3970x cpu

[instawoq]

Hey guys, I want a new powerful configuration for DAW/Audio work running a ton of plugins may be even at 88.2 sampling rate. I am on a 2k budget, give or take some. I don't want to worry about CPU load anymore, using all native stuff. Am I starting off right so far? I am moving from an i7 920 X58.

CPU: i7-3970X Extreme Edition 6Core 3.50 GHz 15MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011
MEMORY: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/2133MHz Quad Ch.
MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE X79-UP4 Intel X79 Chipset Quad Ch

The thing is, I am not sure if I should overclock? Or use software Turbo?
Secondly, overclocking or not, is 2133 RAM overkill?

Should I just run it at stock speeds? If I decide on this, it will cut costs but also change a lot of components
that I have to decide on for the custom builder. A pro will be building this for me.

[instawoq]

bump

[mmettin]

The processor would eat up around $1000.00 of your budget.

What else would you need to purchase in your stated budget ? (like hard drives, video card(s), case, keyboard, etc.)

What software do you intend to use ?

[instawoq]

Hello,
Well I don't need too much ram, going with like 16g. Don't need a fancy vid card either, so that will cut costs quite a bit. The case would be a standard mid tower, may be Azza or something like that. I don't need HD's, already have those. Just one 500G 7200 HDD for the OS. So the focus is the CPU for me.

[Activate: AMD]

While we're talking gratuitously powered processors with the price tag to match, the 3930K makes so much more sense than the extreme edition chips. For an extra $500 you get 100mhz and 3mb L3 cache from the 3960X vs the 3930K. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You're going to need to buy a CPU cooler no matter which X79 CPU you get, because the retail package doesn't include one. In that case, you might as well spend a small fraction of the money you'd save on the 3930K vs the 3960X to get a decent HSF. With the K series intels (or X series for that matter), overclocking is really quite simple: Increase the multiplier and maybe add a bit of voltage. You could even forgo the pro doing it and just do it yourself without much learning.

I can't speak to the quality of that GB motherboard, or really any other X79 motherboards because I never considered the platform personally. There seem to be a few choices in that price range, give or take 30-40$, that seem viable. I would consider 2133mhz ram overkill, especially if not overclocking. I don't know that there are too many workloads that are starved RAM bandwith anymore. Maybe audio work is one of them, in which case it might be worth it, but I don't know.

What other components are you looking for input on? You probably want a decent PSU to go with it. I'd also recommend an SSD for the system drive rather than a 7200RPM drive.

[instawoq]

Now that was a response!! Thanks a lot man. I've been reading, asking around and learning pretty much what you confirm which is great. I will go with the 3930k. Also yes ssd for OS is looking good for me.I am shooting for like 750 W power supply, therma-something lol
i know they're good though! Im confident with GB mobo's, been using them for audio for the past 8 years or so.

But the OC'ing I am not even going to touch haha I have 0 experience with it, even after all of these years of comp use. I rather pay an extra 30 bux or so for them to handle it. Activate: AMD you rock!

[Activate: AMD]

Now that was a response!! Thanks a lot man. I've been reading, asking around and learning pretty much what you confirm which is great. I will go with the 3930k. Also yes ssd for OS is looking good for me.I am shooting for like 750 W power supply, therma-something lol
i know they're good though! Im confident with GB mobo's, been using them for audio for the past 8 years or so.

But the OC'ing I am not even going to touch haha I have 0 experience with it, even after all of these years of comp use. I rather pay an extra 30 bux or so for them to handle it. Activate: AMD you rock!

I've always been happy with the Corsair PSU's, they're re-badged Seasonic designs, which are usually considered top-notch. 750W is fine since you won't be putting a bunch of graphics cards in there, but don't skimp on the brand when building a shiny new expensive rig. The Samsung 840 SSD drives are also a good value.

And always glad to help

[instawoq]

Cool, good to know about the PSU. I wasn't aware Corsair was a re-badging. Also that's the one I was looking at, the Samsung SSD 840! I've been using it in another rig and they are awesome. On top of that I read good things about it all the time.

[instawoq]

Just for comparison, how much of a boost would you say one should see going from 1st gen 920 to the 3930k?

[Activate: AMD]

Its heavily dependent on the programs you'd be running. Heavily multi-threaded applications would see the most benefit, but the architecture change is fairly significant as well. To get a brief idea this link should show a snapshot of the differences. Be aware that a lot of those are synthetic benchmarks that may or may not have real world relevance to your tasks. How much correlation you'll see, I can't really say since I don't do audio work personally. If it is pretty CPU intensive then the increase should be noticeable.

[instawoq]

Well the software I will be using benefits greatly from multi-thread/multi-core comp's. On paper, this new system can only be an enhancement then. But, looking at those numbers, I'm starting to feel that I may not see such a huge benefit though relative to what I have now. And that is the most important. For example, I'd love to know that I could double the amount of plugins I use now without bringing the computer to its knees. Thank you for posting that link btw!

[instawoq]

I read more literature on how it is about 2x or 2.5x more than 920. I just wish I knew what that translates too in my daw scenario

[Activate: AMD]

I've read a little bit more, and depending on how you're doing your processing, it seems like it is a very CPU intensive process. My feeling is that if the work your plugins are doing is parallelizable, you will see pretty good scaling. If each plugin runs as an individual thread, I'd expect that to be the case. A bunch of those benchmarks in the Anandtech link I posted show 20-50% improvements. Obviously there are some that are lower, but the video encoding benchmarks show big improvements.

[Yeah]

I've always been happy with the Corsair PSU's, they're re-badged Seasonic designs, which are usually considered top-notch. 750W is fine since you won't be putting a bunch of graphics cards in there, but don't skimp on the brand when building a shiny new expensive rig. The Samsung 840 SSD drives are also a good value.

And always glad to help

If you are not going to be needing a high end graphics card than you won't need a 750 watt psu man. Save some bucks because I can tell right now if you didn't find a good 750 you were happy with you'd go higher wattage and you don't need to.

I would maybe depending on how your talking plugins .. increase your memory with the money saved. IMO you can never have enough memory for assisting the OS/programs in processing power- Then again .. with an SSD you may not see much of a difference. But I'd go for more memory and maybe 650 watt psu. Theres a nice one on newegg right now for 120.00 before rebate by FSP thats a good brand.

[instawoq]

You know, it really comes down to first the sampling rate chosen for the mixing session. Then, what really starts to push the comp is the plugins + automation moves. On top of that, certain plugins are more intensive than others. A lot of audio mixers end up pre-rendering certain tracks with certain plugins to reduce CPU usage during the mix. This is what I'd like to get away from. I want CPU headroom such that I can have all of my plugins and can add more if need be without worrying about buckling the CPU.