Just built my new computer

[Doc Jones]

long story short, I was maxing out my old computer's (a p4 3ghz/2gb mem) resources. Was going to pick up a quad core computer, but due to delays with the mobo I wanted, I decided to go with a lower end cpu. My goal was to overclock the lower end cpu to the max and use it for a year or so and then when there are lots of quad cores available (and the prices are reasonable) I will pop out the dual core and pop in the quad.

So far I have both of my Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 cores overclocked to 3.5ghz and it is very stable (running some system stress programs at the moment).
I may go for 3.6ghz and stay there.

Will update as I progress.

[Drammy]

Good move Doc, they are superb processors.

Out of interest, why did you go with the E6700 over the E6600?

[Doc Jones]

Good move Doc, they are superb processors.

Out of interest, why did you go with the E6700 over the E6600?
Honestly, if I had to do it again, I probably would have gone with the E6600.
It wasn't until after i picked it up, that I read a bunch of reviews that e6600 users were getting oc's that were pretty close to the 6700.

I could have saved some more money !! :(
But all in all, I am really pleased.

Doing one more stress test (I just tweaked my mem settings) and will probably load up my audio apps this evening. Man I can't wait to load up one of my recent projects that had my 3.0ghz p4 pegged at 98%

[AlexHall74]

Damn, Doc.

You must be using a motherload of VSTs/Samples/FX to tax your old system to the max!

Good for you, now tear your new system apart and see what it can do.

God I love computers...

Have fun!

-Alex

[Doc Jones]

yeah, most of my stuff now is all virtual (hence the reason to slim down even more and sell of the Korg 49).

I must say, I have a new found respect for those people out there who are able to achieve extreme and stable overclocks. It really is a science !!

[Drammy]

I OCed my E6600 to 3 GHz and it is perfectly stable, but I have heard of people getting it up to 4.8GHz!!!

Thats per core as well - so can deliver nearly 9.6Ghz in total (or thereabouts).


Wowsers

[Doc Jones]

4.8?? insane!!!

A stable 3ghz for an e6600 is a very nice overclock Drammy. Good job.

[Doc Jones]

ok, to wrap this thread up, here is what I ended up with - -

this is with keeping core cpu temps under 70C degrees while running Intels Thermal Analysis Tool for over an hour and around 65C while running stress tests like Sandra and Orthos.

I have a rock solid stable overclock of 3.2ghz per core on my E6700.
Ram has been overclocked and latencies lowered.

I could have gone higher - probably to 3.4ghz, but would have had to lower my mem speed and up my vcore voltage = higher core temps under stress.

100% stability was an absolute requirement (don't want weird bit level issues while make new songs :)

Pretty happy with it. Will start loading the os tonight.

[Doc Jones]

man, I just spent the whole day reloaded all my audio apps and vsts.
Patches, updates, pointers . . . bah!!

and I thought the computer build was time consuming!!

This computer better last me 5 years!!!

[Doc Jones]

Just a quick update.
I have been playing with my new setup for about a week and all I can say is wow. I no longer have to worry about system resources. My heaviest project (which took up most of my cpu and ram on my older machine) barely even scratches the surface on my new computer. I think the highest my cpu cores hit was 18% (as opposed to 90%+ on my other machine).

Don't think I will be needing to freeze tracks any time soon! :)

[F5D]

Yeah, that sounds good! That's the way it has to be if you want to just relax and make music. :)

But you still have to choose carefully the plugins you use because there always are some way too cpu hungry plugins like NI Massive which will ruin your dreams. :D

[Doc Jones]

i suppose with a name like massive, you have to know what you are getting yourself into. Perhaps I'll wait for the Octocores before I pick up Massive!

One very resource hungry vst that I am now starting to use quite a bit is Synthogy's Ivory. Amazing!! But it does eat up both cpu (when I bump # of voices to 160) and memory (I have 2gb and one of the grands uses 1.2 gbs itself)

I may be upping my ram to 3gbs soon.

[Juho L]

But you still have to choose carefully the plugins you use because there always are some way too cpu hungry plugins like NI Massive which will ruin your dreams. :D

The awful truth is that CPU power is like money: No matter do you earn 1500€ or 3000€ a month you still somehow manage to spend them all with no savings.

I updated my 1400+ PC to 3500+ A64 about 1,5 years back and oh the joy when my old CPU kill projects took only 10-20% of CPU power. "Now I can do anything I want!"... Could someone please spare me some money for extreme dual core PC, please?

It's just insane. I don't even realise where my CPU power goes nowadays. I'll probably have to blame GuitarRig.

Edit: Only if I could learn a way to tweak the sounds after I've composed.

[Old Vantaa Man]

Juho, that is true mate. Maybe we could buy one of Jase's Macs?

Listen sunshine. PC's are shit. But.. So are are Macs. But in the meantime, buddy your songs sound great.

There is NO END to gear-lust.

xx