Gosh its complex this PC stuff aint it!
I've had a quick scan of the threads so far, but soz if i'm repeating stuff.
Here's my twopeneth..
I'm just gonna mention Benchmarking CPUs- I've had an i5 4440 on a LGA 1150 socket since 2014 (which benchmarks on cpubenchmark.net at 6476) it's performance is fine, but like rodreb's it struggles with multiple tracks hungry plugins
- I also have a laptop with an i5 3337 (which benchmarks on cpubenchmark.net at 3213) it can only handle basic sonar stuff
- I installed an SDD to my music pc which made quite a difference in load times
- I upgraded my ram to 16gb - difference was negligable
I'm thinking I might upgrade to an i7
(Intel 4th Gens) (need be sure what your Motherboard supports) a new 7th /8th gen i7 wont physically fit, it will have to be a forth gen like my current one. Can be picked up second hand around £120 -200.
As an example option - an
i7 4790K benchmarks at 11191 (Almost twice the processing power)
With so many CPU variants, I ALWAYS check cpu benchmarks before I think of buying.
It's true there is much to what makes a pc robust enough for audio processing. Things like bios settings, ram speeds, Ram drives, SSD drives n stuff, but the biggest 'bang for buck' as they say, for me, comes from cpu performance.
I couldn't afford an i7 when I built my pc, but now... well it's doable
if you want to see how your cpu benchmarks just google the cpu name like i've shown together with the word 'benchmark' and you will no doubt get a link direct to its performance page
FYI - It might be obvious but for the sake of it ..... when you're looking about... Notice that 4th gen cpu' have a number staring with 4---, 5th gen's have a 5--- number - etc...
always check the socket type and mobo compatibility Hope this has been of some help to somebody