Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 Series
With four processing cores per chip and the ability to put two of these on a motherboard this processor can handle just about anything you could throw at it. This server grade processor sports a fast front side bus at up to 1600 MHz and with the right motherboard it can support up to 32 GB of RAM.
Advantages:
- Blazing fast CPU speeds with up to 8 processing cores makes handling plug-in effects a breeze
- Speedy front side bus and support for copius amounts of RAM is ideal for large sampling projects
- Has the power to handle high track count low-latency recordings
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor
For price/performance ratio the Core 2 Quad has few competitors. This single quad core chip has speeds of up to 2.83 GHz per core.
Advantages:
- Quad-Core power can easily handle larger projects with lots of plug-ins
- Available in a range of models with up to 1333 MHz FSB speeds
- Motherboards supporting these chips are typically more affordable than their Xeon counterparts
Intel CPU Family Comparison |
Family |
Speed (GHz) |
Cores |
FSB (MHz) |
Notes |
Xeon |
1.86 - 3.73 |
Up to 8 |
1600 Max |
Great for orchestral sized sampling projects where fast memory access is a must |
Core 2 |
1.80 - 3.20 |
Up to 4 |
1600 Max |
Quad configurations offer great price/performance ratio |
Pentium |
1.60 - 3.73 |
Up to 2 |
1066 Max |
When you're on a budget these can get the job done but limited FSB and CPU speed can hinder plug-in performance |
Celeron |
Not recommended for media intensive applications |
For more information on CPUs please click here.
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