Hello everyone!
I'm in the process of building an audio production computer, and I need some help choosing the right hardware for the right amount of money.
So let's say the budget is not an issue at this point, but let's also say I'm not willing to spend like 30k for a pc, like these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_IHSRPVqwQ.
The first question, I answered myself: PC or MAC? And the answer is PC. As it's always been, you can get a cheaper AND faster machine going with the pc option. The only thing I really like, and would get for my pc if I could, is the mac pro rack mountable case that it's currently on the market, because yes, my idea is to get a rack mountable case for my pc. My idea is to be able to put it inside a flight case and be able to carry it around for mobile recording, and the options for rack mountable pc cases are definitely nowhere near the fancy and super organized mac pro case. Anyway, I'm also thinking of building a custom flight case and put all the components directly there, it's an option, it's probably cheaper,cause I'd save on the pc case itself, and it's lighter, and it's probably what I'm going to do. THOUGH IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTION ABOUT THIS TOPIC, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR THOUGHTS!
Enough about the case, let's move on. Next station, CPU.
It's basically down to EPYC or threadripper Pro. AND IT'S HERE that i need some help.
What is the most important thing in an audio production cpu? Clock speed? Number of cores? Number of threads? maximum GB ram support?
The very first job of this pc is going to be the LIVE recording of my band's album. But I'm willing to use it in the same exact way for other bands in the future, plus of course it's going to be my mixing station. For now, it's going to be an 18 tracks recording maximum, cause i only have 18 mic pres right now, but each track is going to have plugins, like eq and/or comp, plus effects, like reverbs and delays, plus some kind of mastering on the stereo bus of each headphone cue (it's 4 of us). So all this, while recording, needs to be monitored by the musicians with the least possible latency!
I have a tascam ML-32D AD/DA converter, which I will run with a dedicated PCI express dante card, probably the focusrite one, if it becomes available again!
But I want to build a pc which I can forget about for quite some years, I don't want to have to upgrade in 3 or 4 years.
So, here where I live, right now, for some reason, I can find the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX for 2.752 euros, and I'm really tempted to go for it, BUT, is it really what I need? Would I be ok with something less powerful? OR should I go with something even more powerful like an EPYC, maybe in a dual configuration! Do I need single-threaded or multi-threded power for the job I just describe above? And also, do you think the 256 gigs of ram limit of the threadripper pro going to be an issue in the (near) future? EPYCs go up to 2TB of ram, while the mac pro can get up to 1,5TB, it's quite a big difference, isn't it?
So yeah, like all my threads, it's a long long one, hope you don't get discouraged by it, feel free to post some ideas on the various topics, especially the cpu one, and what's the most important thing in a audio production pc.
Cheers