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Recommendations for Music Production PC

If you don't do a lot of video content, IMHO you'll be fine with integrated graphics, with less power draw and noise. If not, you can add a GPU later.

Just a loose thought reg. drives: If you don't need very large capacity, you might go internally with just one NVM-E "gumstick" SSD with several partitions (instead of physical drives) and USB/Thunderbolt external SSDs for data exchange. Keeps things simple IMHO.

 
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ejr said:
I read somewhere that you get better performance with a separate video card, rather than the onboard one, which is why I included it. I had a good one in my old machine, because I also used it for video editing. Just wondering if it's worth it. How much of a performance boost does it give if a separate card is handling the video. (The only video that the new machine will be displaying is the UI for Cakewalk and Musescore.) Thanks.
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drumphil said:
If you want to go for a more powerful GPU, then I'd suggest getting the bigger PSU option, so that you can run a full size card that is likely to silent at low load, which will be almost all of the time when doing DAW stuff. The NVIDIA T400, and other small form factor cards aren't a bad thing, and can be quite useful in small form factor case, but they can be annoying with their little fans that never turn off. Full size cards tend to shut their fans off at idle, and are likely to stay like that under typical DAW work loads.

The integrated intel UHD 770 GPU that is built into the CPU is non terrible. I'd rather just use that, than put a small GPU with a high RPM fan in a system used for audio production, or go all the way to a full size card. Nvidia T400 with small high RPM fan shown below.
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Heck, you can even game on the UHD 770 iGPU, but DAW work is nearly exclusively run on the CPU anyway.

Just not getting a discrete GPU, and sticking with the UHD 770 isn't a terrible plan. But if you want something for doing video editing/processing, skip the T400 and get something decent, with a large quiet cooling system.

You can still do pretty decent video work with the UHD 770, so unless that's a real priority for you, the iGPU will be fine. And as respice finem said, you can always add one later, but would be better to get the PSU upgrade now if you're thinking about maybe getting a discrete GPU later.

If playing a video in a windows in cakewalk is your only video task, the UHD 770 iGPU will be fine.
 
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BTW: recent AMD CPUs with iGPU tend to run cooler/more quiet than Intel. And, they are potent enough to transcode UHD videos and such.
Speaking of silence: I don't have a DAW, but since I hate fan noise, I've put the PC stuff in another room, so I don't hear it.
Maybe it's possible for you too? Usually HDMI/DP or USB length is the limitation, but solutions exist.

 
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drumphil said:
I think he meant the system with the i5 9500.
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My music production computer was built 25 years ago. x486 chip or something like that. The company that sold them was called Hush, I think. They upped the specs on their top of the line for me adding, among other things, a top notch video card. Later, they told me that Disney ordered 100 of them built to the same specs as mine, which would be used to create music for movie soundtracks.

My current machine, with the i5, is the latest computer that I use for everything else. That's the one where I am using the integrated intel graphics (and the only one I've ever owned without a graphics card).
 
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If I go with the default SSD and replace it with one that has a larger capacity, how do I swap out the original and not lose the Windows 11 Pro install that I will overwrite with Win 11 LTSC? Do just stick it in another SSD slot (if there is one) and clone the drive, then swap them out?
 
ejr said:
If I go with the default SSD and replace it with one that has a larger capacity, how do I swap out the original and not lose the Windows 11 Pro install that I will overwrite with Win 11 LTSC? Do just stick it in another SSD slot (if there is one) and clone the drive, then swap them out?
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The most "lazy" solution (plus you have your "original" SSD as fallback). Bigger target drive is no problem, the unused space is free for creating other partitions.
 
drumphil said:
Probably the biggest difference in performance you will notice is from moving to a SSD. HUGE difference in peformance, and in spite of the worries of some, in general more reliable than mechanical devices like spinning disks. That ship has sailed, and computers have moved on to another realm of performance. No need for, or point to multiple drives to share the load.
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Laptop: Lenovo Thinkpad i5-3320M(3.3GHz) 8GB RAM.

Got the same experience going from a 1TB HDD to a 2TB SSD estimate >10 times a speed increase i measure that => Starting up windows 10 an starting up Ableton DAW taking in consideration that i already shutdown on the HDD Windows Indexing. The speed increase is like HDD after 15 minutes Windows runs more ore less smooth starting up Ableton an loading project/workflow with around 12 channels an corresponding automated filters another 15 minutes so total 30 minutes for more or less acepteble speed with still some lag in workflow. With the new 2TB SSD starting up windows <1 minute ( depending on updates) starting up now including Windows Indexing same Ableton Project 20 seconds. Taking in account working with the old 1TB HDD it was for 90% full the 2TB SSD only 45% occupied now.
 
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ejr said:
If I go with the default SSD and replace it with one that has a larger capacity, how do I swap out the original and not lose the Windows 11 Pro install that I will overwrite with Win 11 LTSC? Do just stick it in another SSD slot (if there is one) and clone the drive, then swap them out?
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Yep. I use disk genius for tasks like that. It's free, and works well. It will also resize partitions, if you want to just make your C: drive bigger. Or you can create separate partitions.
 
respice finem said:
The 9500 should cope - but, you might run into the Windows 11 compatibility issues
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Shouldn't be a problem. 8th gen intel and newer is compatible with windows 11. Especially a Dell workstation. I have the previous generation dell precision SFF, and no probolems.
 
Not now... I got an Intel i5-8600k in one of my PCs, officially compatible (yet). We all know MS...
 
respice finem said:
Not now... I got an Intel i5-8600k in one of my PCs, officially compatible (yet). We all know MS...
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It was the TPM requirement that barred a lot of otherwise compatible CPU's, but that's no problem with a Dell workstation.
 
Maybe I'll upgrade the Windows 10 machine (with the i5) to Windows 10 LTSC and the new one to Windows 11 LTSC, to be safe then.
 
Makes sense, at least if you want to keep the machine online. I would clone the system SSD first, in case the in-place upgrade should fail.
 
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ejr said:
If I go with the default SSD and replace it with one that has a larger capacity, how do I swap out the original and not lose the Windows 11 Pro install that I will overwrite with Win 11 LTSC? Do just stick it in another SSD slot (if there is one) and clone the drive, then swap them out?
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Regarding the windows 11 pro license, that will be tied to the hardware in the computer, so if you decide to use Win 11 pro, you just have to install it again, and it will activate automatically. That license is tied to the computer, and can not be used elsewhere.
 
ejr said:
Maybe I'll upgrade the Windows 10 machine (with the i5) to Windows 10 LTSC and the new one to Windows 11 LTSC, to be safe then.
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You cannot upgrade an existing install to LTSC. You must make a fresh install. Also your license key will not be valid for LTSC. Typically these are only given out as part of volume licences. LTSC is not sold retail. I see some LTSC keys available for buying but I don't know how legal that is.
 
Thanks, I didn't know that
 
Frankly, I see no reason that both machines shouldn't be using windows 11. The older machine is absolutely compatible. And it's still free to upgrade from windows 10 to 11.
 
digitalfrost said:
You cannot upgrade an existing install to LTSC. You must make a fresh install. Also your license key will not be valid for LTSC. Typically these are only given out as part of volume licences. LTSC is not sold retail. I see some LTSC keys available for buying but I don't know how legal that is.
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Yep. Mostly this kind of "fighting the system" is impractical.
 
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