Pro Audio Build - i7 8700 - Everything Works

Just sharing my build, why I bought it, and what I would have changed.

Asus Prime z370-a

Intel i7 8700

32gb XPG ADATA 3000mhz RAM

Intel 660p M.2 - Session

Samsung PM961 M.2 - OS

Western Digital Blue 4TB

Sapphire Radeon RX580 Pulse 8GB

BRCM4331 WiFfi/BT (plus PCIe adapter)

Seasonic M12 II Bronze EVO Edition

Corsair 100R Silent Mid

I used E-bay (mostly boxed items), Amazon, and New Egg.

R20 Score - 3452

Geekbench Single - 5866

Geekbench Mult - 28470

H264 and HEVC are working.

Thunderbolt Hotplug working.

UAD Apollo and UAD-2 PCIe card working.

Using the 580 and BRCM4331 (old I know) we're smart purchases because they work out of the box.

Asus Prime z370-a comes with two M.2 slots. Worth every penny. Remember that jump from HDD to SSD? This is another jump. At least to me.

x86 Platform is a go.

All power management is a go.

Custom USB SSDT

iGPU

iMessage/Facetime/All Thing iCloud

A fully functional iMac 18,3. It's made for Pro Tools and is just south of a "pro" machine. Though, I'd like to argue what a Pro machine really is here. I run 100 track sessions chocked full of plugins and it barely breaks a sweat. In terms of Pro Audio, I view this as pro.

Upgrades I'd like!

1) Intel i9-9900k

2) Asus Prime z370a II

3) Corsair H60 Cooler

4) Another Intel 660p

The V1 z370a is fine but in order to (safely) run the 9900k I need to upgrade. The cooler will be welcomed as well. I undervolted my 8700 to compensate for the stock cooler using Intel Power Gadget and R20. I found a good balance to where it doesn't throttle and my score shot up.

Let me know if you're interested in the build at all and I might be able to answer a question or two or point you to the guides I used.

submitted by /u/NorthAMTrans
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