Building the ULTIMATE DAW PC: Here's How I Did It

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Click here for a full shopping list containing all the components I used: www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3SK21Z1LCZKI1?ref_=wl_share

[@ChefHenryPrimo]

That Monitor looks good, what graphics card & Monitor are you using?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@ChefHenryPrimo NVidia RTX 3060 and it's an LG 43" Ultra HD monitor.

[@watchaddicts1213]

Thanks Scott...for both replies. Yeah, APPLE just wants to own YOU, period--and have you say, THANK YOU, SIR, may I have another.

[@DSGLABEL]

Most of the system is 30+% off for black friday

[@JoshuaNeedham]

You'll be happy with that build. I built a gaming PC last year and halfway through the year I jumped into music head first. Needless to say I have an awesome music computer, LOL

[@DROBOYCA]

Did you use similar parts?

[@royevans4581]

Good call on the air cooler. You don't want to be worrying about coolant pumps failing. I have a gigantic Noctua cooler keeping my 5900x in check. I'm really pleased you can do more now, because then we get more cool stuff to watch!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I've stress tested this cooler, and it works GREAT!

[@jaimeross7507]

Why I stayed for ALL 29min.??.....I don't know....but very Interesting 😊....I had to edit in....Great Channel!!!!❤

[@alshk6763]

Most music software functions in a way that the audio throughput is calc'd on a single cpu core, so while having other cores is great for handling other non-music parallel functions, the bulk of the perceived improvement comes from the fastest single core (with greatest amount of cache available to it). In other words, get the fastest proc with biggest cache. For audio specifically, an 8-core at 5.3gHz will spank pants off a 16-core at 4.2ghz. This means that overclocking makes good sense for audio. Fewer cores may mean less heat while overclocking, provided same mfg process (transistor density), so easier to thermally manage. Next on the order of importance is obviously RAM. 32 gig is usually plenty, 64 is fantastic.

[@SpikeBlighty]

Great build. Your hard work paid off in the end. I dont like flashy LED lights either.

[@mr_b_hhc]

thanks for this, totally agree on no water, no rgb and an eye on future proofing, great video.

[@cubdukat]

I totally feel you. I’ve been running a Core i7-8700K for the past six years, and I’m trying to map out my upgrade plan.

[@stevenretroworkshop2113]

You have very nice DAW workstation. My DAW workstation is small setup. I mainly compose and product piano music. My computer system use Xeon processer with 32MB of memory and all input devices in recording music.

[@erichkohl9317]

I can certainly relate (like most of us can) to the dread of reinstalling everything. That's why as of late I've narrowed things down to just a couple of DAWs and my absolute favorite plugins. I think too many options just makes things harder.

[@watchaddicts1213]

AGREED! Thank you.

[@jimhewes7507]

I also recently upgraded from a computer that I used for 10 years. The hard drives were dying and the motherboard was too old to support SSDs. So I built a new one. (Yes, ASUS motherboard and Samsung SSD.) And... I also have a bunch of keyboards and am also a software developer. So some similarities. Except I don't fly planes. I like how you've got things connected so that you can use any and all keyboards at any time!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Yeah, that was the intention, because nothing kills creativity faster than having to spend 15 minutes re-patching a different keyboard, gain staging it, trying to figure out why the MIDI isn't working, now why is this channel not working...I wanted to be able to just GO and record whichever one without having to do configuration work.

[@TF242]

For what you’re using your PC for 64GB of RAM is more than plenty. No matter what components you would have chosen there will always be someone that will disagree. (Just based on some comments already 😂) congrats on your new DAW workhorse.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

640K should be enough for anyone!! :)

[@jimhewes7507]

@@ScottsSynthStuff I remember those days. I remember moving up from a Commodore Vic-20 to a C64. Wow! 38KBs! I'll never use all that!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@jimhewes7507 I had a 16K RAM pack for my VIC-20!! Luxury!!

[@SianaGearz]

@@ScottsSynthStuff I should build one of those, my VIC20 is still unexpanded. It's also in storage and needs one of its VIA chips replaced, but i have a Rockwell replacement chip somewhere.

[@tuneboxmusic]

64 ram is not enought if you are cinematic composer with kontakt lbraries

[@lucien9183]

Thank you, Scott, super great job!!! Just a few suggestions: I strongly advise you to re-plug your memory bars into slots 2 and 4 instead of slots 1 and 3, which may slightly increase the processing speed. Then, make sure the PBO (an over-clocking technology for AMD CPUs, especially for CPUs like 7950X, 7900X, 5900X, etc.) and XMP (usually high-end memory bars could do that, and you've got expensive ones) options are turned on. You can find those options under your Asus Bios settings. Hahaha, thank you again!

[@sidetrackwalker]

Hey! Cool project, albeit daunting, and certainly financially prohibitive for me at this point! I did a major upgrade a few years back and my CPU is already struggling again, which is frustrating. Back then, I migrated my system drive into the new system so I didn't have to set everything up from scratch. That worked surprisingly well! It's obviously not the way to go if you really want a clean slate system, but otherwise (especially if your OS is running smoothly as-is) it can be a neat shortcut. For those of us not particularly hardware savvy (myself included), perhaps you'd consider making a video about how to find and choose the right hardware for one's audio needs and budget? I wouldn't even know where to start researching all that.

[@wiseoldfool]

Very interesting and helpful, Scott. I'm going to have go this process again soon. Not looking forward to it!

[@sonic2000gr]

I was always building my PCs as well (done that for a living at a time actually) but I don't bother anymore. I like smaller sized desktops now so I am waiting for a Dell SFF to arrive next week. I will not use it primarily for DAW work although I will probably install some stuff as it is way too powerful and will be a pity to use it for work only! For Cubase I bought a latest generation Mac mini few months ago and it's amazing for music projects. I use it with Montage, GAIA2, Roland cloud and Korg VSTs. It's a little monster and completely silent as well.

[@crispinswan5450]

Glycol is better to use in the liquid cooling than water.

[@nihil8607]

To sidestep around the time consuming nature of software installation and configuration, consider using drive cloning software on your old drive to the new drive next time. Also useful for creating backups of your OS drive in the event it fails... ask me how I know ;^^

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I already use Macrium Reflect for this, I have nightly backups of all my machines that get backed up to my server, and from there to the cloud. That said, my old DAW PC had 10+ years of digital detritus all over it, from applications being installed and uninstalled. I wanted to start fresh with a fast, new, minimalist PC without all that stuff. Plus, cloning a drive from a PC using completely different hardware never works well.

[@nihil8607]

@ScottsSynthStuff understandable then, and glad you already have this tool integrated into your setup. Also thanks for the excellent video on balanced vs unbalanced cables, you made it much easier to understand than a lot of other explanations I was finding!

[@johanjof5613]

​​@@ScottsSynthStuffThis is why on my side I have a portable Reaper installation, and all my plugins are installed there too, categorised. Reinstalling my DAW and all my plugins, ends up being a copy paste of a single folder.

[@Taylor_King]

@@johanjof5613 all of your plugins? you don’t have any plugins that rely on extra bits and pieces installed in “ProgramData” or “Program Files”?

[@wazmand]

Great work ! Thinking of building one for studio one .

[@moorestreetfootscraytrucks2909]

Thanks for the great video Scott! Very informative.

[@cjk-28-JockeK]

Hi Scott, impressive setup in your new PC👍 About many USB synth connections into a computer: I use two Swissonic USB Hub 1916 rack for that. They detect very fast, when I change any usb hardware /synth on a port. They are sold online at Thomann in Germany. PS. Great KZbin channel you've got, I drop by frequently, to check up news and tutorials🙂

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The problem is not how many physical USB connections you have - it's how many logical endpoints your CPU can handle. Every device uses up one or more (usually more) endpoints. Hubs themselves use up endpoints, as do active USB extension cables. When you exceed the number of endpoints, the PC simply won't recognize any more - and if you reboot the PC with more endpoints connected than the CPU has resources for, some PC's will simply refuse to boot up. That's one of the reasons I moved to AMD, as their CPUs have MANY more USB endpoints than Intel.

[@DelticEngine]

Very nice video! I've only just discovered your channel and I like it, it looks very interesting. I agree with you about cases with windows in them. I don't like them either because most of them don't have any shielding properties that prevent electrical noise from radiating from the system that can be picked up as noise by other sensitive systems such as audio cables in a recording studio. I hope your were wearing electrostatic discharge protection such as a grounding strap when you built that system. I appreciate that you connected a power cord for the ground connection, but because the metalwork is painted there is likely to be no actual computer case grounding until the power supply is connected to an installed motherboard and the case only grounds through that which actually leaves everything unprotected! I always wear a dedicated grounding strap before I start anything with electronics involved as there is just so much potential for things to go wrong. The worst part about ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) damage is that it is not just a case of either it works or it doesn't: There is often hidden internal damage that manifests as random errors, crashes or even sudden total failure at some random time later on. Incidentally, my current main system is around fourteen years old now and still going strong! Being really careful with electronics really pays off in the long run.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The power supply was installed and plugged in (bare metal, no paint), so the case was grounded, and if you watch in the video, you might catch my blue ESD wrist strap in there a few times, which was connected to the (grounded) case. I've been doing digital electronics for many years. :)

[@DelticEngine]

@@ScottsSynthStuff Thanks for the reply, a lot of people just don't seem to care these days. I saw a your blue watch strap and the rather cool LED glove, but I didn't catch the ESD strap. At 15:06 you state that as long as you are touching the chassis you are not going to build up static, which is interesting as the chassis is completely painted and therefore non-conductive. I'm not saying you didn't use a strap at some point, but I didn't catch it in the video. There was also a lot of component handling where there was no visible protection. I used to connect an ESD strap to the case with a power lead connected for grounding for very basic systems but they are flaky and unreliable at best and really started to learn about ESD, then I moved on to a dedicated ESD system that connects to a wall outlet. I work with computer systems from basic gaming rigs to specialist dedicated systems including those where a single component can cost over $10K US so I just don't take any chances. Like yourself, I've been doing electronics for many years which is around four decades now. I'm also always looking to work better and smarter in what I do, learning new stuff. It's one reason I like channels like yours. I also have an interest in music, which makes it more interesting to me. I've subscribed to your channel and I look forward to technical videos like these. I only mention all this because the fact you make a point about it in the video shows that you are one of the few people that does actually know and also cares.

[@mwachner]

Thanks for this! that video rendeing postscript is AMAZING. I've been agonizing over upgrading my 8 yr old Windows 10 computer as well - just transferring ALL my apps is enough to feel daunting. I wonder about the fan noise, it seems high - is it better with the case closed? And do you have a final over all cost on this PC build?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The fan noise is inaudible during normal use. During video rendering I can hear it a bit, but it's still pretty quiet. The fan noise you hear in the background is actually a dehumidifier running in the background that I forgot to shut off before recording this video. :)

[@mwachner]

@@ScottsSynthStuff that's awesome Scott. Love your vids, keep em coming. I may actually build this exact computer, thanks for all the links. :-)

[@mwachner]

@@ScottsSynthStuff Watched this again today. It would be great if you could do a video to show us how you are getting all those synths MIDI'd in to your computer at the same time.... :-)

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@mwachner Already did, it's right here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6fHeX6HpZJniM0

[@flotopo]

Thanks for an awesome video! I wanna build me a very similar DAW PC and this really helped have a good idea about what to expect from it performance wise. Can I ask you, what is thee configuration of your old computer? What CPU did you have in it, motherboard and memory? Thanks so much!

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

I recently upgraded from a 10 year old PC laptop to a one that is 3 years old as of last month. I didn't need the latest and greatest, but wanted something more recent and with plenty of ram, hard drive space and a half decent CPU but not the latest. As I used it mostly for live VST's in bands, I wanted a durable screen & case too. My older laptop had been upgraded to an SSD, but only had 8 gig ram but still works surprisingly well for most tasks and speedy, but some newer VST's were sluggish. I also upgraded the ram on similar ones of the same age I had to 16gb recently. Used PC laptops loose value quickly unlike Mac's. That makes them a much better value for the buyer who's willing to go used and prefers a PC anyway. I got a Dell business machine (I supported these in IT for many years) with a 10th gen i7 with 6 cores, 32 gigs of ram & a 2TB hard drive. I paid well less than the typical M1 Macbook with 8 gigs of ram and a 256gb drive! I also got a used 512gb drive to use as a spare I can pop in in 5 minutes if something crashed. I think the ram will be important for loading a full night's set list in ram instead of separating it to small files as I normally do to save system resources. I also want to be ready to run the Montage M VST when they offer it to everyone. I'd also like to do some video editing, but I know it doesn't have a video card like an M series Macbook would. I have a GForce MX250 with 2gb video ram. Which video editor are you using, might recommend for a system without a fancy video card, but plenty of ram? I have two copies of Windows 10 Pro & a copy of Windows 11 Pro setup on multi-boot. This allows me to setup Windows 10 for optimal audio disabling a bunch of things (such as anti-virus), and a copy for regular computing tasks, and Windows 11 for regular tasks.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I do the exact same thing for my laptops: buy used Dells, I know them, I trust them, they are reliable. A lot of the Dell laptops however do have a built in GPU believe it or not. You might want to double check - it won't use it normally for power savings reasons, but it has the option to use it if the applications requires it. I know mine does. I use Premiere Pro for all my video editing. It CAN run without a GPU, I did it this way for years - but it's much faster and nicer to use if you do have one.

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

@@ScottsSynthStuff Same. I used to manage Dell Business accounts buying & setting up computers for companies, and used them myself. I've used the Latitude series for ages. The Precision looks good too. I considered Premiere Pro. I wasn't sure if a high end GPU was a requirement or not. I have the Nvidia GForce MX & it also has the Intel UHD video too from the Intel i7 10th gen processor.

[@mrz80]

@@ScottsSynthStuff After a decade of frustrations with Latitudes at the office, I go with either used MacBooks or refurb'ed Thinkpads (just went from a 2011MBP to a T590 w/a touchscreen). Needless to say everything gets linux. 😀

[@mrz80]

I build my own machines mostly because I'm chea- (*cough*) of Scottish heritage 😛, and as I'm not flogging the latest multiplayer online combat fest I can live quite comfortably on the trailing edge. I work with a bunch of folks who live out on the frontiers and they're always dumping older hardware for cheap or free. My latest iteration going together next weekend is going to be a 12 core Xeon with 48GB RAM and a GTX960 driving 3 1920x1200 monitors. It's got GOBS of USB ports. I'm running Xubuntu with the Ubuntu Studio packages, and Rosegarden and Ardour for DAWs. This build ought to carry me for the foreseeable future, so long as living in the lightning capital of America (north central Florida) doesn't kill it out from under me. 😀

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I share your Scottish heritage (seriously). :) I run two $20,000 Dell servers as a NAS, VM host and backup hub. I paid $500 for the pair of them. Servers depreciate faster than pretty much anything else, and they are typically reliable, high-powered machines.

[@mrz80]

@@ScottsSynthStuff One of my coworkers came into to the office a few weeks ago with this great big tower case on his shoulder and hollered, "Who wants a server?" Needless to say I pounced. Some researchers had put the thing together with leftover grant money 10 years ago or so and they were just gonna heave it into the dumpster since the University's got this massive Top500 level cluster now. It's my new home/media server. Faster hyperthreaded Xeons for it that were $1500 new are goin' for ten clams each on Amazon. Gotta love it.

[@Rcfieldz_Rcfieldz]

What monitor are you using? I need a new monitor and wondering what to get. Looking at a 50" size.

[@louiswalker-g6i]

Love your build, I would love to know the where you got the fans that you installed on top. I did not see them in the list.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I honestly don't recall if they came with the case or if I bought them aftermarket.

[@michaels8597]

what case? Nice build..

[@MaxTooney]

Thanks for doing this video. Not sure this old set of eyes is up to building a computer, though I've done it before. (Really helps to be able to see the motherboard clearly.) Btw, will this song be available on Spotify?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

haha, with any luck that "song" will never be available anywhere!!! :)

[@aaronschilling1815]

Make sure you update the firmware on the 990 pro. There has been an issue with drive health recently…

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I did it straight away as soon as I loaded the OS.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@whome3911 Samsung has an application called Samsung Magician that will automatically update the firmware.

[@mojito6629]

The non temperglass window of that very case is available too. Why didn't you choose that, instead?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

It wasn't when I purchased this one, unfortunately. It's buried under the desk anyway, so I don't care either way honestly :)

[@RainMan52]

cable management on fleek

[@RearviewMirror-ij2pr]

Excellent video, thanks! What video editing software and DAW software do you use?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Premiere Pro and Cubase Pro.

[@subramaniamchandrasekar1397]

During the DOS time, there was a daw called SAW which could record 40 tracks of live performance (audio) at the same time. Simultaneous recording multiple audio in a computer was never an issue. Running 40 VST instruments is. Regards.

[@philmagnotta5553]

I remember SAW. I met the owner/developer then at AES/NAMM. Great product. Wonder what someone like him might be doing now. Do You know?

[@ilovecatsandsynths9702]

Absolutely beautiful build! I’m thinking of something similar for my next VM/file server. I was wondering if using Proxmox or another hypervisor and then putting Windows in a VM on top of that would work well with a DAW… then when you upgrade your hardware you just move the VM across in one piece, and everything is already installed and authorized. It might be worth a try, maybe on your old computer as a test.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I don't know how well a DAW work work on a virtual PC - ASIO typically wants direct low-level hardware access. I actually do have servers at home, I have a room with a couple Xeon-based Dell rack servers with large RAID arrays - they run a bunch of VM's and also back up all my other computers before the backups get shipped off to the cloud.

[@OGGOAT]

I just have a small question. Im building a pc and i want the ice giant cooler, but how loud is it because i record in the same room that my pc will be in and i know the noctua fans are a few dbs lower than this one.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

When I am actually recording, the cpu isn't active enough for the fans to make any noise at all.

[@OGGOAT]

@@ScottsSynthStuff thank you for that

[@HH-Thorsten]

Great setup!

[@Dmitry_Perelekhov]

Hello, thank you for video. Scott, Can you help?: Ryzen7950X, Asus x670e CrosshairHero, 64Gb Kingston, SSD`s nvme2, RME AIO. All drivers are new. The problem: These plugins crushed Cubase on startup daw when Register VST3 Korg, Melda, Halion7 ! Groove Agent ! HalionSonic3 ! Padshop ! These don`t crush: Retrologue Grand HalionSonicSE GrooveAgentSE

[@loserdubbed8036]

whats weird is i have a late 2013 imac with 32gb, i5, 2gb gpu, And knock on wood absolutley no problems, the only problem being they are not allowing 10.15 on newer programs. But i can record with zero latency, be running several softsynths, automation, compressors, you name it, and only once in a blue moon will i get an overload, and its usually just having a bad day. Im broke so a new mac isnt gonna be for me, plus i have a push i really want to start using, so im thinking a mini pc that i will attach the push, audio interface, a couple touchscreen monitors and make it a portable studio.

[@wilkopiano]

I noticed you have audio ground loop floor noise in cubase at 25min mark. Do you have passive DI boxes with groundlift on everyone of your analog synths? for when idefenders don’t work use also di boxes.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

It's not ground loop noise, it's just noise floor. A lot of these older synths have a bit of a noise floor - especially the 80's synths like the Polysix and Juno-106. It's extremely low, and not audible, but you can see it (obviously) on the VU's. DI boxes are great in live situations, but in the studio I don't like them, as by virtue of their internal transformers, they alter the sound. Almost all of the synths I have utilize balanced outputs. There are a couple synths (JD-800, Polysix) that do not, and I had to use a ground loop isolator on those. I also had to build a custom cable for the SH-101 to swap its output onto the balanced pair. However, I intentionally run the mixer (which has the audio interface in it) and all of the synths off the same circuit, so they have the exact same ground potential, eliminating ground loops. Interestingly enough, when I rebuilt my studio, because I was able to tie them together this way, I was able to go from using four iDefenders down to one (on the Montage).

[@ktreier]

Why didn’t you clone your old HD to the new one, saving a lot of reinstalls?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

My old DAW PC was over 10 years old, with ten years of installs/uninstalls, a huge registry, and was running slow. The new PC had completely different hardware including a different CPU, a different OS and I wanted a clean install for everything.

[@ElijahRock92]

Thank you! YT videos on musician PC builds as scarce as most just use Apple. 🤮 I'm just a hobbyist, but I've been planning a PC build since 2018. Mine is on the smaller side, but I plan on using: - mini-ITX case (bought) - Ryzen or Intel 4 or 6-core processor - Noctua CPU cooler (gifted) - 16 GB or RAM - 1 TB M.2 drive & 1 TB SSD - low level graphics card (no video editing or gaming from me) (previous computer) - plenty of case fans lol - Allen&Heath ZEDi 10 (own) - Studio One 3 Artist (I don't use plug-ins and I'm too stubborn to upgrade lol) Wish me luck. I hope to get this finally built in 2025.

[@RonNewmanPiano]

What's the sound level with all those fans?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Pretty quiet. They only time they really spool up is during video rendering. Otherwise, I never hear them.

[@King.Mark.]

Backup and copy to a new m2ssd 30 min up and running

[@daved9665]

WooHoo!!!👍Nice going 🔥Wanted to see how AMD does with a DAW - esp. Cubase.

[@Hyakman5408]

21:01 Is your full-time job different from audio/video work?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Yes - I do enterprise e-commerce systems design, development and integrations.

[@nandopeiter]

Which graphics card did you use?

[@DROBOYCA]

I was just thinking the same thing

[@ktreier]

The Opsix has to be one of the first 16 USB devices detected. I’ll find the article that tells you how to make that fix.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Yes, same thing for the Wavestate and Modwave, that's why I installed them and their drivers first before anything else.

[@ktreier]

@@ScottsSynthStuff OK, well you said it wasn’t working and you didn’t know why, so I was trying to be helpful.

[@sarty23]

What do you think about yhise JBL MONITORS? I believe I have the same ones and the bass goes out from the back. Do you prefer that... I havent got fully used to it yet...

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I actually really like them. Last year I spent some time at the Sweetwater showroom, where they have a huge listening room set up with three separate DAW workstations, and each one is hooked up to a bunch of different monitors that you can switch between. My intention was to pick a new set of monitors that would exceed the performance of these relatively inexpensive JBL's. After spending probably half an hour auditioning each of the monitors they had, I had it down to about 5 different ones, and in a blind test - the ones I ended up preferring were the exact JBL's that I already own! So I didn't buy anything, and just kept the JBL's. I suppose part of it is that I "know" them well, and can mix from them consistently.

[@UFO-Ark]

Scott, What is your day job?? Amazing channel by the way.. thank you

[@doubleohdutch2108]

I was quite curious about that for some time now but too polite to ask about it. Thank you. Not much time left between flying custom planes flying to Sweetwater and riding Honda Goldwings and criticising ppl who use modular synths…

[@davidperez909]

Sick rig!

[@TheRobJarvis]

Just curious why you didn't feel the need for a graphics card. If the GPU is running the graphics then the CPU can handle more, or do you find you even need one?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I moved an NVidia RTX 3060 from my old PC to this new one, so I didn't need to purchase a new card. It's very helpful as many non-graphical applications now use the GPU for acceleration - Spectralayers, for instance.

[@TheRobJarvis]

@@ScottsSynthStuff ah yes. a 3060 would do nicely too. I just built a DAW computer myself on my limited budget but it works great. mostly used parts. i7 9700k, gigabyte elite board, thermalright assasin cooler, 32 gigs ram, 1650 GPU, 500gigs ssd, 850 gold PSU, Cougar mx 330 pro. love working with computers recording it's so much better. I started on reel to reel in about 1994.

[@BranZHamZ]

7950X3D!? I thought this was gonna be way more budget friendly 😂 Also, I used to build water cooled PCs for a living so dont worry, leaks dont always kill a PC. The fluids used in coolers are made to not be conductive. Theres also ways to safely clean leaks.

[@JJMedusa]

-- Fascinating video! 😊👍🖥️

[@gideonwaxfarb]

Your video is only 5 days old, but already several of the products you linked to are not available, including the cpu, memory, and case. (As of this posting.) Those must be in high demand or something. Curious why you went with AMD for your CPU instead of Intel. Are those better for music production?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Interesting...I can't speak as to why Amazon doesn't have them currently in stock, but if you click on the "See all buying options" it will show you the other sellers on Amazon that do. I picked AMD for two reasons: 1. Price/performance in terms of cores and threads as well as overall performance exceeds comparably priced Intel chips. In 30+ years of building PCs, this is my first non-Intel build. It (so far) is working perfeclty. 2. I need a LOT of USB endpoints in my studio to handle all the devices and hubs. AMD chipset architecture gives you many more (more than double) the USB endpoints that Intel does. I was constantly running out of USB endpoint resources on my Intel-based DAW. This is now no longer a problem.

[@gideonwaxfarb]

Cool, thanks for the detailed response :)

[@steska77]

How is the the overall noise of the fans?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Barely noticeable, and definitely MUCH quieter than my old PC.

[@caspersmith7112]

i own a ice giant unused please let me know how good it is

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

It seems to work great, I've stress tested it and it kept the processor temperatures in check. CPU has never thermal throttled.

[@getupkid84]

Just one SSD? In my research, I'm seeing a lot of people recommending 2 hard drives. One for the OS, DAW and Plugins and one for the editing files.

[@pauls2820]

I too have read that it's better to use two drives: a small one (500 GB-1 TB) for the operating system and applications, and a larger one (1 TB+) for project files, samples, and other data. This prevents the drives from becoming overtaxed at anytime. A 4TB drive is pretty darn big, so I'm sure it'll be fine. However I was wondering whether this motherboard has the additional slot to support an additional SSD drive if one wants to have two 2TB drives instead OR a 4TB and a 2TB?

[@FirstLast-nr6gf]

I used to build my PCs before, but in last 20 years the size of computer cases and other components of custom built PCs haven't changed much and I don't want those huge and heavy PCs sitting on my desk. Mac Mini M1 with 16GB of RAM, 256GB internal SSD and 2TB external Samsung SSD + Logic Pro is enough for me. For $2,000 you can buy Mac Studio with 32GB of RAM. For video editing it could be better than a PC. Mac Studio has 2 hardware accelerated encoders / decoders including ProRes, 4 USB4 / Thunderbolt ports.

[@mrdali67]

The new Macs is pretty effective for music considdered that they are not nearly as powerfull as you can get with a PC or the older Xeon based power Macs. Only con is you cannot in any way update neither the ram or buildin ssd as the ram is integrated in the CPU and the ssd soldered to the mainboard and it does cost a bit if your going for the biggest config. 32gb ram is kinda minimum requirement if you do want to play with larger sample libraries. All depends on peoples use case. If you primary use the daw for recording smaller projects you might not need that much memory and the TB interface is a plus if your going for some of the more pro sound interfaces. There also is several good alternatives to the M series macs today in the AMD or Intel based Mini PC's based on mobile CPU's. Several of them supports up to 64-96Gb ram and some have USB4/TB support too and usually up to 2 internal SSD's. Those are close to the same form factor as the Mac mini's. maybe double height to host replaceable sodims and SSD's. And you get quite a bit more for your money than a 32gb/2tb M3. Again .. depends if your already married with Apple /Logic Pro

[@watchaddicts1213]

Hey Scott. I've been a MAC-HEAD for 11 years now. I freak out at the thought of giving up FINAL CUT PRO and LOGIC PRO....even though I ACTUALLY use CUBASE 13 about 90% of the time. Anyway, considering a PC--value for DOLLAR and customizable. Q: HAVE YOU EVER been a MAC PERSON? I'll have to wait a month or so for the M4 MAC MINI. I need to replace my AILING IMAC pretty badly. So, shaking in my boots, I am listening closely to what you're building here. See, I would have guessed INTEL would be the default, so I know nothing. And I would have guessed FOUR 1 TB SSDs, just cuz my MAC TECH said he'd had the LARGER SSDs fail....no biggie. ARE all the FANS QUIET? Missed the brand of CASE, cuz I'm typing. I guess there's room in the back for LOTS of USB Connections? Ah! You got that FANCY Orange single HeadLight, so you know the :POWER is on! You said, "ONE MORE USB CARD TO PUT IN THERE." What is this all about? You could do a black light and look REALLY TAN in your videos. Ah!! You use MIO I think you said. iConnectivity!! WOW! It's an INSTANT MOVIE SOUNDTRACK! GREAT! TIME to call HOLLYWOOD!! APPLE told me that ONLY MAC couuld DO MUSIC and VIDEO.... I'm not doing so well with the Amazon purchase list. It takes me to the case only. Do you recall the total Price, buy chance. Thanks Scott!! Mark

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Any prices I would post would be out of date and irrelevant in weeks. Computer parts are commodities, and pricing changes constantly. While I have a Macbook for work, I rarely use it, as Apply products drive me bonkers. I want to do what I want on my computer, and it seems like Apple prevents you from doing things unless it's the "Apple way" - and many things are simply not allowed at all. I much prefer computers that I can actually control and do with what I want. So many times I've tried to do something on a Mac, and after ages of frustration, I discover that what I'm trying to do simply isn't allowed. Or...I can't figure out why it's not working, because I get useless messages like "Error" that don't give you the slightest clue what went wrong or why, or how to fix it. Apple products are too dumbed down for me.

[@lassel1644]

I would have run a SD harddrive mirroring software and then after that on the new computer upgrade to Win 11.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I had tons and tons of software installed and abandoned over ten years of use, I didn't want to move all that across - I wanted a fresh start.

[@tek_soup]

Could of Built a Rack Mount PC, if you didn't want stupid windows, and it fits in more better, with a Studio. my first Audio daw i built in the mid 90's was rack mount.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I have two rack mount servers in another room. They are LOUD. Not good for a studio.

[@amberallen2168]

What was your old 10 year old processor?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Intel Core i7-4790K

[@amberallen2168]

@@ScottsSynthStuff Good processor back in the day. I still have my 6700k and still works great. For my DAW computer I have a 12600k with also a RTX 3060 and 32 gigs or ram. I also have a Montage M 61 and still have my original white montage. They just came out with firmware update 1.22.1 for the Montage M. I have many keyboards, Jupiter x, Take 5, Virus keyboard Ti2, Cobalt 8x like you and Hydrasynth keyboard. My favorite is the Montage's. Then the Virus and Take 5. For my DAW I use Reaper. Tried Cubase and Studio one 5, but find Reaper to be the best for me. Good build you have their. I do not need a new build yet, my 12600k has never done me wrong and can handle everything I throw at it. Thanks

[@mrz80]

@@amberallen2168 I'm running a Xeon X5690 at the moment, which is just a scosche slower than the 4790. I'll be doing a rip-and-replace on the mobo/cpu/ram this coming weekend, moving to a slightly newer Xeon with 12 cores and DDR4 RAM. I'll be shutting off hyperthreading given the surfeit of cores. 🙂

[@U13SMILECRY]

So nobody ever herd of backup and restore? You can burn an image of your first rig and basically clone it on to another updated system you would just have to reinstall to drives for the new system that doesn’t take a week.

[@cubdukat]

That’s if Windows 11 will allow it. What if for whatever reason it refuses to activate on the new hardware? That’s at least another 100 bucks to buy a new activation, two if you have Pro. Besides, rather than having Win11 try to figure out what’s what on the new system (and fail), just rebuild the system from scratch. That way, yeah it’s a hassle, but it’s more likely to work than cloning.

[@U13SMILECRY]

@ ISO image just the OS setting, files, programs ETC. I cloned my now going on 11 year old RIG on to a brand new simulation box all files are there and also windows OS product keys doesn’t need a new purchase on new hardware just remember where you put the product key.

[@wilkopiano]

I am looking at new pc soon. My goal is to use the only motherboard available with *4 m2 pci4 nvme slots and enough pci slots to host separate usb host processors. Usb high bandwidth ports for camlinks and 4k streaming pro cameras require splitting out the usb camlinks into separate usb bus processor chips and often people plug all their devices into same bus gobbling up usb bandwidth and have video drop outs even with an nvidia RTx cuda gpu I have 27 usb devices plugged into my current pc across 3 usb busses. 😂

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

You may find yourself running out of USB endpoints, regardless of how many USB buses you have, particularly if you're running an Intel CPU. I had this problem with my old DAW PC.

[@evetalbot5696]

Thanks for the video, looks like its all good and runs smooth. When you did the test and said the music would sound terrible I was thinking you were exaggerating and although it was a bit janky it was also haunting like a horror move lol.

[@vinnien]

Very nice

[@timothyburke7226]

Good build however I would have gone for ECC memory for any workstation computer. STABILITY is my primary objective.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I have ECC memory in my servers (simply because that's all they will run) but I've never bothered in a workstation - and have never had a problem.

[@mrz80]

I've had an occasional stick of RAM just up and die on me before (lots of lightning here that does dire things to electronics even with whole house surge suppressors), but I've never had the kind of bit errors that ECC would've caught.

[@MOAB-UT]

Very nice, but why X? That just gets you more heat. The regular AMD 7900 is what I am going with. Smart call on the Samsung for reliability but ASUS was not a good call. They tend to have many more issues. MSI or ASRock is ideally what you wanted. The most important factor, for music production, in addition to reliability on a board with LOW LATENCY. Both of those check that box. That cooler looks fancy. Liquid cooled is not going to leak- who told you that? It's alsmo more gel like. The engineers thought of the leak scenario and those issues are all worked out. You also want QUIET. Again, the plain old 7900 is whisper quiet- runs at only 65 Watts. It is nearly as powerful as your fancy X version just sans the heat. 6000 mhz is too high. Again, think HEAT and instability. Slightly slower memory would have been more ideal. You are not overclocking and gaming afterall. DDR4 has lower latency than DDR5. NVMe drives are great. Smart to build yourself. You also get MUCH better warranties on each component and no bloatware. Good job overall. I have the same studio monitors but recently connected up my QSC PA since I have it laying around. It sound better. Class D power, etc. It's more detailed too- if you have one, try it out.

[@valleyken]

Cool.

[@Shankaporomous]

For what you do, even if now you did not needed the power, tread ripper was the way to go, those are design for future proof , the ryzen 9 are gaming cpus and who knows what AMD will update on the, the route is simple, if you do audio and video editing for a living, tread ripper, if you just play triple aa’s games is a ryzen you can change those anytime, not for work stations you need a work station

[@markdanielt.5100]

don't be surprised if window 11 doesn't recognize the CD/DVD drive. It seems to be a problem with some users (including me).

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Nope! Sees it and works with it just fine.

[@AMBIOSIS]

I feel your pain.

[@AnthonyThomas-o4l]

Wait, you can't make an image of the OS (and all your apps) with Macrium Reflect or any other image creator? You shouldn't have to spend hours and days putting your setting back. There hasn't been enough changes between Windows 10 and Windows 11 to concern yourself with much more than updating drivers. You can rebuild your system more frequently as you can install an image bare metal (no OS) and have your OS back up and running as before.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

My old PC was over 10 years old, with 10 years of installs, uninstalls, hardware changes, drivers, upgrades....the registry was massive, and it was getting slow. I intentionally started from scratch on the new one. I do use Macrium Reflect to image my OS drive nightly however as a backup.

[@officialWWM]

Nice machine. Must have cost a fortune!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Business expense. Tax writeoff. :)

[@internalreality]

missing a graphics card but this machine is a beast

[@joeoge9347]

His Chip has Integrated Graphics, believe or not this is a music machine and not everyone plays videogames.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The graphics card came from the other PC, you can see it installed later on in the video. And I do use it for editing (and RENDERING) KZbin videos, so the graphics card does get used a lot. Don't play games of any sort however.

[@tylerwmbass]

@@ScottsSynthStuff Yep, and a GPU will help with a music production PC, don't need anything crazy but anything with its own dedicated memory that has a driver that doesn't ruin your DPC latency will suffice. At least with virtual instruments, memory bandwidth and latency is Crucial(pun intended) and the integrated GPU will share this resource with the processor.

[@mrz80]

@@ScottsSynthStuff I did have a constant problem with overruns on my previous machine owing to the cpu-hogging of nVidia's linux driver with elderly cards. Once I pulled the ancient GT730 in favor of the GTX960 that issue went bye-bye.

[@markdanielt.5100]

The like button on this video seems to be missing.

[@markdanielt.5100]

Never mind I found it.

[@IanArizpeArroyo]

instead of spending a week transferring applications and data. why don’t you clone your main hard drive that has everything installed and then toss it into the new computer. bing bang boom. New computer, new hard drive, with your new pc parts and no need to spend a week transferring data and applications. OFC some will not like the transfer process, but most of them should move over without an issue.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Because I had almost 10 years of detritus from years of installations and uninstalls, dev work, hardware changes, an older OS...I wanted a new, fresh, fast install. Also, cloning a drive and sticking it into a new PC running a completely different CPU and motherboard rarely works.

[@IanArizpeArroyo]

@ fair reasoning!!! thanks for responding 😄😄. I just was wondering since i did that for a client recently and they seemed pretty happy with the result. but i do agree the more things you have installed the higher chance of failure when cloning. and it’s a great time to do spring cleaning for a fresh install 😃. have an awesome day!!

[@joeoge9347]

ID be careful, I was a Samsung only guy till my Samsung SSDs started failing.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

As I've mentioned, I have used only Samsung SSD's for over a decade now. I have probably 10 or 11 of them at this point in various PCs and servers. I have never had a single one of them fail. The ONLY SSD I have ever had fail was a non-Samsung drive that came with a laptop. I replaced it with a Samsung.

[@UltraLowMuzik]

Only a week, try three weeks

[@PureVoice_cz]

I prefer the Intel anyway.

[@georgehardisty8948]

I'm a MAC user, so I'll keep quiet.

[@mrdali67]

uh .. I would seriously keep my hands off all "Prime" boards from Asus. It's their absolute garbage mobo's. Beside that, DDR5 is not particulary good at running 4 sticks. So "if" you should ever want more than 64gb you will have to buy new memory. 4 Sticks will likely both limit the speed at wich they will run and is just not good. Ask Buildzoid why. Basically DDR5 boards shouldn't ever had been made with 4 ram slots, because DDR5 just doesn't support it very well. Not that I think you will run out of memory right away with 64gb 😄 unless you run some serious Sample libraries setups. But unless your a serious PC "geek" not many normal users know about this and think they can alway double the memory later by adding another set of same type of sticks.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I did know about this...I figured that 64 GB is more than I will need for the forseeable future, and if I need to upgrade in future, I'll just replace them with a pair of 64 GB sticks.

[@johanjof5613]

I am pretty surprised you do not address AT ALL one of the most important aspects of Music computers, their noise. Recording mics and mixing with a computer noise ? Big nono for me

[@lassel1644]

A desktop computer?Really? Is this 2003 or what🤔

[@SianaGearz]

No, a kick computer. One you place under your desk and occasionally kick with your foot when you least intend to, but it doesn't mind too much. But listen this thing doesn't have fan whine and it's got immense power. With a new laptop, you'll struggle to beat even his old PC by all that much, but this thing, it's serious.

[@macdaddybender]

Hey Scott. Good video. Although my current PC is fine, I have been considering moving to a Mac Studio, but this video has given me pause for thought. I don't recall any other channels I follow discussing moving to Windows 11 if you run Cubase. So, from your video it all seems to work fine? Were there any issues?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

There was one issue I had, and that was a problem caused by the large number of cores/threads in this CPU. Cubase would stop recording and show this error: "MMCSS priority cannot be set!" - however that is due to the CPU capability, and apparently will also happen on Windows 10. There is a help page on it here: helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/13338094735762-Error-message-on-Windows-MMCSS-priority-cannot-be-set Essentially, the fix involved downloading the tool from that Steinberg page, running it and setting the threads to 64. Problem solved. Other than that, no issues!

[@macdaddybender]

@ScottsSynthStuff Brilliant. Thanks for the speedy reply, it's much appreciated

[@UFO-Ark]

Scott, What is your day job?? Amazing channel by the way.. thank you

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I'm a software developer/architect. Thanks for the kind words!

[@FirstLast-nr6gf]

@@ScottsSynthStuff For some reason I thought you were a commercial pilot. I'm a software engineer too. Music is just a hobby.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@FirstLast-nr6gf I'm a licensed commercial pilot, but that is not my profession. :)