Upgrading from Core i7 930 to i7 970

WaveLab
1

Running lowish when running multiple VSTis. So I’m thinking of upgrading my processor from the Core i7 930 to the Core i7 970.

I’m really asking if I will see a big difference in speed and on the Cubase CPU meter by upgrading to this 6 Core processor? If so how big a difference?

Anyone care to share their experience?

Thanks
Al

2

980 is the same price.
its about a 50% increase

3

I did and, as JCschild says, it was a 50% increase, fantastic!

4

That’s double endorsement. Thanks I’ll order an upgrade chip tomorrow. Do I need to buy and use heat paste when replacing chips?

5

Yeah, thermal grease is recommended. Depending on what cooler you use it may have some applied already but if you buy arctic silver that will be better. Carefully clean both surfaces with ethanol and aply a very thin layer of the grease.

If you’re using the stock cooler that comes with the CPU it will most likely have it preapplied and this ‘should’ be good enough if you’re not overclocking. there is always room for improvement though, and it’s not a hard thing to do. Google is your friend.

6

you want a good thermal paste like artic silver 5

7

Thanks lads. Tips noted.

Al

8

I asked the Pc shop to build me the fastest system.

I’d said I was looking at the 980x. He came back with this combo… Asus Maximus 4 motherboard £325 with
Intel I7 2600k £295

He argued that the i7 2600 was a more powerful cpu but how can this be given that its only 4 core and also the huge price difference?

I’d really appreciate user experience on this before I shell out.

Thanks

Al

9

poop that motherboard is expensive! :astonished:

10

Anyone?

11

When I researched fo my recently built DAW, I fond that in a number of tests (including Sysmark 2007 and Photoshop tests), the 2600 actually tested faster that the 980X, depending on whether the task used all six cores, as most applications don’t seem to. Here is a link to one test:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/15

Concensus seemed to favor the 2600 for most applications. I would question how much a DAW would benefit from the 980X, but don’t know. Given the huge price difference and questionable benefits of the 980X, I went with the 2600K. I have not had a chance to try overclocking it yet, but out of the box it is very fast and I have not bumped up against cpu limits yet.

12

Thanks Ray, that’s a really useful post. Amazing that they can charge what they do for the 980x considering…

I’ll need to weigh it all up but defiantly not going with the 980x, seems pointless over costs difference. Now twin CPU motherboard with two of those would be nice!

Thanks
Al

13

i thought you already had an X58 mobo… if so buy the 980 that way you dont have to fool with new board and reinstalling windows.

first you would want the 980 NOT the 980x same stinking processor other than the X is unlocked for extreme OCing.
the 90 OCs pretty well as is

2 yes the 2600/2700 are less for close to the same performance

http://www.adkproaudio.com/benchmarks.cfm

2nd test down

@ 32 buffer

980X/980 201 RXC compressor
2600 183 RXC

980@4ghz 270
2600 @ 4.5GHz 261

if you have to buy a new board then at this point the newer X79 would be better but also more $

pretty easy to see what to buy…