Is the I9 9900K overkill for music production?

[Schtu]

Hi everyone! Stumbled across this thread from google and it has been *incredibly* useful in helping with my first build. I'm not very tech-savvy but am finally too sick of constantly having to bounce/consolidate/freeze on larger projects, and have decided to build a dedicated music PC. I've read & re-read the entire thread and tried to get my head round all of the concepts but it's pretty hard for someone who previously didn't even know what CPU cores were or that RAM had different speeds and it's not just the number of GBs which is important.

FWIW, I'll be using this PC exclusively for music production - probably running Windows 7 Pro & Ableton 9 (though I'll almost certainly upgrade to Ableton 10 at some point). My projects tend to have a lot of tracks (40 or more) and lots of instances of the CPU-heavy synth Diva, which is what's causing me most problems right now.

Other than Ableton and my VSTs, the only other thing I'll have on the computer is a Cloud syncing software to keep everything backed up. Right now I'm using Google Drive's software but it's absolutely terrible and I'll probably look for a different solution when I build this PC.

Also worth noting is that I'm currently using the Native Instruments Audio 6 Soundcard, which I had anyway for DJing use. I like the fact that it's 6in/6out as I have one stereo synth, one mono synth and a microphone for recording guitar/vocals (so 5 out of 6 inputs are currently in use). I have no idea what impact different audio interfaces have though, so would also be open to getting a new one for my new PC if it would improve my setup in any way.

Right now this is what my build looks like: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fzjKD2. Does it look okay?

I also intend to use a Travelstar Z5K500 500GB HDD as a secondary drive because I have one lying around and not being used (it came in my current laptop but I replaced it with a SSD).

The only thing missing is the case, but I'm pretty lost at where to start on choosing that. Any tips?

Any and all feedback on my build and everything else I've written in this post would be massively appreciated.

Thanks!

[Pictus]

Right now this is what my build looks like: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fzjKD2. Does it look okay?

The only thing missing is the case, but I'm pretty lost at where to start on choosing that. Any tips?

Good build, for case make sure to get something with USB-C, maybe
the Fractal Design - Define R6 USB-C
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3397 ... es-of-2018

[Schtu]

Read some reviews and the Fractal Design - Define R6 USB-C looks great! Might just go for that unless I hear anything different. Thanks

[Sindikhate]

Regarding the 9900k I have just built a system a few days ago. Carried Gfx and about 6tb of SSDs and WD Blacks from an older machine.

Intel 9900k
Gigabyte Aorus z390 Xtreme
G.Skill Trident Z 3200 - CL14
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Be Quiet! Dark Power 11 850w 80+ Platinum
Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev.2
Samsung 860 Evo 1Tb
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

I would not go for the ripjaws but I would get the trident z at CL 14 personally.

The biggest surprise of the build is the DAC of the motherboard. It sounds absolutely amazing.
Probably the best DAC I have listened to ever.
ESS SABRE reference DAC
Hyperstream Dynamic Range (DNR 127dB)
High-Res music (32bit, 384kHz PCM)
World's best THD+N (THD+N -120db)
127dB SNR AMP-UP Audio with High-End ESS SABRE 9018K2M DAC, LME 49720 and OPA1622 OP-AMP, WIMA audio capacitors

You can read more here! https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z3 ... -rev-10#kf

Motherboard also comes with TB3 but being an EATX was a bit of a pain to fit in the case as it covers the cable grommets and I had to find other ways to bring the cables from the back to the front. The case has amazing quality and even though it is huge, I wish there was a little bit more room on the back, it is rather tight. As well as being extremely over engineered. PC looks really clean, runs mega fast and is dead quiet, I managed 2090 on the Cinebench R15 CPU benchmark. It sits at 25C with this cooler idle open case and 29C closed case. I would never put that ugly noctua cooler anywhere near my system. Also I would get a bigger case than the Fractal one. Machine OCs at 5Ghz on all cores on its own when there is load, never goes over 1.35V while doing that so I have not bothered with leaving it overclocked at a stable speed. I reached 5.3Ghz but it was obviously too hot. No crash though. Very happy with the build. Also looks amazing, not that I was going for a look on my build but hey.

[Kaine]

Regarding everything else, most software have limits on how many cores they can use or are not optimized as you said. Cubase for example is limited in 12 or 14 cores, i don't remember well. If you have more Cores than that Cubase will not make use of the extra ones. Having a 128 cores quad Xeon would be futile.

Yeah, although to clarify Cubase is optimized up to about 32 threads (16 cores with hyperthreading) and then addressing starts to struggle once you move above it, but it doesn't go unused as the system can make use of extra threads in the background. Most if not all sequencers can handle up to about 28 or 32 threads these days without any stress, with a few running more with a bit of tweaking.

[Schtu]

Regarding the 9900k I have just built a system a few days ago. Carried Gfx and about 6tb of SSDs and WD Blacks from an older machine.

Intel 9900k
Gigabyte Aorus z390 Xtreme
G.Skill Trident Z 3200 - CL14
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Be Quiet! Dark Power 11 850w 80+ Platinum
Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev.2
Samsung 860 Evo 1Tb
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

I would not go for the ripjaws but I would get the trident z at CL 14 personally.

Nice build! Can I ask why you would go for the Trident Z instead of the Ripjaws? Purely because of the lower CL? I still haven't quite got my head around the most importing aspects of choosing RAM.

[Schtu]

I'm actually now considering just going for 16GB RAM to save money. My current system has 8GB and this is sometimes a problem but very rarely (only when I'm remixing a track and cutting up loads of audio tracks). My bottleneck is most definitely the CPU, so I'm thinking of just buying 2x8GB sticks and then if I need to in future I'll just get another two.

Also, considering I won't even have a dedicated graphics card, I'm thinking the 850W PSU is a bit of an overkill so looking at the 750W or even lower instead. According to pcpartpicker, my build is only using 126W... How much headroom needs to be left above the normal Watt usage?.

Aaaand after a bit of research on the differences between SSDs I've also opted for the EVO 970 SSD instead of the 860 that I had chosen before.

This would be the updated build: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/Schtu/saved/RxHP3C

Any thoughts?

[Pictus]

Also, considering I won't even have a dedicated graphics card, I'm thinking the 850W PSU is a bit of an overkill so looking at the 750W or even lower instead. According to pcpartpicker, my build is only using 126W... How much headroom needs to be left above the normal Watt usage?.
Any thoughts?

Use https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
If you plan to use all 8 cores at 4.7 GHz also set the voltage to 1.3v in the calculator.
(But the CPU may only need +- 1.23 for 4.7GHz on all cores)

With the watts value from outervision, look at the PSU review for the efficiency curve
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/co ... 585-5.html

and the noise


Do not need to add GPU for audio, else if it needs multi monitor or 4K in 60Hz
that requires DisplayPort or HDMI 2.0.
I prefer AMD RX 5xx series viewtopic.php?p=7060297

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video ... ice&page=1

[Kalamata Kid]

I have a barely used 64GB OSZ Vertex-4 SSD.
Can or should I use it as a Paging file?

[Pictus]

You can, but if the OS SSD is NVMe it will be worst performance.
Else if the OS NVMe is saturated.
OS = Operating System

[Kalamata Kid]

My OS is 500gb Samsung 860 Evo. It is GPT.
So there may be a small advantage to use the 64GB OSZ Vertex-4 SSD for the paging file?
I suppose I need to make one partition to fill the drive.
Make this also a GPT?
What else should I know to optimize it?

[Sindikhate]

Regarding the 9900k I have just built a system a few days ago. Carried Gfx and about 6tb of SSDs and WD Blacks from an older machine.

Intel 9900k
Gigabyte Aorus z390 Xtreme
G.Skill Trident Z 3200 - CL14
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Be Quiet! Dark Power 11 850w 80+ Platinum
Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev.2
Samsung 860 Evo 1Tb
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

I would not go for the ripjaws but I would get the trident z at CL 14 personally.

Nice build! Can I ask why you would go for the Trident Z instead of the Ripjaws? Purely because of the lower CL? I still haven't quite got my head around the most importing aspects of choosing RAM.

It is a pretty good and stable so far build. I went for this memory because of CL14 and it being a good balance between cost and speed. I only got 16Gb though, but I am thinking to double it. As it was not included to the motherboard QVL list on the Aorus and G.Skill websites I was a bit wary. But after the G.Skill support emailed me back saying go for it and that they just did not have access to this motherboard I made up my mind. No regrets so far. I hope this system will last me as much as the previous one.

[Pictus]

My OS is 500gb Samsung 860 Evo. It is GPT.
So there may be a small advantage to use the 64GB OSZ Vertex-4 SSD for the paging file?

Systems with not enough RAM, yes.

I suppose I need to make one partition to fill the drive.
Make this also a GPT?

Yes https://www.techrrival.com/mbr-vs-gpt/

What else should I know to optimize it?

If your PC has plenty of RAM, maybe it is better to use the spare SSD
for the system temporaries and/or internet browser temp folder.
https://www.howtogeek.com/285710/how-to ... her-drive/
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1215897

[Kalamata Kid]

My OS is 500gb Samsung 860 Evo. It is GPT.
So there may be a small advantage to use the 64GB OSZ Vertex-4 SSD for the paging file?

Systems with not enough RAM, yes.

I suppose I need to make one partition to fill the drive.
Make this also a GPT?

Yes https://www.techrrival.com/mbr-vs-gpt/

What else should I know to optimize it?

If your PC has plenty of RAM, maybe it is better to use the spare SSD
for the system temporaries and/or internet browser temp folder.
https://www.howtogeek.com/285710/how-to ... her-drive/
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1215897

Thanks Pictus,

Very informative. A bit complex so I may just stick with using the extra 64GB SSD for the paging file.
Any advice on how to set up the partition?

In the future I may take your other advice on what to do the 64GB SSD.

[Aleatoriac]

No
Get it
Make music with it
Enjoy making music
Love people

Surely this is better than abusing some poor "designated inferior" in a desperate attempt to avoid death anxiety