Hello ,

I need new PC for film scoring , video games scoring and post production stuff.

Right now I use Live8 and some NI synths and next month I'm going to buy Komplete 8 Ultimate , but , eventually I want to use some heavy libraries like Symphobia , Omnisphere , LASS , EW STUFF etc .

I have 2 options :

Buying super strong PC ( i7-3930K - Intel X79 MB -32G RAM - 2TB HD - 128G SSD)

Buying semi strong PC ( i7-3770 8MB - Intel H77 MB - 16G RAM - 1TB HD - 128G SSD )

Because I'm only going to use Live8 and Komplete8 in next -1-2 years ( until i will buy the more serious libraries ) I'm not sure if this is good idea to buy super strong PC right not .

What do you thing guys?

Invest now on MONSTER MACHINE or buy decent PC and wait until I get all the serious libraries ?

any 1 ?

If you are planning using kontakt a lot more memory would be top of the list. Especially with big symphonic libs as they chew thru memory like gods business

My two year old i7 950 Nehalem can tear it up with the best (I can set Diva to Divine and pull off 16 note poly.) With either your Sandy Bridge 3930 or Ivy Bridge 3770, you're going to have a ton of grunt to get the work done, period.

Keep in mind, higher Ghz for sample libraries matters more than number of cores. However, multiple cores do help with a host that does a good job of multi-core support. That Sandy with 6 cores vs. the Ivy with 4, will give you significantly more breathing room.

I'd also buy 16 gigs of RAM and made sure I had at least a 2TB HDD. By the time you're going to need lots of memory, prices will be down even more if the market plays the way it normally does with memory. Also, prices between 1, 2 and 3TB drives are insanely close right now, it's crazy not to jump for the bigger drive, at least at the 1 vs 2TB point. 4TB, too expensive.

My motto - Buy what you need when you need it. I've wasted so much money trying to be 'proactive' with electronics. It never seems to work out the way you thought it would when you bought it at the beginning. I also never ever ever spend more than $300 on an Intel proc. Usually the $500+ processors are such a small increment in power over the $300 proc, it's not worth it. This has held true for me since the 90's with Intel at least.

I'd go middle of the road. If you're serious with buying the big libraries, you need deep pockets anyway, and if it's more than just a hobby at that point, then it's a tax write off.

Devon

With this mentioned plug-ins RAM is more important than CPU. This is sample based stuff and so for very heavy usage the 32GB RAM machine is fine.
For video stuff (after effects etc) the same... this needs often more RAM so frames/effects can be pre-rendered to the RAM.

I would rethink the 128GB SSD and invest a bit more money for 256GB SSD. This leaves more space to put also some of this libraries on the SSD for quicker loading.

Lot of good advice up there. You want to be looking at a well loaded i7 machine or a hex-core is worth it for scoreing work if you can stretch that far.

The one thing that sticks out through is that Live currently is 32bit and will restrict you to 4GB. By going up to the 64bit beta you'll unlock the extra memory for use, but as it's still a Beta be wary of teething issues.

Just bought Albion 1+2 and Komplete 8 so I'm pretty short in cash right now not sure I will be able to buy teh system I wrote above

This is actually my 3 options :

( i7-3770 8MB - Intel H77 MB - 2x8G RAM - 1TB HD - 128G SSD ) -1150$

( i7-3820 10MB- Intel X79 MB - 4x4GB RAM -2TB HD - 128G SSD) -1550$

( i7-3930K 12MB- Intel X79 MB -8x4GB RAM - 2TB HD - 128G SSD) -2100$


Would like to have some extra opinions on this topic please .

Did you look at the i7-3770k?

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
http://ark.intel.com/compare/65523,63696,63697,63698,65719

Do you plan to upgrade? Hasswell is coming. (possibly 10% faster)
An upgrade would probably mean: New MB, CPU, Heat Sink, quad-channel memory(optional).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/262241/inside_intels_haswell_ cpu_better_performance_all_day_battery.html

If I wasn't going to upgrade, then I would go for the extra cores in the i7-3930k and not look back.

-Club Ho

3930K costs twice than the 3820 . Is there really huge performance between them ?

I'm going use in near future komplete 8 and some Kontakt libraries only

Your middle choice should be fine. It's never a good value to go for a top-of-the-line processor. The i7-3820 is an awesome CPU. And imo, 16GB memory is all you need. Go for the best SSD you can afford. The drive is the most often encountered bottleneck on most puters these days. Run Win7 "Windows Experience" test on most any computer and it invariably shows the hard drive as the bottleneck - it slows booting, loading software, and loading samples.

I really think about doubling the size of the SSD - 256GB

Or should I get 2x128GB SSD ?

Afaik a 256GB is not as expensive as 2x128GB (for instance a OSZ Vertex4).

For example, the Kontakt libraries needing some time to load. It's for me the plug-in which needs the most time if a project is loading. This can be decreased a _lot_ if the libs are on a SSD!

On my system NI needs about 30GB (Alicia Keys and the factory libs for Kontakt). Plug-ins 1,5GB... Own samples 5GB. So this needs about 40GB...
With additional libs this can be easy 60GB or more.

For Windows I would reserve 100GB, this gives also some space if there are different DAWs installed or big programs for video/photo stuff.
100GB for Windows, 60GB for samples, some space for the actual projects you are working on (I would only put the actual project on the SSD and the old projects on a big data HDD (1 or 2TB). This data HDD can also hold image backups of the SSD (eg with Trueimage), so if the SSD must be replaced there is a backup which can be easy installed on a a new SSD).
So you need about 160GB SSD and 1 or 2 TB HDD. The SSD has eventually some space left so you can try Windows 8, Linux etc.

Just found this :

http://ark.intel.com/compare/63698,63697

Not seems like the 3930K should cost twice the price of 3820 Confused

50% more in my testing. The cheaper chip offers better bang per buck, but the 3930k is well priced for what it is and can do which is something I rarely (if ever) say that about any extreme chip. Clock it up to around 4.4Ghz and you get another 25% performance out of it too, so no slouch in those regards.