AMD vs Intel, does it matter?

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by serio

Sunburst, i'm very interested on hearing how things may be going for you with those two settups. I just put together an athlon II 630 x4 settup last weekend and i just started testing it. So far, I've done 1 dverb2.0 test wich I messed up by running at 44.1 instead of 48k. Anyway, I got 109 dverbs with my DAE buffer up at level 4. I get a DAE error at 110 deverbs. This is on 8.0.1 with the "new dverb".
Here is What I have so far:
AMD Athlon II 630 X4
C2 stepping I believe
Cool & Quiet disabled
stock heatsink

Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H
came with F4 Bios
has T.I. chip for firewire
installed only audio, nic, and south bridge chip drivers(from website downloads)
Disabled video from the get go
Im iffy about this board's performance.
read complaints about a bad nic and I think that I have that problem. Port is Green instead of Orange but it flashes orange every now and then. ???
Noticed when I downloaded the 801 update. (slowly)

Sapphire Radeon 4550 512DDR3
latest basic ATI drivers
wanted a 128 meg but oh well

2X 2G Ocz Reaper HPC CL4 DDR2
in the Bios:
I set them to "ganged"
set the timing to manual:
4-4-4-15 left the other numbers as they were because i don't know what they mean or what to set them at.
voltage at 2.1 (the sticks have 2.2 on the sticker but the website says they are 2.1v; opinions welcome)

2X WD Black 640gig SATA HDD, 32 cache
no raid or extra partitions
left these as native IDE in the bios

SIIG PCI Firewire card
003 rack on this fella. I haven't tested the onboard firewire port
for some reason I get an "!" under network adapters in the device manager with this card. I just uninstalled it under there and it seems to be working fine. ( left it installed under 1394 bus controlers)

Windows XP SP3 OEM
I found this at a local MICROCENTER
ran an update and left out IE8
I did the regular optimizations (set for best performance here, set to backround programs there, ect.) I have a list that I got from musicxp.net years ago. I usaully go through that list of settings but I have a couple left, like getting rid of the bubble hints and other little tidbits.

If you see any red flags, or if you have any tips, please post.

hope to get you a more acurate dverb test soon

Still waiting on GSkill to ship me replacement memory...

I do beleive that you want the memory unganged. From what I read on the web Unganged means the any core can access as much memory as it needs. Were as Ganged mode splits and locks the memory between all the cores equally.

It sounds like you did your homework and set it up right. Minimal driver installs and the optimazations. For the Dverb test the DAE buffer should be set to its default which is normally level 2. The hardware buffer should be at 1024. The Sample rate should be 48K 24 bit.

109 new Dverbs is good enough. Rather than comparing it to a Core2 Quad or a i7 I would be comparing it to a 99.00 Intel dualcore.

I suspect that 8.0.3 sc2 might run a bit better and smoother for you. and if you want to test with the older 7.4 Dverb you can find it as version 7.3 on the download section. You will need to drag the 8.0 Dverb out of the Plugins folder be fore installing the 7.4 Dverb.

It's really all about how well it runs PT though, The Dverb score is just a benchmark.

[serio]

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I was confused to what ganged REALLY meant. (still am, a little) I have an Mbox lying around and though I don't know how I'll use it (if I do), it's stopped me from updating to 8.0.3. I may decide to give it a whirl though. 109 is a huge step from what my single core athlon 2.4 was trying to do so I'm happy. Now to install my plugs and throw up a real session.
You guys that are always tinkering don't get tired of installing all this stuff over and over? Whats the secret?

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by serio

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I was confused to what ganged REALLY meant. (still am, a little) I have an Mbox lying around and though I don't know how I'll use it (if I do), it's stopped me from updating to 8.0.3. I may decide to give it a whirl though. 109 is a huge step from what my single core athlon 2.4 was trying to do so I'm happy. Now to install my plugs and throw up a real session.
You guys that are always tinkering don't get tired of installing all this stuff over and over? Whats the secret?

I take a break and spend 2 1/2 half days updating my MacBook Pro to 8.0.3 cs2 and install the Producer Factory Pro bundle and the Music Production
Toolkit 2 and I wonder why. A) all of the .big files are missing B) Why the Structure Library is AWOL and C) Why its isn't "just working"

EVERYTHING is the latest version or update and I've done at least two clean PT uninstalls. I got Xpand2, Boom, and Mini Grand going but still no Structure LE Library. I think I'm going to punt and install my extra copy of Structure 1.1 and call it a day

I cant wait to simply install Windows again.

Seriously though Making a good set of drive images can save a lot of time down the road.

[serio]

Sheesh, and I get tired from just installing TLSpace's IR's

[serio]

Update:
100 Dverbs on 8.0.1 via Dverb2.0 test
This is for the Athlon II X4 system that I posted about.

Hope that helps for the OP's comparisons.

So 2.8ghz doesn't mean it will be the same performance as an Intel 2.8. Just look at the i7 benchmarks. But my chip and motherboard cost me $160 together. i7 plus mobo may cost $380 or more.

[serio]

For some reason (someone may know the answer) I was getting very poor disk performance from one of my sata ports. I don't know if it was a bad port or my configuration was wrong. When I switched my audio drive's sata port, disk performance was increased drastically. So much that my Dverb2.0 test went from 100 new dverbs to 121 new dverbs on my stock Athlon II X4 630. My first tests showed my disk bar maxing out in the system usage window. After the change, disk usage was in the 20's, during Dverb maxout.

[sunburst79]

Not sure why changing to port would help but any improvements is always welcome.

Phenom X6 is here.

[serio]

Yeah, I don't get it. I came across the problem when I did a modest cpu overclock and then tried to benchmark it with the dverb test. The result was the same as with stock speeds. That's when I realized that I was maxing out my disk's limit's before hitting my cpu's limit. It took a lot of trouble shooting to find that switching sata ports would get my caviar black working as it should. Funny thing is that HDTach scores were alike before and after the switch, further adding to the confusion.

By the way, 141 dverbs with Athlon II X4 630 @ 3.36ghz. I only got 144 with the cpu @ 3.5ghz so I'm liking 3.36 for now.

[repeated_love]

Great and useful info here. I think I will be going a AMD build.

In regards to serios motherboard:

1) He uses Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H. Can I use other Gigabyte 785 series motherboads such as GA-MA785GT-UD3H or Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H? - Not much difference in model numbers.

2) Is the motherboard serio uses, the Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H, DDR3?

3) Can I use the AMD II x4 620?



Thanks

[repeated_love]

Saw a site today where a guy did a build with an AMD x2 255 or something and had some M Audio Black Box guitar thing going.

Here is a rig I am planing to do. Its going to be a HTPC with the option of also being a DAW. Not sure if I will requirea CPU cooler or if these mobos will fit or be compatible.

Can get a Zalman PC cooler if need be. Any tips or recommendations.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H rev 1.3? - prefer this one?
OR
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 785G ddr3 Motherboard
RAM: 4GB Kingston DDR3 1333MHz
HDD: Seagate ST31000528AS 7200.12,1TB,7200RPM
ODD: LG GH22-NS50 22X
CASE: Antec NSK 2480B
PSU: comes with case
TV TUNER: Hauppauge HVR-2200