AMD Athlon 64

[accelerator]

Hi All

1) What do people think of the Athlon 64 for use in a DAW?

2) Can people recommend a particular Athlon 64 processor for use in a DAW? I don't want to pay over the odds for the very latest/fastest one, so which one is a good compromise for price vs performance?

3) Do people have any recommendations for a suitable motherboard for an Athlon 64? What do people think of the Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro and Asus K8V Deluxe?

4) What soundcards would you recommend for use with an Athlon 64?

5) Do people find Athlon 64 computers can run existing 32-bit applications reliably?

Thanks

[jpw23]

Not sure if this will help but, a friend of mine is the data systems manager at university of kentucky......I asked him these same questions and his reply was that the 64 bit architecture was very fast indeed but there were questions as to the stability or the ability to run 32 bit apps.......might be best to wait and see on this machine.

[wogg]

Originally posted by accelerator
Hi All

1) What do people think of the Athlon 64 for use in a DAW?

2) Can people recommend a particular Athlon 64 processor for use in a DAW? I don't want to pay over the odds for the very latest/fastest one, so which one is a good compromise for price vs performance?

3) Do people have any recommendations for a suitable motherboard for an Athlon 64? What do people think of the Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro and Asus K8V Deluxe?

4) What soundcards would you recommend for use with an Athlon 64?

5) Do people find Athlon 64 computers can run existing 32-bit applications reliably?

Thanks

Many folks in the Sonar forum are using Athlon 64's and Opteron systems. They outperform EVERYTHING out there, in 32 bit mode mind you. Future 64bit compatibility is just icing on the cake. This is primarily because of their on die memory controller for extremely low latency RAM access combined with the powerful FPU that the Athlon architechture has always had.

As for a particular A64 to use, I think the price/performance leader is between the 3200+ and the 3400+. I can't personally vouch for any motherboards, but go for either the Via or the new nForce3 250 chipsets. As for soundcards, you'll have to do a little research there too.

And can they run 32bit apps reliably? Absolutely. The enterprize IT folks are always more wary of new hardware, because one failure can cost millions of dollars. It will take many years for the AMD64 platform to prove it's worthiness in the enterprize market. It already has a good start with it's stellar performance, but just needs time to prove reliability. Note that there is no proof of it not being reliable yet, just no real history.

[dawboxpro]

I built my first test rig last fall and since then I am very happy with it....

Never crashes, runs as stable as any P4 setup...


4U Black Rack Case
14db 350W PSU with internal 80mm Fan
Asus AMD64 MB
AMD 64 3200+
Silent Heatsink & Fan 18db
80G Seagate S-ATA OS
80G Seagate S-ATA Record 1
120G Seagate S-ATA Record Drive 2
80G Seagate ATA-100 Sample Drive
512m of kingston DDR400 ram
Lite-On DVDRW/CDRW Combo
Windows XP-Home
_____________________________________

This setup blows doors! Using Sonar or Acid, or Sound Forge I can hardly ever get it to crash with more effects than I will ever use. It also does graphics and video editing well with vegas

[Batiste]

I agree the AMD 64 bit platform is the way to go for any and all MultiMedia creations. The 32bit compatibilty is rock solid. I use em(opteron) in my setup and there is nothing that i throw at it that chokes it, including Video. To get around the PCI slot issue I would suggest and highly recommend Firewire( M-Audio to be reasonable or the Tascam FW-1884 on the extravagant end),but firewire definetly. I personally Love the FW-1884:cool: