Windows vs Mac Cubase and Steinberg hardware

Hi Everyone,

I lately noticed that Steinberg products mainly Cubase and hardware are really stable on Windows. I noticed that I am spending too much on the stability issues on Mac. I am seriously considering changing my system to Windows 10.

With my budget, I should be able to get a great windows system with 64GB ram, 128 GB, and Core i9 processor. I just need to see if someone has already switched and what should I consider before I switch to windows.

If you refer me to a suitable Dell computer ( preferably All-in-one), this would be much appreciated.

I think you have answered your own question. Go to Windows. The minimum specs are shown in the Steinberg shop I think, but it is always better to beef up the machine past these specs I would imagine.
I run mac and 10.5 is not as stable as 10.0. But there you go, its all software at the end of the day.

Hi - I went the other way! From windows to Mac…
In my experience, Win 10 is basically as reliable as Mac OS for music, however Windows doesn’t handle MIDI as well as Mac OS. On Mac, you can plug in a MIDI device and it will just be recognised by the application, on Windows you need to restart the app before the device is available. Also on Mac you can have more than one MIDI app open at the same time, not so on Windows. As an example, I have an editor/librarian for my Moog Sub Phatty, on Mac I can run it and Cubase at the same time. Also on Windows, that editor requires two MIDI connections, one for note data and one for the editor itself. I have a Roli block controller which works via Bluetooth MIDI on Mac, but needs a wired connection for my PC.

However I am not a Mac fanboy, these MIDI quirks may not affect you in any way depending on your setup. I would only recommend a Mac if you need a mobile solution as windows laptops can be a bit hit and miss for music. If you want a desktop, Windows gives much better bang for buck.

It’s worth saying that it’s a good idea to optimise a Windows machine for music recording to get the best performance, many guides are available on the internet.

As a Mac user considering switching to Windows for Cubase and wavelab, I’m wondering about viruses. What do I need to consider to keep a windows machine secure.

I moved from Mac to Win10 machine, and love it. Was dreading the worse and only done it because i was unhappy with the direction of MacOS and Apple hardware no longer being user serviceable. But thought i’d give it a go, and if it didn’t work out i could justify sticking with Macs… Never looked back.

You’ve just gotta be a little careful with some hardware as some cause windows DPC latency… So if you buy an off the shelf machine just give it a quick google search to confirm it’s suitability.

I see Cubase 8 in your signature. Just wanted to point out this isn’t the case with Cubase on Windows anymore.

Fair enough! I have actually upgraded both Mac and Cubase to 10.5 but haven’t tried it on my PC - I do have Ableton on the PC though, and it does the same thing - ie doesn’t recognise the device if you plug it in while the program is running until you restart the program.