Thanks for the advice in previous thread. I've got my choice of machine edging towards the Intel i7 860 LGA 1156 on a Gigabyte P55 mobo. If anyone knows of stopper issues for running on this config, I'd love to hear them. Likely setup: Distro: - probably ubuntu studio 9.10 Software: - Csound ( single threaded, so the higher turbo mode on i7 860 wins over i7 920 ) - Ardour - Jammin Hardware: - presonus firepod - delta 66 thanks Iain