i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[JCBigler]

Hey guys,

I want to add a second SSD to my laptop. Looking at the Western Digital Blue and the Crucial MX300. Both in 1TB and either 2.5" SATA or the m.2 2880 form factors.

I've got an open m.2/NVMe slot (total of two, my system drive in one now), and an open 2.5" SATA slot in my laptop.

I can't afford the 512GB Samgsung 960 Pro NVMe SSD that I want to eventually put into the second m.2/NVMe slot to use as a record only drive. So, this 1TB SSD by WD or Crucial would fill that duty until I can afford the Samsung.

Both the WD and Crucial drives are within $10 of each other. Which one would you get?

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

Hey guys,

I want to add a second SSD to my laptop. Looking at the Western Digital Blue and the Crucial MX300. Both in 1TB and either 2.5" SATA or the m.2 2880 form factors.

I've got an open m.2/NVMe slot (total of two, my system drive in one now), and an open 2.5" SATA slot in my laptop.

I can't afford the 512GB Samgsung 960 Pro NVMe SSD that I want to eventually put into the second m.2/NVMe slot to use as a record only drive. So, this 1TB SSD by WD or Crucial would fill that duty until I can afford the Samsung.

Both the WD and Crucial drives are within $10 of each other. Which one would you get?

Crucial. I have used them on some of random systems around the house that I want cheap drives for and they have been fine.

Honestly, The gained bandwidth from an HHD to an SSD is plenty. In my M.2 benchmarking tests for Pro Tools and such, we never get near those bandwidth limits with audio.

[JCBigler]

Would you get the m.2 form factor or the standard 2.5" SATA form for the SSD? I've got an open slot of each in my laptop. Eventually going to fill all of them, just trying to decide which to get first.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

Would you get the m.2 form factor or the standard 2.5" SATA form for the SSD? I've got an open slot of each in my laptop. Eventually going to fill all of them, just trying to decide which to get first.

Probably SSD. Their prices have been level. The M.2 will likely continue to go down some. I picked up a couple Intel M.2's recently on sale really cheap. They are smaller capacity though. Leads me to believe they are clearing them out. Seems like Samsung has stopped production on the 120GB 850's as well making the 256GB the smallest. I think we may be in the midst of some shifting around.

[soundmaster]

Hey,
just to let you know. I´m testing my new build, mainly for video production. Installed PT 9HD software just for the fun of it. Specs:
Windows 10 Pro, i7 7700k w. beQuiet BlackRock, MSI 270 Gaming Pro, Palit GTX 1080 OC 8GB, 16 GB Gskill DDR4, Firewire EX-16145 with M-Audio 1814 latest driver.
No tweeks, just after plain install of all components 500 Dverbs @ 50 track (10 each) recording with no clicks and running smooth with 7 cores @ 99%.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by soundmaster

Specs:
Windows 10 Pro, i7 7700k w. beQuiet BlackRock, MSI 270 Gaming Pro, Palit GTX 1080 OC 8GB, 16 GB Gskill DDR4, Firewire EX-16145 with M-Audio 1814 latest driver.

what motherboard?

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by YYR123

what motherboard?

That would be the "MSI 270 Gaming Pro".

[YYR123]

Cool, I didn't recognize half of those parts...

[mossy]

hi all...so its that time of the decade

im moving from MacMini i7 quad 16ram Pt12.6

RME ufx (ver1)

it will be for PT12 Vanilla

im looking at:
Motherboard MSI Z270-A PRO
CPU Intel Core i7-7700K
Memories Gskill 4x8Go DDR4-3000
SSD PNY 960Go ( operating system )
Graphic cards Nvidia GTX 1080 GDDR5 8Go OC GAMING X
PSU Fanless Seasonic 520W modular

SSD 512 - for audio ( not sure which yet )

Win10 pro

i really want to be able to work (mix) at 24/96k...

am i mad...or can i expect that the above spec to handle 24/96k * 24trks high latency (just mixing). i can use the RME total mix for tracking if needed.

had the dual cpu beast from here long ago..and it was great but the noise and elec cost was large....so the low TDP is something im looking at.

perfare something thats somewhat future proof (5-6 years)

thanks all, M

[Simon2065]

Hi I am building a new PC for Pro Tools 12.x and UAD Apollo Thunderbolt. I am not sure if I should go for a X99 systems with a 6800K processor or a Z270 with 7700K. I need to get onboard thunderbolt 3 for Apollo and so are looking at the Gigabyte boards that have this (officially supported by UAD).

GA-Z270X-UD5 and GA-Z270X-Gaming7 fore the Z270 and
Gigabyte GA-X99-Designare EX for X99 etc

Will the X99/6800K or Z270/7700K be better for Pro Tools? Can Pro Tools use the additional cores/threads and memory available with the X99/6800K?
If so will the performance be a bit better or much better. I have read that for gaming the Z270/7700K will be better because the games are not multi treaded and clock speed is higher than 6800K. I do not game so my only interest is music production.
What about Pro Tools stability on the 2 platforms. Are they much the same or more issues on one? Price is not really an issue as the difference in price is not that great.

Pro Tools PC builds www.pro-tools-pc.com seem to indicate that the 6 core 6800K is a step up from from the 7700K.

Any help here would be appreciated.