You may remember: about fifteen days after the start of the lockdown in France for the coronavirus, my PC died. 🙁
So, no more computer to work on Projet Home Studio articles, to prepare the upcoming mixing course, or to compose my music.
I was very afraid of spending several months without a PC — but after a week of researching the components for my future machine, I was able to place an order and assemble the PC the following week.
All’s well that ends well, in short.
However, beyond my article on computers for M.A.O. and mixing (which I need to update), I promised to write something about my new setup.
So here is a video and a detailed article on the subject! 🙂
Processor: Intel Core i7-9700k
Let’s start with the processor, which is indeed the most important brick of the system: a poor choice of processor can put an early end to any musical project…
By default, I am rather convinced by Intel processors — it’s what I’ve always used and it has always worked well for me.
So, I hesitated for a long time between:
- the i5-9600K (6 cores, 3.7 GHz or 4.6 GHz in turbo mode);
- and the i7-9700k (8 cores, 3.6 GHz or 4.9 GHz in turbo mode).
Simply because on my old PC, I was on an i5-3570K which already allowed me to do a lot of things — so I wasn’t sure of the real added value of moving to an i7.
Especially since comparing my old i5 with the new i5, there was a real technological gap in any case.
In the end, I opted for the i7, with a desire to invest for the long term and not to be blocked in terms of performance for a long time.
► See the current price of the i7-9700k: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
Note: note that for those who like technical aspects, there is no longer hyperthreading on the i5 and i7 series since version 9 of Intel processors, which is really unfortunate from a performance perspective for audio.
Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4
The PC I had before was relatively noisy, so one of my main goals with this setup was to achieve the quietest PC possible, without compromising performance.
My choice of CPU cooler was therefore based on this, and I went for one of the most powerful coolers from the be quiet! brand!
I hesitated a bit with Noctua, which are roughly equivalent — but while their design is very nice, it doesn’t match very well with the other components available on the market…
…and besides, the be quiet! are a bit cheaper.
So, I selected the Dark Rock 4, which is really efficient even though oversized as long as I don’t overclock the CPU.
That said, for me, it’s better to have a large cooler capable of cooling the processor quickly and therefore running less often: again, this will help limit noise.
However, an important point if you are building a similar setup: the size of the cooler blocks the first RAM slot, which can be a problem depending on your component choices.
► See the current price of the Dark Rock 4: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI
When it comes to motherboards, I initially thought about getting a simple Asus Z390-A, which in principle is more than enough.
But as always, my needs evolved with each comparison I read, which led me to opt for a much more powerful model (and rather high-end, relatively speaking), namely the Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI.
If we set aside the various LEDs (oh, it’s pretty! :)), here are a few criteria on which I chose this motherboard:
- 12-phase digital VRM, largely unnecessary as long as I don’t overclock the processor, but probably useful in the future;
- nice connectivity, including four USB 2.0 ports, three USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 3.1 ports at the back;
- marketing aside (“Hi-Fi audio capacitors WIMA FKP2” which are actually worse than WIMA MKP…), a pretty decent audio circuit;
- integrated wifi & bluetooth;
- and optionally, the fact that Thunderbolt can be accessible via an additional card to be plugged in on top.
In the end, the board is really nice although the BIOS is a bit complex — and then there are lights :P!
► See the current price of the Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16 XMP
Let’s move on to the RAM.
I generally use very few sample libraries like Kontakt, so I hesitated a lot between getting 16 or 32 GB of RAM.
On my previous PC, 16 GB was more than enough for 95% of situations.
However, for this new setup, I absolutely wanted to get 2 sticks: in terms of performance, it’s better to have 2×8 GB (on two slots, that is) than 1×16 GB on one slot.
But buying 8GB sticks didn’t seem like a very relevant choice to me in the long term.
So I went ahead and selected two 16 GB sticks in DDR4 of course, clocked at 3200 MHz, which is already very performant (don’t forget to enable the XMP option in the BIOS, otherwise your sticks will be limited to 2333 MHz).
► See the current price of the Corsair Vengeance LPX: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380X Nitro 4GB
For the graphics card, I chose to save money and reused the one I was using on my old PC, which still works perfectly.
Sure, it’s now a bit light for gaming, but for everything audio and Photoshop, it’s more than sufficient.
Well, it’s clearly the bottleneck of this new setup, but I will undoubtedly replace it in the near future.
Not much more to say about this choice that isn’t really a choice. 🙂
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 1 To
I took advantage of this unexpected PC change to switch to an SSD, something I had wanted to do for a long time.
I therefore got a Samsung EVO of 1 To, which I partitioned once my operating system was installed.
Note: be careful not to confuse Samsung SSDs: the EVO series is significantly superior to the QVO series, which is generally less reliable.
I also mounted one of my two hard drives, an old Hitachi 1 To at 7200 rpm. The second one is currently on my desk — I’m still hesitating to mount it as I don’t quite need it anymore.
► See the current price of the 860 EVO 1 To: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
PSU: Corsair RM650x V2 80PLUS Gold
When it comes to power supplies, it’s always safer to have a slightly oversized PSU rather than the opposite.
Using the OuterVision calculator, I decided to get a 650-watt modular PSU, namely the RM650x from Corsair, which had very good reviews.
Again, however, beyond the obvious criteria of energy consumption, I paid attention to noise: on the RM650x, the fan only activates when necessary, which helps to limit the overall noise level.
As a little anecdote: stocks on Amazon were already depleted due to the lockdown at the time I placed the order, so I got the model with a UK plug and replaced the power cable with the one from my old PC.
► See the current price of the RM650x: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
Case: Fractal Design Define C Black TG
Last element of the config but not the least important, the case.
This is probably what took me the most time to choose.
First, there was the design aspect. I wanted something understated and definitely not gamer-oriented, but with a tempered glass panel if possible — because I do like the idea of seeing what’s inside.
Then, there was the temperature, airflow, and noise aspect.
And there, I fell into an absolutely thorny choice: either the case was well insulated, but then the internal temperature risked rising too much (typically, on be quiet! cases) — or conversely, the temperatures were very good but at the expense of a poorly insulated and therefore noisy case.
I also discovered an excellent site with very interesting noise and temperature comparisons: GamersNexus.
Here’s a very interesting video (in English) comparing the noise of a well-insulated case (but which consequently heats up more) with the noise of a case with significant airflow:
After spending about ten hours watching videos on case temperatures and building a comparison Excel sheet (as much as the technical aspect interests me, this aspect far exceeded my interest in the subject…), I decided to go with the Define C case from Fractal Design, which checked almost all the boxes.
And I made the right choice: the assembly was very easy, and the pre-installed fans are quite silent (even though I will eventually replace them with be quiet!).
► See the current price of the Define C: Amazon — LDLC — Materiel.net
Assembly
I assembled the entire PC on Easter Monday.
This was the first time I assembled the PC myself, so naturally there was a bit (a lot?) of stress — especially regarding the positioning of the processor, the application of thermal paste, and the mounting of the heatsink on top.
I took the time to read and reread the various manuals before performing each action.
In the end, everything went well even though it took me the whole afternoon.
I actually think I made a good choice regarding the case, which is really ideal for the famous “cable management” — which does make assembly easier.
The only small problem in the end: two hours wasted because there was no image during the first boot, as one power cable was incorrectly connected.
In short, I was happy when I was able to close the case and everything worked: stress was over… 😉
Finally, the performance
Some of you, particularly on my Facebook page, have asked for benchmarks of my new setup.
However, most usual benchmarks are rather gaming-oriented, so I thought it wouldn’t be entirely relevant to include them here.
Nevertheless, I still ran the benchmarking tool from UserBenchMark.com, which is free and I find quite interesting because it compares the setup with those of other users of the tool.
The result was in line with my expectations: Powerful PC, but limited for gaming due to the graphics card.
For more info, here is the complete link to my benchmark: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/27155326
In terms of temperatures, the processor is running around 31 °C in almost idle at the time I’m writing this article, so about +13 °C compared to the ambient temperature.
In “stress test” mode (CPU at 100%) via the CPU-Z utility, we reach about 60°C, which is more than acceptable. We’ll see in the future with overclocking:
In conclusion
There you go, you know everything about my new setup! 🙂
Building my PC myself was a way to save a bit of money (which I could invest in better components), but also to realize that it was much less difficult to do than I initially thought.
I also took the opportunity to update myself on certain components, which will allow me to soon update my article on computers for music production.
Of course, feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer!
