which CPU for Multitrack audio recording?

[riffraffkicksass]

I am builing myself a small project studio to record my original music and am shopping for a new PC for it. The apps I plan to use for this are:

- either Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro3 or Sonar Home Studio 4XL
- Line 6 toneport USB interface with Gearbox amp simulation.
- possibly a midi drum synth plug-in

My dayjob is as a desktop publisisher/graphic artist, so I'll also be using Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Illustrator and Dreamweaver on a rgular basis too.

I am not rich, so cost is an issue. I've sort of narrowed my computer selection down to 2 choices:

- an HP with the AMD X2 4200+ and 1GB of RAM ($1029 CDN), or
- a Gateway with P4 630 and 1GB of RAM ($699 CDN)

For my intended use, is there a real performance gain with the X2 4200+ to warrant the additional $330, or would the P4 630 give me good performance?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I just got my tax refund this week and am excited to go shopping.

 

[luminaris]

As a musician myself, I use my Intel 630 machine for all of my music projects and it works very well. I just got my Opty machine all together and setup so I haven't really tried to use it for music applications.

The Intel machine would do just fine for your needs though.

 

[bagg]

While the software you intend on using definitely would make good use of the dual-core AMD, whether or not it is worth the additional $300+ would be entirely up to you. The 630 will provide good performance, but the X2 would provide better performance. It just depends on your budget. I personally am very happy with my dual-core Opteron.

 

[BaronMatrix]

I am builing myself a small project studio to record my original music and am shopping for a new PC for it. The apps I plan to use for this are:

- either Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro3 or Sonar Home Studio 4XL
- Line 6 toneport USB interface with Gearbox amp simulation.
- possibly a midi drum synth plug-in

My dayjob is as a desktop publisisher/graphic artist, so I'll also be using Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Illustrator and Dreamweaver on a rgular basis too.

I am not rich, so cost is an issue. I've sort of narrowed my computer selection down to 2 choices:

- an HP with the AMD X2 4200+ and 1GB of RAM ($1029 CDN), or
- a Gateway with P4 630 and 1GB of RAM ($699 CDN)

For my intended use, is there a real performance gain with the X2 4200+ to warrant the additional $330, or would the P4 630 give me good performance?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I just got my tax refund this week and am excited to go shopping.

I would say go for the AMD. They now have SSE3 which was Intel's advantage in media. I have a 3200+ with Sonar 3 Producer and I can do 8 track simultaneous recording and use less than 20% CPU. I can add VST and Cakewalk plugins and still use have plenty of CPU left.

I haven't used a P4 for music but when comparing similar apps on work machines, I have to say AMD is faster. I would go so far as to say that a 4800+ with 2GB RAM will perform like a 1 or maybe two card ProTools setup.

 

[riffraffkicksass]

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate your input.

Well I made my decision and am typing this reply from the keyboard of my brand spankin new computer with the X2 4200+.

So so far so good, but I just plugged it all in so haven't really done ANYTHING with it yet, but it sure seems a hell of a lot peppier than the PIII 800mhz I was using this morning when I started this thread lol

Again, thanks for the help guys!