# Need a slave computer for RAM



## Hunter123 (Dec 8, 2017)

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to understanding how this all works but hopefully someone can help me out figure this out.

I'm using an early 2015 macbook pro that only has 8 (!) gb of Ram. I'm just now learning about using slave computer for loading VI's so I basically just want another computer for extra Ram. 

-Is this something I can do pretty easily? Is it just a matter of buying/Building a PC and connecting it to my Mac?

-I have all my sample libraries on a 4 terabyte external hd. Do I need to transfer them to the new Slave computer or can I still keep them on the external?

-I see lots of people talking about VE Pro. Is this something that you need for slave computers or is Kontakt alone fine?


----------



## MatFluor (Dec 8, 2017)

Hi,



Hunter123 said:


> -Is this something I can do pretty easily? Is it just a matter of buying/Building a PC and connecting it to my Mac?



You can pretty well just buy a Mac or PC off the shelf and use it as a slave - just look for a good CPU and RAM (SSDs would be nice too). Network wise, gigabit Ethernet is good enough. Lower can lead to crackles or the like. VEP makes the connection easy and almost foolproof - set up your VEP instances on your slave, add the VEP Plugin in the DAW, press the connect button, choose the relevant instance and done. Then you just need to route your midi tracks the same way you did with Kontakt.



Hunter123 said:


> -I have all my sample libraries on a 4 terabyte external hd. Do I need to transfer them to the new Slave computer or can I still keep them on the external?



Those libraries you want to host on your slave would be good to be on your slave. You can keep them on your external as well, it's not a "one or the other" choice 



Hunter123 said:


> -I see lots of people talking about VE Pro. Is this something that you need for slave computers or is Kontakt alone fine?



To really use a slave, VEP is one of the only softwares do to that (and the best at that). I've seen other people use slaves as pure "sample hosts", meaning just as a giant external (network-) hard drive, but in your case, the slave needs to do some processing. Meaning your slave runs the VEP Server with instances, and in these instances you load up Kontakt And the instruments you need. So long story short: VEP is gold.

I hope that helps!


----------



## Hunter123 (Dec 8, 2017)

MatFluor said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hey MatFlour, thanks so much that made it crystal clear! I think I'll probably try to do this as cheaply as possible so I may look to build a PC with 64 GB ram.


----------



## Sami (Dec 8, 2017)

If you build a pc with 64gb of ram, you can probably just use that one pc to do your work if you are used to a laptop with 8gb of ram


----------



## Hunter123 (Dec 8, 2017)

Sami said:


> If you build a pc with 64gb of ram, you can probably just use that one pc to do your work if you are used to a laptop with 8gb of ram


This is actually a good point. I guess I'm just used to using my Mac, time to switch to PC?


----------



## MatFluor (Dec 8, 2017)

Yeah - with a reasonably powerful PC, you don't necessarily need a slave.

64 GB sound like a good point for a reasonable Template. So, if you have to buy a new machine anyway for that, I personally would use that as your new DAW machine instead of making a slave out of it. A slave is great when you either a) like the convenience of it or b) have "unused" hardware lying around, for example my slave is one of my repurposed homesevers - didn't need to buy new hardware to get the power I needed


----------



## MatFluor (Dec 8, 2017)

Hunter123 said:


> This is actually a good point. I guess I'm just used to using my Mac, time to switch to PC?



A 64 GB ram of with good processor isn't cheap as well - so if you love Mac, you can just buy a Mac  (or a needed up refurbished one to save some cash)

And then e.g. when you see a nice cheap eBay Mac/PC to use as slave, you can still do that if you need to


----------



## Sami (Dec 8, 2017)

Hunter123 said:


> This is actually a good point. I guess I'm just used to using my Mac, time to switch to PC?


Depends a bit on your financials. You could just buy a better Mac, the current imac 2017 with the 7700k is a wonderful machine and i specced it up with (3rd party) 64gb of ram, does probably 90% of the projects i do without breaking a sweat. I still own 2 pc slaves but i would love to see them gone, its a huge fuss with the bloody slaves


----------



## kimarnesen (Dec 9, 2017)

I have a 64GB ram slave PC, and as I've extended my template I'm using 50 of it already. So even if 64GB is quite a lot, it's not difficult to use it if you plan to have many libraries in a big template. So that's why I'm still using my mid-2011 iMac as the master with 16GB ram. Planning to get 32GB ram for it though.

And also if you are only using one computer, the CPU must also handle the DAW. 
But it really depends on how big your projects are going to be.


----------



## chimuelo (Dec 19, 2017)

Hunter123 said:


> Hey MatFlour, thanks so much that made it crystal clear! I think I'll probably try to do this as cheaply as possible so I may look to build a PC with 64 GB ram.



C236/Xeon 1275 v6 is cheap and the Supermicro boards are excellent.
About 1300 total build cost for a 64GB MidTower.
Windows 10 on eBay for 15 bucks if you want to cut more corners.
I gave Newegg prices.


----------



## chimuelo (Dec 19, 2017)

Xeon is just a longer life, higher binned i7.
This build you seek, do you want longer life, no overclocking?
Or shorter life faster i7 over clocked.
Faster i7 is better for synths, slower stock Xeon is a great choice for template work.


----------



## chimuelo (Dec 19, 2017)

Amazon is my favorite parts place.
Make a list and leave it there for a few weeks.
Sellers start dropping prices for buyers using lists.
You’ll get notifications.
Take your time, check sellers history and location.
Prime membership really helps too.

I just built a few 4.4GhZ Slaves for 3450.
Older Z97 stuff with i7/32GBs...


----------



## chimuelo (Dec 20, 2017)

Seems since AMDs Chief GFX GuRu is now on Intels team, that early 2018 release of new chips for desktop has turned out to be mobile CPUs only.
AMD and Intel are ganging up on NVIDIA.
This means some of the recent Intel CPUs will get less support.
i7 6000 Series and Z170 have been discontinued, which means no mature motherboards like we usually see. That leaves 7700/8700 to get attention from motherboard manufacturers.
My son has the i7 7700k and it’s a great synth CPU at stock speeds.
It overclocks to 4.4GHz easily and is priced reasonably too.

If you want an i7 I would stay with this model and the Z270 chips.
The reason I like the Xeon 1275 v6 and C236 chipset is the wide variety of consumer, enterprise and server variants of motherboards.
2 of my recent builds used the least featured chipset from the Z97 family, the H97.
It is a no frills design using long life server PCB and short trace lines.
It’s boot up time is 5 seconds, template loads in 35 seconds using PLAY and Kontakt.
Also uses Omnisphere/Keyscape and Zebra2 HZ. 
UVI and PianoTeq, and custom Audio clips for SFX.

I Have no experience with C226 which is the less featured C236 variant.
But I believe for Audio the less pipes in the kitchen the better performance.
I noticed this on a B150 build I did a year ago too.

What you want to use I use live and my older NOS i7 4790k CPUs are plenty @ stock speeds.

Look at ASRock Rack C226/236 and AsusTek C236 variants.
Their BIOS is simple and stable.
If you like tweaking your build down to multiple fan speeds and even GPU speeds the Supermicros are extreme.

Hope this helps.


----------



## chimuelo (Dec 20, 2017)

http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C226 WS#Specifications

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/xeon/e3-processors/e3-1275-v6.html

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=ddr4_2400_64gb-_-2BA-0041-00029-_-Product

32GBs using 4 x 8 GB DIMMs is much cheaper, but these are budget decisions you need to make.


----------

