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2009 8 core or 2010 4 core?

K

kingugly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
6
0
I need to decide between these two models. I could upgrade the 2010 4 core to a 6 core later, so that is tempting. I do a lot of audio work. Video wise, I need to dual output to a monitor as well as an HDMI to an large LCD, so a decent video card is required as well. Not sure about the GT120. I have read about upgrading to the 5770 or 5780, but maybe it's worth it to just start with a 2010 4 core. I will also put at least 8 gb of ram in the machine. Advice appreciated! Thanks!
 
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The 8 core is:

Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor
6GB (six 1GB) 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory
640GB Serial ATA (3Gb/s); 7200 rpm
18x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0, one Mini DisplayPort, and one dual-link DVI port

The 4 core is:

One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor
3GB (three 1GB) memory
1TB hard drive
18x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB GDDR5

Keep in mind these are basically the same price new in box.
 
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IIRC audio software like logic can utilise all available cores, so the 8-core would be the much better choice.
 
What audio software do you use, and how exactly do you use it (i.e. instrument layers, file sizes, ...)?
 
nanofrog said:
Octad and SSD's will do nicely (instrument libraries for example benefit from SSD's, as it's random access reads).
Click to expand...

Thanks! Do you think it's a good idea to keep the OS and programs on a standard hdd and go ssd for the additional drives with instruments?
 
kingugly said:
Thanks! Do you think it's a good idea to keep the OS and programs on a standard hdd and go ssd for the additional drives with instruments?
Click to expand...
Placing the OS/applications on it's own drive is a good idea, and ideally, an SSD (more for application use, not OS in terms of increasing the random access performance for this area). But an HDD will work as well (you're dividing up the bandwidth, so performance will improve, as the system will be able to read from both disks at the same time; load the application from one, and the instrument library from the other).
 
So you are saying ssd all the way, on each drive in the machine relating to music?

I just bought the 8 core, so thanks again for the advice.
 
kingugly said:
So you are saying ssd all the way, on each drive in the machine relating to music?

I just bought the 8 core, so thanks again for the advice.
Click to expand...
Not quite.

Just for loading the application and libraries. Mechanical is fine for final output storage.
 
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