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  • Advice to build VEPro slave Desktop PCs

    M
    M

    Hello Everybody,

    I have 3 VEPro 7 Licenses and I am using my iMac 2019 with 64 GB Ram and 16 TB HDD as my Master and two other computers as slaves. I am happy with my Master but not slaves as they are pretty old. I would like to build two Desktop PCs as slaves to work using my second and third licences in a minimum possible budget. I am planning 8 TB HDD for VST Libraries 1 TB HDD for Boot and 128 GB Ram in both slaves with Intel i7 Processors. Expensive Graphics and SSD for Boot is not required as they are slaves. I don't know what is required and what is not for a slave, so I request you to suggest me which Motherboard and which SMPS and what else I must purchase to build two slaves successfully. I have a person to build those for me but he is not sure about the requirements and non requirements for a VEPro slave.

    Thanks in advance,

    Midimusik
  • GuinG
    GuinG

    Hello, Midimusik

    I'm not sure if I could recommend regular hard drives for running libraries. The current ones seem to operate, and are optimized, to be run through SSD's, so they should benefit from that. Personally, I'm using a PCIe card Asus Hyper M.2 x16 card, that holds up to 4 PCI M.2 fast drives. Something like that could be built on a small form factor case.

    Besides the system drive (a 128Gb ssd) I still have two other 500Gb ssd drives for the older libraries that doesn't require multi-mics.

    If Intel is not mandatory, I would recomend you to check the AMD Ryzen platform, although it should be best first to check the cost/benefit factor. Both should handle the 128Gb RAM you're looking for (on Ryzen that's possible from 2nd Gen - the 3000 series - and more recent). The only thing you'll need to get on most Ryzen cpu's is a dedicated graphics card, though. Then again, any Geforce 710GT with 2Gb is more than enough to handle the requirements, without spending too much.

    Considering the current processing power of modern cpu's, perhaps you could even get things done without needing a third pc.

    Hope this info could help you out.
  • M
    M

    Thank you so much for your detailed reply Guin
  • BillB
    BillB

    Just some random suggestions:

    Current motherboards have onboard graphics; you don't need to get a graphics card

    Don't spend extra for a MB with onboard WiFi; you'll just disable it

    Replace all the stock case and CPU fans with quiet ones. There are many on the market; I use the ones from BeQuiet

    I find it very convenient to house SSDs in a hot swap backplane. Easy to use different drives and/or upgrade in the future without tearing the system open

    https://www.newegg.com/icy-dock-mb324sp-b/p/N82E16817994181

    Bill

    Dorico, Notion, Sibelius, StudioOne, Cubase, Staffpad VE Pro, Synchon, VI, Kontakt Win11 x64, 64GB RAM, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, August Forster 190
  • GuinG
    GuinG
    last edited
    last edited

    @Bill said:

    Just some random suggestions:

    Current motherboards have onboard graphics; you don't need to get a graphics card

    Bill

    I'll have to disagree on that quote, Bill.

    The fact that current motherboards come with HDMI/DVI/VGA output doesn't mean they are graphically capable.

    They still relly on the integrated graphics card that come inside the CPU itself. Intel has it on most of their processors, but I think AMD only has integrated graphics card on the processors that end with a G (for example, Ryzen 3400G).

    That said, integrated graphic cards will always get RAM from the system itself. If you have 64Gb of RAM installed, and the integrated GPU requires 2Gb, you'll have 62Gb of RAM to use to run instrument libraries.
  • BillB
    BillB

    OK, I'm unfamiliar with the AMD universe...

    If the OP is installing 128GB of RAM, 2 GB is not an issue, especially considering the current price of graphic cards. Plus, no fan noise!

    Dorico, Notion, Sibelius, StudioOne, Cubase, Staffpad VE Pro, Synchon, VI, Kontakt Win11 x64, 64GB RAM, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, August Forster 190
  • GuinG
    GuinG
    last edited
    last edited

    @Bill said:

    OK, I'm unfamiliar with the AMD universe...

    If the OP is installing 128GB of RAM, 2 GB is not an issue, especially considering the current price of graphic cards. Plus, no fan noise!

    There's the passive cooling cards, without fans.

    Then again, most modern cards with fans have a working profile that only start working with noise when they reach high temperatures. That scenario should not be something common for a slave pc.
  • M
    M

    HI all,

    So happy to see all your replies and suggestions

    Thank you so much

    Cheers

    Midimusik