Peter Conz Connelly
active member
Joined: 17/09/02
Posts: 2190
Loc: Tyne & Wear, UK
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Intel Q6600 + DP35DP
#988902 - 22/05/12 11:13 AM
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Hi Guys, I want an interim upgrade to my PC, currently a... Intel
Q6600 Intel DP35DP 2GB RAM DDR800 Win XP Pro 32 Bit ... which
I've had since 2007 so would getting 8GB RAM fitted and Win 7 Ultinate 64bit installed
show a decent performance increase? I will get a newer system soon with all the
mod cons later, just need a bit extra horsepower in the meantime  Cheers, Peter
-------------------- Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com
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Scramble
active member
Joined: 11/09/02
Posts: 1669
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A bit, but not much. Unless, that is, your projects use a lot of memory and are constantly
on the verge on using up all available RAM -- in that case having more RAM available will
be a big help.
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Peter Conz Connelly
active member
Joined: 17/09/02
Posts: 2190
Loc: Tyne & Wear, UK
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Re: Intel Q6600 + DP35DP
[Re: Scramble]
#988906 - 22/05/12 11:22 AM
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Quote Scramble:
A bit, but not
much. Unless, that is, your projects use a lot of memory and are constantly on the verge
on using up all available RAM -- in that case having more RAM available will be a big
help.
Thanks Scramble,
I use a lot of VSTi's and huge orch libraries (ProjectSAM Symphobia 1/2, NI, East
West, etc) so assume more RAM would be beneficial.
Cheers,
Peter
--------------------
Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com
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Korff
Loose Cannon (Reviews Editor)
Joined: 20/10/06
Posts: 1983
Loc: The Wrong Precinct
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More than likely!
Cheers,
Chris
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Pete Kaine
Scan Computers
Joined: 10/07/03
Posts: 3158
Loc: Manchester
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Quote Peter Conz Connelly:
... which I've had since 2007 so would getting 8GB RAM fitted and Win 7 Ultinate 64bit
installed show a decent performance increase?
I will get a newer system soon
with all the mod cons later, just need a bit extra horsepower in the meantime
I know you were using a term of
phrase, but doing this isn't likely to gain you anymore horsepower rather just more memory
space to work in.
Load up a project that is currently maxing out your rig and
take a loop at your performance monitor (ctrl + alt + del keys then task manager >
performance)then see what it's doing with the project you've loaded up is playing.
Is the CPU usage maxed out?
Now click on processes and see how much
memory is being used. The Cubase.exe process should be showing around 2GB ( 2097152k give
or take) in use on your current setup... if its being maxed out.
Your running a
32bit OS so by default it'll use only 2GB max for Cubase and the rest will remain with the
OS. You could throw in the /3GB switch there if you've 4GB to play with already and it
might tie you over a tad. In fact checking back again your currently using 2GB total in
the system which means (I suspect) that once windows etc... has loaded your probably only
getting 1.5GB of usable space which means if the /3GB switch did work for you, you might
acturly be able to double your application usable space by installing another 2GB. If so
you could then forget about win7 until you do finally upgrade if its not too far down the
road.
Going to 64bit OS and keeping the 32bit Sequencer would give you 4GB to
play with in the sequencer (and so allow you twice the current memory space) unless you
also upgrade the sequencer as well which should let you use up a lot more memory in your
projects if so.
However your current board takes DDR 2 and whilst you can pick
up 4GB of that stuff for about £45, be aware that should you be in line to upgrade in the
short term the new boards are ddr3 so you likely won't be taking it with you.
So basicly if your maxing out the CPU currently, then its time for the full upgrade. If
your simply running out of memory then yes, more memory is the answer. From what you've
described and the apps your running I think it could well be memory constraints as you
suspect, but then it'd be quite annoying should you upgrade the memory and then discover
that the CPU was running at max anyhow.
Any perticular reason you went for win7
ulitmate? If your not going over 16GB in the lifetime of the machine then Home premium
will do the job and even if you are then win7 pro might still be the better choice without
costing you quite as much as ultimate.
--------------------
ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog
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Carillon Audio Syste...
Joined: 29/04/10
Posts: 69
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With those instruments I would say so. Best thing to do though is to load up a project
have it playing and then check task manager, have a look what the RAM and CPU levels are
up to. But your current 2GB with those large sample instruments will probably
be a bottleneck as a stop gap your plan sounds right (ideally you want faster RAM as well
as more and the updated memory controller, but all that is a lot more expensive then
dropping some more RAM in!)
-------------------- Say hello on Facebook www.facebook.com/CarillonAudioSystems
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Carillon Audio Syste...
Joined: 29/04/10
Posts: 69
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Re: Intel Q6600 + DP35DP
[Re: Pete Kaine]
#988953 - 22/05/12 03:03 PM
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Ha, was too slow with the post button. With Windows though it might be a good
idea to get the Pro Retail version so you can use it on future machines (the OEM ties it
to your current machine and if it's a stop gap you might not be getting your monies worth)
-------------------- Say hello on Facebook www.facebook.com/CarillonAudioSystems
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Butters
member
Joined: 21/10/02
Posts: 123
Loc: Herts UK
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A bit of a side issue -
I have the same setup as you- I ran speccy the other
night and I noticed that all my 4 cores were not running at the same speed. Not sure why ,
but may be worth checking yours too.
I was going to post a specific thread on
this. Let me know what yours are set to first?
My setup:-
Q6600
Kentsfield
Core 0 - 2400.1 Mhz
Core 1 - 2400.1 Mhz
Core 2 - 1600 Mhz
Core 3 - 1600 Mhz
MB = DP35DP
--------------------
"A young man's tattoo, becomes an old man's graffiti" - Image Is Everything
Peter Cyriax PaQ ultra quiet PC system, with some DAW software
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Peter Conz Connelly
active member
Joined: 17/09/02
Posts: 2190
Loc: Tyne & Wear, UK
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Hi Guys, With 1x instance of Kontakt4 (NI Abbey Road Drums and NI Concert
Grand) and 1x instance of EW Play (1 large string section) open, it's using around 2GB of
RAM and my CPU is around 15%-20%. I reckon my interim upgrade would be very
beneficial, yeah?!?!?! Cheers, Peter
-------------------- Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com
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Carillon Audio Syste...
Joined: 29/04/10
Posts: 69
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Yep!
-------------------- Say hello on Facebook www.facebook.com/CarillonAudioSystems
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Pete Kaine
Scan Computers
Joined: 10/07/03
Posts: 3158
Loc: Manchester
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Peter Conz Connelly
active member
Joined: 17/09/02
Posts: 2190
Loc: Tyne & Wear, UK
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I know I already mentioned I wanted Win 7 64-bit above but, before I take the plunge,
someone just asked if my PC is 64-bit compatible? Cheers, Peter
-------------------- Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com
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Scramble
active member
Joined: 11/09/02
Posts: 1669
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Yes, it's 64-bit compatible.
Time-wise, budget for twice as much time as you
think for re-installing all your software. Hope you've got a good list of all your
software details -- logins, passwords, serials, etc.
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Scramble
active member
Joined: 11/09/02
Posts: 1669
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Re: Intel Q6600 + DP35DP
[Re: Scramble]
#990750 - 01/06/12 09:35 AM
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Note also that you can still run 32-bit programs as normal on a 64-bit Windows. I run
32-bit Cubase -- Windows 7 allows me to use 4Gb for it, which solved all the memory
problems I was having with large projects.
Another memory-related advantage is
that with W7 (presuming you have at least 8Gb of RAM) a lot more OS stuff gets loaded into
RAM rather than virtual RAM (ie. on a hard disk), which speeds things up a bit too.
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Peter Conz Connelly
active member
Joined: 17/09/02
Posts: 2190
Loc: Tyne & Wear, UK
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Thanks everyone. The upgrade has been done and it went very well, I'm very much
enjoying the extra horses under the bonnet. I did panic about re-installing Komplete 7
libs again but remembered they were on secondary drives so I just had to install the
programs. Perfect I used a new drive so, just in case there was anything I forgot, I
can just swap 'em back Cheers, P
-------------------- Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com
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