PC-SPECS help needed

[MayHeOfficial]

So i currently have an acer with 4 GB RAM and a 2.4GhZ i5
Now my problem is when i am running ableton and i have like 15 tracks running my CPU meter goes to 100%
I am planning on buying a new laptop and now my question is : Do i need better clock speed better RAM or better processor FOR THIS PROBLEM?

[fragments]

It seems it's mostly a CPU problem, but if you are running windows 7 I'd say you need a minimum of 6 gigs of RAM for music production. 8 would be better. I just upgraded to 16 gigs in my production PC. But FFHoodie is right, the processor should be enough, it seems like there might be a lot of background stuff eating up CPU.

[VirtualMark]

Are you using an asio driver? If not, try asio4all and also try raising your buffer settings a bit. It'll add latency but the cpu meter should get a bit better.

Also check that your project is running at 44.1khz 24bit, if you're running at 48 or 96khz it'll use more cpu.

[alphacat]

Check out the 3rd machine here... Not exactly what you're after, but a very very good start. The heads at gearslutz & KVR can also point you in the right direction.

http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best- ... 0-and-1200

[SunkLo]

Also you haven't really said what's going on on those tracks. Is it a CPU intensive synth? Sample based VIs? Just audio clips in the lanes with some effects applied? It could be a bottleneck apart from your CPU that's causing the load.

My i7 is clocked at the standard 2.66 Ghz since I've never really felt the need to OC it, and it runs like a dream. Clock speed isn't the whole picture, cache, cores and threads play a part, as well as the rest of the rig. I've also got an SSD and 6 gigs of ram which help clean up some bottlenecks.

[smalltock]

Sounds like faulty drivers, faulty leads, and/or your synths and whatnot are CPU-hogs. None of your specs are bad. They are much better than my laptop, old desktop, and slightly better than my old server before I upgraded everything. All of the above can run a DAW fine with the parameters you mentioned without surpassing 30% CPU usage.

[_helix]

****** I'm running an AMD Turion 2.2 dual Core 4 gigs of RAM and Windows 7 and on times I run a 2.4 Core 2 Duo with 3 gigs or RAM and Windows xp.

You're doing it wrong.

[smalltock]

Well, to be fair, Windows XP is much lighter on CPU and memory than Windows 7, so performance-wise, you shouldn't be doing bad at all.

[AxeD]

It's up to specs.