PC Build for Studio One

[LoTone]

I suggest you do some research to know if Studio One is really taking advantage of multithreading first. AMD Ryzen architecture is better than Intel's at multithreading. However, if Studio One is not taking advantage of multithreading all that much, you would be better off with an Intel CPU.

 

[LoTone]

I suggest you do some research to know if Studio One is really taking advantage of multithreading first. AMD Ryzen architecture is better than Intel's at multithreading. However, if Studio One is not taking advantage of multithreading all that much, you would be better off with an Intel CPU.

I did a quick search and it's hard to get a definitive answer.
How does Studio One 3 Pro use a Multicore CPU? - Questions & Answers | PreSonus

 

[HardNHeavy]

When i'm not playing bass, i do some gaming on the side, mostly flight sims and graphics heavy stuff. AMD ryzen spose to be top of the line CPU currently...But an i7 or i9 will definitely cover your needs. Corsair or Kingston memory and lots of it....32G! A good gfx card with 8-11G onboard memory like a 1080 ti or above. Hardrives are another thing, dunno whats out now.Seagates have been consistent over the years and definitely get an external HD of 3 Terabytes or more as well as an SSD Evo HD..Mine currently at 1 Terabyte. I've got games installed there that run much smoother than if they were installed on my HD with operating system......just my 2 c

 

[Charlzm]

Hello!

I'm finally in a place to build a PC exclusively for running Studio One. Looked at their site for minimum requirements and have some ideas, but could use help on these:

CPU - Looking at i7 line (i9 maybe overkill?).
MOBO - I know MSI but open to whatever.
RAM - Lots of DDR4, but no clue on brand.
Power - Seasonic Prime 750watt.
HDD's - Need one small SSD for OS/apps, another SSD to work off of, and a giant storage HDD, but I don't know who is good now (last used Intel SSD/Seagate HDD).
GPU - Just needs to have 2 outputs.

Any help finding the line between overkill and robust enough to last would be super appreciated. I am having issues there. Thanks in advance.

P.S. Sorry for initially posting this in OT. Thanks again!

IN 2018, I built a video editing/audio production PC (Mainly Avid Media Composer/Premiere Pro/After Effects/Resolve/Pro Tools). Here are some general tips.

• I used an Intel i7 14 core processor. If I were building it over today, I'd probably go AMD.
• Make sure your mobo can use M2 drives. Install your OS on an M2 drive.
• If you can use a second M2 drive, put sample libraries and plugins on it. If not, SS drives are great for samples and plugins due to the super low seek times (in general).
• I still use 7200 RPM spinning drives for media and recording as SSDs are not as suited for multiple overwrites over time. Well, that used to be the case. I think it still is.
• I put 128 GB DDR4 RAM into the system. Probably total overkill, but I decided to "future proof" as much as I could afford. Today, I would put DDR5 in it.
• 1000W power supply. Future proofing and also leaving some headroom in case I wanted to add a second GPU.

This resulted in a pretty expensive system, but it will last a long time. My last build was in 2009 and served me for 9 years with occasional upgrades. Still a totally usable PC for lots of things but I retired it in favor of this new one.

 

[jayridge]

Most important thing for me would be fan noise - assuming this is located in your mixing room. 2nd is backup - your drives will fail at some point.

 

[40Hz]

Another vote for AMD processors - and actually the EPYC server chips are very good bang-for-buck. The right SuperMicro server chassis (one that can accommodate the extra card slots for your video card(s)) can be very cost-effective. Servers can sound a bit like jet engines when starting up, and generally have pretty loud fans, but if you have a spot you can locate them on the other side of your studio's soundproof wall, they are quite content to sit in a 'server closet' and work their magic.

Server oriented CPUs and mobos are nice pieces of gear ( I used to design server and network solutions for businesses for a living) but they’re needlessly expensive and complex if you’re not running large scale multiuser applications such as databases, e-commerce shopping carts, or enterprise storage. And depending on the board and CPU architecture you can often get the same and often better performance out of a single user workstation class system than you will a server which is primarily oriented towards multiuser applications. About the only media application I could think of where a server platform might be better is media streaming or CGI/Hi-Rez image rendering.

And even there a distributed processing cluster approach would be a better way to go about it since you’d want to farm out tasks to multiple multicore CPUs - assuming the app you’re running supports clustering.

I’d rather stick with a workstation class machine and not go with a server system for music production. And even there a high end desktop would work every bit as well for most off the shelf software you'd consider running.

 

[Charlzm]

IN 2018, I built a video editing/audio production PC (Mainly Avid Media Composer/Premiere Pro/After Effects/Resolve/Pro Tools). Here are some general tips.

• I used an Intel i7 14 core processor. If I were building it over today, I'd probably go AMD.
• Make sure your mobo can use M2 drives. Install your OS on an M2 drive.
• If you can use a second M2 drive, put sample libraries and plugins on it. If not, SS drives are great for samples and plugins due to the super low seek times (in general).
• I still use 7200 RPM spinning drives for media and recording as SSDs are not as suited for multiple overwrites over time. Well, that used to be the case. I think it still is.
• I put 128 GB DDR4 RAM into the system. Probably total overkill, but I decided to "future proof" as much as I could afford. Today, I would put DDR5 in it.
• 1000W power supply. Future proofing and also leaving some headroom in case I wanted to add a second GPU.

This resulted in a pretty expensive system, but it will last a long time. My last build was in 2009 and served me for 9 years with occasional upgrades. Still a totally usable PC for lots of things but I retired it in favor of this new one.

Correction - it was an i9 Intel.

Intel® Core™ i9-7940X Processor

 

[40Hz]

I put 128 GB DDR4 RAM into the system. Probably total overkill, but I decided to "future proof" as much as I could afford.

Muy macho! I like!!!

And not for video production and editing it ain’t. Good call on your part. What mobo did you use for that? That sounds like a server grade board and chipset with that memory complement. I’m guessing SuperMicro or a high end Gigabyte?

I still use 7200 RPM spinning drives for media and recording as SSDs are not as suited for multiple overwrites over time. Well, that used to be the case. I think it still is.

Still true to some extent although they have far more usable R/Ws than formerly. Especially since well intentioned but misguided owners stopped trying to regularly “optimize” or defrag them, which is a waste of time and useable r/w‘s. For a non-production environment machine they’re fine for working storage. For LTS you definitely still want to see spindles.

1000W power supply. Future proofing and also leaving some headroom in case I wanted to add a second GPU.

Smart call as well. I try to keep a PS running between no more than 1/3 to 1/2 its capacity. Makes for a far happier and longer lived machine.

 

[Charlzm]

Muy macho! I like!!!

And not for video production and editing it ain’t. Good call on your part. What mobo did you use for that? That sounds like a server grade board and chipset with that memory complement. I’m guessing SuperMicro or a high end Gigabyte?



Still true to some extent although they have far more usable R/Ws than formerly. Especially since well intentioned but misguided owners stopped trying to regularly “optimize” or defrag them, which is a waste of time and useable r/w‘s. For a non-production environment machine they’re fine for working storage. For LTS you definitely still want to see spindles.



Smart call as well. I try to keep a PS running between no more than 1/3 to 1/2 its capacity. Makes for a far happier and longer lived machine.

Here are the as-built specs back in late 2018. M2 drives added since.


CASE: Thermaltake View 71
[This invalid link has been removed]

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower iRGB PLUS 1200W Platinum - TT Premium Edition
[This invalid link has been removed]

MOBO: ASRock Taichi X299 XE
ASRock X299 Taichi XE

CPU: INTEL CORE i9-7940X
Intel® Core™ i9-7940X Processor

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C
[This invalid link has been removed]

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666 - (8 x 16GB = 128GB total)
VENGEANCE® LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz C16 Memory Kit - Blue LED

M2 1: 1TB (system drive)
SSD 1: 750 Samsung EVO 500GB (sample libraries)
SSD 2: 860 Samsung EVO 1TB (storage/work drive)
HD1: 2TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM (media work drive)
HD2 - 3 TB WD Caviar Blue 5600 RPM (media storage drive)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce 1070 Founders Edition
NVIDIA GeForce 10 Series Graphics Cards

KB: Eagletec KG010 Mechanical Keyboard
Accessories Archives - EagleTec.com

MOUSE: Logitech Marathon Mouse M705
Logitech M705 Marathon Wireless Mouse with Up to 3-year Battery Life

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit (legacy from previous system)

AUDIO Interface - Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 (legacy from previous system)
https://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-Saffire-14-Fi…/…/B0042DM2FW

AUDIO monitors - M-Audio BX5a (legacy from previous system)
https://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-70-watt-Bi-amplified-Ref…/…/…

VIDEO monitors - 2X Acer KG271 C
Link Removed

 

[Dec1975]

If you are wanting a large spinner drive just for storage I’d use a Western digital or Seagate black 5 TB drive. Server quality drives. Definitely use the newer fast drives for recording though. I use Samsung for that.

There's been a lot of good advice in this thread. The only thing I think worth mentioning is avoiding large disks that use SMR. Go google SMR-gate and Western Digital. SMR can get you more data on the platter, but has significantly slower write speeds. This may not matter if you're just using the disk to house project backups.

 

[SidNitzerglobin]

There's been a lot of good advice in this thread. The only thing I think worth mentioning is avoiding large disks that use SMR. Go google SMR-gate and Western Digital. SMR can get you more data on the platter, but has significantly slower write speeds. This may not matter if you're just using the disk to house project backups.

This is a HUGE one... Western Digital is being super sketchy on this as well not making it very clear the drives they are using SMR or DSMR on. I'd just avoid anything not a "Black" series from them (or just altogether).

 

[Dec1975]

This is a HUGE one... Western Digital is being super sketchy on this as well not making it very clear the drives they are using SMR or DSMR on. I'd just avoid anything not a "Black" series from them (or just altogether).

Here is a good, to-the-point article about WD and SMR. It also lists models that use SMR. If it were me, I'd stick to Seagate IronWolf Pro's...but that's pretty pricey for this project. Still, I would be remiss if I didn't remind everyone to use a 3-2-1 backup strategy for their important data.

 

[40Hz]

Here are the as-built specs back in late 2018. M2 drives added since.


CASE: Thermaltake View 71
[This invalid link has been removed]

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower iRGB PLUS 1200W Platinum - TT Premium Edition
Invalid Link Removed

MOBO: ASRock Taichi X299 XE
ASRock X299 Taichi XE

CPU: INTEL CORE i9-7940X
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]...

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666 - (8 x 16GB = 128GB total)
VENGEANCE® LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz C16 Memory Kit - Blue LED

M2 1: 1TB (system drive)
SSD 1: 750 Samsung EVO 500GB (sample libraries)
SSD 2: 860 Samsung EVO 1TB (storage/work drive)
HD1: 2TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM (media work drive)
HD2 - 3 TB WD Caviar Blue 5600 RPM (media storage drive)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce 1070 Founders Edition
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

KB: Eagletec KG010 Mechanical Keyboard
Accessories Archives - EagleTec.com

MOUSE: Logitech Marathon Mouse M705
Logitech M705 Marathon Wireless Mouse with Up to 3-year Battery Life

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit (legacy from previous system)

AUDIO Interface - Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 (legacy from previous system)
https://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-Saffire-14-Fi…/…/B0042DM2FW

AUDIO monitors - M-Audio BX5a (legacy from previous system)
https://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-70-watt-Bi-amplified-Ref…/…/…

VIDEO monitors - 2X Acer KG271 C
Link Removed

Some build! And one impressive mobo for around $300!

Other than the comic book color scheme and LED lightshow nonsense ASRock and everybody. else is doing these days, I like that board a lot.

 

[SidNitzerglobin]

I ditched all spinning disks (aside from the luddite BD-RW ) on my most recent build w/ a 500GB Samsung EVO 970 Pro for OS/scratch, EVO 970 Pro 1000GB for performance sensitive apps & a mirror set of Inland SATA SSDs for data w/ backups to my NAS.

Remains to be see how long it will take for me to succumb to 980s for the M.2s once they're out... I don't really feel I need them at this point but ???

 

[Charlzm]

Some build! And one impressive mobo for around $300!

Other than the comic book color scheme and LED lightshow nonsense ASRock and everybody. else is doing these days, I like that board a lot.

I set all my colors to steady blue. I also have it tucked under a desk, so... no lightshow.

 

[40Hz]

I set all my colors to steady blue. I also have it tucked under a desk, so... no lightshow.

Same here with the Thermaltake case I got for my most recent build. Set for dark blue (non pulsing) and let it go. I wasn't about to replace the three fans it came with.They were nice quiet fans too!

How did you like that keyboard? I’m in the market for a new mechanical keyboard. My old one is on the way out.

 

[Charlzm]

Same here with the Thermaltake case I got for my most recent build. Set for dark blue (non pulsing) and let it go. I wasn't about to replace the three fans it came with.They were nice quiet fans too!

How did you like that keyboard? I’m in the market for a new mechanical keyboard. My old one is on the way out.

Very clickity clackity, almost like a mechanical typewriter. Too much for some people but I like having those heavy keys.

I also added two more fans to the case for improved airflow. That is one cool case.

 

[TOOL460002]

UPDATE:

Ok, so I just need an i9 CPU with a board that can handle an M2 drive. Wattage I'm not 100% sure about, but I know some good brands, so just a number there. Minimal GPU will be a cheap/reliable balance choice, but not a major concern. Storage I think I have mostly handled.

So... i9 of some sort with some sort of board? Almost there.

 

[DigitalMan]

Did someone say FireWire? Building a new PC today with a FireWire audio interface seems like a recipe for built-in obsolescence and endless compatibility issues.

 

[TOOL460002]

UPDATE 2 :

MOBO: Thinking "MSI PRO Z390-A PRO":

MSI PRO Z390-A PRO LGA 1151 (300 Series) ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

CPU: Thinking "Intel i9 9900":

Intel Core i9-9900 Coffee Lake 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.1 GHz (5.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 65W BX80684I99900 Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630 - Newegg.com

But the "Intel i9 9900K" is only $40 more and I don't know if that is worth spending:

Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.6 GHz (5.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX806849900K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630 - Newegg.com

RAM: Wanted to start 16Gbx2 and be able to double with extra slots (so 64Gb self-limit). Tad confused, as 32Gb of DDR4 is either "3466 16Gbx2" or "3600 8Gbx4" for the same price. Assume the larger number is faster, but not sure if less of the fastest is better than more of slower RAM.

Drives: Samsungx3; Seagatex1

Power: Seasonic Prime or Zalaman, but I don't know what wattage.

Getting close I think.