Guys,
 
I have a chance at a rather rare motherboard to build a "new" XP DAW but need to decide quickly if I want it outfitted with a Core 2 Duo 3.0Ghz or Quad 2.8Ghz CPU.    (E8400 vs. Q9550)
 
I'd be using S5 or S6, and will rely on DFH Superior for drums (which I use real-time when tracking & mixing rather than bouncing to tracks).    Am I going to actually see better performance on playback & mixing with the Quad or should I opt for the slightly faster rated Duo and save on power consumption/heat?  I'm just not familiar with how well XP and Sonar actually makes use of the cores...
 
Any guidance greatly appreciated.  I did some research but it is rather overwhelming and I'm on a short fuse to make a decision, so hopefully some of you guys would be kind enough to offer some opinions...

Sincerest thanks,
 
    Sonic

Quad core has the most benefits in a DAW unless you have a single plugin that is extremely heavy (say, Ozone or Diva). Seems unlikely with such an old platform.

I wouldn't build either though, what is your reasoning behind this? Can you get it super cheap?

Yeah, it's very difficult finding a DAW now days that can run anything from W2K to W7 but I just so happen to have found a P45 system that is already built, from a local kid who sells used systems.  So I want to jump on it before it disappears.  I can even choose some of the configuration options like the CPU, drives, video card etc.   Video situation is freaking me out tho....I come from the AGP days so to now learn there apparently isn't even a basic video card without fans or massive heat sinks has me perplexed.  I just want a basic PCIe video card with lowest power consumption (heat) and no noise (fans).  Isn't there any such animal??  
 
I hate technology.  LoL

Most modern motherboards have on-board video, often even with several outputs. It has kind of killed the low end graphics card market. Again my question though - why invest at all in such an old system? Is it XP you're attached to? I would strongly suggest crossing the bridge to a modern (and supported!) OS.

SonicExplorer
...there apparently isn't even a basic video card without fans or massive heat sinks has me perplexed.  I just want a basic PCIe video card with lowest power consumption (heat) and no noise (fans).  Isn't there any such animal??...

 
Since you are building on an old platform, why not get an old used graphics card? Try looking on on eBay.

By the way, modern non-gaming cards that fit your description do exist, made by Matrox, but they are pricey.

FWIW generally speaking the fans won't do anything unless you start gaming or 3d rendering.

I can understand why one might want to stay with a legacy system (hardware, drivers, compatibility, software exc). but to invest in legacy hardware is not a great idea.
 
Trust me I have a lot of old tape machines and I have (more than once) cut my losses because it was either too pricey or too hard to track down parts. You find yourself in a time warp situation. Where either A - Its next to impossible to receive help because its too out dated or B - Hardware is so old you never know what your getting.
 

I have loads of software that I don't want to have to repurchase/upgrade and then relearn new U/I's.  Plus there's features that may have gone away or changed.  I also know the internals of W2K and XP very well in the event I need to do any tweaks.  Further, I am getting old, probably won't be doing this more than 10 years, so overall for me the best choice is to stay with what I have and what i know.  
 
I haven't found any such low-end graphics cards yet on eBay that don't have massive heat sinks or fans. The AGP cards I'm accustomed to work fine with Sonar and don't have any such appendages nor suck much power. So I'm confused, why are basic VGA kind of cards not available in PCIe format, that don't require heavy artillery and mass wattage to function?   <facepalm> 

I'm not sure Sonar that far back was tuned for multicore processing, so CPU speed is probably what you need.
 
You can get a cheap PCIe GPU like this one.
https://www.newegg.com/Pr..._-14-500-392-_-Product

abacab
I'm not sure Sonar that far back was tuned for multicore processing, so CPU speed is probably what you need.
 
You can get a cheap PCIe GPU like this one.
https://www.newegg.com/Pr..._-14-500-392-_-Product

Thanks, that card is still rather heavy duty though in my eyes, YIKES.  Seriously, there really isn't a basic VGA card for PCIe??  What does the average Joe employee in corporations use now days??  I mean, what does an MS Office user need a 1GB 30W video card for!?
 
IIRC, it was back around S3 or S4 that Sonar began doing multi-threading / multi-processor.  If this assumption isn't right then somebody please clue me in because I'd then need to change course and go with a faster single core or duo core, definitely NOT a quad core.