I hope a hardware (computer) question is fair game in the software tools forum if it's really about running audio design software. I'm considering biting the bullet and learning Akabak to support my speaker design habit, but my home computer is a Mac. I'm therefore trying to determine how much of a financial investment would be required to purchase a (possibly used or refurbished) PC that will run Akabak without being painfully slow, and support Windows 11. Clearly "painfully slow" is hard to quantify, especially because I don't have Akabak experience to calibrate myself on what can reasonably be expected. Any advice on which processors to seek out or avoid, how much RAM is needed to avoid it becoming a bottleneck, pitfalls I might be unaware of, would be appreciated. It's been many years since I had to spec out a Windows PC so online references to "eighth generation i5" are pretty opaque to me. I don't want the PC to become its own project, if I can avoid it. I just want to run speaker design software that isn't compatible with my Mac. I'd also rather avoid a bulky full size tower, if I can.
Thanks in advance for any hints anyone can offer!
Few
Thanks in advance for any hints anyone can offer!
Few
Windows 11 HW requirments seems modest (slow CPU and not much RAM) However it needs a security module that is quite recent. So my PC with a 3.1 GHz Quad core CPU and 16 GB RAM can not run. Any computer that can run Win 11 and has 16 GB of RAM should not have any problem with Akabak as far as I can tell.
It says Win7 and up.
Win 11 is trouble prone, 10 is more stable.
Win 11 also needs a security chip to work, and minimum 8th generation chip from i5 series, or equivalent AMD.
Choose depending on how much time you will spend using the software.
And there may be alternates, check out Android and cloud based alternates as well.
If you design speakers at work, or design speakers for hobby use, the level of software use is quite different.
You can buy a laptop with i9 processor, 24 GB RAM etc for about $1000 in the USA...
Win 11 is trouble prone, 10 is more stable.
Win 11 also needs a security chip to work, and minimum 8th generation chip from i5 series, or equivalent AMD.
Choose depending on how much time you will spend using the software.
And there may be alternates, check out Android and cloud based alternates as well.
If you design speakers at work, or design speakers for hobby use, the level of software use is quite different.
You can buy a laptop with i9 processor, 24 GB RAM etc for about $1000 in the USA...
This should happen quickly in the case of AKABAK: from what I have heard, there is simply no alternative.
So you could summarise the requirements as follows:
As many CPU cores as possible.
Based on this: enough RAM so that swapping to HD storage space does not occur.
Supported by Windows 11 (even the first Threadripper generation should not be a problem).
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How much time do you spend in a month designing speakers?
Auto-Cad has a cloud based system, so does Microsoft Office, pay per use, per drawing or per document etc.
See if something like that is available, then there is no need to invest in a new computer.
Auto-Cad has a cloud based system, so does Microsoft Office, pay per use, per drawing or per document etc.
See if something like that is available, then there is no need to invest in a new computer.
Both AutoCAD and MS Office have almost nothing to do with what is done with AKABAK.
I have said that I have not yet used AKABAK. Nevertheless, I have enough of an idea of what this programme is for and would therefore like to be able to use it. But as I said, the learning curve is steep, and I'm not the youngest anymore.... 😢
I get the impression that you don't really know what AKABAK is for and what computing power is required under certain circumstances. 🤔
I have said that I have not yet used AKABAK. Nevertheless, I have enough of an idea of what this programme is for and would therefore like to be able to use it. But as I said, the learning curve is steep, and I'm not the youngest anymore.... 😢
I get the impression that you don't really know what AKABAK is for and what computing power is required under certain circumstances. 🤔
You intend to use which of the three versions offered by the company?
Commercial / student / demo?
And what type of speaker or sound effect (acoustics) you intend to design?
What is so new / unique / great about it?
Look at the work of Patrick Bateman, and planet10 (dave) on this site.
Then then think of what you can do, and whether you are duplicating effort.
As for computing power, I have friends who use Macs on Windows, and do some pretty advanced things with them, preferred software is Google Sketch-up, which his draftsman converts using Corel Draw and Autocad like software to the more common formats.
Commercial / student / demo?
And what type of speaker or sound effect (acoustics) you intend to design?
What is so new / unique / great about it?
Look at the work of Patrick Bateman, and planet10 (dave) on this site.
Then then think of what you can do, and whether you are duplicating effort.
As for computing power, I have friends who use Macs on Windows, and do some pretty advanced things with them, preferred software is Google Sketch-up, which his draftsman converts using Corel Draw and Autocad like software to the more common formats.
Autocad has a cloud system option, which allows casual users to make drawings without incurring the expense of buying the software, which can save a lot of money for occasional users, by making them pay per drawing.
Thanks for the help! I use OnShape for 3D CAD purposes. I will use Akabak for its BEM computation capabilities. As far as I can tell, there is no viable way to use Akabak on a Mac (it won't run under Wine, for example), so having a Windows machine is really the only option. There are other audio-based software packages that would become available to me as well if I had access to a Windows machine.
I am quite familiar with the work done by others who post in the speaker design threads on diyAudio (I've been here since 2004), but my interest is in exploring and developing my own ideas, not duplicating the projects of others. Finally diving into Akabak will help me expand the scope of my fiddling.
Thanks again for the responses so far.
Few
I am quite familiar with the work done by others who post in the speaker design threads on diyAudio (I've been here since 2004), but my interest is in exploring and developing my own ideas, not duplicating the projects of others. Finally diving into Akabak will help me expand the scope of my fiddling.
Thanks again for the responses so far.
Few
Wenn ich völlig ahnungslos gewesen wäre und an deiner Stelle gefragt hätte, wäre ich jetzt ehrlich gesagt nicht schlauer als vorher.
Based on what I’ve learned, I’m leaning toward buying a refurbished small form factor HP desktop machine from Newegg, with something like a ninth generation i7 processor and 32 GB of RAM and Windows 11 pro installed. I don’t want to go broke trying to use free software😉.
Sorry, I can't edit my previos post in which I've forgot to translate the content.
I wanted to say that instead of the questioner, I would probably still be as smart as before.
I wanted to say that instead of the questioner, I would probably still be as smart as before.
Memory performance and cores will help most with BEM codes. The huge rise in price of new computer chips during covid means the best performance for the price tends to be obtained with refurbished computers using chips that were priced just before covid. Large companies replace their computers after a few years and so appropriate second hand hardware is around at the moment (or was 6 months ago when I was looking) but likely won't be in a year or two.
The number of memory channels is probably the most important entry in the spec. There needs to be at least one memory chip for each memory channel. The optimum number of cores is perhaps twice the number of memory channels. The reasoning being that efficiency drops when the number of cores exceed the number of memory channels but the calculation still runs quicker until the efficiency becomes very low with many cores sharing memory channels. Too many cores isn't harmful but it increases the price with no benefit for large BEM-type calculations that are primarily limited by memory access times rather than CPU performance. Note other types of calculations will not be memory limited and their benchmarks will be misleading for large BEM simulations.
The best BEM performance for the price will come from dual processor rather than single processor machines. Look for dual Xeon or Epyc workstations rather than single processor machines. High speeds for calculations that fit in the cache are likely to be misleading (i.e. what is typically used to sell i9s and threadrippers) when it comes to BEM-type calculations that are mainly limited by the time to move numbers to and from memory rather than the time taken by the CPU to manipulate them once they have been moved.
When I looked there were several refurbished 5 year old HP workstations with dual Xeon processors in the local computer shop for around £500-700 with one or two slightly better speced ones online around the same price.
PS Some dual processor machines may need an optional daughter card to provide TPM version 2 for official Windows 11 support. Be careful of descriptions that state TPM rather than TPM 2.0 because it may be 1 or 1.1.
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Auch die erste AMD Threadripper-Generation stammt noch aus der Vor-Covid-Zeit. Allerdings: Xeon-CPUs waren vermutlich weiter verbreitet, sodass generalüberholte Workstations mit diesen CPUs möglicherweise leichter zu finden sind.
The first AMD Threadripper generation also dates back to the pre-Covid era. But yes: Xeon workstations are probably still easier to find.
Very helpful and informative; thanks very much! I will certainly do some searching, but it sounds like an optimized machine, even refurbished, might be outside my financial and spatial budgets. I don’t really want to switch to Windows for my everyday machine, so I don’t want to dedicate too much space or $$ to it. I realize that means I will likely have to swallow some reduced performance. Before coming to that conclusion I will do some searching to see what’s out there. If I find a bargain, I might just have to set up a computer system in my shop! In any case, I’m much better informed after your post. Thanks again.
Few
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