Multicore Desktop Processors and their desktop boards: Any risk to audio quality?

[lisa]

With the end of the Window XP security updates, among other factors, I needed to take some time to replace my ancient tower pc, with one the runs either an Intel Ivy Bridge 4 or 8 core or the latest Haswell 4 core processor. To minimize fan and/or electrical noise, the better choice appears to be the low power versions of the processors Ivy Bridge

(List of Intel Xeon microprocessors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) E5-2630 v2 (6 core, 2.6GHz, LGA2011 socket, 80w), E5-2630L v2 (6 core, 2.4GHz, LGA2011 socket, 60w), E5-2428L v2 (8 core, 1.8GHz, LGA1356 socket, 60w)-or the new Haswell

 

(List of Intel Xeon microprocessors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) E3-1285L v3 (4 core, 3.1GHz, LGA1150 socket, 65w) and Haswell (microarchitecture) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i7-4770S(4 core, 3.1GHz, LGA1150 socket, 65w), and i7-4770R

(4 core, 3.2GHz, LGA1150 socket, 65w).

 

 

My chief priority will always be audio signal quality (i.e. editing of uncompressed wav files of music CD tracks for playback via USB or a balanced AES card feeding a high performance external DAC). But I also would like to eventually use this computer for DVD as well as more demanding BluRay movie disc editing.

 

Though presently having no hands on experience and minimal knowledge of

computer video editing, I do know that the most time consuming phase of the

process is recompression of the edited video back into the BluRay movie disc format. Depending on the software and hardware resources, recompression could take anywhere from 45 minutes to well over 90 minutes. So I thought that a new pc with one of the above six or eight core model processors and 16GB of RAM, together with the right software apps, might significantly reduce BD compression time-perhaps to

as little as 30 minutes.

 

Again, however, my primary concern is audio quality. Therefore, compared to the ubiquitous dual core processors, could using four, six or eight core Ivy Bridge or the new Haswell four core processors somehow pose any degree of risk to audio quality,

in one or more ways?

 

And, of course, of particular interest would be any related incidents involving any of the specific (low power) processors listed above, and/or desktop boards they were used in.

 

Before I make this computer purchase, any advice or referrals would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[pooger]

The amount of CPU that gets used for hi Rez playback, even with up sampling and running filters, is still really tiny. And people seem to be having real success lately with systems that are as low power and basic as possible. I'm just guessing here; but I would imagine there being more noise in a larger die (physically larger chunk of silicon, with more parts that would be implied in a 6 or 8 core processor). I'm not sure also, but possibly you can limit the number of processors in use, and this may help. Typically low powered processors are preferred, same with all the components.

 

That said, I'm hoping someone will chip in here that has run systems with multi core processors and has experiential based feedback. You are right about wanting many cores for video compiling.

 

Do you have room to keep both towers? To keep the old one and turn it into a dedicated server, and use the other both to control the server and do everything else? Kept just as a server (no need to hook up to the web) you wouldn't need to care about security updates.

 

For either your new tower, or if you decide to go with a dedicated server, ideally look into a separate card for USB that you can run off of an independent supply. There are several specifically designed for audio, that have a much tighter power supply and isolation built in. Some people prefer SS drives, others feel that they may inject more erratic electricL noise back into the system. You may also want to have alternate OSs that you boot into--one set up minimally for audio, and one that does everything else.