Thinking of buying a Creation Station

[Loyd981]

Hello:

I am thinking of buying a creation station, but I would like to know a couple of things. Is sweetwater going to make one with the new intel 6 core chip in it with USB 3? Would be great if it was a tower, but not big deal. Also Windows 7 64 bit Professional on it?

Thanks
Loyd981

[Justin]

Right now we ship with Windows 7 Home Premium.
If you want the features of Professional, you can upgrade to Win7 Ultimate. Which features did you need from Professional?

We're watching the 6-core CPU. We'll probably bring one in and start testing on it, but compatibility and pricing will determine if and when we offer a machine with it.

[RobZantay]

Loyd,
I have been using a dual core duo Creation Station since 2005, running Sonar 6 - 8.5 and now Sonar X1. I have been pestering the tech staff and the president of sweetwater with questions concerning the 6 core i7 chip for over a year now. I was informed, by the powers that be at Sweetwater, that Intel is rumored to be coming out with a new chip in 2011 that will surpass the 6 core i7. I have been waiting for a chip that will be dramatically more powerful than the Intel dual Core duo that has been running my 32 bit version of the Sonar DAWs. I'm planning on getting the New Creation Station when this new chip is available and running Sonar 8.5/X1 in 64 bit (it has a bridge system so any 32 bit plugins will still run just fine) and loading up on the RAM as much as is possible. Just a suggestion, I've been running four internal hard drives, a "C" drive for the operating systems and program files, "E" drive for audio files (songs) "F" drive for sample libraries, and "G" drive for my loop libraries. That way a multi core system is able to separately access the different paths which cuts down on "traffic jams" of information. The missing "D" drive is a partition on my operating system disc, which I needed at one point when I was concidering a dual boot 32/64 bit system. In the final analysis I didn't make use of this option. I am still suprised at how well my 5 year old PC still runs the hundreds of plugins and large track count projects that I typically run. The main reason I didn't purchase an i7 music PC from one of the companies that have offered them for over a year is the incredible service that Sweetwater provides. The technical department has gone to incredible lengths to provide me with answers to any questions, and solutions to any problems I have ever had. Believe it or not, they once had me ship my entire recording studio to them where they ran all my equiptment for over a month in order to get to the bottem of a very weird problem, which turned out to be the ancient wiring in the New York building where my home and studio reside. They even came up with a solution for that!! So I will always wait for Sweetwater to put out what I need, because I want the Sweetwater service that goes along with the products they sell. Without that service, you could find yourself in a very sad situation.

[tkpappas]

Hi Rob, have you heard any news on that new chip coming out to replace the Intel 6 Core i7 ? Looking to order a CS-450, Thanks, Tom.

Loyd,
I have been using a dual core duo Creation Station since 2005, running Sonar 6 - 8.5 and now Sonar X1. I have been pestering the tech staff and the president of sweetwater with questions concerning the 6 core i7 chip for over a year now. I was informed, by the powers that be at Sweetwater, that Intel is rumored to be coming out with a new chip in 2011 that will surpass the 6 core i7. I have been waiting for a chip that will be dramatically more powerful than the Intel dual Core duo that has been running my 32 bit version of the Sonar DAWs. I'm planning on getting the New Creation Station when this new chip is available and running Sonar 8.5/X1 in 64 bit (it has a bridge system so any 32 bit plugins will still run just fine) and loading up on the RAM as much as is possible. Just a suggestion, I've been running four internal hard drives, a "C" drive for the operating systems and program files, "E" drive for audio files (songs) "F" drive for sample libraries, and "G" drive for my loop libraries. That way a multi core system is able to separately access the different paths which cuts down on "traffic jams" of information. The missing "D" drive is a partition on my operating system disc, which I needed at one point when I was concidering a dual boot 32/64 bit system. In the final analysis I didn't make use of this option. I am still suprised at how well my 5 year old PC still runs the hundreds of plugins and large track count projects that I typically run. The main reason I didn't purchase an i7 music PC from one of the companies that have offered them for over a year is the incredible service that Sweetwater provides. The technical department has gone to incredible lengths to provide me with answers to any questions, and solutions to any problems I have ever had. Believe it or not, they once had me ship my entire recording studio to them where they ran all my equiptment for over a month in order to get to the bottem of a very weird problem, which turned out to be the ancient wiring in the New York building where my home and studio reside. They even came up with a solution for that!! So I will always wait for Sweetwater to put out what I need, because I want the Sweetwater service that goes along with the products they sell. Without that service, you could find yourself in a very sad situation.

[tkpappas]

Can anyone answer the question, Is a new chip (a better one) coming out to replace the Intel 6 core i7 chip ? Thanks, Tom.

[Justin]

The CS450 is based on the 1366 Socket and a Core i7 CPU with 6-Cores.
That platform is supposed to be eventually replaced with Sandy Bridge-E, which was originally due in Nov, then moved to Dec, and now may be pushed back until early 2012.

I can't speculate on when it would be adopted into a Creation Station model. We would need to get one in and test compatibility of the new chipset (and motherboards) with popular interfaces & software. Initial releases are often limited to one or two very expensive CPU's in very low quantities as well.

So...we are watching it and when the price point & compatibility make sense, it will probably end up in one of our machines.

PS - The CS450 is a MONSTER of a machine right now. We've extensively tested this motherboard and it works very well with everything we've tried it with. It's running 6-Cores / 12 program threads, and has 12GB of Triple Channel RAM. It's very well suited for anything you can throw at it.