Old 10-05-2010, 07:24 PM   #1
groove6
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Default dell precision 470 and reaper

hi folks,
been using Reaper (registered) for a year or so. love it. X cubase user, never looked back.
Question:
I am currently running XP SP2 with Reaper 3.69 on a dell GX270 2.8 gig machine with 4 gig of ram. Runs flawlessly.
except:
when running alot of FX eq's - compressors - reverbs - eazy drummer etc.
then, when running about 18 tracks, my cpu usage goes to about 72 - 88%
no glitches - it plays the song fine. but when rendering, it is slow like unbelievable. (estimated time over 2 hours to complete render.) that is using the best number crunching speed . ... so it sounds the best that is
BTW. all my files so far are recorded at 16 bit - 44.1 sample rate.

So here's the thing -
I can pick up a Dell precision 470 machine - Dual 3.0 gig processors for next to nothing. (probably $100.00 or less)
If I load Reaper - and XP sp-3 on a machine like that, will it take advantage of the dual processors and perhaps leave some more 'processor headroom' when using FX ??
will Reapers performance meter actually show the usage on each processor ?

Just curious if any one is running a similar dual processor XP set up and how it works for them......
I am thinking it would be a great improvement (performance-wise) over a single 2.8 gig processor.

I thought of buying a UAD-2 card but I dont have a pciE slot (even if I did they are out of my league as far as price goes)
then I thought of a UAD-1 card, but I looked on line and they seem to introduce problems with playback, pops - clicks. and I have read that people have a hard time with them glitches in audio - crashing the session, crashing windows.....
so I really am not leaning in the direction of spending $70.00 - 150.00 and then struggling to get the thing working. I like the stability I have now. Although I hear they sound really good.

thanks for your thoughts.

6

Last edited by groove6; 10-05-2010 at 07:33 PM.
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Old 10-06-2010, 05:40 AM   #2
Amether
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Are you rendering at the same sample rate as you're recording? And similarly, is your soundcard set to play back at 44.1k as well? If you have to do any resampling when playing, then the CPU will take a hit, however just playing back shouldn't be very CPU taxing at all...

My soundcard accidentally set itself to 192khz while in my bag - then experienced really crappy performance and took me a while to work out why...

As for using all your processors - I think Reaper will work with what it's given - I know it uses all the cores by default when using, say, a quad core processor but I'm not sure about physical CPUs. It probably does as it's nice like that.

Never gone anywhere near UAD.
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