r/cubase • u/Eastern_Lettuce7844 • 9d ago
Buying a windows PC for Cubase + Master-keyboard
I owned a record label in the early ninetees & produced a couple of records (AND ONE , OOMPH!), however I lost interest in the whole business as Napster creeped up, now 34 years later , some of my work seems to enjoy a revival on Tik-Tok, so I thought.... well should I give it another try ? but where to start, ? in the old days we mixed everything by hand, using midi-gear and Analoge Synthesizers. As far as I understand the Keyword nowadays is DAW-stations controlled by a DAW -capable keyboard. Now regarding a windwows PC, what kind of prosessor (intel , AMD ?) and minumum requirements should I invest for a new Music-produktion- based Windows PC. ? (I do own a high-end Graphic-Design PC for Compfyui based rendering but I want a single PC for Music-composing & remixing).
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u/FloopersRetreat 9d ago
Modern music software is practically all optimised for multi-threaded workflow, and fairly low demanding on processor power, so you can get away with any mid-market CPU and it'll last for years. You don't need a good GPU, so get a CPU with graphics built in, and a motherboard which supports that.
What you'll want to maximise is RAM, which unfortunately is in a bit of a price bubble at the moment. It doesn't need to be lightning fast, and you can easily use previous-gen DDR4, but get as much by volume as you can.
Alternatively, Mac Studios and MacBook Pros are perfect for music-making. I'm still using a fairly-well specced M2 MacBook Pro and haven't had any problems at all.
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u/Dull_Flatworm777 9d ago
I loved the Spot album by And One, still have the CD :)
Intel vs AMD is a bit of a religious war - if you look at benchmarks, they both are fine mostly.
The Intel 270K Plus is pretty attractive at the moment, because it's quite a bit cheaper than the AMD flagship CPUs. The AMDs though have a socket (AM5) that is a bit more future proof. This matters when you plan to upgrade the CPU in the future and want to keep the same motherboard. If you don't care about that, Intel is just as good.
As RAM is very expensive at the moment, I probably wouldn't go with. more than 32 GB unless you really need it.
And since you have a dedicated graphics PC, don't install a dedicated GPU, this can save you some potential driver headaches.
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u/Eastern_Lettuce7844 8d ago
thanks for your compliment :-) regarding the current RAM prices, should a system running on the DDR 4 ram line should be ok , ? , well and first I guess I, ll have to send all my "Vintage" synthies to a repair shop, because all these Capacitors have not been running since 2001. (Oberheim Xpanders, MKS 80 )
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u/SoundSwitch 9d ago
I'm running Debian Trixie on an about 10+ y/0 ish Xeon workstation I picked up December '25 striped of all but the proc and ram
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u/themurderman 8d ago
What is your budget?
Don't need to go crazy on a build for music pc.... Although prices for components are through the roof right now
Personally I have always used intel for processor. I'd go i9 but not less than i7
16gb should be sufficient but I have 32gb
Then however much storage you need... Just get some decent ssds
Up until recently I was running cubase 8 on an intel i7, 32gb ddr4 4800mhz, motu ultralite mk3 and it was running everything just fine.
I'm now running cubase 15 on a crazy spec amd pc but it is for gaming too and a lot of the additional horsepower is complete overkill for music alone.
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u/Eastern_Lettuce7844 8d ago
as i understand , nowadays you connect your Master-Midi-keyboard through USB with your DAW software, so what USB spec should a singular Music PC have ? plain USB 2 or USB 3 ?
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u/themurderman 8d ago
On my old PC it was USB 2 and had no issues with keyboards... Even the latest ones.
Had multiple m-audio oxygens and akai mpk mini mk4 with no issues
...also edit. The ram in that old build is actually ddr3 but like I said.. No issues with anything. 😉
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u/pinkyandthegame666 7d ago
my gpu causes emi noise issues. is it because my cpu has no built in graphics? i bought the intel chip without it on purpose cuz it was cheaper. my next computer build should have a chip with it?
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u/thespirit3 9d ago edited 9d ago
And One and Oomph! Wow! I'm not worthy :)
In some ways not much has changed. You'll still find bands with heaps of outboard gear - even if much of the mixing is now done in a DAW. Alternatively, some (myself included) have moved almost entirely in-DAW, happy to see the back of MIDI patch selections, timing glitches, etc - even if we still look back with nostalgia.
As far as PCs go, most modern machines are more than capable, regardless of CPU. A few years back we had issues under Intel due to the big/little hybrid architectures, but I understand those have been mostly (if not entirely?) resolved.
Searching "cubase hybrid cores" will reveal the history.
My current desktop is running an Intel i5-12400F (chosen at the time to specifically avoid the hybrid economy cores) and it hasn't struggled in the slightest. My projects are typically electro, EBM and industrial - so not massively complex, but I have on occasion worked on orchestral scores with ~20 tracks of heavy orchestral VSTs plus respective effects (usually unique to each channel, not a shared bus) - without issues.
A modern CPU, ideally fast NVMe storage for the heavier sound libraries, and whatever 'enough' RAM is nowadays and you'll probably have a very capable system.