HI,
for benchmark comparisons tested with Nuendo and various subsystems.

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

if you zoom to track, do cross fades or alot of punch-in
you want a Matrox P650/750 PCIe

effects has to do directly with the floating point of the CPU
VSTi is more dependant on memory
track count is largely dependant on drives

large track count @ 96k? what do you consider alot?

35 is about all you will get on a standard drive.
for more you need to split tracks or do a raid array.

when you start getting into high 96k track count the PCI bus sub system also comes into play.
this is where a dual opteron will do far better than a single dual core because of multiple pci bus.

if you want to absolute best computer for Nuendo its the dual opteron.

Scott
ADK

ADK audio wrote: if you want to absolute best computer for Nuendo its the dual opteron.

1x X2 4400+ is always better than 2x singlecore Opterons, based on the link you posted. however, ofcourse dual opteron 275, wich is a dualcore cpu (so there are 4 cores in total), was up to 50% faster.

Thanks guys.

Thanks Scott for posting those results. It does help me to decide.

I'd love to get a dual processor system but our budget is very tight so I think we'll stick with the 830, since the 820 seems to perform well enough. That's about the limit we can currently spend.

I was under no illusions as to whether it would keep up with a dual opteron system and I was really just hoping it would be worth a little extra money to get something better than a regular P4. You have put my mind finally to rest on the matter, thanks.

I don't really know anything about splitting tracks/raid array. How is that better for a lot of auidio tracks?

Dual dual-core processors definitely sounds like "the way to go" Gnarr...I can but dream for now.

Thanks again!

Hi gnarr,

while yes the X4400 shows beating the standard dual opteron
in both our tests.

what it doesnt show is high i/o count or multiple DSP card use.

if someone is doing 96k and alot of it, the dual opteron is a better way to go. or having 2 audio interfaces and dsp cards.

Scott
ADK

Wait, so are you saying that if you use two soundcards that helps too? We were considering getting a MOTU 2408 Mk III and a 24 i/o expansion. Need masses of i/o. How does using two help exactly?

Would we need two pci cards for this, and is it a matter of using one for in and one for out or something? Apologies for my ignorance.

We'll just have to save up for dsp...

Cool, very interesting topic.

I would like to move from a P4C@3Ghz DAW to a X2 4400+ with my RME Fireface cause I use a lot of VST FX and I always have to raise the buffer size of my audio card when project are too big.
I read something on the official Nuendo forum about a guy being able to decrease the buffer size to 64 samples with a X2 3800+ (was not possible with is mono-core 3500+).
I also switched from 1Go to 2Go of memory for the VSTis.

rexet wrote: Cool, very interesting topic.

I would like to move from a P4C@3Ghz DAW to a X2 4400+ with my RME Fireface cause I use a lot of VST FX and I always have to raise the buffer size of my audio card when project are too big.
I read something on the official Nuendo forum about a guy being able to decrease the buffer size to 64 samples with a X2 3800+ (was not possible with is mono-core 3500+).
I also switched from 1Go to 2Go of memory for the VSTis.

Hello,

there are issues running the AMD X2 processors with UAD-1 cards and Firewire audio interfaces. I would take a closer look at the Intel D840.

http://www.chrismilne.com/uadforums/viewtopic.php?t=3105

My best,

Guy Cefalu
Sonica Audio Labs

Well I read the whole topic and it really seems realated only to UAD-1 users. I don't have any and I didn't plan to buy one (I have my 6176 preamp hehe) but now I'm a little bit scared of using my FW RME Fireface.

Well I finaly ordered :

- Asus A8N-SLI Premium
- Athlon X2 4800+
- Corsair Twinx 2x1024 CAS2 Pro

I'll keep you informed concerning the performance...

I ended up ordering the Pentium D 830, and an MSI 945P Platinum, which means we have RAID, so we've also ordered an 80 GB SATA drive for the system and two identical 160GB SATA drives for RAID. Also 2GB of RAM. I reckon for the money this should do the job I need done adequately.

By the way I've already recieved the case for this build - and may I say I can heartily recommend the Compucase S411 Rackmount case. It's built like a tank, it's almost as big as one, and comes with all the extras needed. Pretty impressive for something that's going in a cupboard...