KVR Audio

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Fri May 27, 2011 2:16 pm

I was curious if there was a certain board that was known to be good for DAW use that is also good for overclocking? Also one with low DPC latency? Boards range from anywhere from $120 to $350 pending features. I just want to get something that is tried and true for DAW use with the 2600k.

Also, just a quick question, is the performance difference coming from a Q6600 going to be great enough to justify the purchase? I'm between getting a new guitar processor or just upgrading my computer. I've been using a lot of more effects and it is getting tougher to process my guitar tones is real time for monitoring with all the back ground effects running as well.

legendCNCD · Post by **legendCNCD** » Fri May 27, 2011 4:16 pm

monkeymanx wrote:Also, just a quick question, is the performance difference coming from a Q6600 going to be great enough to justify the purchase?

Something I'd like to also know. I've been hitting limits in three last mixing projects already, I hate freezing/bouncing when mixing.

cain · Post by **cain** » Fri May 27, 2011 6:21 pm

well i dont have a 2600k procesor but my freind has one. i have a q6600 overclocked to 3.0ghz and projects that i got at about 92 percent on my q6600 on his its just registering at 11 percent. we both got 8 gigs both running studio one(32bit) on windows 7 64 bit.
so im sold on it , same project that i made on my pc and open in his, its just nuts, so i will be upgrading my pc to a 2600k processer soon.

not real world test environment but im just shocked at the performance increase between the two computers

and my pc is tweaked for audio use. my dpc latency is about 49us with occasional peaks of 90us.

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Fri May 27, 2011 8:18 pm

yes the 2600k is an insane processor, overclock it with multiplier to 4ghz without any tweaking and woah

jcschild · Post by **jcschild** » Fri May 27, 2011 8:28 pm

is it worth it? LOL benchmarks here
http://www.adkproaudio.com/benchmarks.cfm
2nd test down

QX6700 is the very bottom @54RXC and the 2600 stock is 183 oced to 4.5GHz 261.

yeah i would say its an upgrade.

Scott
ADK

legendCNCD · Post by **legendCNCD** » Sat May 28, 2011 9:25 am

That settles it then. But what about the motherboard

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Sat May 28, 2011 11:05 am

I'm definitely sold on the 2600k. So what about a good solid motherboard for a DAW and Overclocking?

Evan · Post by **Evan** » Sat May 28, 2011 3:37 pm

Why not the 2500k? Is hyperthreading significant for audio? I remember it wasn't good for audio with previous Intel architectures..

(btw... you might want to hold off purchases for the next couple of weeks, AMD is releasing their next generation CPUs, we may get price drops or cheaper alternatives).

NTR · Post by **NTR** » Sun May 29, 2011 5:07 am

monkeymanx wrote:I'm definitely sold on the 2600k. So what about a good solid motherboard for a DAW and Overclocking?

I have been researching MB's as well and am seriously thinking the Asus z68 pro. Nice price too, about 200$. This way I can make use of the integrated video processor in the 2600K, with the p67 its useless. Both can be overclocked though. And with the Z68 you have ssd cache functionality, which sounds like it really speeds things up.

The z68 chipset is relatively new. so newer boards are just hitting the market. That said, my decision is based on good luck with asus boards in the past, but I have had luck with gigabyte as well.

Ashe37 · Post by **Ashe37** » Sun May 29, 2011 9:00 am

Evan wrote:Why not the 2500k? Is hyperthreading significant for audio? I remember it wasn't good for audio with previous Intel architectures..

(btw... you might want to hold off purchases for the next couple of weeks, AMD is releasing their next generation CPUs, we may get price drops or cheaper alternatives).

The next gen chips aren't going to be out until the end of the year.

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Sun May 29, 2011 11:03 am

I was looking at the Asus P67 based pro motherboard. I've had good luck with my past gigabyte motherboards too. It's a tough choice.

egbert · Post by **egbert** » Sun May 29, 2011 1:17 pm

Ashe37 wrote:
Evan wrote:Why not the 2500k? Is hyperthreading significant for audio? I remember it wasn't good for audio with previous Intel architectures..

(btw... you might want to hold off purchases for the next couple of weeks, AMD is releasing their next generation CPUs, we may get price drops or cheaper alternatives).
The next gen chips aren't going to be out until the end of the year.

What? Surely you jest. Bulldozer is weeks away and Intel will launch their 8 core CPUs well before the end of next year.

Ashe37 · Post by **Ashe37** » Sun May 29, 2011 1:45 pm

egbert wrote:
Ashe37 wrote:
Evan wrote:Why not the 2500k? Is hyperthreading significant for audio? I remember it wasn't good for audio with previous Intel architectures..

(btw... you might want to hold off purchases for the next couple of weeks, AMD is releasing their next generation CPUs, we may get price drops or cheaper alternatives).
The next gen chips aren't going to be out until the end of the year.
What? Surely you jest. Bulldozer is weeks away and Intel will launch their 8 core CPUs well before the end of next year.

The Sandy Bridge chips just came out a few months ago and because of the cougar point problrm weren't shipping in any numbers until last month. The next chip change for Intel is going to be Ivy Bridge, due out at the end of the year....

egbert · Post by **egbert** » Sun May 29, 2011 1:49 pm

Oh really? I could have sworn that Sandy Bridge had more tricks up its sleeve.

Kraznet · Post by **Kraznet** » Sun May 29, 2011 2:49 pm

I built a new computer on Friday. Sandy Bridge 2600K +16 gigs of ram and a Vertex 3 120 gig SSD OS hard drive running Windows 7 Home Premium OEM x64. The Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=3850#ov

It's the cheapest Z68 Gigabyte which has FireWire built in as far as I can tell. It doesn't have the Intel HD3000 built-in graphics which doesn't matter anyway as I'm using dual ATI 5450 graphics cards. I also have a Seasonic x400 fanless PSU Plus a Fractal Designs R3 case in black.
It's all up and running nicely. I had a bit of trouble getting CPU cooler to fit (Scythe Mugen 2 rev B) as the Corsair Vengeance ram has very high heatsinks. I managed to fit it with about 2 mm clearance although I had to rotate the fan next to the graphics card.

As far as DPC latency goes it's a mixed bag. When the computer is idle DPC latency is around 30us but as soon as I do anything related to the RME Fireface 400 the DPC latency goes up to around 200us. I've managed to improve this as I was getting readings around 500 yesterday. Gigabyte no longer seem to use Texas Instruments 1394 chipsets. They have switched to VIA so maybe that's the cause of the DPC latency. Although the latency is higher than I would like it doesn't seem to have affected anything so far.

Regards
Kraznet

Sandy Bridge Motherboard Advice P67 or Z68 DPC Latency