New PC build Thoughts?

[Exitmusicthis2]

Hey all, would welcome peoples thoughts on this system l'm thinking of purchasing, I'm running Cubase 8.5 lots of sample Libraries and software currently have a UA Apollo Twin but thinking of upgrading this to a RME Fireface UFX+ for future proofing!
I write Production (Library) music, so l need stability!

Case FRACTAL MESHIFY S2 BLACKOUT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)Intel® Core™ i9 14 Core Processor i9-9940X (3.3GHz)
Motherboard ASUS® PRIME X299-A:
Memory (RAM) 128GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz
Graphics Card 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650
Win 10 Pro OS Drive M.2 SSD Drive 2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe
Sample Drives, 4 2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD's for Samples.

Any thoughts/advice would be most welcome.

Cheers..

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[Damarus]

That's going to be some good power! Really the only thing is storage - why so many drives?

Larger SSD's are easier to organize, slightly faster and allow you to keep some Sata ports for future expansion.

 

[Pier]

The 9940X at 165W of TDP is one hot beast. You're going to need lots of cooling (and fan noise).

As for the case do not buy the version with the tempered glass as it is super fragile. I did that mistake too and the glass basically exploded in my hands a couple of days after I received it. I don't know if something happened during shipping or what but the internet is full of people with the same issue.

My case was a Fractal Define C:

 

[JeffvR]

I'd say go for a small SSD boot drive (250-500 GB), a bigger project/video SSD drive (1 - 2tb) and some big NVMe for samples.

 

[Exitmusicthis2]

Awesome guys thank you,

Damarus, I read that it's best not to put all your samples on 1 big SSD but to spread them out over multiple SSD's and the motherboard has 8 sata ports, also its cheaper to get 4 2TB SSD's than 2 4TB SSD's.
Pier Bover, Wow! Noted will not go with the tempered glass version! Any recommendations for extra fans?
JeffvR, I need at least 1TB for boot drive, Excuse my ignorance but I've read in other posts that NVMe for samples are not worth it and your better off with standard SSD's? Could someone explain this?

 

[Damarus]

The above suggestions are great - I really love my fractal case and you will be amazed at how quiet it is without the side glass/side fan panel, even under full load.

The 'spread your samples across multiple drives' is absolutely not true - or yet to be proven anywhere (someone link something if i'm wrong) not sure how that one started. But yes, unfortunately it is cheaper

NVMe and sata are getting so close in price this time of year so just do your research. imo i would spend a little extra to get alot more speed if I had the choice.

 

[Pier]

Pier Bover, Wow! Noted will not go with the tempered glass version! Any recommendations for extra fans?

Ditch the fans that come with the Fractal case and get some Noctua Redux fans. I bought https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-S12B-redux-1200-PWM-Performance/dp/B00KF7PPY4/ (these) and I'm very happy with the noise. Another great option are the Nanoxia Deep Silence 120mm which might be better priced depending on where you live.

As for the CPU I would recommend the Noctua NH D15. Best air cooler in the market. It's pretty big though so check if it fits with your RAM and case.

 

[colony nofi]

4TB samsung QVO's work amazingly for samples.

And it is far easier to manage a smaller number of drives than a large number. I would go a single 8TB SSD if it was readily available. When I grabbed the QVO's for the studio, there was only a tiny difference between 2X2TB and 1x4TB in price. If there is ANY performance difference, it is tiny. I've gone thru all sorts of different systems, and running SSD's the bottle neck is never getting info off the drives. Its always interesting to run some diagnostic software while you are playing back sessions - you can watch how your drives are actually being used. It might surprise you how little bandwidth is used even on monster sessions.

If you are interested at all in performance, go NVMe's for samples as suggested. 4*2TB there is a good start (I would personally raid them together just to save me having to deal with multiple drives, but thats just me!). Your projects will load faster. But certainly not say 500% faster (even though the max possible raw data throughput is 500% better - sample libs just don't work that way.) I did once run a test with some externally on a TB3 enclosure from OWC. Nothing scientific, but I recall things feeling like they would load about twice as fast.
9940X or 9920X... the 9920X may well in some circumstances offer better performance for a lot of sample heavy workflows. YYMV. I'm looking at building a PC for our studios here (all mac at the moment) using the new 10920X when its available. Prob early next year given Nov25 release date for chips to market.

 

[Pier]

And it is far easier to manage a smaller number of drives than a large number.

You know you can mount drives in Windows into a folder, right? This is how macOS and *nix systems work.

So instead of having your samples in D:\samples\etc You can have them in C:\samples\etc where the folder "samples" is actually the drive but for any paths purposes it's just a single drive.