I'm in the proces of buying a new computer to run VE etc. and consider to buy a server to run the applications:
Motherboard: Tyan h2000m or Tyan n3600m, both with 16 dimm (DDR2 reg.) and ram limit on 64 Gb
Ram: 32 Gb (16x2Gb) Maybe even 48 Gb, if the motherboard can use 4 Gb 4-rank ram modules...(8x4Gb+8x2Gb)
Proccessor: 2x opteron 2347 (quad-core)
System: Vista 64-bit or XP64
Programs: Sibelius 5.1, VE and VI
The reason for AMD Opteron is, that it use "normal" cheap ram instead of Intel 5000 series that use the more expensive FB-dimm.
Hardware price (in Denmark) with 32 Gb ram: around 2000 Euro
Questions:
1) With the Opteron, the ram is connected to each of the 2 processors (8 dimm each).
a) Can Vienna Ensemble use both proccessors at the same time? (and by that, all the ram..)
b) Can Vienna Ensemble use the quad-core?
2) I've read on the forum that it doesn't make much sence using more than 8 or 16 Gb ram, because there is limitation in using to many Vienna Instruments...
Are the limitations only in the number of VI's or does it influenze have much RAM each instance of VI has?
(I would use 40-50 instances of VI, with a lot of samples in each VI)
Martin