KVR Audio

ilwoody · Post by **ilwoody** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:33 pm

Hello guys,

I have this configuration of a laptop to buy:

CPU
Processore Intel® Core™ i7 8750H 6 core (2,2 GHz, 4,1 GHz Turbo)
RAM
DDR4 SODIMM Corsair 2666 MHz 16 GB (2 x 8 GB)
SSD M.2
SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2 512GB, NVMe PCIe (up to 3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)

Now I have the chance for a small upgrade, and I can choose between either a
RAM
DDR4 SODIMM Corsair 2666 MHz 32 GB (2 x 16 GB)

or

SSD M.2
SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2 1TB, NVMe PCIe (up to 3500 MB/R, 3300 MB/W)

I'm an amateur producer, that will mainly play with VSTs, some effects, very hard to have more than 20 tracks at the same time (never had so far but who knows). Genre: soul, gospel, r'n'b.

Thank you for your insights!

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 3:28 am

I'd go for the bigger SSD , 16gb ram is plenty .

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:00 am

Can't know if 16GB is sufficient, it isn't for me. Some people need far, far more for what they do.
If you're not running out of RAM as it is, you don't, probably. The specs for the other SSD aren't apparent, but NVMe is significant if the other is say a SATA connection to the motherboard.

ilwoody · Post by **ilwoody** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:55 am

Forgot to mention that I already have a Samsung 1TB external SSD to add at this setup. So at this very moment, without any upgrade I have 512GB+1TB SSD. Thank you guys

Apratim · Post by **Apratim** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:58 am

are you a kontakt user -- if yes
get a ram upgrade

if you are into audio clip manipulation inside your daw get a ssd

sneer · Post by **sneer** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:36 pm

If you already have external storage then go for another 16gigs ram

quickfingers100 · Post by **quickfingers100** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:34 pm

Hello there,

I first upgraded to 2tb SSD which sped up loading times etc.....but after 50 instances of different VST I hit my wall and maxed out memory. That was a 6700hq i7 processor. I've since gone for a Ryzen 7 build, 32gb ram and the same project is hitting 15% Cpu use and 60% Memory usage in Cubase 10 Pro. I added a few more instruments since then also.

As you have an SSD already, I'd take the RAM option.

Cheers

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:26 am

The thing that isn't being talked about is the connection for the SSD; if your other option, the one with more RAM is not NVMe PCIe, it's slower.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:10 am

Except that it specifies in the original post that they are both the same, unless he has edited in response to your post.

jancivil wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:00 amCan't know if 16GB is sufficient, it isn't for me.

Is that because you have attempted to use something with 16GB of RAM and it wouldn't work or because you know you have sample sets that are larger than 16GB so you assume 16GB won't be enough? Because I'd be extremely surprised if 16GB wasn't enough for anyone to do anything they might ever need to. There is no 1:1 correlation between the two things, your OS and your plugins have systems in place to deal with this kind of stuff and I honestly cannot imagine a situation where those systems would fail you if you have 16GB of RAM installed, even if you are using several instances of an instrument that is using massive sample sets.

quickfingers100 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:34 pmI first upgraded to 2tb SSD which sped up loading times etc.....but after 50 instances of different VST I hit my wall and maxed out memory.

Can we hear some of this music that requires 50 VSTi, please? That's almost a whole symphony orchestra's worth of instruments but every instrument in an orchestra is monophonic, so if even a few of your VSTi are playing chords, 50 seems way over the top to me. Even our densest, most impenetrable songs only use 4 or 5 VSTi and a couple of tracks of vocals, with maybe a couple of other VSTi that only play in the break or intro or something. I honestly don't know how you would even mix 50 instruments and get a cohesive sound from it all, so I am genuinely curious to hear something like that.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:31 am

"Genre: soul, gospel, r'n'b." and not more than 20 tracks... the only thing you're liable to run into with RAM is if you use say BFD3 with fairly massive kits, so I'm not seeing a pressing need for 32GB; and in my experience the NVMe makes for a snappier experience all round,

ilwoody · Post by **ilwoody** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:08 am

jancivil wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:31 am "Genre: soul, gospel, r'n'b." and not more than 20 tracks... the only thing you're liable to run into with RAM is if you use say BFD3 with fairly massive kits, so I'm not seeing a pressing need for 32GB; and in my experience the NVMe makes for a snappier experience all round,

That actually make sense. Thanks for it

theoneandonly1 · Post by **theoneandonly1** » Tue May 14, 2019 11:10 am

Why not upgrade both!? Just need some money saving because both are important. 16 GB should be fine, depending what is the task you want to achieve. SSD is a must, imho.

agharta · Post by **agharta** » Mon May 20, 2019 1:33 pm

If it's a laptop that allows you to easily upgrade the SSD and RAM at a later stage I wouldn't sweat it too much.
Without knowing your current or future workloads it's not possible to say how much you require of either.
It should be easy for you to look at your current storage requirements and let that inform your decision.
One decision is on whether you want to consolidate your storage so that it's all internal.
I'd be tempted to buy with a small SSD and replace that with a 2TB of my choice.

Better RAM or SSD upgrade?