Want to upgrade computer for music production

Psyisk · 20 Sep 2011 at 16:36

Ok so I have a pc I built 4 years ago for gaming and I want to upgrade it purely for music production. So I want to replace the motherboard processor and memory. I believe everything else is cool. My first thought was to go for an amd motherboard and processor, however though looking around I see amd only support up to 8 gbs of ram? I would be looking to go higher than this.

So Im looking at the intel i7 chips with triple channel support, my question is if I bought one of these chips what is the max about of ram I would be able to ultilize on a 64 bit windows 7 with the motherboard linked below for example, if I use 3 x 4 gbs of a ram can I use the remaining 3 slots on the motherboard to put a further 3 x 4 gbs of ram in? I understand this is overkill but I would just be interested to know the limits as extra ram really isnt expensive nowdays, thanks a lot

Motherboard I have in mind - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-417-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1692

chip I have in mind - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-303-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1272

Gammawolf · 20 Sep 2011 at 19:42

Yes you can, that mobo supports 24gb max. I'm not sure where you looked at for AMD boards but most support 16GB, even cheap £70 jobbies.

Psyisk · 20 Sep 2011 at 19:54

I think I was under the impression that some processors do not support the amount of ram I was talking about. Am I just being stupid or do processors have limits to the amounts of ram they can support?

Gammawolf · 20 Sep 2011 at 20:00

The limit is defined by the motherboard.

Psyisk · 20 Sep 2011 at 20:09

ok thanks a lot for your help, could you tell me what is ment by 'Triple Channel DDR3 Controller' on the intel processors

Stone22uk · 20 Sep 2011 at 20:28

Psyisk said:
ok thanks a lot for your help, could you tell me what is ment by 'Triple Channel DDR3 Controller' on the intel processors

It means the processors supports triple channel ram, eg 3 sticks at once, so you see how the mobo has 3 x red slots 3 x black slots.

For optimal performance you should use 3 sticks of ram in either colour slot's. So the CPU can run the ram together in triple channel.

Psyisk · 20 Sep 2011 at 21:10

Ok cool, thanks again. After a bit of research and taking what you have said into consideration I think its going to be more cost effective if I got with amd as I can max out the ram hopefully quite cheaply as it isnt too expensive. I am thinking it is worth waiting around for this new bulldozer chip, will a new generation of motherboards be released to co-inside with the chip, also how much ram will these motherboards support if so or is this not yet known? thanks a lot