AMD or Intel for music production?

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dajojojo

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Hi :D

This is my first post so apologies for wrong terminology etc…

I mainly use my PC as a DAW running Reaper but it’s just not cutting the mustard. There are various issues which I am putting down to the inability to process samples quickly/efficiently enough.

So, I’ve decided to upgrade. Problem is – not much cash! My budget is around £300-£400 and I’m happy to build myself.

I’m looking at processors and see that AMD’s are much cheaper. Scouring the web has given me a bunch of conflicting responses over the best way to go.

Can anyone offer advice on this – AMD or Intel, and the relative performances for Athlons/Semprons/core i5s… and so on for my needs?

Sorry of this is all vague!


Current Spec:
Intel Core 2 E4500 2.2GHz CPU
2GB RAM
GA-T671MG Motherboard
GeForce 8300GS 128MB DDR2 Graphics
Seagate Barracuda 7200-10 HDD
Alesis iO|14 FireWire Sound
115W PSU
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome to the forums dajojojo :)

Are you using Windows 7? If so, have you loaded up the "resource monitor" to see where your bottleneck is? That may be helpful in deciding where to splash the cash in terms of hardware. It could be that the software is heavily dependant on the CPU, RAM or HDD - so if we can identify which ones that would be good. I'd hate to recommend a fast CPU only to find out that it's drive access times or memory swap that caused the lag.
 
Last edited:
Ian said:
Welcome to the forums dajojojo :)

Are you using Windows 7? If so, have you loaded up the "resource monitor" to see where your bottleneck is? That may be helpful in deciding where to splash the cash in terms of hardware. It could be that the software is heavily dependant on the CPU, RAM or HDD - so if we can identify which ones that would be good. I'd hate to recommend a fast CPU only to find out that it's drive access times or memory swap that caused the lag.
Click to expand...

I'm using XP (my PC came with Vista but there wasn't enough hardware support for the midi/audio devices).

I tried a few things last night and kept an eye on the XP resource monitor, and Reaper's own CPU performance monitor. If I'm replaying a multitrack recording with a handful of VST effects and software samplers the CPU intermitently maxes out and sometimes the program hangs. If I'm recording multitracks I get dropouts when RAM usage and CPU load are ok - the HDD sounds like it's struggling so I'm guessing it can't write fast enough. RAM seems to be stable.

So my (probably shoddy) test seems to indacate to me that the DSP processing is too much for the CPU and the write demand to disc is too much for the HDD/SATA interface.

On this basis I'm definitely going to build a new base unit - still not sure which procesor to go for though...
 
Rather than 'AMD or Intel' i'd say go for one that is within your budget or best for your needs.

Regarding AMD vs Intel, a very general explanation would be....

AMD - Best bang for your buck
Intel - Slightly better performance increase.
 
for what you actually need there would be no real difference between AMD or Intel so I would just go for whatever you can afford. I would say if going AMD at least get a Phenom II x4 or for intel at least get a minimum of either an i5 750 or an i5 2500(better to get this over i5 750).
 
Thanks for all of your really helpful replies!

Base on these and my budget
frown.gif
I've decided to go for:

Coolermaster Sileo 500 Silent Midi Tower Case - Black £ 58.99
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) £ 130.79
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 PCI-Express MOBO £70.79
Noctua NH-U9B-SE2 CPU Cooler £ 41.99
530W Be Quiet! Pure Power BQT L7 ATX2.3 Power Supply £ 44.99
4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz S/C Module £ 31.99
500GB WD Caviar Blue SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache £ 26.64
Total: £406.18

unless you can see any glaring errors!

Cheers, dajojojo
 
dajojojo said:
Thanks for all of your really helpful replies!

Base on these and my budget
frown.gif
I've decided to go for:

Coolermaster Sileo 500 Silent Midi Tower Case - Black £ 58.99
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) £ 130.79
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 PCI-Express MOBO £70.79
Noctua NH-U9B-SE2 CPU Cooler £ 41.99
530W Be Quiet! Pure Power BQT L7 ATX2.3 Power Supply £ 44.99
4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz S/C Module £ 31.99
500GB WD Caviar Blue SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache £ 26.64
Total: £406.18

unless you can see any glaring errors!

Cheers, dajojojo
Click to expand...

No errors I can see, very good choice imo :thumb:
 
Just to throw a spanner in the works :D

I'd go with the X4 965 with a 3.4Ghz clock, slightly cheaper and it'll probably perform better with the higher clock speed
 
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