question on ram and cpu for new computer

[ESPplayer7]

what would be more sufficient for home recording, a quad core aroun 2.6 or a duo core at 3.0. I realize that some apps dont take use of the quad core, is this true? Last question is, would 8gb of ram on vista 32 be pointless for recording because it supposedly can only use 4 gb of ram? thanks for the help

 

[Waffleness]

what would be more sufficient for home recording, a quad core aroun 2.6 or a duo core at 3.0. I realize that some apps dont take use of the quad core, is this true? Last question is, would 8gb of ram on vista 32 be pointless for recording because it supposedly can only use 4 gb of ram? thanks for the help

What type of Quad core are you looking at? If you post examples of each CPU I can have a look at the benchmarks.

What do you do most of? I.e. recording, samplers, VSTi, are the effects outboard or ITB?

The new intel i7's run DDR3 RAM which is triple channel so needs to be installed in multiples of 3 (3GB, 6GB) for maximum effect.

Its also dependant on your FSB speed. Post some details. Its dependant on a lot more than simply the number of cores in my opinion.

 

[Steenamaroo]

i can't give u details and comparisons,,but if it's useful i can tell you that i use a

core2duo 2.4ghz, which is lower spec than the lowest you mentioned.


i run a hefty amount of virtual instruments and shedloads of plugins,,,and have never ever ever had a problem with slowing down or crashing....

i run 4 gig ddr2 667 with it if that's any use to you.

 

[Waffleness]

lol I can beat the above poster.

I am running on a AMD eek X2 64 4600+ 2.4Ghz with 2Gb of 400Mhz RAM. Even worse is that its socket 939. Unfortunately I also run lots of virtual instruments (I mean a lot, full orchestras) and regulary push 140 voices. I do experience a lot of lag, which is why I am upgrading in the new year.

Kontakt is my sampler, and when i reduce my latency to below 20ms, it says it cannot utilise multi-processor calculations. This is hopefully being updated in a future release from what i understand.

I agree with the above poster. Give us a spec and a price and we can advise.

 

[Steenamaroo]

should have mentioned before,,,my cpu and board easily overclock to 3.2 with standard cooling,and i've done it,,,,

but the fact that i stay clocked at 2.4 shows its got plenty of power as is

 

[Waffleness]

should have mentioned before,,,my cpu and board easily overclock to 3.2 with standard cooling,and i've done it,,,,

but the fact that i stay clocked at 2.4 shows its got plenty of power as is

How many virtual instruments are you running? Are you really pushing it, or is it just a drum kit, bass and a snyth, etc?

Im just wondering what the upper limit of your system would be.

 

[Steenamaroo]

i'll not make it out to be more than it is,, it will have limits, but i honestly haven't hit them yet...

i've run sessions with addictive drums, 4/5 instances of xpand, 3/4 instances of NI massive(quite hefty) and maybe an fm8,

that's before you even start with waves compressors/verbs/eqs etc....



i think mac operating system makes a huge differences,,cos i have sessions that wont play on my pc under windows....but they play absolutely fine under mac on exactly the same hardware!!!