KVR Audio

Guitar Binge · Post by **Guitar Binge** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:40 am

I produce music on 'Cubase', mostly just a few VSTi's from Native Instruments. I optimized the hell out of my PC a few years ago, but it's struggling now with these VST's... I didn't realize that an i7 isn't just an i7. It turns out that in 2024, my i7-2600 is like 12 years old; my 16gb of ddr3 ram sucked, as did my HDD... So I need an inexpensive upgrade. I'll prob. get a refurbished Dell or something and optimize it as much as possible. Is jumping up to an i7-8700 and 32gb ddr4 good enough? or is 10th gen good enough? Please any suggestions would help. My budget's around $800

jtsterays · Post by **jtsterays** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 6:27 am

You dont really need an i7, more core counts doesnt mean better in music production, single core speed is. So get an i5 with the highest gen number your money can get (preferably 12th and up).
Heres a really good guide you can check out : https://support.image-line.com/action/k ... e/?ans=214

Shinizzle · Post by **Shinizzle** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:00 am

Single core speeds are generally pretty good across the board these days so choice is negligible between differing chips (i5/i7/Ryzen etc)
But deffo stick with anything 8th gen and above as it wasn't until that gen when intel actually had to respond to competition and start adding more cores, the i7s and i5s prior were 2 core piece's of turd.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:20 am

Guitar Binge wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:40 am I produce music on 'Cubase', mostly just a few VSTi's from Native Instruments. I optimized the hell out of my PC a few years ago, but it's struggling now with these VST's... I didn't realize that an i7 isn't just an i7.

I don't understand. Of course your gen2 i7 isn't as fast as a gen14 i7. Of course, there are different i7's as well.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:26 am

Guitar Binge wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:40 am My budget's around $800

You get something MUCH better than the stuff you mentioned. Don't get such an old CPU.

Pictus · Post by **Pictus** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:05 pm

Guitar Binge wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:40 am (...)I optimized the hell out of my PC a few years ago(...)

Sorry, I can only help with optimizations
viewtopic.php?p=8820694#p8820694

vstdls · Post by **vstdls** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:14 pm

No need to spend alot to see a massive upgrade. I agree the 2nd Gen i7 is probably getting a little long in the tooth. The 12th Gen i5 probably represents one of the best values for performance to price, but anything 8th Gen and up will probably serve you very well for DAW work for another 12 years....the only one I'd still hold on to is the old monster in the venerable 4790K, which I think JUST got beat out by the 12th Gen i5s a year or two back.

If you're not looking to insert a GPU for gaming etc, below are some big upgrades for well under $800

Beelink SEi12 Mini PC,12th Generation Intel Core i5-12450H Processor,up to 4.4Ghz(8C/12T),Mini Computer with 16GB DDR4 RAM/1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCle 4.0 SSD,HDMI+DP/WiFi 6/BT5.2/Dual-Screen Display https://a.co/d/hpA1fJg

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF Desktop PC, Intel Core i7-8700 3.20GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, BT, Window 10 Professional (Renewed), Black https://a.co/d/6hClHsD

GEEKOM Mini PC Mini IT11, 11th Intel Core i7-11390H (4C/8T, up to 5.0GHz), 32GB DDR4 RAM 1TB M.2 SSD, Windows 11 Mini PC, Support 8K UHD/USB4.0/WiFi 6/BT5.2, Home&Office Mini Desktop Computers https://a.co/d/1yRZHS4

Guitar Binge · Post by **Guitar Binge** » Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:14 pm

Thanks everyone for all the help; it'll be put to good use. In the 12 years out of the studio, a lot has changed. (I didn't know "Fruity Loops" was the same DAW my son uses, 'FL'

) Thank you for the links as well. I saw high-end hardware for cheap in "mini-pc's", but I was worried about things like overheating. Any input on "mini-pc's" would help.

Guitar Binge · Post by **Guitar Binge** » Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:40 am

I'm still going over options for the pc. I can get the same specs on two choices for the same price, but one is i7-8700 and one ie i7-9700... I know it gets tricky b/c the amount of cores isn't necessarily what matters. Also, I heard hyper-threading was removed in the 9th gen. Any ideas which would be better for music?

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:52 am

So regarding core count. As far as I understand, a single audio 'stream' can use only one core. (in most DAWs anyway?) So ya, if you have a CPU monster synth, it's only running on one core.
But doesn't the DAW do it's best to distribute channels across the cores? So isn't more cores vital if you run big track counts? (so in a perfect world, you'd have a super clock speed AND high core court right?)

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:57 am

Good rule of thumb is to check benchmarks at something like;

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/desktop.html

These are based on user tests so not 100% but they do give a good overview with a lot of tests.

Now for the money you have I reckon you could get something like a cheap new or refurbed i7-12700 desktop, e.g;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/171957/i.htm ... 00&_sop=15

Will wazz all over the 8700 and 9700..

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/46 ... el-i7-9700

I do sympathise by the way. Had a long break from it all meself a few years back and it took ages to get back up to speed with all this stuff...

Guitar Binge · Post by **Guitar Binge** » Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:04 pm

Glad to know. I'll keep checking out the 'cpubenchmark'. Thanks for sending the links also.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:28 pm

jtsterays wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2024 6:27 am You dont really need an i7, more core counts doesnt mean better in music production, single core speed is. So get an i5 with the highest gen number your money can get (preferably 12th and up).
Heres a really good guide you can check out : https://support.image-line.com/action/k ... e/?ans=214

This is terrible advice. The core count in older i5s and i7s is identical. A 12th gen i5 is worth having, no previous i5 is. A 12th Gen i5 will outperform a 10th Gen i7 and is well worth looking for. Something like this would be a massive upgrade from what you have now, has two years worth of warranty and comes in well under your budget, so you could splash out for some extra RAM -

DELL OptiPlex Mini PC 3000 i5 12th Gen 12500T 8GB 256GB NVMe SSD WiFi 6E

As for mini-PCs, our editors use them at work for cutting short-form HD video so they are fine.

sempondr · Post by **sempondr** » Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:35 pm

This will give you a good idea about CPU's relative power today:
https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom/daw-d ... -processor
https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom/daw-d ... rkstations

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:13 am

Does that scan.co.uk have a database of ALL their measured cpus? I only see a limited list.
I'd want to compare something current with what I've got now.

i7 doesn't just mean i7... Desperate Producer