Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

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Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

2005-05-04 22:22:34

Hello all,
I just found this site and it looks like a great source for lots of digital recording info. I'm a hobby recording musician. Been playing performing for 20 some years, mostly guitar and vocals. I started recording on my desktop computer about 8 years ago and have built many PCs from scratch. Now I have been blessed with an actual studio room in our new house and I want to build a nice Audio only PC. I'd like to put an EMU 0404 in it. (I already have it and am dying to try it out, but I'm wondering what motherboard is popular in audio machines these days and if a rackmount PC is really the way to go?
Thanks in advance.
-Tracy

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #1 – 2005-05-05 09:23:02

I doubt it matters. Be sure to make the thing quiet and put it in another room.

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #2 – 2005-05-05 09:35:35

If I were building such a machine I would definitely go with an Athlon 64 processor. This is for one reason only - Cool & Quiet. For those who don't know C&Q dynamically underclocks and undervolts the processor to drastically reduce the amount of heat it outputs at idle. Besides this feature, Athlon64 parts are fast, cheap and freely available. If the Pentium M were widely available in desktops, it might also be an excellent choice for a quiet powerful PC.

As far as motherboards go, it doesn't matter. Choose one based on features such as number of SATA channels, firewire support, decent networking or any other feature you think is important. Buying from a reputable company is also good, as BIOS and driver updates become more easily available. For what it's worth, I have an MSI K8T Neo which hasn't given me a single problem in eight months.

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #3 – 2005-05-05 14:44:55

Or a cheapy Socket A mobo which is undervoltable and an old Duron or Athlon. Either will do as long as their multiplier is not locked. I use both types and underclock my HTPC to 500MHz. It is enough to play music play DVDs or watch TV. At 500MHz you can also undervolt big time. I use my Duron at 1.1V core and my Athlon runs at 1.2V. (Actually my Athlon runs at 1GHz at 1.2V, which is my main PC). Both are passively cooled (no CPU fan) They probably dissipate approx 10W

The good thing about this setup is that even if you say transcode a lot of stuff it does not start to run faster than this speed and therefore they remain silent. I believe this is not true for AMD 64 since if you put a load on it it will heat up so some CPU fan assistance is needed. Maybe there is a workaround, but if not then it is a big turn-off for me. Personally I do not care if the PC works on transcoding for days, but I do not want to hear the fan.

Also this is very cheapo solution.

Triza

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #4 – 2005-05-05 16:39:03

Quote

. If the Pentium M were widely available in desktops, it might also be an excellent choice for a quiet powerful PC.

[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295401"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I've read that based on bang per watt and bang per mhz Intel is basing their future desktop CPU's on pentium M. Not sure when they start hitting the market. At least until then I would go with Athlon64. I have one of each (laptop PM and desktop athlon64) and am very happy with each.

If this is just for recording there are fanless systems based on Via CPU's .. not the highest performance, but cool and quiet and still X86/Windows/Linux compatible.

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #5 – 2005-05-05 17:57:25

Quote

I believe this is not true for AMD 64 since if you put a load on it it will heat up so some CPU fan assistance is needed. Maybe there is a workaround, but if not then it is a big turn-off for me.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295424"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you run the process in "idle" priority, the CPU stays at its lower clock speed and everything remains perfectly calm. At least it works with my CPU (AMD Athlon64 2800+ on a MSI K8T NEO). If the programm in question does not allow you to set the priority, you can change it manually in the task manager. Works like a charm for me.

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #6 – 2005-05-05 19:10:24

Quote

Quote
I believe this is not true for AMD 64 since if you put a load on it it will heat up so some CPU fan assistance is needed. Maybe there is a workaround, but if not then it is a big turn-off for me.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295424"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you run the process in "idle" priority, the CPU stays at its lower clock speed and everything remains perfectly calm. At least it works with my CPU (AMD Athlon64 2800+ on a MSI K8T NEO). If the programm in question does not allow you to set the priority, you can change it manually in the task manager. Works like a charm for me.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295458"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Well, that just sets the scheduling priority--the load will still increase to 100% CPU utilization, but your system will be much more responsive (I do this when encoding with LAME using the "start" utility).

Athlon 64s are still undervoltable and underclockable using the traditional means of changing the fixed voltage and frequency. Cool and Quiet is very nice feature though.

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #7 – 2005-05-05 20:24:13

Wow,
Well I guess I was right about this place being a good source for info.
Thanks for the help. I'm now looking at the C&Q feature.
Sounds like a plan.
Thanks again!

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #8 – 2005-05-08 21:36:31

Quote

Quote
Quote
I believe this is not true for AMD 64 since if you put a load on it it will heat up so some CPU fan assistance is needed. Maybe there is a workaround, but if not then it is a big turn-off for me.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295424"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you run the process in "idle" priority, the CPU stays at its lower clock speed and everything remains perfectly calm. At least it works with my CPU (AMD Athlon64 2800+ on a MSI K8T NEO). If the programm in question does not allow you to set the priority, you can change it manually in the task manager. Works like a charm for me.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295458"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Well, that just sets the scheduling priority--the load will still increase to 100% CPU utilization, but your system will be much more responsive (I do this when encoding with LAME using the "start" utility).
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=295471"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I am not sure what you mean exactly, but even though the load increases to 100%, the clock speed stays at 1 GHz, the CPU does not heat up and the CPU fan stays at low RPM => no increase in noise.
If you set the priority higher than idle when starting LAME, the CPU also goes up to 100%, but it also increases the clock speed to the full 1.8 GHz (in my case), which then causes the CPU to heat up to about 50°C and the fan to increase its RPM.
So, in short, if you have high CPU load, it only increases the clock speed, temperature and noise if the priority is set higher than "idle".

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #9 – 2005-05-08 21:55:56

That is a cool feature

Best Audio Motherboard for New System?

Reply #10 – 2005-05-08 22:08:08

If you have some extra $$$ to spend, get yourself an ASUS motherboard (they do offer state-of-the-art motherboards for any CPU class) ... I often deal with studio professionals and these mobo's have a high reputation (and undoubtedly high quality & speed, good features and high stability) ...

But that surely doesn't mean you can't get good quality from MSI, Gigabyte, Abit either ... but ASUS boards have always been rock-solid during the several eras of CPU development.

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