u-he

Caine123 · Post by **Caine123** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:01 am

i am considering getting some new hardware. my current setup is:

Win7 Home Premium 64-bit
8 GB Ram 1600 MHz
i5 2320 3,0 Ghz
Radeon HD 6870

i will get new RAM i think 32 GB, and of course a new graphics card for newer games. but which Intel CPU can you recommend which handles BIG projects nicely!

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:03 am

The fastest i7 you can afford.

Caine123 · Post by **Caine123** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:12 am

what is the difference between the i7 and E5? seems E5 beats some i7s?

Rob James G · Post by **Rob James G** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:56 am

Depending on the vintage some i5's are more powerful than some i7's. If they are the same generation and both desktop then (provided it isn't a special low power consumption version) then an i7 should be significantly more powerful. Even so a good i5 will do nicely. i7 will run yet more instances at same time though.
I use i5, works very well. Motherboard can be upgraded with i7 at later date.

Mobile chips are normally much less powerful than their desktop counterpart so you have to compare like with like. Top of the range mobile i7s are very capable.

Read latest reviews on i5 and i7 there should always be a standout model in terms of price to performance in both ranges.

Elektronisch · Post by **Elektronisch** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:10 am

Im using haswel generation I7 4790k. Runs Diva great comparing to my old q9400. I can run 10 instances of Diva on Great accuracy running each a melody with chords each containing 4 notes,wich is in total 40 voices. Patch MK Brass Straight Up (Poly Lead)

Elektronisch · Post by **Elektronisch** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:12 am

double post

evilantal · Post by **evilantal** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:17 am

If you're looking at i7's, make sure it's at least a quadcore chip.
Some older or budget i7's have fewer cores.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:42 am

Caine123 wrote:what is the difference between the i7 and E5? seems E5 beats some i7s?

E5 is Xeon. Xeon is server-grade CPU, needs a specific motherboard chipset and usually specific (more expensive) EEC RAM. For home computing stick to i7.

cron · Post by **cron** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:17 am

Consider waiting for the Skylake i7s to arrive. They're just a month away IIRC, and should give a nice boost in performance compared to the current Haswell/Broadwell architecture.

Consider buying an unlocked chip (chips ending in K - I 'think' Skyake will be keeping this naming convention) and 'overclocking'. I put overclocking in inverted commas as these chips are designed to be overclocked, and Intel's specification makes this clear. I've got an Ivy Bridge i5 overclocked to 4.5 GHz and I'm still well within Intel's specifications with regards to voltages and heat, so there's an argument to be made that I'm not 'overclocking' at all because I'm not exceeding the specification. I'm using a cooler the size of my head which is nice and quiet, but I understand 4 GHz on the stock cooler isn't rare.

exmatproton · Post by **exmatproton** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:46 am

cron wrote:Consider waiting for the Skylake i7s to arrive. They're just a month away IIRC, and should give a nice boost in performance compared to the current Haswell/Broadwell architecture.

Consider buying an unlocked chip (chips ending in K - I 'think' Skyake will be keeping this naming convention) and 'overclocking'. I put overclocking in inverted commas as these chips are designed to be overclocked, and Intel's specification makes this clear. I've got an Ivy Bridge i5 overclocked to 4.5 GHz and I'm still well within Intel's specifications with regards to voltages and heat, so there's an argument to be made that I'm not 'overclocking' at all because I'm not exceeding the specification. I'm using a cooler the size of my head which is nice and quiet, but I understand 4 GHz on the stock cooler isn't rare.

Same here. Using an i5 4690K overclocked to 4,5 GHz on air. HUGE cooler, but never exceeding 65 degrees Celsius.
Running 8 to 16 voices of Diva at Divine settings won't hurt (using Multimode highpass for instance, at 16 voices, will use 50 to 70 percent of the CPU........hehehe. But no crackles, hick-ups or glitches @ 3 ms latency)

koalaboy · Post by **koalaboy** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:42 am

EvilDragon wrote:
Caine123 wrote:what is the difference between the i7 and E5? seems E5 beats some i7s?
E5 is Xeon. Xeon is server-grade CPU, needs a specific motherboard chipset and usually specific (more expensive) EEC RAM. For home computing stick to i7.

Just for correction, you don't *need* EEC RAM. It's recommended, but not generally a requirement.

I would echo sticking to i7 though. Preferably a hex-core

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:17 pm

Ah, that might've changed with more recent Xeons, then? ISTR it was a requirement before?

Shiek927 · Post by **Shiek927** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:08 pm

You could play with the settings. I never personally have the highest quality settings on Diva unless I am ready to export.

Also, you could be surprised that some patches actually sound better in draft or lower quality modes

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 3:40 pm

If you get an i5 you will sooner or later regret you didn't got an i7, happened to me.

You loss the virtual cores, and you can get 6 core i7 for good prices (4930k or 5820k models)

exmatproton · Post by **exmatproton** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 5:35 pm

rod_zero wrote:If you get an i5 you will sooner or later regret you didn't got an i7, happened to me.

You loss the virtual cores, and you can get 6 core i7 for good prices (4930k or 5820k models)

True for the amount of plugins, etc. But cheap 6core i7's won't perform better compared to a good and i5 overall. Around 200~250 euro's for a nice, fast and unlocked i5 compared to 350~450 "cheap" i7 model...

If you have the money, buy a 4790k. Awesome chip!!! But a tad expensive

u-he

KVR Audio

which CPU to get now for making DIVA and others shine?