Planning to buy a new computer

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  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert

    @djadidai

    16 gig ram on a M1 is roughly 64 gig ram on a windows.

    I know that M1 has a fast memory swapping to SSD. But it does not mean it is good practice to massively swap to soldered SSD that cannot be replaced.....

    And Massive, Light Series and so are not that memory heavy, they are CPU heavy. So, what you speake about is CPU use not RAM.

    @Shadaab Kadri

    I don't think Maschine utilizes multi-core processors if I am not mistaken? So single-core performance is paramount. Anyway, I don't think I want to get a windows laptop. I'm planning to get a 1TB SSD inbuilt and I am going to use this laptop only for music production so I should be good. I can get small ssds later if I need more space.

    Maschine standalone uses all physical cores. It uses logical cores in strange way. Generally spreads load between physical and logical cores, but CPU use is 50% at most.

    Maybe if Maschine run as vst it is singlethread. Not sure.

    Concerning SSD size. Year ago, it seemed to me 1 TB is much more than I need. When K13U CE came, it has become too small. Now I have 2 x 1 TB SSDs, one already almost full of NI content and second filling. I am about to buy two 2 TB HDDs for content that is not used frequently.

    I use that PC just for creating music, no oher disk intensive areas like video, photographs, hires audio music, ...

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,302 Expert

    @Shadaab Kadri have you used Mac computers before?

    If not, be prepared to run into unexpected compatibility issues, especially with older hard- and software, which may cost you either lots of time or lots of money or both.

    If money is an issue, I’d recommend to stick with your current platform and/or to buy used gear.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert

    Good point. There should be M2 soon, so there might be M1 ones to buy secondhand....

  • djadidai
    djadidai Member Posts: 389 Pro

    It’s a beast. I use logic and its plugins, rest of my softwares are from NI, and honestly I haven’t had much of a gear/plug-in chase in my life, logics and ableton (rarely use it tho) are superbe, no need for me at least for a million different third party stuff. Logic and NI stuff is what I use and have no issues. Beast.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert
    edited March 2022

    Yes, I have AMD Ryzen 7 5700G based miniPC and it is a beast. Small, silent, expandable, powerfull and not expensive.

    ASRock > DeskMini X300 Series

    =

  • Shadaab Kadri
    Shadaab Kadri Member Posts: 24 Member

    Great points. Thank you! I didn't know about the logical cores stuff.

    I just came back from a live performance where we had a sound-check around 10-11 am in summer in India so really extreme temperatures. Around 35 degrees so that is around 95 Fahrenheit. I am not even exaggerating but every person that was using a mac had issues with their computer crashing or refusing to work because of the high temperatures. My 8-year-old Asus ROG G551 stood the test and worked through the entire check and performance. Minor glitches once or twice but that was because during the performance the sun was directly on the gear. Have attached a photo for context.

    After this experience yesterday, I might actually reconsider buying a MacBook. Will give it more thought.

  • Shadaab Kadri
    Shadaab Kadri Member Posts: 24 Member

    I was just telling @Kubrak about my experience performing live yesterday. I'll put it here for your convenience.

    I just came back from a live performance where we had a sound-check around 10-11 am in summer in India so really extreme temperatures. Around 35 degrees so that is around 95 Fahrenheit. I am not even exaggerating but every person that was using a mac had issues with their computer crashing or refusing to work because of the high temperatures. My 8-year-old Asus ROG G551 stood the test and worked through the entire check and performance. Minor glitches once or twice but that was because during the performance the sun was directly on the gear. Have attached a photo for context.

    After this experience yesterday, I might actually reconsider buying a MacBook. Will give it more thought.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert

    Interesting experience. There is so many aspects to take in consideration.....

  • Shadaab Kadri
    Shadaab Kadri Member Posts: 24 Member

    Absolutely @Kubrak I had not even considered this and experienced this yesterday and remembered a sound engineer friend who had told me the same thing a couple of years ago but I didn't take him seriously.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert
    edited March 2022

    @Shadaab Kadri

    I cannot help with Macs, I have no experience. And I am not the fan of Apple. It seems to me overpriced for what it brings. Still, I understand that for people who start with computers it might be easier than Win. And that there is the whole ecosystem. Or tat someone is forced to use Mac because of SW he needs to use or needs of clients... Also Apple products have nice design and good quality build (in most cases). And also inovative approaches.....

    In your case, if you are used to Win and have no experience with Mac, I would stay on Win. At least until all SW you use runs natively on Apple Sililicon. And keep in mind that Reaktor might take pretty long. By pretty long I mean years not months.... And several NI products are based on Reaktor....

    And do not get fooled by Apple's propaganda. They use comparisons that are very misleading. And some of them are close to lie. They compare current product with almost legacy one. Or use only very specific tests, that favor M1 strongly. And mostly compare to Intel and not AMD.

    If you can wait with purchase little longer, I would have a look at AMD Zen3+ (6th gen - Rembrandt) or wait for comming soon Zen4. AMDs are a bit weaker in singlethread than Intel or M1, but Intel gains high singlethread score because of boosting CPU to heaven and so being exponentially power hungry. That is more heat needs to be dissipated... If cooling may be issue and batterylife matters intels (10-12th gen, or so) may not be the best choise.

  • winihh
    winihh Member Posts: 22 Member

    I am using M1 Macbook Pro 64GB ... it runs with Ableton Live, Maschine (as a plugin), Midi Guitar (Software Audio to Midi), Focusrite Scarlett (Audio In and Out), Arturia Keystep 37, M-Audio Masterkeyboard, Midi-Footswitch (Blackstar), Ableton Push, Novation Bass Station (Audio & Midi) .... we are two, playing this altogether... 3 USB-C to USB Ports equals 7 USB at the computer... power supply via USB where possible... There was no error till now... and we do sessions without saving our work for quite a time ;-) We even forgot to plugin the power supply one time and did a session auf 2,5 hours... could have been longer... No fan till now.

    Midi-Out from Maschine does not work at the moment (... well, I did not manage to do this... but there will be an update!) ... no problems at all with Maschine stand alone.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert

    Great! Just one must not look at the pricetag.

  • Shadaab Kadri
    Shadaab Kadri Member Posts: 24 Member

    @winihh 64GB so that is the M1 max chip I am assuming? With the price tag that the laptop comes with, you should never have issues. :)

  • winihh
    winihh Member Posts: 22 Member

    I use this Laptop very many hours in a day... ;-) First for office/programming/graphics later in the day for some music... So it's about only 3,50 EUR a day if you use it for four years... makes a very good invest. And yes... it is the Max-Version. I can recommend it. Everyone I know in music or graphics, film or music is going towards M1, preferring the Max...

    Anyhow... it depends on the upcoming update wether it is still a good invest concerning Maschine ;-) ... we will see hopefully this week or so.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 2,968 mod

    Hello,

    i would build a computer myself, a perfect basis is a MSI X570 Gaming Pro Carbon, an Ryzen 7 5800x, m.2 ssd + sata ssd´s, 32 gigs of ram and so on.

    Uwe

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