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I'm looking to buy a new computer to use with Studio One, my HP zbook 17 G3 has been great for the past 3-4 years but I'd like to upgrade to get a little more horsepower under the hood.

I haven't seen any benchmarks on CPU performance on Studio One, which is why I'm wondering if anyone has tested the performance of the Xeon chips vs. the i7 vs. the i9. AMD isn't an option for me right now as I use UAD hardware over Thunderbolt 3.

Specifically, does anyone have real-world experience showing that the Xeon's higher L3 cache, increased number of cores, and hyperthreading (i.e. virtual cores) is effectively used by Studio One?
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by Vocalpoint on Tue Feb 25, 2020 1:37 pm
grahamhunter wroteI'm looking to buy a new computer to use with Studio One, my HP zbook 17 G3 has been great for the past 3-4 years but I'd like to upgrade to get a little more horsepower under the hood.

I haven't seen any benchmarks on CPU performance on Studio One, which is why I'm wondering if anyone has tested the performance of the Xeon chips vs. the i7 vs. the i9. AMD isn't an option for me right now as I use UAD hardware over Thunderbolt 3.

Specifically, does anyone have real-world experience showing that the Xeon's higher L3 cache, increased number of cores, and hyperthreading (i.e. virtual cores) is effectively used by Studio One?


Any recent i5/i7/i9 would do just fine - do know that the Xeon chips usually require a server motherboard - which probably will not bode well for standard Windows 10 studio type usage. WIll assume that S1 is not tested against server boards in the wild.

I have also not seen any representative data that actually shows that S1 is coded to take full advantage of all cores in a typical 2020 CPU scenario. So I am not sure that paying for a Xeon + plus it's matching server board is going to offer that much of a positive.

FWIW - I run a typical circa 2018 i7 in an ASUS Prime Z370-A motherboard and I have never felt like I do not have enough horsepower. S1 is very efficient and will run a treat on the usual suspects.

VP

DAW: Studio One Pro 6.5.1.96553 | Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 | Motherboard: ASUS PRIME z790-A | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13600K | RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | Graphics: Intel UHD 770 (HDMI) | Audio Interface: RME UCX II (v1.246) | OS Drive : Samsung 990 PRO (1TB) | Media Drive: Samsung 970 EVO Plus (500GB) | Libraries: Samsung 970 EVO+ (2TB) | Samples : Seagate FireCuda (2TB) | Monitoring: Presonus Monitor Station v2 + Presonus Eris 5 | MIDI Control: Native Instruments Komplete S61 & Presonus ATOM
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by grahamhunter on Tue Feb 25, 2020 6:36 pm
How would you quantify "do just fine"? Why do you believe that a server motherboard would not do well for studio usage? Do you really think that a modern i5 would outperform an i7 from just a few generations before? (edit: those are rhetorical questions, you don't need to answer them)

Although I appreciate you taking the time to respond I do believe that you're just guessing here ;)

Also note that Xeons are readily available in workstation-class computers.
Last edited by grahamhunter on Tue Feb 25, 2020 6:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by grahamhunter on Tue Feb 25, 2020 6:39 pm
This is the sort of article that would be great to see from Presonus:

https://support.image-line.com/action/k ... se?ans=476
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by robertgray3 on Tue Feb 25, 2020 7:19 pm
grahamhunter wroteThis is the sort of article that would be great to see from Presonus:

https://support.image-line.com/action/k ... se?ans=476


Yes it would be. That's a great little article. Their CPU tips are all written in separate articles, often with contradictory or vague information and buried in the Knowledge Base.

Mac OS X Catalina 10.15.7
Mac Pro 6.1
3 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon E5
32 GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Dual AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB
Quantum 2
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by Vocalpoint on Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:08 pm
grahamhunter wroteHow would you quantify "do just fine"? Why do you believe that a server motherboard would not do well for studio usage?


Because a server boards are "generally" not tested by DAW companies, users, VST devs and so on. Drivers are very specific for these boards and are usually geared for server duties rather than performance. Then - you will need to get an OS on there - Windows 10 Pro (for example) may or may not work due to driver or hardware requirements on these specialized boards.

I am not implying it wouldn't work but why would I want the hassle? Buy the right tool for the job I always say and that's a server board for a server and a good pro-sumer style board (fully supported for Win 10 Pro/ENT/LTSC) and be done with it.

grahamhunter wroteDo you really think that a modern i5 would outperform an i7 from just a few generations before?


Easily. I would bet money that a 2020 i5 would easily run circles around my 2018 i7.

grahamhunter wroteAlso note that Xeons are readily available in workstation-class computers.


Sure they are - but again - any board labelled "workstation" and using a Xeon - is probably not exactly common place and not readily industry tested for DAW work. I would also be concerned about cost vs value - if I only managed a minor performance boost.

There are a ton of Xeon to i7 comparisons for audio work out there. Do some reading and draw some of your own conclusions.

You have stated more "horsepower" but do not specify what that means. You are coming from an HP laptop - there are easily hundreds of standard ASUS boards coupled with stock i5/i7/i9 chips that would run circles around that.

Maybe let us know what your intended "horsepower" is for (from an S1 perspective) and we could probably dial it in better.

That said - the bulk of the crew around here (that post their specs) generally run solid WIn 10 rigs on easy to find motherboards or laptops with typical hardware. I have not seen any folks recently rocking a "workstation" style board with Xeon processors. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Me personally - I would be more concerned about hardware compatibility - especially for the audio card.

Finally - with a bit of reading round the forums and the Net - I am still skeptical that Studio One actually supports "multi-core" or if it makes efficient use of a typical multi-core CPU - at least to the point of getting full value from it.

Until we get a full official statement on full CPU core support from Presonus - I would not load up on Xeons for my DAW just yet.

VP

DAW: Studio One Pro 6.5.1.96553 | Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 | Motherboard: ASUS PRIME z790-A | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13600K | RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | Graphics: Intel UHD 770 (HDMI) | Audio Interface: RME UCX II (v1.246) | OS Drive : Samsung 990 PRO (1TB) | Media Drive: Samsung 970 EVO Plus (500GB) | Libraries: Samsung 970 EVO+ (2TB) | Samples : Seagate FireCuda (2TB) | Monitoring: Presonus Monitor Station v2 + Presonus Eris 5 | MIDI Control: Native Instruments Komplete S61 & Presonus ATOM
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by robertgray3 on Tue Feb 25, 2020 10:17 pm
Well Mac Pros have been Xeon for a long time, if that counts for anything. Not I'm not totally happy with performance on Mac vs PC (I'm not) but I have no idea if that's because of the CPU or if its because of macOS limitations that the software isn't dealing with as well.

Mac OS X Catalina 10.15.7
Mac Pro 6.1
3 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon E5
32 GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Dual AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB
Quantum 2
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by grahamhunter on Wed Feb 26, 2020 12:11 am
Vocalpoint: Again, although I appreciate you taking the time to reply but I'm not looking for opinions. As stated in my original post, I'm looking for people who have real-world experience with this scenario and not what you think might or might not be true. Please stop taking this post off-topic.

I really don't want to argue with you here, but you are wrong on several counts in your last post. One thing in particular that you say is absolutely false: "There are a ton of Xeon to i7 comparisons for audio work out there."

There are none within the context of Studio One, which is why I'm posting here.
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by Vocalpoint on Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:02 am
grahamhunter wrote One thing in particular that you say is absolutely false: "There are a ton of Xeon to i7 comparisons for audio work out there."

There are none within the context of Studio One, which is why I'm posting here.


That should tell you all you need to know. Good luck with your search.

VP

DAW: Studio One Pro 6.5.1.96553 | Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 | Motherboard: ASUS PRIME z790-A | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13600K | RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | Graphics: Intel UHD 770 (HDMI) | Audio Interface: RME UCX II (v1.246) | OS Drive : Samsung 990 PRO (1TB) | Media Drive: Samsung 970 EVO Plus (500GB) | Libraries: Samsung 970 EVO+ (2TB) | Samples : Seagate FireCuda (2TB) | Monitoring: Presonus Monitor Station v2 + Presonus Eris 5 | MIDI Control: Native Instruments Komplete S61 & Presonus ATOM
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by grahamhunter on Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:55 am
I'm going to correct the misinformation in the post above. There is little enough information out there as it is, hopefully others don't read this and get some wrong ideas.

voicepoint wroteBecause a server boards are "generally" not tested by DAW companies, users, VST devs and so on. Drivers are very specific for these boards and are usually geared for server duties rather than performance. Then - you will need to get an OS on there - Windows 10 Pro (for example) may or may not work due to driver or hardware requirements on these specialized boards.


There are plenty of workstation-class computers that have Windows 10 drivers and Xeon options. The entire ranges of HP Z workstations and Dell Precision workstations have 100% Windows 10 support. Operating system compatibility is not a concern here.

"Server duties" are exactly what we need for DAW work, mathematical compute and disk throughput. Workstations are tested extensively for performance at scale for 3d rendering, video editing, and other CPU intensive desktop tasks.

voicepoint wroteEasily. I would bet money that a 2020 i5 would easily run circles around my 2018 i7.


This is easily disproven. A 6-core i7-7700 from 2017 gets a Passmark score of 15137, where the current model 6-core i5-9500 scores 12038.

voicepoint wroteYou are coming from an HP laptop - there are easily hundreds of standard ASUS boards coupled with stock i5/i7/i9 chips that would run circles around that.


I am coming from an HP Mobile Workstation class notebook, which uses high-end components and most definitely runs circles around most desktops.

voicepoint wroteI have not seen any folks recently rocking a "workstation" style board with Xeon processors.


Yet the only other person to respond to this thread has such a setup...

voicepoint wroteMe personally - I would be more concerned about hardware compatibility - especially for the audio card.


I also stated that my audio interface is Universal Audio with Thunderbolt 3. TB3 interfaces just aren't available on lower-end computers, and it's not just a matter of adding a PCI card as the chipset on the motherboard needs to be compatible as well.

voicepoint wroteFinally - with a bit of reading round the forums and the Net - I am still skeptical that Studio One actually supports "multi-core" or if it makes efficient use of a typical multi-core CPU - at least to the point of getting full value from it.


All of the i5/i7/i9 options you suggested are multi-core. Of course Studio One supports multi-core CPU's


Please only respond if you have first-hand experience with higher-end workstation class hardware.
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by matthewgorman on Wed Feb 26, 2020 12:09 pm
I have a Lenovo Thinkserver with a Xeon running Win 10 professional, for the last 3 years. Also have a laptop running Win 7 with an i5. I also have an i7 Win7 desktop tthat I am in the process of cleaning out to use as my main studio PC (its a rack mount chassis). The work I do is mostly audio, very little midi/vsti usage. Average song session is over 35 tracks.

I do not see a marked difference in performance between the 3 processors. CPU usage is consistent across all devices using the same song file and plugs. If you have any specific tests or information you would like to see, let me know.

Matt

Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 Win 10 64bit, 8GB RAM, Intel Xeon
Lenovo Thinkpad E520, Windows 7 64bit, 8 GB RAM, Intel i5 Processor

S1Pro V5
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by darrenporter1 on Wed Feb 26, 2020 12:19 pm
You are overthinking this. Any of the top-level i7, i9 or Xeons are going to be an improvement and will give you years of great service as a DAW platform.

Buy the best one you can afford and don't look back.


Studio One Professional 5.whatever, Harrison MixBus 32c v.6
i5-8400, 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, 2TB HD, Win10 Pro
UA Apollo QUAD, QUAD Satellite, PCIe DUO
FaderPort 8, Softube Console 1, JBL 306P Mk.II Monitors
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by grahamhunter on Wed Feb 26, 2020 12:38 pm
Thanks, Matt - that's good to know. It would seem that based on your experience Studio One does NOT take advantage of the additional features in the Xeon.

A good friend and I have been comparing performance using the Adam Nittiand demo song, I'm going to do some more testing around that and will probably start a new thread that gives instructions on how to record results as the song is running, and then how to add more tracks & instruments to push the system further.

Perhaps once I'm further down that path you could run those tests on your systems and we could compare notes?

-----

darrenporter1, what real-world experience are you basing that on? Your advice seems to conflict with Matt's observations and I believe that like VP above you're just guessing here.
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by darrenporter1 on Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:23 pm
grahamhunter wrote
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darrenporter1, what real-world experience are you basing that on? Your advice seems to conflict with Matt's observations and I believe that like VP above you're just guessing here.


lol... ok.... it actually fully 100% supports Matt's observations. i7? i9? Xeon? Pick the one you can afford and go make the world a better place through your music. 8-)

Seriously, you are splitting hairs. The 9th-gen processors will all do the job of a DAW platform very, very well. Heck all the 8th-gen processors will too. Just stay away from the mobile-centric ones and you will be ok. If one so obviously outperformed another, that would be the talk of the Internet and everybody would be giving you the same answer.


Studio One Professional 5.whatever, Harrison MixBus 32c v.6
i5-8400, 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, 2TB HD, Win10 Pro
UA Apollo QUAD, QUAD Satellite, PCIe DUO
FaderPort 8, Softube Console 1, JBL 306P Mk.II Monitors
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by mikemanthei on Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:28 pm
I recently upgraded to an AMD 3900x. It looks like 24 processors to Windows 10, and Studio One spreads out across those 24 processors as expected. I don't know if there is a limit to how many processors Studio One can use, but it's at least 24

Studio One v2, 3, and 4 Professional
Presonus 1818VSL / Focusrite 18i20 / StudioLive 32S
24-core Ryzen 9. 32 GB RAM
Tascam US-2400
Faderport 8
StudioLive 32S
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by grahamhunter on Wed Feb 26, 2020 3:44 pm
Thanks, Mike That's really good to know.
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by matthewgorman on Wed Feb 26, 2020 5:28 pm
grahamhunter wroteThanks, Matt - that's good to know. It would seem that based on your experience Studio One does NOT take advantage of the additional features in the Xeon.

A good friend and I have been comparing performance using the Adam Nittiand demo song, I'm going to do some more testing around that and will probably start a new thread that gives instructions on how to record results as the song is running, and then how to add more tracks & instruments to push the system further.

Perhaps once I'm further down that path you could run those tests on your systems and we could compare notes?

-----

darrenporter1, what real-world experience are you basing that on? Your advice seems to conflict with Matt's observations and I believe that like VP above you're just guessing here.


Pm me when ready

Matt

Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 Win 10 64bit, 8GB RAM, Intel Xeon
Lenovo Thinkpad E520, Windows 7 64bit, 8 GB RAM, Intel i5 Processor

S1Pro V5
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by leosutherland on Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:59 am
FWIW, mine is a 2018 i7 hexcore, and I've never run into running out of CPU grunt.

Actually, I lie :shock: - for experiment, I once setup a heavy reverb pad on my Diva and basically leaned my forearm on the controller keyboard - that blew right through all CPU power :punk:

I would never do that sort of thing normally, and really the max CPU I ever use is around 20-30% often with many instances of combinations of Diva, Synthmaster, Serum - I'm happy with my old i7 :D

...said Halo

Studio One Pro v4.6.2 / v5.5.2 / v6.5.2
Serum, Diva, Repro, Synthmaster, Syntronik Bully, MTron Pro, Kontakt 6/7, AIR synths, Cherry Audio synths, Battery 4, PPG Wave 3.V, Generate

3XS SQ170 Music Studio PC
Windows 10 x64 (22H2)
i7 8700 Hexcore 3.2GHz, 16GB, 2TB 970 EVO+ M.2 NVMe SSD + 1TB SATA HD
Scarlett 2i4 (G2), Korg Taktile 25, Faderport 2018, ATOM


Beyerdynamic DT990 Pros, JBL 305P II speakers
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by Blades on Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:56 pm
I think you will find that, comparing a Xeon and an i7, that the i7 will win in the case of single core and the Xeon might edge out in multi-core. Of course this is a generalization, but it tends to be the case that each core in a Xeon processor has a slower clock than a similar i7, but also sports more cores.

Personally, I recently upgraded from a 4th gen i5 to an 8th gen i7 (8700k), which of course meant new motherboard and memory as well. I see and feel a difference, but I don't know that I could exactly quantify it if I didn't know the specs then vs. now. Looking at the comps then, it was like a 5% speed difference for a 20% price difference. I went with the 8700 based on that.

As others have said, really any will likely do you well. I like to go for the well tested and supported platforms, myself. When I did my upgrade, the i9 had just come out and didn't really have a lot of track record yet, so I went with the i7 8700 because it is already well-established as a solid all-around workhorse processor that can be overclocked if needed. I also got a board that has a good reputation (though a break from my typical attraction to ASUS - got an MSI instead). It has the option of an add-on Thunderbolt card. Not exactly commonplace on PC motherboards, though I didn't have the budget to go with that.

Since I'm using a USB2 Presonus Studio 18|24, I am likely not seeing some of the performance I could with a Quantum, but again, didn't have the budget for that - or really the need for my one-person hobby "studio".

Hope this contributes something to your thoughts.

Drummer and Singer mostly with some limited Guitar/Bass/Keys and a love for tech.
My personal website, with some useful videos and other music related things: https://blades.technology

Using:
Self-built i7 8700k/16gb/all SSD, S1 4 Pro, +Sonar Platinum/Cakewalk by Bandlab, PreSonus Studio 18|24 USB, Faderport 8, Tranzport, Edirol PCR-800, Pearl Mimic Pro and Roland V-Drums kit & Console 1 with SSL4000e + British Class A..
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by vanhaze on Fri Feb 28, 2020 12:42 am
robertgray3 wroteWell Mac Pros have been Xeon for a long time, if that counts for anything. Not I'm not totally happy with performance on Mac vs PC (I'm not) but I have no idea if that's because of the CPU or if its because of macOS limitations that the software isn't dealing with as well.


Would like to see an honest comparison test between S1 mac version and S1 PC version regarding CPU performance.
I have read many times from other S1 users the statement that S1 PC version performs (somewhat?) better than S1 Mac version.
The same story you can read from many Cubase users BTW ;)

Macbook Air M1 2020, 8 gig RAM, 256 gig SSD | OSX Ventura -latest Beta | Presonus Studio 24C audio interface.

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