rodreb
Thanks for all the replies! Very helpful information. Now, from what I understand, not all i7's are created equal (core-wise). So, now I guess I need to find out which models to avoid.

Are you looking at a laptop or desktop?
 
R

Oh, desktop (Tower)! Sorry, forgot to mention that.

i7, you can always upgrade to more RAM later on.

I am assuming a six core i7 would be preferable to a 4 core i7, eh? 

More cores are good, but always consider the max clock speed of each core.  Some processes may be locked to one core and that thread will be limited to the max CPU clock.

Adding unused RAM will not benefit performance in any way.
You need enough for your largest project.
 
For DAW purposes:
In a perfect scenario, you want more cores *and* high clock-speed.
If it's a choice, you never want to choose more cores at significantly lower clock-speed.
ie: Some folks assume that Xeon CPUs would be best for DAW purposes (because they're more expensive).
If said Xeon has double the cores... at 2GHz slower clock-speed, you're going to take a performance hit.
The new i7 8086k is a fantastic DAW performer; six cores (12 processing threads) running at 5GHz.
With the proper motherboard, you can lock all 6 cores at 5GHz.
With quality cooling, noise certainly isn't a problem.

Is the i7 8700 with 12 GB RAM a good choice for a DAW?

Jim Roseberry
ie: Some folks assume that Xeon CPUs would be best for DAW purposes (because they're more expensive).
If said Xeon has double the cores... at 2GHz slower clock-speed, you're going to take a performance hit.

Out of interest Jim, what do you think of the 8 core 3.2GHz Xeon W used in the standard config iMac Pro compared to i7s with similar or better clock speed?

tlw

Jim Roseberry
ie: Some folks assume that Xeon CPUs would be best for DAW purposes (because they're more expensive).
If said Xeon has double the cores... at 2GHz slower clock-speed, you're going to take a performance hit.

Out of interest Jim, what do you think of the 8 core 3.2GHz Xeon W used in the standard config iMac Pro compared to i7s with similar or better clock speed?

The iMac Pro is a slick looking machine.
If you're after highest performance, look elsewhere.
You never want to go for more cores at significantly slower clock-speed.
The 8086k with all six cores locked at 5GHz would absolutely smoke it.
 
We haven't mentioned no option to add *any* internal drives... and the fact that swapping the boot drive means a trip to the Apple Store.  That's about a 10-15 minute upgrade on a PC.  

rodreb
Is the i7 8700 with 12 GB RAM a good choice for a DAW?

For maximum performance with socket 1151, you want to run the RAM in dual-channel mode.
That means 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB (using two matching sticks)