Andrew Aversa
Lead Developer
My current workstation is 4 years old, build around the mighty Intel 5820k processor. This thing was overclockable from 3.3ghz to 4.3ghz without issue, but given the ever-increasing demands of music, video, and development work, I'm planning an upgrade.
Here is the part list with US pricing. Under each one, I'll explain the reasoning for its selection.
CPU: Intel 9900k Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor (broken link removed)$500 at Provantage)
Though Intel is a year away (theoretically) from launching a more dramatically-improved CPU, I'm skeptical that this one will be made obsolete anytime soon. Without overclocking it is capable of 4.7ghz on all 8 cores using Intel's inherent Turbo Boost, and up to 5.0ghz on a single core. Overclocked it should be able to hit 5.0ghz or higher on all cores. This is pretty much the best balance of single-core speed, core count, and power draw that you can possibly get right now.
Why not Skylake-X? (7900x, 7920x, etc.) Intel is refreshing this lineup as well, and these 10+ core processors will have better heat/power efficiency, too. If I were just concerned with Kontakt work, Skylake-X would be better. But I use more than just Kontakt - I usually lean heavily on very CPU-expensive synth plugins. Also, for other non-music work that I do (such as compiling massive code bases), single threaded speed is still king.
CPU COOLER: Macho Le Grand RT ($80 at Amazon)
Previously I had selected a Noctua NH-D15, which is still an incredible air cooler. However, this obscure cooler is somehow even better, which I didn't think was possible. It matches the Noctua's cooling performance (beats every other air cooler and nearly every "AIO" all-in-one liquid cooler), but it's a little cheaper, AND it has lower noise levels.
Also, this cooler has no issues with RAM clearance - meaning you can use any RAM without worrying about it being jammed-in by the cooler. The NH-D15 unfortunately has a lot of issues there.
The only type of cooler that offers consistently better cooling performance is a custom watercooling loop, which is not only MUCH more expensive, but also makes maintaining your computer MUCH harder. (The loop itself has to be maintained, can develop leaks, makes accessing components more difficult, etc.)
As with the Noctua though, these massive "tower" style air coolers are large & heavy, requiring a large case to support them.
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock - Z390 Taichi ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($239 at Micro Center, Newegg)
Not the cheapest motherboard out there, but it has strong overclocking capability and - more importantly - three M.2 slots and 8 SATA3 ports. As I'll explain, M.2 drives are substantially faster than normal solid state drives, so I want as many slots for them as possible. Not to mention, room for all my existing drives.
RAM: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3333 Memory ($309 at Newegg)
This one is probably the most tenuous choice I've made and it might still change in the coming weeks. I'll explain:
OS/APPS STORAGE: Intel Optane 900p (480gb) AIC/PCIe ($454 @ Newegg)
Though the Samsung 970 Pro is *slightly* faster in "sequential" read/write (more relevant for things like sample streaming), Optane is much faster at "random" reads (more relevant for getting random bits of data throughout normal usage, as you would with an OS and applications).
You could easily do with a 240gb version of this and still be comfy for your OS, but I also plan on using it for certain development work that has sprawling folders of assets likely to be read randomly as opposed to sequentially.
SECONDARY STORAGE: Samsung - 970 Evo 2.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive 2x ($577 at Amazon)
Samsung has been making some of the best SSDs for awhile now. These are M.2 drives which are capable of much higher speeds (on the order of 4-5x faster) than even the fastest normal SSDs. Sample load times are ridiculously fast on these.
The price on the 2TB 970 Evo definitely hurts a bit, but if you consider their extreme 'durability' (lifespan) and long warranty that goes with their high performance, it makes things a bit better. The 1TB versions are substantially cheaper, of course (less than 50% the price).
There is a "Pro" version as well, but it really only has better Write performance, which is not that meaningful for our purposes.
TERTIARY STORAGE: 4 older, traditional SSDs from my current build (4.5 TB total)
Nothing wrong with having more solid state storage, of course
GRAPHICS CARD: NVidia GTX 1080 (Totally Unnecessary)
OK, you really don't need a great graphics card for a DAW-only machine, and an AMD card like an RX560 would have better DPC latency. Buuuut since I also do some gaming and quite a bit of video editing/rendering, the GTX1080 fits the bill.
POWER SUPPLY: Corsair - RMx (2018) 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119 at Newegg)
You can calculate how much power your build needs on a site like this. 850w is a bit overkill for what I have here, and for most DAWs that don't have a honking GPU you could almost definitely do more like 650w. I just happened to get a good price on this, and I might overclock the 9900k pretty hard (requiring more power delivery). Keep in mind a few things regarding PSU selection:
CASE: Rosewill - THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case ($109 at Amazon)
Admittedly, I'm just getting the same case I used for my current build. It's absolutely enormous and weighs something like 30 pounds empty... but in exchange, you get basically unlimited space for whatever components you want. More importantly, it has the perfect combination of airflow AND relatively low noise.
The performance of this thing is great because it comes standard with 3x 230mm fans. I don't understand why more cases don't use these. If a fan is much bigger, it can run at a much lower RPM while moving the same amount of air. Lower RPM = less noise. While it's not a 100%-silent case as it lacks acoustic treatment, for my usage in the studio it's great. Combined with the NH-D15 and the 850x, I expect virtually no noise.
----
And that's the build! I plan on taking it to my local Micro Center for assembly once the 9900k arrives. Micro Center (or Fry's, on the West Coast) is a great option for getting a PC built as the fee is quite reasonable compared to custom DAW PC makers (~$150 for the build process). There are many advantages to having your PC professionally assembled locally:
Hope this explanation was helpful to those of you considering a new DAW soon!
Here is the part list with US pricing. Under each one, I'll explain the reasoning for its selection.
CPU: Intel 9900k Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor (broken link removed)$500 at Provantage)
Though Intel is a year away (theoretically) from launching a more dramatically-improved CPU, I'm skeptical that this one will be made obsolete anytime soon. Without overclocking it is capable of 4.7ghz on all 8 cores using Intel's inherent Turbo Boost, and up to 5.0ghz on a single core. Overclocked it should be able to hit 5.0ghz or higher on all cores. This is pretty much the best balance of single-core speed, core count, and power draw that you can possibly get right now.
Why not Skylake-X? (7900x, 7920x, etc.) Intel is refreshing this lineup as well, and these 10+ core processors will have better heat/power efficiency, too. If I were just concerned with Kontakt work, Skylake-X would be better. But I use more than just Kontakt - I usually lean heavily on very CPU-expensive synth plugins. Also, for other non-music work that I do (such as compiling massive code bases), single threaded speed is still king.
CPU COOLER: Macho Le Grand RT ($80 at Amazon)
Previously I had selected a Noctua NH-D15, which is still an incredible air cooler. However, this obscure cooler is somehow even better, which I didn't think was possible. It matches the Noctua's cooling performance (beats every other air cooler and nearly every "AIO" all-in-one liquid cooler), but it's a little cheaper, AND it has lower noise levels.
Also, this cooler has no issues with RAM clearance - meaning you can use any RAM without worrying about it being jammed-in by the cooler. The NH-D15 unfortunately has a lot of issues there.
The only type of cooler that offers consistently better cooling performance is a custom watercooling loop, which is not only MUCH more expensive, but also makes maintaining your computer MUCH harder. (The loop itself has to be maintained, can develop leaks, makes accessing components more difficult, etc.)
As with the Noctua though, these massive "tower" style air coolers are large & heavy, requiring a large case to support them.
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock - Z390 Taichi ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($239 at Micro Center, Newegg)
Not the cheapest motherboard out there, but it has strong overclocking capability and - more importantly - three M.2 slots and 8 SATA3 ports. As I'll explain, M.2 drives are substantially faster than normal solid state drives, so I want as many slots for them as possible. Not to mention, room for all my existing drives.
RAM: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3333 Memory ($309 at Newegg)
This one is probably the most tenuous choice I've made and it might still change in the coming weeks. I'll explain:
- For my templates, 32GB is plenty and with M.2 drives you can use a tiny RAM buffer and still enjoy huge performance. I can always expand to 64GB later.
- LPX (low profile) RAM of 32mm or less is necessary for full compatibility with the NH-D15. You CAN get the NH-D15S, which is a single-fan version of the same cooler, but it runs just a wee bit hotter.
- Fast memory is not just for gamers. https://us.hardware.info/reviews/8085/8/28-ddr4-memory-kits-comparison-test-the-best-memory-for-coffee-lake-and-ryzen-benchmarks-aida64 (There is a measurable (sometimes large)) increase in CPU performance as you increase frequency. The difference is sometimes only a few % depending on what you're doing, but sometimes it's quite a bit larger. Common wisdom seems to be that around 3000 to 3600mhz is the sweet spot for price/performance, where higher will rarely yield substantially better gains.
OS/APPS STORAGE: Intel Optane 900p (480gb) AIC/PCIe ($454 @ Newegg)
Though the Samsung 970 Pro is *slightly* faster in "sequential" read/write (more relevant for things like sample streaming), Optane is much faster at "random" reads (more relevant for getting random bits of data throughout normal usage, as you would with an OS and applications).
You could easily do with a 240gb version of this and still be comfy for your OS, but I also plan on using it for certain development work that has sprawling folders of assets likely to be read randomly as opposed to sequentially.
SECONDARY STORAGE: Samsung - 970 Evo 2.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive 2x ($577 at Amazon)
Samsung has been making some of the best SSDs for awhile now. These are M.2 drives which are capable of much higher speeds (on the order of 4-5x faster) than even the fastest normal SSDs. Sample load times are ridiculously fast on these.
The price on the 2TB 970 Evo definitely hurts a bit, but if you consider their extreme 'durability' (lifespan) and long warranty that goes with their high performance, it makes things a bit better. The 1TB versions are substantially cheaper, of course (less than 50% the price).
There is a "Pro" version as well, but it really only has better Write performance, which is not that meaningful for our purposes.
TERTIARY STORAGE: 4 older, traditional SSDs from my current build (4.5 TB total)
Nothing wrong with having more solid state storage, of course
GRAPHICS CARD: NVidia GTX 1080 (Totally Unnecessary)
OK, you really don't need a great graphics card for a DAW-only machine, and an AMD card like an RX560 would have better DPC latency. Buuuut since I also do some gaming and quite a bit of video editing/rendering, the GTX1080 fits the bill.
POWER SUPPLY: Corsair - RMx (2018) 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119 at Newegg)
You can calculate how much power your build needs on a site like this. 850w is a bit overkill for what I have here, and for most DAWs that don't have a honking GPU you could almost definitely do more like 650w. I just happened to get a good price on this, and I might overclock the 9900k pretty hard (requiring more power delivery). Keep in mind a few things regarding PSU selection:
- Noise. On my current machine, my not-particularly-quiet EVGA PSU is now emitting a subtle 'coil whine'. Corsair's RMx series is apparently really quiet in comparison to just about anything else.
- PSUs lose about 4% of their capacity each year, so it usually pays to have at least a +100w buffer above what you actually need.
- If your computer is in use for quite a few hours a day, you probably want at least Gold efficiency. This will save you on energy costs.
CASE: Rosewill - THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case ($109 at Amazon)
Admittedly, I'm just getting the same case I used for my current build. It's absolutely enormous and weighs something like 30 pounds empty... but in exchange, you get basically unlimited space for whatever components you want. More importantly, it has the perfect combination of airflow AND relatively low noise.
The performance of this thing is great because it comes standard with 3x 230mm fans. I don't understand why more cases don't use these. If a fan is much bigger, it can run at a much lower RPM while moving the same amount of air. Lower RPM = less noise. While it's not a 100%-silent case as it lacks acoustic treatment, for my usage in the studio it's great. Combined with the NH-D15 and the 850x, I expect virtually no noise.
----
And that's the build! I plan on taking it to my local Micro Center for assembly once the 9900k arrives. Micro Center (or Fry's, on the West Coast) is a great option for getting a PC built as the fee is quite reasonable compared to custom DAW PC makers (~$150 for the build process). There are many advantages to having your PC professionally assembled locally:
- No chance of a part being damaged in shipping. If a component is DOA, they can simply replace it from their own shelves as needed.
- They will fully test the system to make sure everything is working and stable, with OS installed.
- If problems do develop, you can take the machine back for them to diagnose and fix the problem, if you don't have the tools to do so yourself.
Hope this explanation was helpful to those of you considering a new DAW soon!
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