Realistic PC specs for Maschine in 2022.

Krog

Hi all,

First off, apologies for this post which is probably similar to a lot of previous posts on this subject matter.

However, I am looking to find out what the realistic specs for a PC are to run Maschine smoothly in 2022.

I ask this question based on the fact that I do not have unlimited funds to build an uber-audio PC and NI's own description of a spec, "intel core i5", is somewhat ambiguous and not helpful in the slightest.

I currently have a core i7 but it is only a dual core 7th gen chip and I have to be very careful in terms of what I try to get Maschine to do. For example, I can generally only have a single Play Series instrument running and any attempt to add additional instruments (even without effects) causes my CPU to max out and the audio starts to glitch.

So, I'm not asking for a simple list of what people are using but more a description of what should be realistically expected to provide a suitable platform for running Maschine without having to constantly worry about audio glitches.

Just from my observations of my current set up, I'm thinking that the CPU is probably the most important aspect of the set up as that seems to be the bottleneck for me.

Anyway, thanks for any replies 😉

Cheers,

Krog.

Dstep ATL

Have you considered an M1 Mac mini? Can be had with good specs for $1000 or so, so pretty cheap, and you don’t have to worry so much about what type of i7, what type of this or that, it’ll just work. You may even find a refurb. I’d just make sure it was 16 gigs of ram.

I apologize if this isn’t helpful.

kb420

If you are going with a pc, a 12600k or better should have plenty of power to run Maschine without any issues. It's really just about how much money you want to put in to your pc.

D-One

@Krog said:

I ask this question based on the fact that I do not have unlimited funds to build an uber-audio PC and NI's own description of a spec, "intel core i5", is somewhat ambiguous and not helpful in the slightest.

Correct, "an i5" doesn't mean anything at all today, it's mostly Intel's fault tho, they are the ones who keep changing what their names represent and make things confusing especially for the non techy audience, it makes it hard for companies to recommend computers.

There are 2-core i5's from 2011 and 14-core i5's from today, the former would be trash in Maschine and the latter would be great.

If you want help picking a computer state the following:

What's your budget? Desktop or laptop? Do you use your computer for other stuff?

For desktops, you can usually reuse many parts like Power Supply, Case, SSD's, etc so upgrading can be much cheaper.

Krog

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/37723#Comment_37723

Hi Dstep ATL,

Many thanks for your reply.

I have previously used Macs but around 7 years ago when my MacBook Pro was beginning to get a little long in the tooth, the price of a replacement put me off and I ended up getting an equivalent 'spec' Windows PC for about a third of the price!

That PC is still going strong apart from it now struggling with Maschine duties 😉

I'm not sure I that I really want to be pulled back into the Apple universe to be honest, even though I am sure that they are probably the better answer for my audio woes 🤔

Thanks for the advice/suggestion though 👍️

Krog

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/37744#Comment_37744

Hi kb420,

That suggestion might explain why my 7500U is struggling then 😁

Thanks for taking the time to reply 👍️

Krog

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/37748#Comment_37748

Hi D-One,

Like others who have responded, you also seem to be confirming that the CPU is key and that NI's quoted specification for Maschine is pretty useless 👎️

I guess it's now a case of sitting down and taking into consideration the overall spec vs. cost calculations to get the best bang for buck 🤔

Thanks for taking the time to reply 👍️

kb420

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/37766#Comment_37766

Yeah. It looks like you are overdue for a new pc. A 7500U is only 2 cores. I think that 4 cores should be a minimum nowadays. I suggested the 12600k as a budget option. I would seriously suggest getting the best cpu that you can afford at this time just so that your build is somewhat future proof.

Isotoxin

I'd recommend to check the Intel's ark website for a cpu you will find. You will find there the core count, release date of a cpu and release price. This is enough to wrap the head if the cpu is weak (100€, 2 core cpu ) or beefy.

Kubrak

@Krog

I would avoid latest Intels 12th and 13th gen. Big.little can make problems to applications not aware of this new thing. Also OS sheduler of Win10 cannot allocate threads correctly to big.little cores, Win11 works more or less OK.

AMD 5th gen or new 7th gen is IMHO way better than Intels.... But if choosing 7th gen AMD CPU, take those with Zen4 cores, AMD makes 7gen also using Zen3, and even Zen2 cores....

Besides CPU, also amount of RAM and speed of disc is important. I started with 8 GB of RAM, it was OK for some time, but when I started using big Kontakt Libraries, I had to upgrade to 16 GB. And even that was not enought.... I have 64 GB, now. 32 GB would do, but I wanted to have suffitiently even in few years.

At start I had HDD, loading times were very looong. I upgraded to fast SATA SSD, it was much better. Now I have NVMe SSD and loading times are much shorter than from SATA SSD.

I do not know whether you want desktop or notebook.

I assembled this desktop year ago, it was around 1 000 EUR, it might be cheaper now.

ASRock DeskMini X300 - barebone mini PC (15x15x8 cm) - sort of compromise between desktop and notebook

AMD APU 5700G - 8C/16T @ 4+GHz

2x32 GB RAM, 2x NVMe 1TB SSD (would be better 500 MB and 2 TB), Noctua lowprofile cooler

The only weakpoint is that it has no firewire and one cannot add it.

-------------

Hardware needed greatly depends on what music you make. For large Cinematic Kontak Libraries one needs lot of RAM and as fast SSD as possible. For advanced efects and many Reaktor ensembles made by users one also needs CPU.

I can make light projects and sketches on 10th gen i5 (4C/8T @ 2.5 GHz), 16 GB RAM and NVMe SSD.