they had always done in the past, and have a totally new x86 design that could be expanded for years, which was why the decision for 7nm was ingenius.

I was so impressed with her keynote @ CES 2017 I’ve been reading everything about her I can find.
She really is the epitome of a successful CEO.


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 26, 2019)

Hey guys, I appreciate the responses and advice. I took some time and revised my build. I have WD HD's that I will be using for backups. I do have a question though. Would I be better off getting 3200 Ram with more ram at 128gb, or should I get less ram at 4000 with 64gb of ram?

This is my list as currently revised:
Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (two sets for 128gb)
Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Edition ATX Mid Tower Case



Corsair HX Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply


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## vitocorleone123 (Oct 26, 2019)

If you bought fast 64GB, do you see yourself having the $ to buy 64 GB more within a year or so (before the make/model can become hard to find, since it's usually best to match it all) if you find you need it? It may not yet be possible to buy so much memory with high density (e.g. 32gb modules) that's also so fast. So you need to determine what you need - do you use templates that consume more than 64GB of RAM? Get the slower 128GB. If not, then I'd personally go with the need for speed to make the most of the CPU investment. Otherwise get a 9900K - they're great too (especially if you use the computer for more than DAW/video editing), and then you don't have to worry about RAM speed as much.


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 26, 2019)

vitocorleone123 said:


> If you bought fast 64GB, do you see yourself having the $ to buy 64 GB more within a year or so (before the make/model can become hard to find, since it's usually best to match it all) if you find you need it? It may not yet be possible to buy so much memory with high density (e.g. 32gb modules) that's also so fast. So you need to determine what you need - do you use templates that consume more than 64GB of RAM? Get the slower 128GB. If not, then I'd personally go with the need for speed to make the most of the CPU investment. Otherwise get a 9900K - they're great too (especially if you use the computer for more than DAW/video editing), and then you don't have to worry about RAM speed as much.



I just bought spitfire BBC orchestra (still waiting for it in the mail), I plan on using this as a main writing template. Probably have the whole thing loaded into a template for all the articulations etc. Do you think I would need 128gb for this?


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## vitocorleone123 (Oct 26, 2019)

noiseinmymind said:


> I just bought spitfire BBC orchestra (still waiting for it in the mail), I plan on using this as a main writing template. Probably have the whole thing loaded into a template for all the articulations etc. Do you think I would need 128gb for this?



No idea, personally.

If it was in Kontakt, you could unload unused samples when saving the template so it’d still be minimal. Plus you can minimize how much gets loaded in RAM vs streaming from disk. But they have their own player I think?


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 26, 2019)

Yes, it is their own player. Still unsure if it will have those functions. I am trying to decide if the performance of 128gm ram at 3200 is worth it over 64gb of ram with 4000. Here is the alternate choice of ram I am considering 


G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 Memory


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## Pier (Oct 26, 2019)

noiseinmymind said:


> Yes, it is their own player. Still unsure if it will have those functions. I am trying to decide if the performance of 128gm ram at 3200 is worth it over 64gb of ram with 4000. Here is the alternate choice of ram I am considering
> 
> 
> G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 Memory



From what I've read the jump from 3200 to 4000 isn't that huge. 3600 seems to be the sweet spot.

I went through this a couple of days ago, and ended up deciding with 3200 since I don't need the super ultimate performance and the price jump from 3200 to 3600 was considerable where I live.

I'll receive my RAM in 2-3 days and see how much of an improvement it is over the 2133 RAM I'm using now.


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 26, 2019)

Pier Bover said:


> From what I've read the jump from 3200 to 4000 isn't that huge. 3600 seems to be the sweet spot.
> 
> I went through this a couple of days ago, and ended up deciding with 3200 since I don't need the super ultimate performance and the price jump from 3200 to 3600 was considerable where I live.
> 
> I'll receive my RAM in 2-3 days and see how much of an improvement it is over the 2133 RAM I'm using now.



Thanks for the response! I think I might just go with the 3200 and save some money. Thanks again! Another question, the Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler might need adapter to fit on the


Asus PRIME X570-PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard
Does anyone know anything about this?

Also, is there any performance difference between m.2 ssd vs sata ssd as far as using orchestra libraries is concerned?


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## Pier (Oct 26, 2019)

The Noctua cooler should have the AM4 mount if you buy it new.





__





FAQ: Which Noctua CPU coolers are compatible with AMD AM4 (Ryzen)?


The following models include a mounting-kit for socket AM4 and are thus <b>compatible out of the box</b>: <p style="margin-left:20px; margin-bottom:10px;"> NH-D15 (AM4 mounting included <a href="https://noctua.at/en/noctua-cpu-coolers-now-include-am4-mounting-at-no-extra-cost"...




noctua.at


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 26, 2019)

Pier Bover said:


> The Noctua cooler should have the AM4 mount if you buy it new.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks, It's otherwise an extra $10. Any difference with sata vs m.2 for ssd's? It seems like m.2 may only benefit working for video? I'm looking at the Samsung 860 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive to put some of my libraries on. Should I just go regular ssd?


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## Pier (Oct 27, 2019)

If you're not doing raw video you should be fine with SATA SSDs at about 550MB/s. The jump in speed from mechanical drives is significant.

Of course if you want the absolute best performance you should get M.2 NVME drives which are even faster but more expensive.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 27, 2019)

As you can only put two M.2 drives on your chosen motherboard, in my opinion you'll get a lot more benefit out of them as sample library drives, rather than using one of them as your C drive. 

To me the only advantage of M.2 NVMe's is how fast they load up samples. I have one and I can assure you, they do load up a lot faster and will indeed make a template load faster. I mean, a LOT faster. Once they're loaded up, with all your RAM the difference will be minimal.

My computer boots up right away with a regular SSD

M.2 NVme drives aren't necessarily more expensive. I bought my 1 TB ADATA XPG SX8200 for $130 during an Amazon flash sale and it runs at 3500 MB/sec. It generally sells for $150 and BF is coming soon. My two Samsung SSDs are supposed to run at 550 MB/sec, but run at half that speed and aren't that old. Buy Samsung if you want, but I do think it's worth considering reviews for SSD brands in the same way we look at reviews for everything else. Everybody loves the ADATA, which was designed to be the Samsung killer.

I would also recommend getting a copy of the manual for the PRIME X570-PRO. In most cases, you lose two SATA drives for each M.2 you use. That would only leave two SATAs out of six.

You can deal with this with your PCIe 4 card slots--they can be used for additional M.2s and SATA ports, but it's good to think about what you plan to do in advance.


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## ChrisLudwig (Oct 27, 2019)

Hi,
Yes everyone is correct with their advice. About the only thing I see is using the fractal Design Fractal Design Design Define R6 USB-C case instead of the R5. 
The motherboard has the correct USB-C connector for the front of the case. 
The OS and samples or if you were doing 4k video production would be the only thing to really benefit from using M.2 NVM-e drives. But the prices have gone down on them so if it is in your budget then I'd go for it. 
You also, if only using one or two video monitors will be fine using the integrated video. 

Chris


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## Pier (Oct 27, 2019)

TigerTheFrog said:


> I bought my 1 TB ADATA XPG SX8200 for $130 during an Amazon flash sale and it runs at 3500 MB/sec.



That drive is probably the cheapest M.2 SSD available and I've seen many reports with failures. I would not trust my audio projects with it to save a bit of money.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 27, 2019)

Pier Bover said:


> That drive is probably the cheapest M.2 SSD available


Not true. The ADATA sells most of the year for $150. There are many that sell in the $100 range from Crucial, WD, and others. A Samsung 970 EVO is only $20 more, but you can spend as much as $300 for a Samsung 970 PRO if you want to. But no SSD, no matter how expensive, lasts forever, particularly when given the kind of workouts composers and video editors do. You have to back up.


Pier Bover said:


> I've seen many reports with failures.



It has excellent reviews from PC Magazine, Tom's Hardware, TechRadar, etc and has a 92% 5 egg ratings on NewEgg. But I'm sure there are unhappy customers. There always are, and especially on Amazon.

There are reports of failures with Samsung too--for example, my two SSDs, which I'm going to be replacing with ADTAs. But the fact that I had bad luck doesn't mean that most Samsung customers aren't delighted. 



Pier Bover said:


> I would not trust my audio projects with it to save a bit of money.



I did not buy the ADATA to save money. I just was not going to buy another Samsung, and researched everything else. 

Anyway, everything you put on any kind of disk is always at risk. You have to back up.

I don't have anything on my m.2 except for libraries, and I have copies of all the installers elsewhere.

Enjoy your new computer!


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## Pier (Oct 27, 2019)

TigerTheFrog said:


> Not true. The ADATA sells most of the year for $150. There are many that sell in the $100 range from Crucial, WD, and others. A Samsung 970 EVO is only $20 more, but you can spend as much as $300 for a Samsung 970 PRO if you want to. But no SSD, no matter how expensive, lasts forever, particularly when given the kind of workouts composers and video editors do. You have to back up.
> 
> 
> It has excellent reviews from PC Magazine, Tom's Hardware, TechRadar, etc and has a 92% 5 egg ratings on NewEgg. But I'm sure there are unhappy customers. There always are, and especially on Amazon.
> ...



I'm sorry, I was confusing it with the ADATA XPG SX6000 which looks almost identical...


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## ltmusic (Oct 27, 2019)

Hi

If Intel cut prices of i9 chips (in November according to www.cnet.com) why would you choose an AMD Rysen ? what are the benefits ?

Thanks!


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## vitocorleone123 (Oct 27, 2019)

ltmusic said:


> Hi
> 
> If Intel cut prices of i9 chips (in November according to www.cnet.com) why would you choose an AMD Rysen ? what are the benefits ?
> 
> Thanks!



Ryzen are better at multicore activities, comparing usually at least one model up in the Intel range. They aren't quite as fast in "desktop" activities and a few other things, but only by 5-15% or so... mostly. They are newer and are less proven overall, but it's not like AMD is a new company. But there's bound to be (more) growing pains, hopefully small ones at this point. I'd get a 3950X over a 9900K, but there'll be a price difference for sure. I chose a 9900K over a 3900X because I have a multipurpose desktop (music is a hobby), and there were still some minor issues with the AMD platform, else I'd probably have chosen the 3900X.


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## Pier (Oct 27, 2019)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Ryzen are better at multicore activities, comparing usually at least one model up in the Intel range. They aren't quite as fast in "desktop" activities and a few other things, but only by 5-15% or so... mostly. They are newer and are less proven overall, but it's not like AMD is a new company. But there's bound to be (more) growing pains, hopefully small ones at this point. I'd get a 3950X over a 9900K, but there'll be a price difference for sure. I chose a 9900K over a 3900X because I have a multipurpose desktop (music is a hobby), and there were still some minor issues with the AMD platform, else I'd probably have chosen the 3900X.



What issues are you referring to?


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 27, 2019)

Hey guys, thanks for all the tips and advice. I really do appreciate it. I am going to relist my build as revised. Let me know if you see anything that might be troublesome or could be improved upon.



AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor
Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler 


Asus PRIME X570-PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard


Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (x2 for 128 gb)


Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (for recordings and tracks)

Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (for OS main C: drive)


Samsung 970 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (for VI Libraries)

SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III  (I bought earlier this year to host mixing plugins)
860 EVO SSD 1TB SATA III 2.5 inch (SSD that came with spitfire BBC orchestra)


Asus Radeon R5 230 1 GB Video Card

Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C ATX Mid Tower Case 


Corsair HX Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
WD Black edition as external backup drives.


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## Pier (Oct 27, 2019)

Looking good!

In case you are not aware, the X570 motherboards have a fan.


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## vitocorleone123 (Oct 27, 2019)

Looking good. I'd spend a wee bit more on the graphics and get at least 2GB. Maybe something like the card below at the very minimum. Sure, it's not for gaming, but it can impact high resolution output. I'd also save some money and get the Corsair HX850 instead of 1000.


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 27, 2019)

Thanks for the replies. I going to go with the 850 for the PSU and the 2GB version for the graphics card.


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## ltmusic (Oct 28, 2019)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Ryzen are better at multicore activities, comparing usually at least one model up in the Intel range. They aren't quite as fast in "desktop" activities and a few other things, but only by 5-15% or so... mostly. They are newer and are less proven overall, but it's not like AMD is a new company. But there's bound to be (more) growing pains, hopefully small ones at this point. I'd get a 3950X over a 9900K, but there'll be a price difference for sure. I chose a 9900K over a 3900X because I have a multipurpose desktop (music is a hobby), and there were still some minor issues with the AMD platform, else I'd probably have chosen the 3900X.



Thanks !


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## ltmusic (Oct 28, 2019)

Can someone recommend a 4k video card that supports 4 monitor (2 4K + 2 hd) ?


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## Pier (Oct 28, 2019)

ltmusic said:


> Can someone recommend a 4k video card that supports 4 monitor (2 4K + 2 hd) ?



You could get something like the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650. Costs less than $200, has 4 outputs (2 x DP 1.4 and 2 x HDMI 2.0), 0db cooling if you are not gaming, etc.



I imagine other manufacturers (Zotac, Gigabyte, etc) have cheaper GPUs but you'd loose the 0db cooling which IMO is excellent for audio machines.


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## noiseinmymind (Oct 30, 2019)

Alright, I ordered everything. I'll let you guys know how things go!


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