i7-4790K or i7-5820K for new rig using Ableton?

[RichardCory]

I'm debating between the 4790K and 5820K for a new build I'm putting together come Black Friday / Cyber Monday. I'm just not sure whether the improvements of the 5820K make it worth the cost over the 4790K. I've seen various benchmarks that put the 5820K over the 4790K for most purposes, but I'd like to know specifically what kind of differences I would expect to see in audio applications.

My current i5-3570K chokes hard when I run a lot of voices in Serum. I would love to max the voices and poly on both oscillators at a reasonable latency without any hiccups. I know either the 4790K or 5820K will help with that (although I'm not sure if either will accomplish my goal to the fullest), but would the 5820K's six cores and larger cache be a substantial improvement over the 4790K?

Not only is the 5820K itself more expensive than the 4790K, but the 5820K's motherboards and RAM types are also significantly more expensive than those used by the 4790K. I would be looking at spending close to $400 more on an 5820K build than I would on a 4790K build. I would be willing to pay up if I would be seeing a $400 improvement over the 4790K, but I am skeptical about that being the case.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[dsan@mail.com]

I don't know about bench marks and such but thought you may want to consider save the money on the build and spend it for VEP5 and run your i5 in tandem as a slave.

I recently did this and am super glad I did.

I built with the 4790 and maxed the ram on the MOBO (32 GB). I needed that RAM more than I needed CPU for my work.

BTW - a few bucks can be saved by forgetting the "K" model. At least on the 4790. You realize the "K" is for overclocking enthusiasts? So if you don't plan to overclock, more to save

More about VEP5 here in you are unfamiliar:
https://www.google.com/search?q=vep5&ie ... channel=sb

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[zbest56]

The 4790K will see a good improvement over your i5, but the slight improvement in performance and the addition of hyperthreading will not match the difference made by having more cores. Will it make a $400 difference? I couldn't tell you, but i will tell you that if you have the coin, go with the 5820K. This will also leave room to easily upgrade to a xeon with even more cores in the future. But to tell you the truth, The 4790K will provide plenty of power.

[Astralv]

I do not see why your 3570 K would choke. I have 3770 K and I am yet to load it enough to see any issues. The only thing I experience with Serum is slow programs/presets changes. It depends on your budget- if you have too much money, ... You may consider to keep your 3570 running for another year. First of all- the new memory format (DDR4) is already released, but not supported by any motherboards. New processors are expected this summer- Brodwell, and Windows 10 will be released next year. Why build now? I know New Egg and TigerDirect keep bombarding me with the special deals and promotions, but I do not give in. I already built 3 computers last year. I have 3770k as my music, and 4770K for the everything else. Both have Asus motherboards and 16 Gb memory. I see no difference between 3770k and 4770K, 4770k runs hotter. That's all.

[RichardCory]

I should note that my 3570K doesn't always choke with Serum. It depends on what kind of sound it's making. If I'm maxing the voices, hitting multiple chords, and running a long release, the dozens of voices are going to stack if I play fast enough, and that's when it becomes a problem. I was just making something today running three instances of Serum all at once, and it was fine, because it wasn't too taxing with simultaneous voices. I suppose it's not that big of a deal. Maybe I will wait after all. We'll see. Thanks.