1 Topic by CaptThorpe (edited by CaptThorpe 2017-08-23 17:38:07)

  • Registered: 2017-08-03
  • Posts: 3

Topic: Single DAW with lots of RAM – i7-7820X or Xeon Gold 6144?

I want to have a new system built within the next 6 weeks or so.

It will be a one-machine solution running Cubase 9 and VEP 6 on the same machine. I specifically don’t want to use multiple machines, because I want my rig to be somewhat mobile. However, I plan to create very large templates and want to load as many instruments as I possibly can into VEP 6. I just love not having to load instruments when writing and playing.

I don’t run many heavy effect plugins and synths, so this will mostly be lots and lots of Kontakt instruments streaming from VEP 6. I will use the same algorithmic reverb for all instruments using sends to effect channels in Cubase, and will disable any reverbs built into Kontakt instruments. However, low latencies are a must.

This leads me to a bit of a dilemma: I need high clock speed for realtime audio processing and to keep my latency low, but the high clock speed CPU’s only take 64 or 128 GB of RAM, which will not be enough for loading these big templates.
And so I am also looking at the new Xeon CPUs, which can access 256 GB of RAM or more and will allow me to create these big templates, but could potentially be a bottleneck for realtime audio processing.

So right now I’m looking at these CPUs:

Core i7-7820X → 8-core, 3.6 GHz base, 4.3/4.5 GHz turbo, 11 MB cache, max 128 GB RAM

Vs.

Single Xeon Gold 6144 → 8-core, 3.5 GHz base, 4.2 GHz turbo, 24.75 MB cache, 256 GB RAM or more


I guess my main questions would be:

Will the Xeon 6144 provide me with sufficient clock speed for low-latency realtime audio processing and will it be able to handle 256 GB of RAM or more or will it run out of CPU horsepower before I can even load 256 GB worth of Kontakt instruments into RAM?

Would love to hear your thought on this.

Thanks!

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2017-08-23 20:04:05)

  • ramses
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Re: Single DAW with lots of RAM – i7-7820X or Xeon Gold 6144?

1st of all my personal preference is to use quality systems, i.e. based on Supermicro board and Xeons with ECC RAM.

Core i7-7820X offers surely a nice performance for the money but doesnt support ECC RAM.
But especially ECC RAM gives systems more stability, as single errors can be detected and corrected
which is good for stability and data integrity.

In regards to Xeon 6144, surely a nice, but very expensive CPU.
I wouldn't build a system on my own based on this expensive CPU, when the CPU alone costs already €2960.
If you damage something by accident then it becomes a very expensive experience compared to a CPU
in the range under €1000 where I would personally take the risk.

If you plan for such a high performance "Cubase / VEP monster", which only makes sense if you are
a professional studio, then I would contact people who have the experience with such systems
and know which hardware / driver combination performs best, what BIOS settings to use etc.
They make also thorough tests to ensure quality.
Its definitively not cheap, but worth the money if we talk about a system of this price tag.

Look, Xi-machines i.e. offers machines which are optimized for Audio and which also have a VEP certification:
http://xi-machines.com/de/einsatzgebiete-audio_o.php
Contact them.

I know somebody from a recording forum who has a very performance DUAL CPU Xeon System from them.
When it goes to that price range, then I would buy tested turnkey systems and not play around on "best guess".
Xi has also contacts to the board manufacturers getting special BIOS versions etc ...

Another win is that you get much better support for such a system from people who are in this business for long
and know their HW and have the contacts to the manufacturers of boards etc ...

And .. if you pay this much money then you want to use a stable system "just right now" or otherwise contact support.
And support which also knows about the realtime demands of recording DAWs you do not get ar normal support hotlines.
So at the end you need companies like Xi at that price range.
Or you are not so productive at work and need to fiddle around and test yourself.
Not the best choice if you need to concentrate to drive your business (projects ...).

Also I would check, whether a system consisting of 2 not so expensive CPUs maybe has advantages
over a system with only one very expensive CPU.

Start of Audio systems
http://xi-machines.com/de/einsatzgebiete-audio_o.php

VSL certifiend workstations
http://xi-machines.com/de/systeme-vsl.php

Single CPU systems
http://xi-machines.com/de/systeme-vsl-x2.php

DUAL CPU systems
http://xi-machines.com/de/systeme-vsl-x3.php

X3 Ultra looks very cool
2x Intel® Xeon E5-2687Wv4
The 2 CPUs cost alone €2100 each, together €4200 ...
https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/int … 94762.html

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14