Multicore CPUs: Any risk to audio quality?



With the end of the Window XP security updates, among other factors, I needed to take some time to replace my ancient tower pc, possibly with one that runs either an Intel Ivy Bridge 4 or 8 core or the latest Haswell 4 core processor.

To minimize fan and/or electrical noise, the better choice appears to be the low power versions of the Ivy Bridge processor family
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Xeon_E5-2xxx_v2_.28dual-processor.29 )
E5-2630 v2 (6 core, 2.6GHz, LGA2011 socket, 80w), E5-2630L v2 (6 core, 2.4GHz, LGA2011 socket, 60w), E5-2428L v2 (8 core, 1.8GHz, LGA1356 socket, 60w)

-or the new Haswell processor family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#.22Haswell.22_.2822_nm.29 )
E3-1285L v3 (4 core, 3.1GHz, LGA1150 socket, 65w)

and
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Haswell_%28microarchitecture%29#Desktop_processors )
i7-4770S(4 core, 3.1GHz, LGA1150 socket, 65w), and i7-4770R(4 core, 3.2GHz, LGA1150 socket, 65w).

Needless to say, my chief priority will always be audio signal quality (i.e. editing of uncompressed wav files
of music CD tracks for playback via USB or a balanced AES card feeding a high performance external DAC). But I also would like to eventually use this computer for DVD as well as more demanding BluRay movie disc editing.

Though presently having no hands on experience and minimal knowledge of computer video editing, I do know that the most time consuming phase of the process is recompression of the edited video back into the BluRay movie disc format. Depending on the software and hardware resources, recompression could take anywhere from 45 minutes to well over 90 minutes.

So I thought that a new pc with one of the above six or eight core model processors and 16GB of RAM, together with the right software apps, might significantly reduce BD compression time-perhaps to as little as 30 minutes.

Again, however, my primary concern is audio quality. Therefore, compared to the ubiquitous dual core processors, could using four, six or eight core Ivy
Bridge or the new Haswell four core processors somehow pose any degree of risk to audio quality, in one or more ways?

And, of course, of particular interest would be any related incidents involving any of the specific (low power) processors listed above, and/or desktop boards
they were used in.

Before I make this computer purchase, any advice or referrals would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
ajant

Showing 1 response by doggiehowser

I recently built a quiet quad core Haswell 4771 based machine with a fanless PSU, fanless CPU heatsink and onboard graphics. There's only one fan in the system - a large 180mm intake fan that blows unimpeded across the CPU heatsink.

PSU - Seasonic Fanless X-460W
Heatsink - Zalman FX-100

I honestly feel the SQ is noticeably better than a Mac Mini (Bootcamp) running the same OS/software. The Mini is also a quad core (albeit Ivy Bridge).

The key aspect I think is to minimise the interference from fans and other moving parts, so I have also used a boot drive 240GB SSD.