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[Sayat Nova]

Hello everyone,

I am just about to finally upgrade my old dual 1gig machine and I am really wrestling with these two choices.

A) I am attracted to the 2.8 8 core because of the best value/investment for the future thing but there are a few problems with this route:

-UAD doesn't work with the 8 core machines now (who knows how long it will take to fix this)

-Most tests I have seen show that there is little gain from the 8 cores over a 4 core machine with the current programs out now (usually a 25% boost not the 100% we would expect from 2x the processor architecture).

B) Going with a 4 core 2.8 machine is almost 500.00$ cheaper:

- this money can be used for hard drives and RAM

-UAD works on this right now


Am I missing anything either pro or con for these choices? Any thoughts or help will be greatly appreciated.

Also, I have heard that for some folks the Xeon processors are having issues with overheating in 8 core machines. Anyone know if this is so?

I hope everyone is well,

~Shea

[Ashermusic]

I was in the same position and last week I decided to buy the Quad because of the  UAD-1 issues.

On the 8 Core,
Pros:
It is great to buy the fastest machine you  can afford as developers always seem to find a way to take advantage of the additional power.

Cons:
The  Quad is more trouble-free at this point and very, very powerful, as well as cheaper.

[multicom]

I think I would also go with a quad machine.  They're definitely more stable, and if you're using the UAD I think that seals the deal.  


I have a quad machine w/ 8GB of RAM and I haven't run out of power yet with some pretty intensive work, I'm sure you'll be happy.

[J-Ho]

Sayat Nova wrote on Wed, 14 May 2008 18:14

Hello everyone, -UAD doesn't work with the 8 core machines now (who knows how long it will take to fix this) ~Shea

Actually, one of my studios was running 4 UAD-1's in a magma chassis with an 8 core G5 with...success?

They did work, just not reliably.  The problems seemed to be more in the plug in stacking over the four cards than with the processor.  Also, it seemed to be cause by version 5 of UAD's software, and 4 seemed to work better.  If we used more power than one card could put out, we would have to inactivate all uad plugs, shut down all but one card, fill it, then turn on the next, etc, etc.  We switched to 2 UAD-2's when they came out and all the bad things went away.  Since then they have been behaving themselves.

What's $500 anyway.  Isn't that shiny silver box worth all your savings?  well...not so shiny....kinda dull actually.......hey! why isn't this thing shiny!?  Intern, shine this box til i can see myself.