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i7, i9 or Xeon for Cakewalk by Bandlab?


Daniel Vrangsinn

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Considering to build a new DAW computer this year. Trying to figure out which CPU to go for.  Stability is main priority,  but speed and max load is also a priority. In the past I know many DAWs didn't work well with Xeon cpu's, but does that still apply in 2019. My current i7 computer is about 10 years old. Still working super, but would love to be able to run more plugins and soft synths with low buffer values. What kind of CPU would you good folks recommend me to go for next time?

 

 

Edited by Daniel Vrangsinn
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I think its more about cost. However,  an i9 is the new cool kid on the block and is highly desirable. I have heard they can be a little high in DPC latency. i7 are known to provide good performance. I just built an i7 8700 with 16 GB of RAM. I'm happy with it.  Panu went for a i9 and seems to be very happy with it. 

 

Jim is the best person to ask about what you should get. 

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There are some killer builds working out there !  I built a 8700k rig.. with all the options.. that was sweet ...I got lucky and ended up running a 8086k LE  again with all the goodies !  If your doing a build feel free to play off me   Thunderbolt rocks on new builds  !  Titan Ridge or die !

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I read that hyper-threading is disabled on the new i5 and i7 processors.  I see a lot has changed since I built my current computer a decade ago

"So on with the DAWBench SGA DSP Test and we can see the 3 new chips in Yellow above. Starting with the 9600K the obvious comparison here is against its predecessor and frankly, it’s a little underwhelming with a somewhere between a 1% – 10% increase depending upon the buffer in play and scaling upwards as the buffer size is increased.

The 9700K is next and we get to compare its new design configuration of 8 true cores and no Hyper-threading, which also appears to come off poorly here when compared against the older 8700K with the results showing up a 20% – 40% drop off against Intel’s own previous generation class leader.

The loss of Hyper-threading here really looks to have impacted the testing on the new generation at least under the DAWBench classic test. I do get the thought process here with the chip design itself, as the largest new segment in recent years that seems to have captured the marketing teams imagination has been the rise in content creation users who are live streaming. True cores for that sort of content generation is far more beneficial, especially gamers who wish to live stream at the same time, so I fully understand this design choice, in fact it could be argued that this style of chip would be preferential for anyone working live but for anyone looking for raw performance in the studio it’s all a bit disappointing so far"

Source: http://www.scanproaudio.info/tag/dawbench/


 

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8 minutes ago, StarTekh said:

There are some killer builds working out there !  I built a 8700k rig.. with all the options.. that was sweet ...I got lucky and ended up running a 8086k LE  again with all the goodies !  If your doing a build feel free to play off me   Thunderbolt rocks on new builds  !  Titan Ridge or die !

I am hopelessly outdated on the pc-building. I see I have a lot of reading up to do. Just checked and found my current firewire devices will work fine with Thunderbolt via an apple adapter

 

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Danial the new builds are Killer !  I've  Been in the bizz 40 yrs and seen a Lot !  FYI im using a Universal Audio Twin mk ll  to a gigabyte Alpine Ridge 2.0 TB card .It has no midi so …..i'm using my m-audio firewire 410  on a Siig Ti based firewire card this works perfect.. I take pleasure in specing builds and don't charge … best deal ur going to get !   Oh ya  there is 10% increase over  the 8086k … so i'm not missing much... Life @4ghz rocks .. the floor is open 

Edited by StarTekh
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7 minutes ago, StarTekh said:

Danial the new builds are Killer !  I've  Been in the bizz 40 yrs and seen a Lot !  FYI im using a Universal Audio Twin mk ll  to a gigabyte Alpine Ridge 2.0 TB card .It has no midi so …..i'm using my m-audio firewire 410  on a Siig Ti based firewire card this works perfect.. I take pleasure in specing builds and don't charge … best deal ur going to get !   Oh ya  there is 10% increase over  the 8086k … so i'm not missing much... Life @4ghz rocks .. the floor is open 

Produced and engineered for 30'ish years now. Still learning new things every day. You gotta love this business. You never stop learning and everything is evolving so fast. I remember the first computer based studio I built, in the 90's. Damn that was shit! Back then Cakewalk was a midi editor only. I had to use one computer for midi and one for audio, synced via midi. My current i7 was the first generation, but it still can handle everything I do. I get some pops and cracles on a full mix if buffer settings are low. But you know how it is. Always want things to be better and faster. I would love to be able to do a full mix on the lowest buffers. 

What kind of motherboards would you good folks recommend in 2019?  My current one is a x58 sabertooth

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Danial you have a few options il show ya :  https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-Z390-A/      is my 1st pick with https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-20#ov  card .

This is a option :https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z390-DESIGNARE-rev-10#kf    this has 2 TB ports built in ...but its not all the features of the card !

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No worries. I found the motherboard you recommended now. Good thing is it was actually cheaper than the Rog, so good for me  :) Thanks for the tip! Thinking with the motherboard you recommended and:

CPU - Intel Core i9-9900K Socket-LGA1151, 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.60GHz, Coffee Lake
Power supply - Corsair HX850, 850W PSU ATX 12V V2.4, 80 Plus Platinum, Modular, 6x 6+2-pin PCIe, 12x SATA, 8x Molex 
CPU cooler - Cooler Master Hyper TX3i 
Memory - HyperX Fury DDR4 3200MHz 32GB 2x16GB 3200MHz 
Graphics - MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB, PCI-Express 3.0, GDDR5, 1354/1468MHz
Cabinet - Fractal Design Define R6

I am trying to pick the most silent components. I have been looking at a lot of dead silent pc builds for offices and am trying to combine parts from those builds.  Do you think this would work out? The shittiest thing here is the graphics card, but I don't game so.... This would be less than 2000$ in total to build

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CPU cooler - Cooler Master Hyper TX3i  is a good cooler But the https://noctua.at/en/nh-u14s  is what I use  replacing a coolermaster 612 v2  was night and day.. your list looks good  I use Crucial memory but Kingston is good too...If they have a memory selector program .. use it .. confirm what you buying is good for A intel build .. Lastly for  boot I use  A Samsung 960 pro 512 … there new 970 is killer . I suggest you consider it .. the power supply you need 650   I use a 550 .. not more  !!   good work 

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Thanks! I see they have the Nocturna as well, so will put that on my list

Regarding power supply. I always bought them too big. My 10 years old computer has a 750. If 550 is enough, I will of course buy smaller and save some money. I just remember reading somewhere many years ago, you should overdo that part a little bit. But I am not an expert here. I am gonna listen to you :)

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