CPU for a web development/audio recording machine?

[EricSartor]

I'm building a humble machine for web development and possibly audio recording as well with some SUPER light gaming.  The kind of scenarios I'd be using this computer in:

 

- primarily running Ubuntu

- hosting a local web server, no outside traffic

- Lots of tabs open in various browsers at once

- planning on using 3 or 4 monitors

- Running REAPER with Steven Slate Drums and BIAS FX, but only recording 1 track at a time

- Possibly Rocket League or Overwatch, but I don't care how low the graphics settings would have to be, would only be for LAN gaming occasionally

- Might experiment with virtual machines, but probably no more than 1 at time

 

I will be throwing a GTX 1050 in there, mainly for the video outputs but obviously helps with gaming too.  Currently I was planning on using an Intel 6600 with stock cooler as I won't be taxing this machine much...unless I write some accidental infinite loops while programming...but I'm wondering if this is overkill.  Not crazy knowledgeable on CPUs, other than what the best is  I'm not really worried about money much, but there's no point in making this build more expensive than it needs to be, so I could safely go with a cheaper CPU, I probably should.

[dr_sepheroth]

A decent cpu would be something like an I7 quad core, but from your description you would be fine with the I5 quad core.

 

Don't get anything that has more then 4 cores because then your just wasting money on electricity.

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

39 minutes ago, EricSartor said:

I will be throwing a GTX 1050

Look for the cheapest GPU that will work for those games you mentioned and play well with ubuntu. I can tell you pretty much all this years GPUs are not playing nice with linux yet (they have bugs); especially the Nvidia 10 series. The latest Nvidia driver needs special workarounds to have working suspend and power off. You do not need anything special for audio recording; I think the second generation of pentiums were the last that struggled with audio transcoding. The minimum specs for your games are what is required.

[EricSartor]

Well there's a good tip.  I definitely want this thing to be Linux compatible...

[dr_sepheroth]

regardless of brand or manufacturer of the CPU it will be compatible with Linux, you could take the processor out of your DVD player and that would run any OS.

 

Central Processing Unit.

 

Central.... It is central component that handles the work load.

Processing..... It processes calculations constantly to run a device.

Unit..... It is a sealed and enclosed component.

 

The CPU from a digital kettle would run any OS. So an I5 quad core, as made by intel, is clearly compatible with Linux.

The problem you will have, (if it occurs) is with the BIOS, you will need to Flash and reload the BIOS with a version that is compatible with Linux.

[LordofSavages]

6 hours ago, EricSartor said:

I'm building a humble machine for web development and possibly audio recording as well with some SUPER light gaming.  The kind of scenarios I'd be using this computer in:

 

- primarily running Ubuntu

- hosting a local web server, no outside traffic

- Lots of tabs open in various browsers at once

- planning on using 3 or 4 monitors

- Running REAPER with Steven Slate Drums and BIAS FX, but only recording 1 track at a time

- Possibly Rocket League or Overwatch, but I don't care how low the graphics settings would have to be, would only be for LAN gaming occasionally

- Might experiment with virtual machines, but probably no more than 1 at time

 

I will be throwing a GTX 1050 in there, mainly for the video outputs but obviously helps with gaming too.  Currently I was planning on using an Intel 6600 with stock cooler as I won't be taxing this machine much...unless I write some accidental infinite loops while programming...but I'm wondering if this is overkill.  Not crazy knowledgeable on CPUs, other than what the best is  I'm not really worried about money much, but there's no point in making this build more expensive than it needs to be, so I could safely go with a cheaper CPU, I probably should.

I'd say an i5 6500 is fine but optimally(expensively) you'd want an i7 6700k. The GTX 1050 ti will have 4GB so it can handle multi-monitor and more than enough power to handle rocket league and overwatch(on one monitor though)