Mobo & CPU @ $500

[DrumArtist23]

Convinced the wife to let me upgrade my computer. I have $500.
What do the informed members of HR believe to be the best bang for the buck?

Would quad core kick in and process 100+ track playback and all associated plug-ins? Or would they opperate solely as independant cores and allow for background applications i.e. multi-tasking. (I am not running 100+ tracks on any projects, I would just like to know the limitations of the hardware).

Would like to have minimum of 2 pci ports, support for agp 4x/8x/16x, native firewire (IEEE) on mobo, and chipset should have the ability to run 64 bit Win7 RC1. RAM will be purchased on a seperate budget.

Failing those options, I am having some trouble committing to a specific AM2 dual core CPU. I have another machine running K8Upgrade v800 mobo, I picked up the AM2CPU Upgrade for that system, and the ram to go with it. Yet picking a CPU that can handle the stress of streaming video, running recording software, running plugins and input monitoring, while recording video all at the same time.... *breath* ... I know enough to get me by, but I have been out of the upgrading game for too long and have lost touch with the latest stuff on the market. $500 wont get me the best computer, but @ 500 for only the CPU/mobo it should be darn close to cutting edge.

Thanks for taking the time to read through all this, and I hope there are some decent ideas that get brought to the table.

Nick

 

[Steenamaroo]

i used to get damn near 30 tracks running with heavy vsts and synths using a core2duo e6600,,,

it was fine for mixing, but recording a new track would require the h/w buffer to be at 1024, and all the other settings to be set for performance..

this lead to high latency, so i upgraded to a q9550..

now i have all the settings on system response, and the buffer at 32 samples...
assign 2 cores to rtas, at 95%, and it doesn't skip a beat when recording a new track over a very heavy session!! its like HD




my advice, if you can afford it,,,and if you need the power,,,

pick up a gigabyte board (p35ds4) and a q9450 or q9550...ebay's always the best bet!!

my gear cost me £80 for the board and £170 for the cpu,,,,,,not sure how that equates.....

 

[Fishmed]

Here is a system I spec'ed out for myself and plan to get shortly for around $500:

$130 Motherbord: ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo LGA 775
$168 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA
$ 55 Memmory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
$120 Power Suppy: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V

I already have the rest of the parts, but the above should scream.