Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Off-Topic
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Been thinking about upgrading my laptop memory. According to the memory checker CPUID-CPUZ, my laptop is currently running with a CL latency of 21 at 1.20 volts. If I drop down to CL's of 16, say for example using Crucial Ballistic memory, it looks like the voltage on the chips ups to 1.35.

Is this voltage increase due to the lower CL or are there motherboards that run at a higher voltage?

Do I have to stick with only chips that run at 1.2 volts or could I go for better CL timings and run 1.35 volts?

My laptop is a Lenovo Legion series 5 (17IMH05H) with an 10th Gen i7 10750H processor and dual channel DDR4-3200 SODIMM ram.

I know we got some computer experts here on the forum and I'm wondering if you could steer me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Jeff


Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Just checking, can you remove and replace your processor? Some laptop builders used to solder in parts making them impossible to remove by non-techs.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Off-Topic
E
eddie1261
Unregistered
eddie1261
Unregistered
E
You have me thinking now Matt. I don't think I have ever seen a laptop with a ZIF socket. Always soldered.

Off-Topic
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
I might be able to do that Matt, but since it's a 10th Gen i7 I don't think I would gain much other than to go to an i9 or 11th Gen.

Jeff


Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Jeff, although I have built all my computers since 1983, I've never experimented with overclocking or anything comparable, so I can't help with that kind of question. I value stability over speed in digital audio.

Just curious again, even if you can change the CPU, have you looked at a CPU comparison chart to see how much speed you would really get with a different CPU, without changing the motherboard and RAM? I'm guessing less that twice what you have now, or in other words, not worth doing it.

And won't your current setup run Windows 11 ok?


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Off-Topic
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Originally Posted By: MountainSide
Been thinking about upgrading my laptop memory. According to the memory checker CPUID-CPUZ, my laptop is currently running with a CL latency of 21 at 1.20 volts. If I drop down to CL's of 16, say for example using Crucial Ballistic memory, it looks like the voltage on the chips ups to 1.35.

Is this voltage increase due to the lower CL or are there motherboards that run at a higher voltage?

Do I have to stick with only chips that run at 1.2 volts or could I go for better CL timings and run 1.35 volts?

My laptop is a Lenovo Legion series 5 (17IMH05H) with an 10th Gen i7 10750H processor and dual channel DDR4-3200 SODIMM ram.

I know we got some computer experts here on the forum and I'm wondering if you could steer me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Jeff

It's possible that lowering the CAS Latency value might require upping the voltage, as the RAM will be working harder and might need a little more juice. Googling that particular Lenovo, it specifies RAM voltage at 1.2v so I'd say you're better off sticking with that - because as Matt said:
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
I value stability over speed in digital audio.

Stability is far more important than any minor gain in speed you might get. I have literally never seen any noticeable speed increase in any audio software by tweaking RAM timing or overclocking or anything - it really comes down to amount of ram and speed of storage (SSD or RAID-0).


Originally Posted By: eddie1261
You have me thinking now Matt. I don't think I have ever seen a laptop with a ZIF socket. Always soldered.

There are some. I've had older Thinkpads and HP Elitebooks that had ZIF sockets - was quite nice to get a cheap dual-core laptop and be able to toss in a quad-core i7. I haven't seen a laptop with a socketed CPU in years though, I kinda assumed they stopped making them that way.


I work here
Off-Topic
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Appreciate all the help here guys. I'm a tweaker by nature and looking to get the last remaining bit out of this new laptop.

Where I'm at issues with this is that this new laptop, even though running a 10th Gen i7 with an NVME SSD and a separate mechanical HD; it actually runs slower that my 7th Gen i7 desktop. The desktop also has an NVME SSD and mechanical HD. While buss speeds are the same, the desktop has better CL timings, but slower DDR4 RAM.

The desktop also has 32 gig of ram whereas the laptop has 16. With all of my music software the laptop never seems to use more than 25% of the RAM...but why would it be slower??

Got me stumped.

Jeff


Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
Off-Topic
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Could be a power management setting somewhere. The 10750H benchmarks around 30% higher than the 7700K.

Have you run any benchmarks on it to see where the bottleneck is? Run a CPU benchmark, GPU, and disk speed test on both machines, that might yield the answer.

Could also be preloaded software - many new computers come with a lot of bloat. Could be worth uninstalling some things, or reinstall the OS fresh. That's a bit of a heavy-handed solution though.

Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 09/08/21 10:10 AM.

I work here
Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Simon, it has been many years since PG Music posted some minimum scores to run BIAB well. What do you recommend using now?


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Off-Topic
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
This might make a few of you cringe, but my work desktop has an i5-3550 which has a Passmark score of 4,760, with 16gb ram, 256gb SATA-3 SSD, and the integrated Intel graphics. It runs BIAB and RealBand quite nicely, so I'd say anything above that should be good.

Could go even lower though - I briefly tried BB on a very "lightweight" laptop not too long ago, which had a Intel Core m3-6Y30 sub-1ghz CPU, benchmark is around 1,947 and it seemed fine.

By comparison, Jeff's i7-10750H benchmarks at 12,522 and the 7700K is around 9,708.

Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 09/08/21 12:24 PM.

I work here
Off-Topic
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,485
Some good suggestions there Simon...back to the studio to try and figure this out!

Thanks!

Jeff


Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,446
Anyone still using the Geekbench 4 single-core score as a standard?


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Off-Topic
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,969
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,969
Simon, I haven't seen Passmark mentioned in a long time. I use to recommend Passmark hardware and software packages to students for use in field testing pc components and I/O ports. Their USB port test can recognize a USB port with a weak power or data connection better than any other test I'm aware of.


Jim Fogle - 2026 BiaB (Build 1224) RB (Build 7) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
Off-Topic
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Originally Posted By: MountainSide
Some good suggestions there Simon...back to the studio to try and figure this out!

Thanks!

Jeff

No prob Jeff, let us know how it goes!


Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Anyone still using the Geekbench 4 single-core score as a standard?

I don't typically use Geekbench scores, though since I'm a Mac guy I see them often on EveryMac.com which I use as a rough comparison when troubleshooting someone's system. I only look at the Passmark site since it basically lists every CPU from the last - I dunno - 20 years or so? It offers a good comparison.


Originally Posted By: Jim Fogle
Simon, I haven't seen Passmark mentioned in a long time. I use to recommend Passmark hardware and software packages to students for use in field testing pc components and I/O ports. Their USB port test can recognize a USB port with a weak power or data connection better than any other test I'm aware of.

Interesting device, looks really cool with the USB monitoring. A bit expensive for me though - I bought one of the testers below, which works well enough for me. Gotta be careful with it though, since it's possible to dial up a 4.5amp load which can easily fry a computer USB port - USB2 ports are usually limited to 500ma max and USB3 can be as low as 900ma.

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
tester.jpg (167.07 KB, 7 downloads)

I work here
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!

Time really is running out! Save up to 50% on Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® upgrades and receive a FREE Bonus PAK—only when you order by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026!

We've added many major new features and new content in a redesigned Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!

Version 2026 introduces a modernized GUI redesign across the program, with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, and a new Dark Mode option. There’s also a new side toolbar for quicker access to commonly used windows, and the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, making it easier to customize your workspace.

Another exciting new addition is the new AI-Notes feature, which can transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI. You can view the results in notation or play them back as MIDI, and choose whether to process an entire track or focus on specific parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.

There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!

Upgrade your Band-in-a-Box for Windows to save up to 50% on most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 upgrade packages!

Plus, when you order your Band-in-a-Box® 2026 upgrade during our special, you'll receive a Free Bonus PAK of exciting new add-ons.

If you need any help deciding which package is the best option for you, just let us know. We are here to help!

Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® Special Offers Extended Until January 15, 2026!

Good news! You still have time to upgrade to the latest version of Band-in-a-Box® for Windows® and save. Our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® special now runs through January 15, 2025!

We've packed Band-in-a-Box® 2026 with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can process an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!

There are over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.

When you order purchase Band-in-a-Box® 2026 before 11:59 PM PST on January 15th, you'll also receive a Free Bonus PAK packed with exciting new add-ons.

Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® today! Check out the Band-in-a-Box® packages page for all the purchase options available.

Happy New Year!

Thank you for being part of the Band-in-a-Box® community.

Wishing you and yours a very happy 2026—Happy New Year from all of us at PG Music!

Season's Greetings!

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season—thanks for being part of our community!

The office will be closed for Christmas Day, but we will be back on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) at 6:00am PST.

Team PG

Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window

In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.

Watch the video.

You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!

Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe

This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.

Watch the video.

You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!

Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®

With your version 2026 for Windows Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!

These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!

This Free Bonus PAK includes:

  • The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK: -For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles. -For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles. -For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
  • MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
  • MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
  • Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
  • Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
  • Playable RealTracks Set 5
  • RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
  • SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
  • Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)

Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:


  • 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
  • FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
  • MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
  • MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
  • Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
  • Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
  • RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
  • SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)

Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!

Forum Statistics
Forums57
Topics85,733
Posts795,424
Members39,940
Most Online25,754
Jan 24th, 2025
Newest Members
MarcAlanMichael, Kylie jen, klausmus, lowihat223, Jwb2k
39,939 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 201
Noel96 113
DC Ron 105
DrDan 103
rsdean 102
dcuny 93
Today's Birthdays
baz66, joesarahh, prsings
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5