Hello Guys,
I'm looking for a budget cpu ,
i found these two (i3 12100f---i5 10400f) are good (almost same price)
i3 12100f (4 cores-8 threads 3.30 up to 4.30 12mb cache ) powerful single core
i5 10400f (6 cores-12 threads-2.90 to 4.30 12 mb cache)
benchmarks show i3 12100f is better for games,
but i'm not sure which is better for music production.
i use ableton live 11,Kontakt (heavy orchestral libraries),omnisphere,massive x and some other heavy vsts.
can you help please?
Thank You

 

If you have to choose between those 2 take the i5 10400f.
Because it have 2 more cores, you should be really good with it.
Im now on a i9 12900k, before that i had a i7 7700k (4 core) and it still was kinda hard to get on the limit.

 

Thank you,
my opinion is the same (2 more cores is better) but benchmarks cunfused me,
i have a laptop with i7 7700hq and it can't handle some heavy plugins.

 

I use i7-12700k CPU and its great for everything. check benchmark sites for a very rough comparison guide of CPU's. I cant stress enough how important your cpu, motherboard and storage will be... make sure its all compatible and somewhat future proof for upgrades.

personally, I researched for months before buying and would never buy anything below the i7-12 gen CPU and z690 MB. spend as much as you comfortably can, even if it means waiting another month or three of saving. whats your total budget?

But make sure you get at least fast 16gb RAM and 2 x fast SSDs! If on a very tight budget, my suggestion is to look at Samsung PM9A1 PCIe 4 M.2 512GB NVMe SSD.

Good luck!

 

Thank you,
my first choise was i7 12700 but I canceled it due to some problems,my budget is low,
i've chosen wd sn570 512gb m.2 ssd,16gb ddr4 ram (2666 or 3200mhz ,it depends to cpu),
h510,h610 mobo (depends to cpu)

 

Hi...

Last May 2022 I assembled a new PC.
Initially I wanted to buy an i7-12700, but my budget is very low.

Finally I decided to buy an i3-12100f, Asrock B660 Steel Legend motherboard, Corsair RAM 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz, AMD Radeon RX 6500XT with plans early next year I can upgrade to i7-12700.

So far with the i3-12100f it's pretty safe for me to do music work that uses a lot of VSTi.

If you are going to use VSTi a lot, it might be a good idea to bounce all your VSTi into audio files when you enter the mixing stage.

Good luck

 

Hey,
Thank you,
good stuff (for me it's better to have powerful cpu instead gpu)
have you ever had problem while working with heavy plugins?
How About DAW cpumeter?

 

Yeah because of the newer generation the 12xxx have a better single core performance. Games still profit more from it and dont really need that much cores (6-8 cores is fine for gaming).

What exactly do you mean with "heavy plugins"? All that sample based stuff like Kontakt also Omnisphere profit alot from really fast NVME's/Ram. Its not that CPU heavy.

Like i said i had a i7 7700k and there was only a limit when my projects are really big and included a masterchain on the master.

 

What do you mean by "get on the limit."?

 

Like i said with limit i mean a really big and finished project. Alot of Serum, Spire, Kontakt instances and a mastering chain on it. EQ's on each channel, some comp's on the busses etc.

It starts crackling. I could still tweak the buffering size/freezing tracks to keep it still going without the crackling.

 

plugins like reaktor + some effects (not delay and reverb),generate (synth),massive x ,ample sound guitars ,straylight (kontakt instrument), ...
when i load some kontakt libraries like ni electric mint,arpology cinematic dimensions , ... ,it's take a long time to load the instrument or kontakt hangs, i don't know it's hard on cpu or my hdd.
recently i used generate + ujam dynamo and my laptop was crying
7700k (desktop) is more powerful than 7700hq(laptop)

 

Yeah but its still a powerfull CPU. You just normal hdd's? Or you also have some ssd's/Nvme's?

 

all my libraries are on hdd (i think 5400rpm)
Daw and Plugins on ssd (sata3)

 

It should be the other way. Librarys on the SSD's and Plugins on your HDD.
Daw on SSD is fine. Will make a big difference. But maybe you only have a small ssd? So maybe your OS is also on it?

 

i know,but it is 256gb ssd and OS and everything is on it except libraries

 

OK that still does not make it clear. I know what it means to "hit the limit", where you get dropouts and other issues.

But what does it mean to "get on the limit." ?
"... before that i had a i7 7700k (4 core) and it still was kinda hard to get on the limit."

Do you mean that it was hard to get past the limitations of the processor?

 

there is no comparison between loading samples and sample based plugins via HDD vs SSD. I still have an old 7200RPM HDD plugged into external docking system for backup storage of masters.. the transfers are painfully slow compared to SSD and the startup spin like Arctic said, is annoying. IMHO if you are using Kontakt as one of your main plugins, you need fast SSD. I would get 2 x 512GB SSD's as a bare minimum, then later add a larger one for Kontakt large libraries.

Also, I wouldn't buy 2 x 8GB sticks of RAM, but rather 1 x 16GB stick so you can later add a matching stick when money allows.
You don't need a graphics card with the 12th gen CPU stock UHD 770 - works perfectly good for video and most gaming too).

Bottom line, you need a very good CPU to handle the latest crop of VST's, its the brains of the operation.. without it, nothing else matters. Spend the majority of time and money on that first. Everything else secondary.

 

i think samsung t7 1tb is not bad,it's in my list but for next year.
a few of libraries put pressure on cpu (NI Straylight-when i play keyboard cpumeter is on 25%-with NI sequis is 33%ni electric mint 38%)

 

For now i'm going to buy a wd sn570 for some important libraries,
i agree with ram,i have a 1gb gpu,it's enough for me,
yes,but cause of money I have to make the best choice based on my budget and upgrade it later (a i7 12700 or i9 needs a good mb,good case,a great cooler)
generally i agree with you,Thank you for your time