Hi everyone
 
Looking at a new build, both for graphic work like Photoshop and Video Editing, as well as running Sonar SPLAT.
 
Here's the specs I'm thinking about:
 
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core
Mobo: MSI B350 TOMAHAWK Socket AM4
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB)DDR4 2133MHz CL13
Video: ASUS 710-2-SL-CSM GeForce GT710 2GB
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition
PSU: Corsair CX-M Series CX550M
 
Boot and system drive: Either my existing ADATA 256 GB SSD or a new Samsung 256 GB M.2 - either way, this will be a boot drive with Windows 10 and all my programs. I will still use my 3 TB SATA hard drive for samples and working sessions. Thoughts on whether the M.2 is worth the expense?
 
(existing) 3 TB hard drive for samples and sessions
 
I don't want to bump up to an i7 or a Ryzen 7, to me it's not worth the extra $$.
 
Will 550 Watt PSU be enough for this? If I upgrade anything, it will likely be a larger hard drive, but that should really be it.
 
Thanks guys!
 
Neel

According to the resident DAW system guru Ryzen isn't the best for audio and latency.  He says its great for gaming and maybe graphics, but not the best for a DAW.  Intel still has the edge for a DAW system.  The Ryzen's are less expensive but maybe you get what you pay for?
 
 

I wouldn't discount AMD yet. Threadripper isn't terrible and how much latency are we talking about anyway. Intel's main disadvantage is cost.
 
On the flipside, the latest Intel i9 X has 18 cores and 36 threads I do believe. Coupled with the other technology it will play a bit part in a studio buying decision. Since we are not gamers, all those stats are pointless however it doesn't mean AMD Threadripper will be bad for music or latency....just not as good. Marketing is a form of brainwashing as well.
 
When it comes down to it, you should base your buying decision on your budget and needs. Forget all these tech magazines and their fruitless synthetic benchmarks.
 
I think this is the first time in years, Intel have had serious competition. Intel are not untouchable as they once were. Don't get me wrong, AMD Threadripper with it's PCI-E lanes is ideal for gamers who want to do Quad-SLI or run enterprise SSD's or SAS. 24 lanes might be enough for a musician running some drives of the SATA bus, some as NVME and if you only have one GPU running at x8 in a slower PCI-E slot. Then the performance shouldn't an issue.
 
My needs are straightforward but expensive. Oh maybe not needs but goals and aims. I can't do what I am trying to achieve with current equipment and knowledge. There's no point thinking otherwise.
 
Anyway that the original posters setup should be OK. Although you may want to consider what other hardware options you will want in the future before just going for just any motherboard.

Yeah I can get down to 1ms with my current (2nd gen) i5 and Focusrite 2i4. If a 5-years newer AMD CPU isn't better than that, I'd be really surprised.
 
The real cause for my upgrade is that my mobo is flakey. I'd replace just that, but Socket 1155 boards are hard to come by, and newer board means newer CPU, newer RAM....might as well just do a whole new build. I'm still re-using my existing hard drive and possibly my SSD.

Ryzen can be a good (DAW) performer...
But, to get the most from Ryzen, you've got to use fast RAM.
 
The initial release of Ryzen X370 motherboards were *super* flaky.

• SMT (Hyperthreading in AMD speak) would literally just disappear.
• If you could get the RAM to run at a speed above 2400MHz, changing a completely unrelated BIOS parameter (disabling onboard audio) would cause the motherboard to no longer post/boot.

Getting one of these early motherboards to run DDR4 at 3200MHz was tough.
Most wouldn't post if the RAM was set above 2666MHz.
I tested all the top motherboards from all the major brands.
The least flaky of all was Gigabyte.  I could get DDR4/3400 to run at 3200MHz.
Even still, once there was a hiccup where I had to literally remove the RAM so the motherboard would post.
A BIOS reset alone was not enough to get things back to normal.
 
Due to the current state of first-gen X370 motherboards, we won't build Ryzen DAWs for clients.
If you're tech savvy, you can deal with the idiosyncrasies.  If not, it can bring things to a screeching halt.
At a similar price point, the 6850k (vs. the 1800x) is hard to beat.  Absolutely rock-solid.
 

MondoArt
Yeah I can get down to 1ms with my current (2nd gen) i5 and Focusrite 2i4. If a 5-years newer AMD CPU isn't better than that, I'd be really surprised.
 
The real cause for my upgrade is that my mobo is flakey. I'd replace just that, but Socket 1155 boards are hard to come by, and newer board means newer CPU, newer RAM....might as well just do a whole new build. I'm still re-using my existing hard drive and possibly my SSD.

1ms roundtrip latency is technologically impossible. Unless you didn't mean roundtrip, but even so, DAC itself takes at least a millisecond in most interfaces.

There's no possible way that could be round-trip latency.
At 44.1k, a 64-sample ASIO buffer size = 1.5ms
 
Round-trip latency is the sum of the following:

• ASIO input buffer (1.5ms in the above example)
• ASIO output buffer (1.5ms in the above example)
• Latency of the A/D D/A converters
• The drivers (often hidden) safety-buffer

In this example, the ASIO input/output buffers alone total 3ms.
Add the A/D D/A and safety-buffer... and you're ~5ms.

Jim Roseberry
Ryzen can be a good (DAW) performer...
But, to get the most from Ryzen, you've got to use fast RAM.
 
The initial release of Ryzen X370 motherboards were *super* flaky.

• SMT (Hyperthreading in AMD speak) would literally just disappear.
• If you could get the RAM to run at a speed above 2400MHz, changing a completely unrelated BIOS parameter (disabling onboard audio) would cause the motherboard to no longer post/boot.

Getting one of these early motherboards to run DDR4 at 3200MHz was tough.
Most wouldn't post if the RAM was set above 2666MHz.
I tested all the top motherboards from all the major brands.
The least flaky of all was Gigabyte.  I could get DDR4/3400 to run at 3200MHz.
Even still, once there was a hiccup where I had to literally remove the RAM so the motherboard would post.
A BIOS reset alone was not enough to get things back to normal.
 
Due to the current state of first-gen X370 motherboards, we won't build Ryzen DAWs for clients.
If you're tech savvy, you can deal with the idiosyncrasies.  If not, it can bring things to a screeching halt.
At a similar price point, the 6850k (vs. the 1800x) is hard to beat.  Absolutely rock-solid.
 

+1.  My RAM was even in the validated memory document published by Asus, but I've never been able to boot at the rated speed.  Even if you can get machine to boot at the rated memory speed, it can hang or reboot without warning.  Ryzen is a great platform, but I suspect some of the RAM issues will need to be fixed in a change to the processor die (where the memory controller is), so memory speed is the number one problem.
 
Mr Roseberry definitely knows what he's talking about.