New Motherboard & HDD for my P4

[PaulE]

Hi All

Thanks to all who gave me suggestions to solve my PC audio problems. I have found that the motherboard I am using is probably one of the worst you can use for computer audio. It is an ASRock ATI. My hardisk is also slow.

As my computer is only 1mth old my supplier is going to allow me to trade up to better components. I still would like some advice on "Ram" and anything else I have missed. I am not made of money but I do want to get this right.

The new motherboard will be:
Gigabite
GA-8IPE1000 Pro2
Intel 865PE chipset

Harddisk:
Westerndigital SATA 8MB buffer 120GB 7200rpm

Soundcard is:
M audio audiophile 2496

Software:
Steinberg Wavelab 4. (mainly mastering at this stage, and mini-disc to CD)

Other stuff: Diamond Data DVD, Samsung CD-RW, Radian Graphics card

I have learned alot about disabling internet, PC cillion etc. Latency, drivers. All good points but I believe that the chipset must be intel with an intel CPU.

Any suggestions, experience, stupid comments, smart comments etc, all welcome

Regards
Paul
Sydney, Australia

[Batiste]

:cool: I believe your config looks good so far, as for ram I would suggest DDR 400(Kingston or Corsair) anywere from 512mb to a gig should do it for you. As for Intel I use both Intel and AMD procs and I don't notice a noticable difference between the two. Except when you get into the 64 bit range and then it hats off to AMD, but that's One sided as I have yet to build an intel 64 bit workstation but for the money I truly think AMD 64 bit is the better buy. As for chipsets it is really all about the chipset as it dictates what feature your motherboard will have if it's not in the chipset then it's not on the Motherboard, At one point Intel Had the lead in this area but today it's a neck in neck race with constant lead changes thanxs to advances in technology,and it will be that way for a long time to come. Any one looking to build in a cost effective way I suggest AMD, and I've had no complaints
so far in 3 years. Also it depends on if you overclock and well Intel frowns on the subject completely .


I my opinion I'd go with AMD Especially if you ever decide to go 64bit.

HERE IS MY PERSONAL SYNTH STATION BUILD FOR AN IDEA.

AMD ATHLON XP 2800+ (CLOCK SPEED 2.2 GHZ)
1024 MB KINGSTON DDR 400(3200)
wINDOWS XP SP1
MOTHERBOARD ASUS A7N8X DELUXE CHIPSET NVIDIA2 oN BOARD SOUND WITH NVIDIA ASIO2 DRIVERS
TASCAM FW-1884
M-AUDIO 4-10
EMULATOR-X
EMU(1212M)
MPU- MIDI DEVICE
aLL-IN-WONDER RADEON 9800
AKAI MPD 16 DRUM PAD
M-AUDIO OXYGEN 8 CONTROLLER
STUDIOLOGIC SL-990 PRO CONTROLLER

I have this set-up in my studio and it's rock solid everything is routed out an into the FW-1884 no problems I have built similar setups with Asus motherboards rock solid.