Building a Windows 7 machine: Processor choice?

[abferry]

Hello all,

We are planning to build a new Windows 7x64 PC to run Isadora, and I have been doing some research on what CPU to use. My basic research has led me to a few conclusions, but please correct me if I'm wrong:

1: Isadora benefits much more from a faster core speed, rather than multiple cores because it is not written inherently for multi-threaded processing.
2: Intel's i5 and i7 processors seem to have faster cores than AMD's quad- and eight-core processors on the market right now.

Of course, we are trying to build this PC on somewhat of a budget, so anywhere I can save a little bit of cash and not see a major reduction in speed is appealing. Because of this, I was looking at AMD, since the price is generally better, but if it's more important to spend a bit more to get the core speed of the single cores faster by going with Intel, I'm willing to do that.

The rest of the specs are as follows:
Windows 7 64 bit
8gb RAM minimum, possibly more?
ASUS GTX560 (2 of them in SLI? not sure about this; most of my PC contsruction as it pertains to video is in the realm of gaming PCs, where this type of setup would usually be optimal)
500gb SSD for OS and other software, 1tb HDD for general storage
We already own the SSD, HHD, video card, case, and fans. Once I choose the CPU, I can figure out what motherboard and power supply I will need.

On the final output end of things, we are going to use either a TripleHeadToGo to get video to up to 3 separate projectors, or run each projector from an individual display output on the video card(s).

We are also planning on utilizing live camera shots in the future, so any advice on hardware as it pertains to live cameras would also be appreciated.

I am fairly computer literate, and I do have some experience building my own PCs, but I'd love any suggestions that anyone has to share!

This forum has been a wealth of resources as we have started using Isadora this fall.

- Andrew Ferry

[DusX]

My first suggestion is that if you want to save money, the best cpu trade off would be from i7 to i5...
Where I have a 2 ghz i7, I seldom use all cores with Isadora, unless using other apps in parallel (which I do for video sharing to a mapping app, in which case the extra cores help run all the software nicely).
If I was to rebuild in a budget now I might get the fastest i5 available (might be like a 3.2 ghz?), that should show some real improvement in Isadoras performance, but might limit me in the multitasking.