THE Mobo

[Conejo]

Ok, besides all the AMDxIntel issues.
I'm trying to find a motherboard with usb and firewire slots, supporting dual processors (Athlon XP, Opteron, or Xeon), not necessarily a server mobo, if possible with the NVidia chipsets.
Any suggetion at least close to this?
I can't wait to start building my audio DAW with the right components...
My audio card choices are, so far, hiting the RME Multiface.
Cheers,
conejo

[maggotcontrol]

There aren't any dual CPU boards with nForce chipsets yet although the nForce 3 is coming soon supporting just that. Until then, I'd hold off on the dual config and stick with the Asus A7N8X deluxe; which has Firewire, SATA, dual LAN etc. It's plenty fast and rock solid if setup right. You'll need very good quality ram to run at 166MHz FSB though. I've been using Corsair XMS LLPT with it and it's perfect.

-yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)

[Conejo]

ok yoshi. one more question:
wich is best: one single opteron in a Nforce3Pro or this fine solution you gave?
By the way: my memory choice so far is the Corsair XMS extreme. Any advice on this?
Thanks, and cheers from brasil,
coelho

[Conejo]

Oh, no onboard audio, please.
Is this dual?
What about the temperature?
I've heard some ugly comments about this mobo... hope isn't true.

[maggotcontrol]

Originally posted by Conejo:
ok yoshi. one more question:
wich is best: one single opteron in a Nforce3Pro or this fine solution you gave?
By the way: my memory choice so far is the Corsair XMS extreme. Any advice on this?
Thanks, and cheers from brasil,
coelho

Coelho, it's much too early to give you any definite answers regarding nForce 3..since I can't even get a board to test yet.

The A7N8X is not a dual board. It's onboard audio can be disabled via jumper and BIOS. It runs great in ACPI mode and is a very solid performer for just about any application on the AMD platform. Another solid board is the Epox 8RDA(+) Couple that with a Barton CPU and you've got a very powerful system. You probably won't even need dual CPU if you go that route.

Corsair extreme is the XMS series..however, there are different models of the XMS. The cheaper ones are actually no better than regular ram. It's also overpriced. It uses cheaper Samsung chips so you might as well save money and get regular Samsung ram. They're a bit finicky with these boards too at 166fsb.

If you're going to go with the Barton CPU or plan to overclock a Tbred to 166fsb, get the Corsair XMS Low Latency ram. Model: XMS LLPT.
Or if you can find them, get Twinmos branded memory with the Winbond chips. (the Winbond is very important!)

Hope this helps.

Yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)

[Conejo]

this is exactly the memory i'm planning to buy.
Still regarding the A7N8X, is there SCSI or RAID connections? If so, wich is the best choice for my audio/samples/recording drive(s)?
Are you sure that i won't need to go dual with these specs? I'm thinking in heavy mixing and VSTs handling here ...
thnks again, fella.

[Bops2000]

I was avoiding this thread as I am kinda dumb on the details of the 'mobo's'.

I will say look at a soyo boards, as I have dealt with a few of them so far and pretty stable as to what I throw at them.

I don't recommend them, I just use them.

They are inexpensive and the via chipsets are a non issue as far as I can see in audio apps.

Maggott your ideas would be appreciated on my thoughts.

Also I was thinkin setting up a hard drive as 64 cluster is not such a good idea, as the clusters will be well.. all over the place..and twice the problem in the hard drive, I was thinkin perhaps run with the operating sys and leave it be. just thinkin out loud.

Boppers

[maggotcontrol]

Here is my thought regarding SCSI, RAID and even separate IDE drive configs FOR MOST PEOPLE.

You don't need it. It adds unnecessary confusion and makes maintenance of your system far more difficult than you need it to be. Also adds more noise and require more cooling. (resulting in even more noise as well) Not to mention, more drivers to deal with.

A good single IDE drive, partitioned, and a well configured and moderately tweaked system will perform well enough to make most of you guys happy, including myself.

The Seagate Barracuda IV and even the newer Vs are a GREAT choice for audio. The IV is a bit slower than other similar drives but is also the quietest by far. In my experience, I found them to be most reliable and perform good enough for most users.

If your experience with computers are not up to par, you should really go with a simpler setup as you'll have a better chance of getting it to work and thus, allowing you to actually record music for once : )

As far as having dedicated hard drives for audio...I will say this once again...

If you have an optical drive (CDRW, DVD etc.) on your secondary channel..it may be better not put your audio hard drive on that 2nd channel as a slave nor master.
Instead, put it on the primary channel as a slave with your OS/applications drive.
I think this performs better for most users as I doubt anyone would be launching applications or opening huge documents from C:\ during a recording process.
If you're too anal about having a dedicated drive in a dedicated channel as a single dedicated drive master, then remove your optical drive(s) and place them in an external box and connect them via USB or Firewire.

Hope this clears and eases things up for everyone here.

-Yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)

[maggotcontrol]

Bops, Soyo makes decent boards and so does 60% of mainboard makers..however, Asus always stands out because of the amount of attention/detail in the quality of their products.

That's not to say others aren't close..some are very close and sometimes they exceed Asus in many ways. Asus does charge a premium but their consistancy in worksmanship, performance and quality is worth that amount.

My two current favorite mobo brands are Asus and Epox. They are both very good when it comes to product updates and support as well as their undeniable quality and tweakability of their upper-end mobo products.

Epox makes less expensive boards of the two but don't compromise quality.

I've rarely had Via chipset issues except for the KT133 and KT266.

KT400 is a great performer but the nForce 2 does it better : ) When both the FSB and memory are in sync on an nForce 2 system, it makes for an untouchable combo. I won't be touching Intel for awhile.

Learn your lesson. Work hard and get it right from the get go. Don't go cheap with mainboards. It's where everything plugs in to.

Goodnight : )

-Yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)

[Bops2000]

Thank you maggot for the response http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[nakedjackson]

maggotcontrol, i have an a7n8x deluxe with 1 gig of corsair 3200xmsllpt, and an athlon xp2700. Would you recommend me go at 166 FSB? and Why?

[maggotcontrol]

Bops, anytime.

Jackson, by all means YES!
The XP 2700+ is a Barton core..designed to run at 166FSB natively. Since you have GREAT ram as well, you can set ram timings to the extreme. Try 2-2-2-5 at 166/333 and default ram voltage. Reason for doing this is for better performance. More effects, more stability at low latencies etc.

-Yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)

[Conejo]

So Yoshi:
Should I discard the Tyan with dual MP processors? Any heard about the 64 bit opteron performance with DAWs? That's the only reason for me to wait a little bit more to start building my machine... http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif
And thenks for your support.

[maggotcontrol]

Personally I don't think the MP is worth it at the time being. Either you wait for Opteron or go for the nForce 2 + Barton or a 3GHz P4.
As I mentioned before, I haven't tested out the Opteron yet so I wouldn't be able to tell you how it performs in audio applications since the boards aren't even out yet.
Check out www.anandtech.com. (http://www.anandtech.com.) They benched a prototype Opteron but they don't perform DAW tests as they're primarily gamers but it can give you a good look at where the chip is at at the moment in terms of business and gaming performance.

yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)