Hi guys, i'm saving some money to update my i3-550 in order to get an i7-4790k.
I was thinking to buy the i7 on Amazon for around $350 and then go to a shop in order to get a new motherboard (1156 to 1150).

I'm going to use it mainly for music production. I usually work with a lot of synths, reverbs, delays and stuff like that and using Transform feature here and there in Studio One 3 when really need it.

What's do you guys think?? Is this a good product?? Let's say that with my i3 i could run 5 instance of Diva, how many of them i will be able to run on the CPU?? There is a big difference between those 2 cpus?? Thanks in advance

http://ark.intel.com/it/compare/48505,80807

 

Yes there is a massive difference between those two CPUs. *yes*

First of all it's a quad core vs. dual core. It also has Turbo Boost, larger cache sizes and hyper threading.

 

I have the 4770K chip and it is amazing... takes virtually anything I throw at it. Make sure to get lotsa ram too.... you'll love the 4790K

 

thanks, now i have 6 gb of ram. Usually my S1 (32 bit) won't use more than 2.7 gb. There is a performance reason to upgrade my 6 gb of ram to 10 or 12 gb? Or will not make any noticeable difference with the I7??

 

If you plan on working with Kontakt libraries particularly orchestral ones you will generally need about 16 GB.

 

I use a lot Kontakt alongside some famouse synths like Massive or Sylenth, but usually freeze stuff when need it

 

it's also on the High-end cpu on this benchmark site, but don't know if it is up-to-date

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

 

I have an i7 4770K and like usernone said, it can handle almost anything you throw at it.

That being said, U-he is a particular case. Sometimes certain patches can REALLY strain your CPU (i've had my CPU jump up to 90% on a single zebra patch). But in most, it's great. You can have effects on 30 tracks at the same time and it runs smoothly.


Also, I suggest you buy a fan for it, don't use the factory one. You don't need to buy a fancy watercooling system or anything but the more recent i7 can get kinda hot so you want to be sure to have good ventilation so you don't shorten the lifespam of your CPU. Get good thermal paste too

 

Just wait Skylake is coming out later this year.

 

If it was just a Cpu upgrade then maybe but if you have to buy the motherboard as well then dont just wait a lil longer for skylake

 

I don't want to spend too much money on PC upgrade, I was able to get 150 tracks on edm project in Logic Pro x with my i3. The i7 here should do the job with extended FX chains and crazy chains in s1 v3.

 

I'm happy with my AMD A8 3870k, supports up to 4 or 5 instances of u-he Diva, but I guess the processor i7-4790k is better

 

I had 2 AMDs and I had some troubles with them, but they are cheaper.

 

Many people do not aware that chips like Xeon W3690 (turbo 3.9 sixcore} can cost less than 200usd, and you could even buy an a cheap server for 2 processors and have 12 cores to toy, with less usbs of course

 

you can get a hp z800 with 32gbRam dual hexacore w5500 xeon and overclock them savely to 4ghz or more, and @ around the same price of the 2 componnents.
if its just power you seek.

if you want a sleak powerefficent (about a third of poerusage)
you can upgrade your main components (gpu,cpu mb, ram)in a few months

 

The i3 also has HT

Here's another take: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i3-550

baisically, the only things going for the I3 are value & lower power.

If you want a compromise, try an i5. That should be slightly better in value & power than the i7 and better performance than an i3.

Also try some free tweaks like reducing your FX chain CPU (using a low-CPU reverb such as BREVERB2, etc), bussing common FX, etc.

 

I personally wouldn't bother with an i5. Get the extra power and cache size. It's worth it for the slight difference in price and it will be more future proof. I have an i7 myself and it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Making music is a lot less of a pain in the ass when you're not bumping up against the limits of your CPU every minute. Also splurge on more RAM. You may not need it now but you will likely want to delve into some cool libraries where it may come in handy.

 

I really liked the high frequncy base of my i3, always 3.20 ghz in every situation. This i7 should start from 4 ghz.

Can someone explain a little bit about "Turbo Boost" feature?? i friend of mine got the i7-4770k some times ago and he said that the cpu turn on and turn off cores when need it. Is it possible to disable this stepping?? And get full power always or it is too much "heat consuming"??

I also heard turbo boost as a sort of "controlled overclock", is this true or just bad informations?? thanks

 

you can get info about "Turbo Boost" here

I use AMD 8 core @ 4ghz , and never had any problem and i´m very satisfied.
only downside so far was the Stock Cooler, which was noisy , but i always change stock coolers anyway..

 

My experience report: I'm using watercooled i7-4790 (not K) running at stock freq (3.6 GHz / 4GHz Turbo Boost) it's more cheaper than i7-4790K (useful only for overclockers). Using the price difference to buy an audio interface (Focusrite Saffire PRO 14 and FireWire 800 PCIe card). Mobo is an Asus Maximus VII Hero (I'm a gamer too) without crappy DIP5 tools (causing DPCs/latency), 32GB (4x CAS-10 8MB G.Skill modules). I'm enjoyed! Mainly used for small personal projects (REAPER 4 or Live 9 Lite) and for live play at home.