Quiet PC Serenity Wavestation i10

The ideal audio workstation PC for music production using any of today’s popular software production suites such as Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo, Cakewalk Sonar, Reason, Ableton Live and FL Studio. Aimed at both home and professional users.

The Wavestation in Antec P101 Case - Shown with optional Widescreen Monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse

The Serenity Wavestation

The Serenity Wavestation Pro offers a quieter way to edit and process your music making it perfect for studio use and as such, it is ideal for both home musicians and professionals working in a studio environment where quietness is important.

Feature Packed ASUS Z590 Motherboard

We offer the choice of either the ASUS PRIME Z590-P or the ASUS ROG STRIX Z590-F Gaming WIFI motherboard with this system. Both motherboards offer outstanding audio with audio shielding that separates analogue/digital signal domains, significantly reducing multi-lateral interference. There is also a separate layer for Left and Right tracks to ensure minimal crosstalk between audio paths.

Z590-P motherboard

Z590-F motherboard

Z590-P rear motherboards ports

Z590-F rear motherboards ports

Which CPU do I need?

Given the need for a good processor with any DAW, we are only offering i3, i5 and i7 processors with this system. Any processor on offer with this system will be fine for music production however, if you use a lot of virtual instruments and effects, that will have a greater impact on the processor so do consider a more powerful i7 or even the i9 processor.

Intel 10th Gen and 11th Gen differences

The 500 series motherboard available with this system is compatible with both the 10th gen and 11th gen Intel processors, which is good as it gives flexibility and choice. The down-side to this is that the motherboard limits its features if a 10th gen processor is installed. We have therefore produced the table below to give you an idea of the what those differences are. This will hopefully allow you to gauge the best suitable processor for your needs. Do you go for the feature rich 11th gen, or opt for a 10th gen with limitations, but more attractive from a price point of view.

PCIe Version - As you can see from the table above the PCIe port, which is generally used for a graphics card, changes from PCIe 4.0 to 3.0 if a 10th Gen CPU is installed. In regards to performance of the graphics card and PCIe 3.0, you will not notice any major difference in frame rates running at PCIe 3.0 speeds. M.2 PCIe 4.0 port - A M.2 drive offers extremely fast transfer rates and this is bolstered by PCIe 4.0, which gives speeds up to 64Gb/s (8000MB/s), compared PCIe 3.0 which is 32Gb/s (4000MB/s). This means using an 11th Gen processor along with a Samsung 980 Pro will allow you to achieve the maximum transfer speeds the drive can achieve. Please also note that the PCIe 4.0 M.2 port will be disabled if a 10th Gen CPU is installed. If you do opt for a 10th Gen CPU you will still be able to populate the other M.2 ports on the motherboard but the transfer speed is 32Gp/s, so the Samsung 970 EVO Plus or a slower drive is recommended. HDMI Version - This is self explanatory, an 11th Gen CPU supports HDMI 2.0 which provides resolutions up to 4096 x 2304 @ 60Hz. A 10th Gen processor supports HDMI 1.4 which provides resolutions up to 4096 x 2304 @ 30Hz. The DisplayPort resolution is not affect by the CPU. Therefore if you 100% need a 60Hz 4K resolution from the motherboard then the best choice would be an 11th Gen CPU.

High Speed DDR4 Memory

We offer the Wavestation with DDR4 memory that delivers up to 20% less energy consumption and twice as much density as the previous generation DDR3. DDR4 can help Wavestation users to load their programs faster, increase responsiveness of their system and help them to handle heavy data tasks in a flash.

Note: While the motherboard supports RAM over 3000Mhz, many Intel 10th generation processors do not which is why we only offer 2666Mhz RAM with this system.

Today, many musicians are using software based instruments, effects and sample libraries and if you are one of those people then the more memory that you have, the faster and more responsive your audio application will be as the PC will spend less time moving data to and from the SSD.

A good amount of memory to have for a typical home based DAW would 16GB but for more professional users, 32GB (or higher) would be recommended.

For the Home Studio

Home users or enthusiasts can simply build on the base configuration, adding higher capacity SSD drives and perhaps more memory or a bigger monitor if required. The on-board graphics support resolutions up to 4096 x 2304 @ 60 Hz (Via DisplayPort) and 4096 x 2160 @ 30 Hz (Via HDMI).

For the Professional Studio

Audio editing/production programs usually take up a lot space on your Windows desktop so it is usually a good idea to use a large display where possible. By default the system will use the on-board graphics (supports the monitors via DisplayPort and HDMI). Towards the higher end of the video cards on offer is the extremely quiet PNY NVIDIA Quadro P1000 graphics card which provides support for up to four 4K monitors (via DisplayPort).

Of course there are other graphics cards available (some of which are semi-fanless or entirely fanless in operation) that may be more suitable for your particular needs.

Storage Options

While the default system drive offered with the Wavestation Pro may be large enough for many users, it is of course possible to add a much higher capacity drives if required as well as a standard high capacity hard drive to backup your work. Many applications work better if they have a ‘scratch disk’ which they can use as a temporary workspace and Cubase is a good example of this.

Many of today’s large sample libraries take huge amounts of room on your storage device so a high capacity conventional hard drive is recommended and we only offer the fastest drives with a fast 6Gb/s SATA interface in order to help prevent throughput bottlenecks.

Of course adding any component with moving parts like a hard drive will make some noise but to keep noise levels low we recommend using 2.5in drives where possible as these are usually quieter in operation than 3.5in drives.

A better alternative would be to use 2.5in SSD’s as they are not only faster than conventional hard disk drives they are totally silent and SSD prices have fallen hugely in the past few years making them much more affordable.

RAID Storage

Users with more advanced storage needs may be interested in having two drives configured as a RAID array in order to increase read/write speeds or to provide a more fault-resilient storage system. The two types of RAID we offer are RAID 0 (Striped) and RAID 1 (Mirrored) and they store information in completely different ways.

RAID 0 arrays stripe data and write information across two separate hard drives and is often used to increase the speed at which data is accessed and retrieved. The downside is that if a drive fails then you lose everything, so it is important to make regular backups.

RAID 1 arrays mirror data and write identical information across both drives simultaneously without a speed penalty. So if one drive fails, no data is lost and the PC stays running. However, if both drives (or more likely the motherboard) fails then you lose everything, so it is still important to backup regularly.

Serenity Wavestation - DS1 rear and side internal views (previous motherboard)

Clean Build™ Promise

The price of many pre-built PCs these days is often supported by cash kickbacks from software companies who pay hardware manufacturers to pre-install limited or trial versions of their software and then hope that the customer pays to upgrade to the full version. The downside to this approach is that the new PC comes pre-loaded with a lot of “junkware” which bloats the operating system and can cause severe performance degradation.

Here at Quiet PC we believe that customers have every right to expect the best possible performance from a brand new PC, so every system we build comes with our Clean Build™ promise. We install the operating system (if you order one), motherboard drivers, OS updates and Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender - that’s it. You won’t be pestered by pop-ups and nag screens and you can get on with using your new PC immediately without having to uninstall lots of junkware first. Your new machine will boot in super-quick time and will stay running quickly for many months and years to come.

Free hardware support and fully inclusive warranty

We offer free hardware technical support for as long as you own the machine. This support covers any hardware query or problem, including advice on maintenance and upgrades. We regret we can’t offer software support or training so we would recommend contacting the software vendor in this instance.

Our hardware warranty runs for two years and is “collect and return” meaning that UK customers don’t need to worry about getting the machine back to us - we will instruct our courier to collect it from you on a day of your choosing, we will also return it back to you once it has been repaired. International customers will need to return the PC back to us at their cost, but we will return the PC back at our cost once it has been repaired. In addition, unlike many other PC suppliers, we have an “open-case” policy which means you are free to open the machine and perform your own minor modifications or upgrades without worrying that your warranty might be affected.