i& Hexcore 970 versus i7 Sandybridge 2600K?

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wfws

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I'm getting ready to upgrade frmo my duocore laptop to a more stable DAW that I hope will last a few years.
I was going to buy an i7 970 (hexcore) with 12gb ram. But after reading on the SandyBridge 2600K, it seems that an overclocked Sandybridge will outperform the hexcore, and generate less heat. SB uses less power, generates less heat, so it overclocks better. That means I can get performance almost as good as the hexcore, particularly for short periods, and save about $300.
I could use that savings to upgrade to a solid state drive.
I use Ableton Live mostly, but also often rewire to Reason. No VSTs, but rewire is taxing sometimes. Ableton does use multicore, but I'm not sure about hyperthreading.
So, what would be better? A quad core Sandybridge 2600K (overclockable) or a i7 970 hexcore, all other things being equal?

Thanks for the help.
 
For audio, you don't need a lot of horsepower. If you're running multiple sample libraries then cpu and ram will become bottlenecks. For what you're planning, it's overkill. Buy the cheaper cpu and don't even bother overclocking.

I was running 16 - 20 tracks and sometimes two instances of ezdrummer on an old Pentium 4 and 2gig of ram. never a problem.
 
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