Intel Q6600 processor - buying advice?

[skankdelvar]

Buying a new PC. Will run light-weight-ish DAW on it. Prob an LE version, (Cubase, Sonar, Pro-tools, haven't decided). Max likely simultaneous recording channels - 2. Max playback channels - 10 or 12.

Got choice of q6600, q9300 or q9450. Anyone have any views? Should I stretch my budget to the 'better' items, or is it all b*****ks, and the 6600's fine?

ta in advance for the wisdom

[Platypus]

I just recently bought a pc with a q6600 (quad-core) and it runs like a whippet. If the the faster processors are available in the machine you want and there's not a lot of difference in price, then get it. Just be aware that you usually pay quiet a premium for the latest version, meaning that it's not always value for money.
If you going to buy Vista or 64 bit operating system just make shure that whatever software you intent to run is supported. I'm thinking of DAW software here.

P

[Scorchin]

Go for the cheaper Q6600. It's better value at the moment and with a small amount of overclocking you can easily reach the speeds of Q9300+. Even if you've never overclocked before, new motherboards have an "auto" option that give a minimum of 10% speed boost. In most cases when using a DAW, RAM is more important than cpu speed. These days a dual-core with 2GB will suffice for what you're looking at.

Of course, depends on how efficiently you use your VST's

[Fraktal]

Quad cores run hot, and since you need to remove all that heat from the processor, their fan+heatsinks are usually very noisy, wich is something I cant accept in a DAW system.

You better check for your recording software and plugins, see if they are optimized for quad cores. Most likely they wont cos programmers are the laziest human beings only surpassed by bassists. If so, I would recommend a dual core, the E8400 has some raving reviews, runs cooler, cheaper and faster than a quad core unless, as I said, your applications are optimized for quad cores.

I only know of a handful apps optimized for quad cores, very VERY few. Parallel processing is a nightmare for programmers.

If you, like me, are concerned about noisy PCs in your studio environment I highly suggest you:

1-This PC case wich will soak up a big deal of noise from all the fans inside: [url="http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=09182"]http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=09182[/url]
Its stylish and incredibly silent since its panels are made of multiple layers to dampen the noise from fans and hard disk drives inside, also a very smart air flow. its also HUGE, assembling your PC, working inside, replacing components, connecting cables, etc its all a breeze and a pleasure cos you have loads of space to work in. It even has routing for cables so they dont annoy you or screw the air flow.

2-Replace all fans inside your PC case, power supply unit and heatsinks with 120mm Noctua Fans: [url="http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=start"]http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=start[/url]
By far the most technologically advanced fans with computer designed profiles to minimize air turbulences improving airflow and reducing noise. Their fans are rated between 6dB and 19dB, depending on the model and operational speed. They also include rubber silent blocks for mounting so vibrations wont transfer to your PC case and their bearings are magnetically centered and surrounded by oil, they keep spinning silently even after years of use.

3-Western Digital, Hitachi or Samsung hard disk drives, they are highly regarded by DAW gurus all around the world as the most silent HDDs. Some of these brands have silent drives series, whose are even less noisy.

4-Passively cooled graphic card, there are loads of models and any of them above 80 pounds or so will work flawlessly with your DAW. Avoid mainboard integrated graphics, they will eat up all your precious RAM that you badly need for libraries and plugins.

My PC is built with that Antec P182 case, 2 Western Digital HDDs, 4 Noctua fans 800rpm 120mm mounted on the case and one Noctua 1300rpm 120mm for the processor. I live in the countryside on a very VERY quiet area and I cant hear any PC noise, not even by the nights, and it sits just 1.5 meters away from my bed.

Edited July 31, 2008 by Fraktal

[Muse_Cubed]

I've got a Q9450 overclocked to 3.44GHz and it runs like a dream. The quads do run quite hot, but if you invest in a decent heatsink (£20 and up) it'll be cool and quiet. And you'll easily be able to overclock it to 3.2, probably more.

The main difference between the Q9450 and the Q6600 is that the former is slightly cooler and it has additional coding instructions. Also, due to the die shrink, it'll run about 10% faster clock for clock than the Q6600 but the difference isn't really that observable.

[Fraktal]

Still, whats the point of buying a quad core, expensiver, hotter, powerhungry processor if your applications cant take advantage of 4 cores parallel processing?

Its not only the initial cost of the processor, its also the electricity bill. A quad core processor will consume roghly double the power than a dual core processor. Lets think about the environment, also? A direct comparison would be to buy a 4 tons 4x4 instead of a classical car... Are you gonna drive offroad? 99% of 4x4 owners use their polluting beasts to bring kids to school and go to the supermarket... Such a waste of power!

Edited July 31, 2008 by Fraktal

[ahpook]

[quote name='Fraktal' post='252068' date='Jul 31 2008, 02:42 PM']Still, whats the point of buying a quad core, expensiver, hotter, powerhungry processor if your applications cant take advantage of 4 cores parallel processing?[/quote]

i was kindof thinking the same thing...my dual-core machine isn't even stretched by what i do, and if you're running a 'lightweight' daw...

i'll admit i'm no expert on these things, but i'd say have a think if you really need the processing power of a quad-core, given then noise and power consumption considerations.

[leprechaun]

I'm not sure where you guys get that a quad core is noisy from?? I run a Q9300 with a passive heatsink, it is neither hot nor noisy!! I would avoid overclocking like the plague, you will not need the extra headroom this provides, also along with the extra power comes greater instability...the last thing you want in a DAW...

+1 here for the Antec P182. It is fantastic, very quiet and also very large making the build an awful lot easier than some cases.

Make sure you spend a decent amount of money on a good power supply, possibly the most underrated component of the lot. You can get some good passively cooled graphics cards too, so unless you want to run games you can minimise noise here also.

I would also advise to get the most poweful and up to date (intel) processor within your budget, otherwise you will be upgrading in what seems like no time..

[Scorchin]

+1 for Kustom PC's

[charic]

Just so you know your best off running xp as many daw's still aren't compatible with vista. And i recommend protools LE very highly

[Dubs]

I run ProTools LE 7.3 on an AMD 3700+ machine with 2GB of Corsair RAM and Windows XP, and I’ve never had any issues, and I’ve maxed out the number of tracks a few times and run a lot of very demanding plug-ins (stereo TrueVerb, BFD, SuperTab delays etc…) and I’ve not encountered any problems at all, and my machine is practically ancient in comparison to new machines. Basically any new machine you buy will be able to run a powerful DAW as long as you have enough RAM – 2GB+.

Personally I wouldn’t bother paying the premium for brand new technology because you know in 6 months it’s going to be half the price. My advice would be to get the Q6600 in an XP machine, that’s if you decide that quad core is the way you want to go.