Originally posted by ZKAUdio ------------------------------------------------------------------------- your preference for intel is not a good one in this case, the dual core intels have been outbenchmarked left and right by amd... despite their higher transistor count. that said, whichever you go with, I'd stay away from dual processor setups if you aren't computer saavy. The dual core chips will suit you just fine. Make sure, however, that you don't pay extra for "hyperthreading" as most audio apps don't like it. From my understanding, the dual core is especially effecting with DAW's due to the need for processing power from the plugins and host at the same time... this way each gets its own cache to draw from. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- While there is nothing wrong with AMD you need to stay current on your reading as AMD's have not been keeping up with Intel procs for over 3 months now and probably won't catch them them for another 6 months at best. Intel is on it's 65 nm die now compared to the 90 nm AMD and when AMD's 65 nm hits the market here soon Intel will be printing 45 nm. We are also in the quad core, not dual, world now with 8 cores on the near horizon. Even with all the speed, CPU power is still not that big a deal though. Buss transfer and hard drive speed is the key to high resolution and high track counts. And for our New Egg proponents they are good but even they aren't the cheapest and I don't buy from them too often.