CPU selection for computer buld.

[cpyatak]

Anybody have anything to say about AMD processors versus Intel? I may be building a music computer soon... on a budget... and would love some feedback. The AMD processors seem to offer the same numbers as intel for a lot less money.

Thanks in advance!

[AlexRusin]

In September 2011 I have same problem, but I chose AMD Phenom X2 BE and it works lovely. And this one can be unlocked to X4 Despite that I advise you to read some reviews on tech pages.

[cpyatak]

Thanks!

After reading some reviews it seems pretty clear that you get what you pay for. As a result I think I'll just throw down for the intel i7. My next question:

Why Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge?

[cpyatak]

And... answered my own question again.

[XTORO]

Don't go with the NEWEST model out there, it's just not worth it... Go with a Sandy Bridge i7, like a 2670 or a 2700 series... CPU's are like cars. They get outdated and lose value really fast, so you're better off going with the last model and saving a ton of cash but still getting decent performance. I always laugh when people buy the newest stuff the week it comes out, and then I buy the same thing 4-5 months later for almost half the price. Hell, when the i7's came out, I bought a Core2 Quad Q8400 CPU with an ASUS motherboard for a couple of hundred bucks and overclocked it to 3.7 Ghz. Runs pretty quick! Now that Ivy is all the crazy, I got my Sandy i7 laptop for cheap, and it's pretty awesome too.

Oh, and in my experience, I'd stay away from AMD.

[cpyatak]

Interesting. I thought I had answered my own question!

Right now I'm running a Dell XPS with XP and a Core 2 Duo at 2.0 Ghz. 2 Gigs of RAM. I make it work because it's what I have. But I feel like I'd be doing a lot more experimentation with Operator, Analog, and all the Effects (to say nothing of multiple instances of VSTs) with more power, and I do not have the kind of income that allows me to get a new computer every year... or two... or even three. As a result, I want to make a purchase that's going to last me three or four years in terms of performance. Obviously almost anything I get will beat what I'm using now, and as I understand it ableton doesn't support more than 2 cores anyway. But I assume I can select the core affinity for VSTs to the 3rd and 4th core. Actually, that's a good question in and of itself... does it work like that?

Also -- I have windows 7 32bit... which as I understand it supports only 4G of RAM. My understanding is that I would have to upgrade to 64bit to utilize more than 4G of RAM (which I would like to do). Is this accurate?

I know these are "noob" questions, so forgive me. But I think building my own computer is the best way to go to get the most bang for my buck and I also think that my synthesis/production creativity would benefit from this increased processing/memory capability.

Thanks for your replies!

Chris

[XTORO]

Hey no worries about noob stuff, I'm still a "noob" at Live, and everyone STARTS as a noob at everything...

Anyways, yes you will need to upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows if you want to use more than ~3.5GB of RAM. A tip for you: Order the Windows 7 64-bit UPGRADE, not the full version, it's cheaper. Even if you have to install from scratch.

As for setting core affinity for your VST's, I know you can do it with apps, but as far as I can tell, VST's don't show up as processes because they're just DLL's loaded by Live, so you can't assign them specific cores...

You are right that building your own PC will be heaper for you. I would still recommend that you get a mid to high range sandy bridge i7 quadcore which would be more than enough for what you need. If that's still a little high for you, then get a high-end Core 2 Quad from ebay, either high 8000 series or 9000 series. Just make sure to take into account that you'll have to get a good motherboard like an ASUS or Gigabyte, and then you can even overclock it for even more performance. There's also RAM to buy too. So don't spend all your cash on the CPU.

[cpyatak]

Thanks XTORO, this is great advice. I think I will be going for the Sandy bridge i7, but I won't go super high end. I thought that might be the case re: VSTs. And you're right about the RAM, but it's pretty cheap these days... how much difference does it make which brand I go with?

Thanks again, this is super helpful!

Now I'm going to get to work on the Ableton Remix competition on the rig I DO have. I'll be back, with more questions I'm sure.

Chris

[XTORO]

No problems. As for the brand of RAM, I wouldn't really be worried about it unless you plan on overclocking. The i7 needs DDR3 RAM which is pretty cheap. I would recommend G.Skill but you can also get Kingston which is much cheaper and will do what you need (Again, unless you want to overclock your system).

For the CPU, like I said previously, shoot for a 2700 or 2800 series quadcore. They're priced pretty good and the performance is great.

[RonaldDumsfeld]

You know what man? get the job done, save yourself some money and most importantly, get a better music computer.

Buy yourself an INTEL Pentium G630T, It's Sandy Bridge socket 1155 dual core runs @ 2.3GHz.

More than enough power for the job in hand, cheap (~£55), and most imporatant, it only consumes 30W power. You can run it without fans! No need for a graphics card - it's done on the CPU - so another fans gone.

It's the basis of a totally silent system. Why pay more for power you don't need and have a blast furnace roaring away within feet of your place of work?

If it doessn't work out (??) you haven't lost out. It's socket 1155 so slip an i7 in whan they get cheaper.

[chaibuka]

here is a thread on building audio PC
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... ad-28.html
and also here
http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/postl ... oard=PCMus
and if you copy the specs of a ADK audio PC you would be close to what you needed
http://www.adkproaudio.com/choose2.asp

[doom_Oo7]

For now (for Live) 64 bit is pointless, unless if using jBridge, which is often quite buggy (for me at least).
But anyway it doesn't matter because nowadays every single processor can be 64 bit, it just depends on the windows version you're putting.


Anyway, for me 2600k is the shit, I only am bottlenecked when I play 30 tracks with 15 heavy pluggos on each at 128 samples...

[cpyatak]

Wow, thanks to everybody for the feedback. Plenty to consider here! This is very helpful, thanks again!

[chaibuka]

For now (for Live) 64 bit is pointless

If you wait a while you can start from scratch with windows 8 64 bit, live 9 64 bit, vst plugins 64 bit avoiding the trouble of reinstalling anything. Sommeone always says you can always wait for next big thing but right now just seems like the wrong time.

[cpyatak]

For now (for Live) 64 bit is pointless

If you wait a while you can start from scratch with windows 8 64 bit, live 9 64 bit, vst plugins 64 bit avoiding the trouble of reinstalling anything. Sommeone always says you can always wait for next big thing but right now just seems like the wrong time.

Yeah. The only thing that's gonna make me wait is if I need to drop a bunch of cash on an emergency root canal or something. Holy crap. I can't believe I just wrote that out loud. I'm certainly not going to wait for Live to go 64 bit. And again, if they do (of course it'll be a free upgrade!) and I REEEEELLY need the extra power I can just upgrade my 32 bit version of Windows 7.

Thanks again all, and any additional input is really appreciated!