8th gen i3 vs i5 for a music production box?

[SvenTobold]

I'm looking at building a new PC for music production. I run Reason 10 and a lit of different VSTs a Focusrite 2i2 USB 2.0 interface and some MIDI controllers. The biggest VST is probably being ToonTrack Supperior Drummer 3. It has a pretty large RAM usage footprint. (Over 1.2GB in some cases)

I'm currently running a Asus Laptop from around 2011. It has a i5 2410m dual core processor, 8gb DDR3 RAM and 256GB SSD.

I originally wanted to build a NUC or something similar but then I saw the DeskMini 310 and that can use a desktop CPU. So I had planned on a newer i5 8400 box but I'm kinda leaning towards the DeskMini 310 and a i3 8100.

I like the DeskMini due to it's small size and being able to use two monitors.

I didn't realize the i3s went quad core in the 8th gen.

Would the extra power of the i5 be wasted next to an i3? I'm just trying to figure if the i5 is completely necessary. The i3 is a bit cheaper and still much faster than what I use currently.

The only other thing to note would be that I'm going to shoot for 16gb RAM in the new build.

TL;DR: is a 8th gen i5 8400 overkill compared to a i3 8100 for music production?

 

[jason201]

As long as your computer specs meets or exceeds those recommended by your DAW/Audio software, it'd be fine.
And audio production in general relies more on RAM than CPU (and by itself, it largely depends on the audio interface, other gear, and your own skill set)
That said, I'm not sure why you'd wanna get a "mini" desktop, why not just buy a proper one? And just get whatever CPU that fits your budget.

 

[failboat]

I'd recommend comparing the passmark scores. if something is single threaded the single thread score >1900 would help a lot.
some of the NUC use the laptop chips.
most of the new stuff has really good turbo. it's likely going to be a nice upgrade for you.

if not much of the stuff you do will use the extra cores the 8400 won't make a huge difference over the 8100. the 8400 has a little higher turbo clock. it's going to be better all around, but it's near 2x the price atm.

moving over to NVME storage will likely help a decent amount.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-2410M+%40+2.30GHz&id=796
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-8100+%40+3.60GHz&id=3103

 

[geofelt]

I think your plan is good.
The recommended specs for reason 10 are minimal.
https://help.propellerheads.se/hc/en-us/articles/360002215694-What-are-the-recommended-system-specifications-for-Reason-10-

Buy ram only in a 2 module kit.
You can support up to 32gb.

As for performance, put windows on a ssd. The box supports m.2 pcie devices.
I like the Samsung 960 m.2 pcie devices in whatever capacity you need.

 

[gingerrankin]

The difference of either of the two with what you have now is very very large.

The I3-8100 is totally sufficient but obviously it will have better experience with the I5-8400.

I see that in the last weeks the two have gone up in price.