new computer for Sonar 5

[jmorris]

OK, I'm going to put together a computer for audio. I have 2 very nice computers but Iwant to build one myself. I'm wondering for Sonar 5 what processor, chipset and motherboard would be my best bet. I thought I remember reading here that people favor the ADM processorfor Sonar ? Maybe I wrong. I just want it to run stable and fast. Not asking for alot

 

[Qwerty]

Could I play Devil's advocate and suggest you wait six months for Vista to ship along with the next lot of multi-core CPUs?

More (64-bit) bang for buck...

To answer your question, it seems as though AMD chips allow more data to be shoved through the system so while their GHz numbers don't look as impressive as Intel's, real world performance often favours the AMD approach. So said, Intel's really thin CPU technology seems to be positioning them well for their multi-core strategy which really hits the road over the 2nd half of this year.

Ciao,

Q.

 

[jmorris]

Could I play Devil's advocate and suggest you wait six months for Vista to ship along with the next lot of multi-core CPUs?

More (64-bit) bang for buck...

To answer your question, it seems as though AMD chips allow more data to be shoved through the system so while their GHz numbers don't look as impressive as Intel's, real world performance often favours the AMD approach. So said, Intel's really thin CPU technology seems to be positioning them well for their multi-core strategy which really hits the road over the 2nd half of this year.

Ciao,

Q.

I'm in no hurry,I just want my next computer to be top notch. I just re-did my older studio computer and for some strange reason all went well. They must be making this stuff idiot proof these days. I would not mind 64bit although I read most people do not hear any real difference between 64 and 32. I have no experience with 64 bit so I can't say. If 64 bit is the next "comming" I might as well set up for it. I mean, what the hell.

 

[Jaybee]

The problem with 64 bit right now is that most of the plug-ins are not too friendly with 64 bit. Sonar 5 will run a 64 bit floating point audio engine in a 32 bit environment and it does sound pretty good. My system is built around an AMD 64 bit 3500+ chip and I'm quite pleased with it.

 

[Qwerty]

If you forget about the applications and just look at the combination of the architecture of Vista + the additional "highways" of information accessibility to the CPU, then audio does represent one of the areas that stands to benefit from the new 64-bit architecture.

So, forgetting any argument about the 64-bit "Double-Precision" mixing engine and just looking at the capacities of the 64-bit OS + 64-bit Hardware combination, I think we are going to be seeing some really nice performance out of DAWs later on this year.

Someone posted a link on here a while back that was an interesting techie interview about the audio engine of Vista -- http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=116347 -- it is Nerdsville in there, but the bottom line seems to be that this is the first decent rewrite of the audio portion of the OS code in over ten years. Things like application level control of audio drivers interfacing at the hardware level mean that some really incredible things can potentially be done in realtime using the new architecture.

Granted, it probably won't be stable until 2008 so just go and buy something now.

Q.