Best CPU for Music Production PC

[Kaine]

The i7-6700 is effectively the replacement for the i7-4790, so that's why they are priced similarly.

Seems odd then that the shop I'm using as a price reference lists the 4790 as more expensive than the 6700

The margin on CPU's is tiny in general, nobody is ever willing to discount and lose money, when the CPU might still have a market to be sold at full price. That's why you never get blow out specials when chip goes end of life.

The newer skylake has a slightly reduced power consumption, and slightly more efficient GPU core although otherwise it was largely a die shrink this generation, which is why the older cpu is still proving popular in some regions where it can still be cheaper to pick up.

Seriously, the last thing I would want when spending many late nights in a darkened room making music is to have all those lights going on (I'm even considering taping over the green light on my Mackie reference monitors). But uh, I guess it's no issue, BECAUSE THE MOTHERBOARD IS IN A CASE !

Although I will conclude that you must be able to get clear sided cases. Not me.

yeah, it's a rather popular thing for the gamers who have piled up the water cooling and cards. Plenty of cases out there with side windows (hell, even some that are completely see through!) and lighting them up like a prop from "Fast and Furious" is far too common for my liking. All about the LAN parties I guess.

[PapaLazarou]

The snappy marketing on this board has sucked me in ! Just kidding - it's very convincing, but I imagine a lot of what they're saying is probably standard anyway. Like HIGH END AUDIO CAPACITORS haha. I'm not sure that's a thing. Nor do I really think the additional bonus of BLACK CAPACITORS is even a selling point, but hey, I'm not their target audience. I see merit in a gold-plated socket though. But I would have thought that would be standard across most boards.

https://www.mwave.com.au/product/gigaby ... rd-ab65417

I really just want to buy it because it's got red bits on it.

In all seriousness, I'll but the motherboad and the CPU chip at the same time, and ask someone at the shop to ensure it's compatible. I might even get them to put it in for me, as I'm sure there are static damage issues if mis-handled.

Oh did I mention, I'm going to put all this together myself... it's all just plug in and go, right?

It's all plug and play pretty much. An anti static wrist strap is cheap, but I've built loads of systems just making sure to touch a bare metal part of the case before handling any delicate parts. I've not done it myself but I've heard of quite a few people damaging Intel's CPU sockets during installs, through being heavy handed. The sockets have over 1100 incredibly delicate pins packed into a small area, and you just have to be careful to place (not drop) the CPU into the socket and make sure it's aligned properly before putting the clamp down.

If you have a shop that's willing to put the major bits together and test it POST's OK, that might be worth doing.

The Gigabyte Gaming boards are pretty good and yes, they light up red

[KarmaShaman]

Red gear must surely means it goes faster (like a red car). Or perhaps it just means I will lean towards 260bpm songs !

Ugh I couldnt think of anything worse.

[incubus]

It is indeed a slippery slope.

With this computer it was easy. i7's had just come out, you knew what you were getting, mobo's were fairly well made...just get the usb ports you need/etc.

It's been different than that for some time. Too many options, too much incompatibility, USB 3, oh my....

[nIGhT-SoN]

I would wait for AMD Zen, see what they come up with, from this video it looks promising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQS8s7TOXsE

[Kaine]

Whilst I really, really do want AMD to make up some ground here, even if it's just to kick Intel in the arse, I'm fast losing hope that the Zen platform is going to be all that great. Early benchmarks suggest it'll offer up some competition in the mid-range, but won't really touch the highend solutions for anyone doing creative work.

Just to cover the video:

Fury X used in the gaming test. They've tested a GPU heavy codebase on the fastest card they sell and then called it a win for the CPU?

Blender test, they don't state the GPU's used with the two test systems, so given Blender is also GPU heavy, it doesn't really mean anything. You'll also note they underclocked the Intel by 25% in order for Zen beat it.

On paper, the new artitecture got me really excited, but the more real world examples I see, the more I lose interest. They need to stop with the hype and just release it already. Good hardware at the right price point will sell itself.

If it's priced right they can clear up with the gamers, that alone might be enough to reinvigorate the market. After all this generation is being developed to sell through to the console makers on their next refresh and lets be honest that's the majority of the market, not creative users. If they can get a footing again in the midrange, I think we'll all benefit from falling tech prices in the mid-term.

[fluffy_little_something]

Just a couple of days ago I read pretty much the opposite, namely that the new AMD 8-core processor, samples of which have only recently been sent out to specific testers, performs very well already, while optimization is not even finished, yet. The new chip will likely be launched in October.

I deliberately postponed building my new system because of the new AMD chips. I will wait till the first reliable reviews are out in November and then decide whether to get the new one, or settle for the best "old" AMD chip, which will likely become much cheaper when the new stuff becomes available.

[Kaine]

Yeah, the multi-threading and relocation of the memory controller should make for improved performance, and I hope they do pull something out of the hat, the market needs it.

I'm really not placing any bets here until we see a real world test setup, these "leaks" however do happen every generation and they often cherry pick in the kits favour and don't always reflect the realities. That's not aimed at AMD specifically although given the hype before Bulldozer, they certainly have a history of it. I recall similar incidents of hype building from Intel (when they were losing, Prescott anyone?), Nvidia (that last Nforce 780i & 790i, so many benchmarks, so much shit in a box) and lets face it everyone else.

Until the units ship and proper reviewers get to play with them, these leaks are worthless.

[nIGhT-SoN]

Can't agree more, but it's worth waiting in case it actually provides the promised performance. I'm also curious about the price.