Upgrading my PC....Any advice?

[MegaMustaine]

What's up guys? I recently bought a new laptop and am really digging the performance, but I'm a desktop man at heart. I'm working on figuring out a triple monitor setup; I want to pair two Hanns G monitors vertically on either side of my Hanns G 27.5 inch big guy. Not sure what size monitors I'll need though and if a 3-way ergonomic stand will fit it/do the vertical thing. But that's neither here nor there.

I have some extra cash and am wanting to upgrade the PC. I'm currently running a Q6600 Quad at 2.0 ghz. 4 gb of ram with Windows 7.

My laptop has a turbo boosted 2.8 ghz i7, and that seems to perform well, but what are my other options? I don't know if a Xeon or something higher end would be something to consider. I'll also have to upgrade my graphics-currently hvae an nVidea GT8800. I'll obviously need two cards, so I was considering maybe two 9600's? But I really don't know.

The PC is obviously built for power/recording....I use Cubase SX5 and LOTS o' plugins/instruments. Any help is appreciated! \m/

 

[XnaySaturo]

You don't need 2 card to run 3 monitors anymore. A lot of the newer ATI card support 3 monitors. I just upgraded my desktop with an i7 930 which imo is the best bang for your buck atm. If you're willing to spend a bit more, there's better for sure, but my budget wasn't that high.

 

[Audiosprite]

yeah, the i7 930's the best in the mid-high range atm but if you go from a q6600 to an i7 you'll need to get a new mobo, since you're moving up from a 775 socket to a 1366 socket. but if you're upgrading you'll have to do that no matter what anyway.

while you're upgrading, you could go for an AMD hexacore, they're in the same price range. i have no idea if they're well-optimized for audio though.

 

[acappa]

Yesterday I upgraded from dual core to quadcore Q9550, I needed to update the BIOS and "tachan" sonar started to work badly, some tracks started to show "sound interferences" I mean, guitar Right stop sounding for a second, then the other, KD, SN.....don´t know what the fuck is happening!!! Only good news is that I´ve reduced CPU consumption to the half, fucking 12mb L2 memory!!!

 

[GarethSE]

Yeah my HD5850 supports eyefinity, meaning 3 monitors with one card. If I could afford to buy another 2 monitors identical to the one I have now I'd be all over it.

Mind if I ask why you're running your Q6600 at 2.0ghz? They're 2.4 stock, overheating issues?

 

[narcossintese]

Why do you need that much power, are you going to run the matrix or something? If you want to build a super machine I guess you better wait until 2011 and build something around the UEFI technology that is going to replace the outdated BIOS. From the videos I´ve seen it is incredible. Boot to the OS in less than 10 seconds.

 

[XnaySaturo]

Why do you need that much power, are you going to run the matrix or something? If you want to build a super machine I guess you better wait until 2011 and build something around the UEFI technology that is going to replace the outdated BIOS. From the videos I´ve seen it is incredible. Boot to the OS in less than 10 seconds.

Yes, that's if you want the absolute first on the market, which will be overpriced and shitty. Best time to buy is now, so when UEFI technology is standard and stable you'll be up for a new upgrade.

 

[arvoitus]

which will be overpriced and shitty.

Overpriced is untrue, high price is because you have a lot of research/development costs. Thats the reason why new equipment is expensive in IT stuff.

 

[Audiosprite]

^ Doesn't mean it's worth the % increase of power over the mid-high range CPUs