Pc for ableton live 9

[jfdcollins]

Hi
I have been using ableton live 9 for a while on my old laptop and need to upgrade to a new pc. Can anyone advise if the following pc will be suitable. I have a budget of £400ish. Thanks

https://www.ebuyer.com/835383-punch-tec ... t-703-1026

This link above should show the pc but the spec is listed as follows:

Processor -
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6Ghz Quad Core CPU
Maximum Turbo Frequency: 3.9Ghz
Cache: 4MB

Memory-
8GB DDR4 3000Mhz RAM
Supports up to 32GB
2 x DIMM sockets (Used)

Hard Drive -
1TB (1,000GB) SATA III 6Gb/s 7200rpm
Optical Drive-DVDRW
Software
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Chipset
A320
Graphics
Radeon™ RX Vega 11 Graphics Onboard
Audio
High Definition Audio, 5.1 channel

Networking
Realtek 10/100/1000 LAN

Thanks for any help/advice.

James

[[jur]]

Please do a search on the forum (in The Lounge for example), there's dozens of topics like yours where you'll certainly find more info than you'll ever need.

[jfdcollins]

Thanks for the reply but after trawling through the lounge I am still none the wiser. I can’t seem to find any info relating to the Ryzen 5 or the pc spec I’m looking at on Ebuyer.

If anyone can offer any advice I would be really grateful.

My old (current) laptop is an old i3 with 8gb ram. It works ok when starting a new set on ableton but struggles to keep up when loading a set with a number of tracks so I’m entering the mine field of what seems to be a confusing market for someone with very limited pc hardware knowledge.

I have a small budget of around £400 and am hoping to get a pc which will work better than what I currently have.

Thanks

[jestermgee]

Well without someone having the exact same system you have posted about, can't really say only the specs fit with the requirements for Live but doing some basic searching it is close in specs to an i3 8100, which is reasonably modest. Remember, there are always many different revisions of processor so saying you have currently an i3 doesn't offer much. I have 5 x i7 machines here but there is a massive difference between my old i7 920 and my i7 4990K.

I am personally not an AMD fan, had issues in the past and just stick to Intel because I have a good 20 years of experience with them these days and back in early 2000 AMD was not good at doing real-time audio stuff (that's now a non issue) but I have also struggled with AMD GPUs so I just gave up on them. I have also personally not purchased "off the shelf" system since 1998 preferring very much to research and build every system.

It's not one of the "top of the line" systems of today, uses a cheaper slightly older model CPU with integrated graphics so there may be some extra load on the CPU there since the MOBO has the on-board APU and it does not detail what kind of motherboard it is or chipset etc but unless you are doing very detailed research into hardware compatibility and reduced latency builds it's not important for "off the shelf" boxes.

Depending on the audio interface you plan to use (on-board would let you down and would cause you performance issues) and the expectations you have for track count and plugin use, should work "ok" but I wouldn't expect 20 tracks of Serum.

You do recognize that it comes pre-installed with Ubuntu (not Windows) there tho so you will need to scrub that and get a Win10 license and install/setup that before you can even think of running Live? That will add extra cost to that system.

Also it is just running a 1TB mechanical drive so it's not going to be lightning fast loading anything either or have a huge amount of storage. I'd personally buy an SSD and install the OS on that, even just a 512GB would do but again, that would add extra cost too. It seems decent enough, has DDR4 Ram etc but i'd probably look at a Win10 version of that system on their site which will cost more for the same thing since the Win license needs to be covered.

[jfdcollins]

Thanks for the reply. Some very interesting info for me to digest.
It would seem I am probably be better looking into building a pc from scratch but as I have little knowledge it will take some time and careful planning.

Any advice on where to start?

[jestermgee]

I always start looking at my local PC supply store on what the prices are. Starting with CPU models (normally a notch down from the absolute latest) then hitting reviews and looking at compatible boards and their reviews and benchmarks. Once you have a CPU and MOBO sorted the rest is simply components that will make it work.

It's easier to get things setup these days than it use to be, but it does require some knowledge to make sure it works. Some youtube resources that can be handy would be LinusTechTips, Jayztwocents for reviews but a lot of that is focused on gaming but can be good for getting pointers and tips.

Off the shelf can prove to be a bit more cost effective than building since manufacturers get better pricing on parts and OEM software but I always like to know what goes into my macchine and come from a time where it use to be cheaper to build because no one knew what they were doing plus certain components put together can offer much better performances when overclocking and tuning things manually.

[miyaru]

Although soem have succes with an AMD based machine, I would stay away from it. Intel is my way to go for stability and speed. The system that you suggest is modest, and in the long rune maybe not powerfull enough.

Maybe it is better to wait some longer and save some money for a better specced system.......