10 Reasons To Upgrade To A Quad Core Recording Computer

After years of struggling along with a computer with embarrassing specs and tossing all my money into hardware toys that will definitely hold their value for the long haul, I've got to say that upgrading to a Quad Core processor equipped computer has been amazing. It's been a gift from God. It's been sunshine on a cloudy day. (Alright, that's enough. You get the idea!)

I have to be the only person on earth who upgraded from a computer as ancient as my Athlon 64 2800 to an Intel Quadcore Q8200. According to various benchmarks I've read online, it appears my Quadcore is between 9 and 14 times faster than my previous computer. With my previous computer I could get maybe 1-2 instances of Amplitude if I had 10-12 tracks of drums with typical processing at 160 samples latency before I ran into problems with glitches and such. With the Quadcore I got bored after tossing 8 instances up and I wasn't anywhere near close to maxing out the processor.

It's been so amazing that it makes we want to mix more.

When I record, I dramatically less time fighting my computer.

I can be as creative as I want to and my brain doesn't need to divert a junk of its energy to CPU economics.
New possibilities have opened up that have an outstanding effect on the recordings I'm cranking out.

I don't have to bother freezing tracks, committing tracks to wav files, etc. No time is wasted going through the various tactics to save CPU power.

Loading up drum samples such as Superior Drummer 2.0 takes a fraction of the time. The difference between 8 seconds and 60 seconds is outstanding when you are in creative mode.

Because I no longer have to wait 60 seconds for samples to load, my studio is way messier. I spend less time cleaning and more time rocking!

Creativity Viagra – Nothing kills the moment like a computer that can't keep up with the action. I find that I can work and work and work without losing my creative edge.

The price of upgrading was cheap. I paid less than $400 and that included upgrading my previous 60GB C: drive up to a 750GB drive.

Utilities even run faster. Programs such as Razorlame, my MP3 conversion software, run about 10x faster.

7 Responses to “10 Reasons To Upgrade To A Quad Core Recording Computer”
Kawika Heftel Says:
July 8th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Way to go upgrading the computer! It does make a whole lot of difference. How'd you get quad-core for less than $400??
brandondrury Says:
July 8th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

How’d you get quad-core for less than $400??

The processor was only $180. I took a chance and bought a $50 motherboard and it's worked flawlessly so far. I grabbed 4GB of RAM for about $45, used the integrated video (with no problems), grabbed a $50 Antec power supply, and used an old case and 2 of my old hard drives.

Brandon
Mac Beall Says:
July 8th, 2009 at 8:21 pm

I upgraded from a 2.6Ghz celeron to a 1.6GHz core 2 duo.
So I went down in clock speed from 2.6 to 1.6 Ghz. The core 2 duos are awesome. I can do about 10 times as much work with it. and core 2 duos are really cheap. Though I will upgrade to a quad core soon. It fits my mboard easily, just plug in to my ASUS P5B
see ya
Andy Mawson Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 7:30 am

Wouldn't you know it. I ordered components for a new music recording pc last night BEFORE reading this article and ordered a Core 2 and not a Quad. I went back and looked and saw I could have got a Quad for another $40! Ordered from Newegg though so no refunds and no returns! Is anybody finding that Core 2's aren't cutting the mustard? I'm upgrading from a P4.
brandondrury Says:
July 12th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

Which dual core did you get?

I use this site to choose the right CPU for my needs.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

Brandon
Andy Mawson Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 10:38 am

That's a great site. I ordered the E8400 Wolfdale 3.0 GHz -- so according to that site, by upgrading from a P4 3.0, I'm getting about 4 1/2 times the power (if that's how the rating works)
Andy Mawson Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 10:49 am

So for those who are interested, I ordered the following:

ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
SAPPHIRE 100236DDR4L Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
Rosewill RG530-2 530W ATX12V v2.3 & EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Like Brandon, I'll scavenge the case and DVD from my current system. I'd have done the same with the VGA - but wanted dual monitor capabilities to spread things out a bit.