Optimal P4 computer for Akoustik Piano?

I'm running Akoustik Piano on a server with dual PIII Tualatin
1.27 GHz with 2GB RAM and fast SCSI disks. Sound card
is the best -- Lynx.
I run the program with 48 KHz samples and a latency of 11ms, but still get clicks and pops.
So -- I need a new processor and motherboard.

I want to run it with 96KHz sampling frequency, 50 voices, low latency, perhaps 5ms, and full convolution, not just echo.
I wonder if there is any point in buying a dual core P4
processor? In other words, are there several simultaneous
processes in the program that will benefit from this more
expensive approach?
With my present setup, one of the processors is used 100%,
the other 30-50%. Very little memory is used, to my surprise;
never more than 370MB whatever I do.
Thank you.

 

I presume you are running sounds on a separate disk from the OS.

I also found that using the piano as a VST under Forte' worked better. Go figur. I'm using an AMD 2700+ with the 16 bit samples and under Forte' I can get down to a 128 byte buffer without clicks. Standalone I can get down to a 256 byte buffer. That's 2.5 ms and 5 ms respectively. I'm running dual drives.

Ernie

 

Thank you, ohernie!
Moving the samples to the second disk helped a lot,
and using a small VST host (Chainer in my case, from
http://www.xlutop.com/index.html
helped too, but not so much.
I'm now down to 5ms latency, still using 48kHz sampling rate
and needless to say with the 24 bit samples.
With convolution I now only get the occasional click,
and only while pedalling.
I've more or less decided to go for an AMD 3800+,
that's the least expensive of the dual kernel processors.

 

You may also want to check into the XP DAW tweaks that abound on the net. One caution. If you start messing with services, don't set them all to load if needed. Can't remember the official term right now. One site says just set them that way, use the machine, and then set the ones that eventually start up to auto-load. You'll go through a lot of trouble if you do that - some services won't load automatically so programs and services won't work. You'll have to dig through cryptic descriptions to figure out which ones you have to turn back on. There's a site that gives a pretty good list of services and their settings.

The trick is to minimize background "distractions".

Ernie