This has been a great discussion.
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I basically had the same question as Maestro2b: I've waited for years to upgrade to a set up that can handle a full Vienna orchestra, Digital Performer, and MIR on one machine. (My old setup requires three machines, and the master computer has given up the ghost!)
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I'd like to buy one of those amazing new "trashcans" which use Xeon E5 Ivy Bridge processors. I am trying to map what was discussed here to the right number of cores on the new system, using Geekbench 3.0 scores to see how they compare.
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Andyjh: Your software setup sounds very close to my goal: full orchestra, MIR, additional software (in my case... my DAW Digital Performer). You said you have an i7 (960) 8 core, but everything I read says 960 is a 4-core. Wondered if you have a dual processor machine. In any case, I used the Geekbench 3 browser and the only Geekbench 3 scores I see are for 4 core. Have you tried running Geekbench? Or any other info on where it might stack up? (http://browser.primatelabs.com/) I may just not understand how to read the numbers in your case.
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Dietz: Your machine, with an i7 (3930K, Sandy Bridge) 6 core - looks to have a Geekbench score around 21516. That seems to place it close to a New MP with Xeon 6 core.