I have heard this debate being tossed around recently, but have not seen any definitive answer. I have heard that the i7-8700k is better for meticulous reasons, but maybe it has to do with what kind of music one is producing. I am planning on using a lot of kontakt libraries, and a lot of onmisphere/serum instances, but I am also investing in 64gb of RAM. Which processor would be better, because I want to know if the 300$ difference between the i9 and i7 is worth it or not.

 

9900K is obviously better,
in case you're disturbed about higher number of cpu cores, you can disable them in BIOS if you wish

 

i run the i78700k with 32gb ram and can run multiple instances of diva which is the biggest cpu hog ever, in my old system i7 860 2 diva brought my cpu to a halt, the bottom line is if you run multiple instances of cpu hitters your best off bouncing to audio, you can have 1 omni and route the channels to have 8 patches, in the end if money is not an issue go with the 9

 

Where did you found that $300 difference between i9 & i7?
That’s only about $100 difference between them!
Do some more research about the prices

 

@Mixtic Go for the i9. The price difference is relatively small when compared to performance advantage. I agree with @Hooman.Leys , the difference comes to an average of $125 more for the i9.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-9900K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-8700K/4028vs3937

https://www.google.com/search?q=i99...IDigB&biw=1049&bih=506#spd=564628002751879173

https://www.google.com/search?q=i78...IDigB&biw=1049&bih=506#spd=866274627467350598

 

Last edited: Dec 29, 2018

since you are buying 9900K is guess you gonna overclock some. To do that you need a motherboard with good VRM. I know that this motherboard is good:
Z390 AORUS XTREME
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z390-AORUS-XTREME-rev-10#kf
It's a pretty expensive board but it also has two thunderbolt ports.....
What I'm trying to say is that you need other stuff like a good fan and a good motherboard to fully take advantage of the 9900K.
Noctua NH-D15 is a pretty good fan if you not gonna have water cooling

 

Last edited: Dec 29, 2018

yea cpu cooler is always important, I have Noctua NH-U14S and it does great job with 4.3GHz OC'ed 6-core i7-5820K
definitely stay away from liquid cooling as it's more expensive and more noisy than comparable air coolers

 

I’m so sorry my friend BUT a good liquid cooler is a lot better and quieter than air cooler!
Edited: another important thing about the noise is the Tower(Case).

 

Last edited: Dec 29, 2018

Read this: Interesting discussion on i9900k cooling options http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3821089/air-aio-cooling-quieter.html

 

Even in EU the price difference is less than 100€.. But like (already) stated above - in this case, the two CPUs will not be decisive. It's the whole build that counts. The price difference will soon vanish when you start putting together the "right" components.

 

For gaming its a waste of money to go with the 9900k.
For music production it depends on the daw you use and even then, some daws work better with less and faster cores.

 

this guys build this ones into their machines
Intel Core i9-7900X

https://www.custompcreview.com/pc-computer-builds/recommended-workstation-pc-builds/

their 6-8 different budget lists are connected to amazon..each component...thats cool

 

Last edited: Dec 29, 2018

I am going to be using Fl Studio 11

 

The definitive answer...
https://techreport.com/review/34192/intel-core-i9-9900k-cpu-reviewed/6
http://www.scanproaudio.info/2018/10/19/intels-i9-9900k-and-the-coffee-lake-refresh/

 

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2018

9900k has slightly faster single core speed as compared to 8700k.

 

I wish they wouldn't have used the same colors for different CPUs

 

its 3 parts ...

 

This might be true for a custom water cooling loop but a really good air cooler will beat AIOs in most cases.

HardwareCanucks made a really good video about this ->

And yes I am a bit of a Noctua fanboy

 

If you use NI Maschine, Single Core performance is most important.