Specifications

CHAPTER 2

Pentium, Pentium with MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and

Pentium 4 (being the latest at the time of this writing).

Of course, although having the best chip available is nice, that doesn’t

mean you need it. You can also get away with using different brands such

as AMD or Cyrix, but they tend to be less powerful. For instance, the

AMD K6 is similar to a Pentium with MMX at the same clock speed.

Also, a Cyrix chip is usually less powerful than a standard Pentium

running at a speed of about two-thirds of the Cyrix. Recently, however,

AMD has come out with new chips that compare in performance with

the Pentium. These include the Athlon and Duron. You still need to be

careful here, though, because some sound cards are not compatible with

AMD processors. Be sure to check for compatibility issues before you

purchase a new computer system or sound card. Basically, you can apply

more real-time effects at once with a more powerful CPU. SONAR will

run more smoothly as well.

If you would like to test just how much of your CPU power is used when

you perform different tasks with your computer, Windows provides a

nifty utility called the System Monitor. Just follow these steps to use it:

1. Click the Start button and choose Programs > Accessories > System

Tools > System Monitor to see if the System Monitor is installed. If

the System Monitor isn’t installed, open the Windows Control Panel,

double-click on Add/Remove Programs, and select the Windows

Setup tab in the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box. Then

select Accessories from the list, click on the Details button, select

System Monitor from the resulting list, and click on the OK buttons

to close the dialog boxes. Windows then installs the System Monitor.

TIP

If you’re really adventurous, you can try overclocking your CPU, but I

wouldn’t recommend it. (Overclocking means making the CPU run faster

than its rated speed.) If you’re not careful, you could end up destroying

your computer system. But with the right tweaks, it is sometimes possible to

make your computer run faster. You might even be inclined to building your

own PC. If you’re interested, check out this article posted at Prorec.com:

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/articles/

E674C87E2991AA3F862568E9006D7D10.

http://www.muskalipman.com

Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2