As title, I've been asked to spec a pc for general, all purpose work in a radio station (local), and I'm kinda stumped between these two choices. I've got everything else sorted (32gb DDR5, decent gpu for up to 3 monitors, tons of M.2 drive storage space, etc) just the cpu choice is left, so....all opinions welcome, budget not too important but value for money is and second hand/used is certainly a consideration
-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
for general radio/ studio work, whats better, ryzen 7/9 or intel i7/i9?
- Thread starter pieman109
- Start date
The computer I built for my dad based on a AMD 7600 / 32GB RAM with 1TB storage has had no issues with any of the music stuff he does on it while mainly using Reaper with multiple plugins/effects/recordings etc and the latency is very good.
I know its not the same workflow that you may be using for and this system is abit overkill ( I wanted the system to last a long time) though it seems your starting from a good point the only thing I've found with DDR5 systems is the cost of the motherboards can be quite high for anything thats above the basic motherboards.
I know its not the same workflow that you may be using for and this system is abit overkill ( I wanted the system to last a long time) though it seems your starting from a good point the only thing I've found with DDR5 systems is the cost of the motherboards can be quite high for anything thats above the basic motherboards.
Last edited:
One aspect I've looked at is this pc will go into a server rack, now I had a 12700f that ran at 25c ish idle in my own pc while under a 240 aio. I've since side graded to amd and got a Ryzen 7600x and that idles at 37c, now the difference in these temps could be used to influence the cpu choice, maybe, plus I had the 12700 for nearly 4 years and it never played up at in that time which says summat to me for reliability, though I'd expect the same from any AMD cpu I'd use. I must admit, I'm leaning towards the intel choice here as its a known quantity to, whereas the AMD is a bit of an unknown.
12th gen is fine, but 13th-14th gen are potentially dodgy, so wouldn't pick any of those for reliability. Core Ultra (15th gen) is fine, so far as we know.
The latest AMD (9000) are supposed to have had some improvements in their thermal design, but realistically, I'd think what matters in the rack is whether the CPUs can be adequately cooled, not just the temps. The Ryzen CPUs use less power than 13th-14th gen i7/i9 (link to review of the 9700X), so overall they would be more manageable with limited cooling/airflow. The Core Ultra CPUs are also better on power than the 13th-14th gen.
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 Sep 2010
- Posts
- 2,562
If it's just for 'radio station' use, I'd be very surprised if it was demanding - unless that also includes photoshop/video editing.
If you wanted to keep it very budget orientated, a 2nd hand 3700x would probably be massive overkill, but as you said you already had DDR5 for it I'd be looking at a 7600 (or 7500f + cheap GPU...edit - nm, you said you got that already too!) or something like a 12400
www.overclockers.co.uk
If you want to go higher end, then I've recently seen that E cores on intel seem to scale well with DAW/VST use, more so than x3d does (I can't link the benchmark I found as it's on a competitor resellers website)
1st gen Ryzen had some latency issues for audio, but haven't had issues personally with 3/5k AM4... my dad is pretty into audio and swears blind that 8th gen low power (8400t) intel or Xeon or 1650 V2/3 is plenty (!) so realistically could build or buy a whole PC for £1-200 that would be enough.... if it's going in a rack then you can get a dell poweredge R320 1U server for under £100 with an E5 2430 (not that I'd recommend a 10 year old recon server for anything critical! - and also not suitable for a noise sensitive environment)
If you wanted to keep it very budget orientated, a 2nd hand 3700x would probably be massive overkill, but as you said you already had DDR5 for it I'd be looking at a 7600 (or 7500f + cheap GPU...edit - nm, you said you got that already too!) or something like a 12400
Intel Core i5-12400 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail
Order Intel Core i5-12400 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk
If you want to go higher end, then I've recently seen that E cores on intel seem to scale well with DAW/VST use, more so than x3d does (I can't link the benchmark I found as it's on a competitor resellers website)
1st gen Ryzen had some latency issues for audio, but haven't had issues personally with 3/5k AM4... my dad is pretty into audio and swears blind that 8th gen low power (8400t) intel or Xeon or 1650 V2/3 is plenty (!) so realistically could build or buy a whole PC for £1-200 that would be enough.... if it's going in a rack then you can get a dell poweredge R320 1U server for under £100 with an E5 2430 (not that I'd recommend a 10 year old recon server for anything critical! - and also not suitable for a noise sensitive environment)
Last edited:
some interesting opinions here, keep them coming please though I will say that an i7 12700, 32gb ddr5, suitable but not top end mobo, and a bucket load of M.2 storage. Gpu I reckon can be fairly low end but (cheap) so long as its current and supports 3 monitors, what do people here think?
It’s difficult to say without knowing roughly what level of processing performance you need and what sort money you’re looking to spend. For running three monitors literally anything with three outputs should work.
What chassis are you fitting this in? As this could pre dictate some choices for you.
What chassis are you fitting this in? As this could pre dictate some choices for you.
Something I always say in this respect is that tests like this use synthetic loads and often benchmark a CPU intensive part of an application i.e. applying a filter, which may not represent the normal profile of every day use, Intel CPUs tend to be more power efficient and less heat in low to medium CPU utilisation workloads partly due to being able to leverage the E cores, while AMD CPUs tend to be more efficient under sustained medium to high workloads.
As OP has some component already, and availability for desktop platforms is limited, probably not the most useful here but for these kind of applications mini PCs built around the Ryzen 9 7940HS (or later models) can be quite good - 8 cores / 16 threads with a good blend of performance and power use.
Last edited:
I'd reckon a radio station would do fine with a good midrange CPU. You should avoid "f" CPUs, unless they have dedicated a dedicated graphics card. The "f" indicates a lack of an onboard graphics chip. They won't be able to get a video out without a dGPU if you get one of those. As far as reliability goes - AMD are as reliable as Intel, you don't really have to worry. AMD are generally more power efficient nowadays, and vastly favored for gaming, though for productivity things are a little less clear cut. You should also consider the price of the motherboard when making your decision. Intel generally only uses their motherboards for a small while, maybe even a single generation, whileas AMD uses the same sockets for several generations. Because of this, you can use an older chipset to power a more recent CPU, so long as you update the motherboard BIOS (make sure it has BIOS flashback if you go this route).
A 7600 or the like should be sufficient in my books. Of course, more is always better, but since you're looking for value I'm avoiding suggesting the obvious 9950X, which is the current productivity powerhouse.
A 7600 or the like should be sufficient in my books. Of course, more is always better, but since you're looking for value I'm avoiding suggesting the obvious 9950X, which is the current productivity powerhouse.
I was thinking about the overall power envelope when placed in a rack. The 9700X (at stock) has a low(er) top consumption (TPU had it at 80 watts in Blender). Without knowing more about the cooling is hard to say how much that matters.
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 Sep 2010
- Posts
- 2,562
We really need to know the software requirements to make any meaningful recomendation... as per my previous post, I have played about with some audio stuff and my dad does too (a lot more than I do), it really depends on the amount off tracks/effects they need. The benchmarks I mentioned that I can't link were for a VERY heavy use case, I've never felt limited realistically since 2nd gen i5 (2500k) or third gen ryzen (3700x - bearing in mind the aforementioned latency issues: was a bit of an issue with first gen and I never owned a 2nd gen chip).
I'm fairly confident that if budget is an issue, a used USFF mini PC will be more than enough, but if they want to buy new, then an AM4 AMD or 12th gen intel system will smash it!
Ok, got a list of software used here:
Playout pc for automation it's station playlist and station studio, on the second pc its playout one by Air, also Adobe for audio editing, and both have dropbox as well. The request is now for 2 computers btw.
Playout pc for automation it's station playlist and station studio, on the second pc its playout one by Air, also Adobe for audio editing, and both have dropbox as well. The request is now for 2 computers btw.
I did a lot of Dj'ing online through the pandemic, used AM4 platform '5700X/X470/32GB RAM' with my 3060Ti. Running a 4 deck Numark Dj Controller with Serato Dj Pro while using 'butt' to stream out the music.
This was also running my 4x 1080p displays while at the same time I was logged in the virtual world 'Second Life' (which has always been very CPU intensive), playing at most of the clubs there with up to 100 avatars in some of the clubs.
As for performance with the music, never had any issues with music playback, stream quality etc, it always ran great and I never had a single complaint. I could have even streamed to Twitch at the same time but Second Life is actually a banned 'game' on Twitch
I hope this helps you in some way, you really dont need anything higher end for music streaming, 8 core CPU's will smash it.
This was also running my 4x 1080p displays while at the same time I was logged in the virtual world 'Second Life' (which has always been very CPU intensive), playing at most of the clubs there with up to 100 avatars in some of the clubs.
As for performance with the music, never had any issues with music playback, stream quality etc, it always ran great and I never had a single complaint. I could have even streamed to Twitch at the same time but Second Life is actually a banned 'game' on Twitch
I hope this helps you in some way, you really dont need anything higher end for music streaming, 8 core CPU's will smash it.