SonicExplorer

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!?

Basic video on home and office machines is easily handled by integrated video these days.  No market for really low end stuff.  That GT 710 is a good example of the bottom of the line, fanless, PCIe GPU's.
 
That is useful for somebody with an older CPU and chipset with obsolete graphics that wants to update to modern GPU standards.  It really offers no performance advantage over what comes built in now.

Just a thought, but maybe you could find a slightly newer refurb with everything you needed, and install XP on that.  You are looking at hardware there that is nearly end of life.  It will be a pain to maintain and find spares for if components start to fail.  And you plan to use it for another 10 years?
 

I have to ask a question more specifically because it is now the major factor in whether or not I select Duo or Quad. 
 
Does anybody know if S5 can make good enough use of a 2.66 Quad that it would be a better choice than a 3.0 Duo?  
 
I know there are lots of threads on the general subject of Sonar and multi-core use, but I found nothing that talks about the 5 & 6 PE era in this regard.
 
Help.....anyone ?

Your best bet is probably to take one of these, wipe the drive, and then install XP on it.
 
Dell Certified Refurbished.  Starting at $239.  Enjoy same as new limited hardware warranty.
 
http://outlet.us.dell.com...n&s=dfh&~ck=mn

Understood.  I have access locally to refurbed/used machines for even cheaper than on the Dell site.  That's not the problem.  I still end up with an undecided choice between Duo or Quad.  I don't want to spend more only to have extra heat, etc (and possibly slower performance even) by going with a Quad if the Duo is better suited for the S5/S6 era.  The question that remains outstanding is whether or not I should go with the faster Duo or rather a Quad in this scenario....   

(The only thing I WAS able to determine is that apparently as of S8 Sonar can apparently make proper use of the Quad such that it would be the better choice over a faster Duo.  But when going back to S5.....still an unanswered question....)
 

I still have S8.5 installed on a 2004 era, single core Pentium 4 3.0Ghz Dell laptop with 2GB RAM that I retired a few years ago.  I don't use it anymore, but it still works.  So a duo or quad question probably makes little difference in the overall performance of a legacy Sonar.  It's better than a single core, and that works fine with older versions of Sonar.
 
I still can't comprehend why you want to setup a system from scratch using obsolete hardware.  I do understand the software angle, with the older apps and OS compatibility issues, etc, as I have faced a few challenges in that regard myself.  And I have been using Cakewalk since before Sonar 1.
 
But really, you should get newer hardware if you have a choice.

Yeah, agreed I'm probably over-thinking the CPU thing but given I have the CHOICE I'd like to make the wise one.  I just don't know enough about multi-core nor how Sonar will react to it.  For example, would it be correct to assume that, unless the Quad actually exceeded the processing demand of the Duo, the Quad would not really consume much more power?  It would only consume more (up to 35W more) once the Quad began to process beyond the limit of the Duo?  If that is the case, then the question becomes mostly moot if we assume I probably would never hit the limit of even the Duo.   I however don't know if that is a wise assumption or not seeing as I'm already hitting the red-zone on a P4 2.4.  I'm looking for 30%, preferably 50%, increase in CPU headroom so I don't have to worry about running out of processing power.
 
Anyway, here is something I just found in case it helps anybody else in the future: https://www.cakewalk.com/...processor-Optimization
 
Although it still doesn't really indicate if Sonar 5 would actually make proper use a Quad.  Again, found quite a bit of commentary on the forum as of S8.x showing clear indication of good core-distribution, but nothing much prior to that time period.

Optimization for Quad processors coincided with the introduction of option 2 in the Aud.ini variable ThreadSchedulingModel. I do not have the manuals for SONAR 5 and 6 handy. I would recommend you review the documentation regarding Aud.ini. If there is no mention of option 2 or the ThreadSchedulingModel variable at all, then go for the higher clock speed Duo. For reference, here is the current documentation.

Although multicore support was apparently not listed as a feature of Sonar 5 or 6, it was mentioned retrospectively when Sonar 7 was announced:
 
In its last two versions, SONAR set new levels for technology advances in digital audio workstations with the first true 64-bit double precision audio mix engine... ...and pioneering support for multicore and x64 processing...

Quad core sounds better to me tho you haven't said which Sonar you'd be running on it. I don't know if SPlat or other current generation DAWs would run too well on XP. But for Sonar Home 7, 8.35, and X1 I still have and use a 32 bit Core2Duo Intel 2.x on an ASUS P5Q mobo with a basic video card that they've always run fine on. The P5Q has no video but I've used on board video without serious issue.
 
On the other hand, I wouldn't pay very much for an older system. I have several older computers that I couldn't even get $100 for 5 yrs ago.