Best motherboard/CPU for recording?

[SalChaech]

Listen, I'm a total noob.

I'm planning to build my own desktop computer. The problem is, I've never done that before. Also, I've never run Linux before, but I want to give it a shot. Everything I've read about Linux makes me think I like it. I was referred to linuxmusicians in an article; what are some other good forums? I'm on the brink of knowing what the hell I'm talking about in this general topic I'm asking about, I just could use a push over the edge.

[Thad E Ginathom]

You might find linuxquestions.org good for the more general stuff. One to add to the list, anyway.

[steevc]

I'm looking to build a new PC soon as my current one is about 7 years old and playing up. I've built a few PCs over the years, but haven't kept up with the latest in hardware.

My usual policy is to go for something below the cutting edge to get good value for money. Want this one to be reasonably quiet. I don't play games much, so fast graphics are not essential.

Current thoughts are:

• CPU: AMD A8 6500 quad core or FX-6300 6 core. The former includes the GPU, so just needs a motherboard that supports it. I don't tend to overclock and these should be plenty for audio
• Cooling: Will pay a bit extra to get something quiet, i.e. large, slow fan
• Motherboard: Not too fussed, but need at least one PCI slot for my Delta 66. I've heard someone here mention that the PCI support on Intel chipsets is not great
• Memory: 8GB of whatever is fast and cheap. May go to 16GB
• Graphics: If not on-board then something basic and passively cooled. Was looking at the AMD HD5450 boards
• Drives: A 128GB SSD plus a 2GB hard drive. Will keep my existing DVD writer
• PSU: Looking into quiet power supplies
• Case: A friend has the Fractal Design Define R4. It's got some sound deadening and is big enough to easily work on.

That lot should be a lot quicker than my old dual core AMD and should be adequate for a long time. It's looking like it will cost around 500 pounds, which seems reasonable.

[GraysonPeddie]

No need for a discrete graphics card since the A8 does have an integrated GPU built-in. However, you could wait until you go with AMD A8-7600 (Kaveri) which is a good CPU and sometime in the future, I think pro audio applications could take advantage of heterogeneous computing, as the AMD Kaveri is the first APU to support heterogeneous computing, which allows CPU and GPU to share data in memory. This allows unparalleled performance compared to just CPU stand alone. In other words, having a high-end GPU in a chip does not have to be for games.

In the meantime, if you have more than $100-$150 to spare, Intel does have much more CPU performance compared to AMD. An Intel-compatible motherboard will probably be more expensive, too, but since I am an AMD guy, I'll wait for others to help you out here.

[Alwaysanewb]

Built one about a year or so ago. I went up to microcenter and they sold me a gigabit 970 or 990 I forget which one I got and an amd965. They give you a discount of like 50 percent off one if you buy both a motherboard and cpu at the same time. I think I spend like 130 dollars total for both. I also only put in 4 gigs of ram. I bought a gpu that was fanless so I didn't have the noise of an extra fan and put on a cooler master fan. With a seagate power supply that was also fanless.
I have been running it overclocked since I bought it.

For being such an old model processor and low specks. It actually runs great and I still have room to upgrade if I ever want to. I get like 1.3m latency. I only really run ardour and cluadia and cadence.

I run fxstudio and unity 2d which doesn't eat up cpu compaired to resourse heavy ubuntu 3d and it looks the same to me. It runs better than lxde for me at least.

[MUD]

hi im new to this fourm...

Wondering if KXstudio will work on my new setup....

The mother board seems ok but idk

specs:

ASUS Micro ATX DDR3 2000 AMD AM3+ Motherboard M5A78L-M/USB3
*sataII only down fall only 3Gb/s

AMD FX 4-Core Black Edition FX-4300, FD4300WMHKBOX
Frequency: 3.8/4.0GHZ (Base/Overdrive)
Cores: 4
Cache: 4/4MB (L2/L3)
Socket Type: AM3+
Power Wattage: 95W

G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 240-Pin
Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Timings 9-9-9-24, 1.5V


PSU from a
HP Pavilion m8200n media center computer with a 300 watt power supply.

BOX is a HP pavilion a1010n because it is less beat up than my m8200n


specs etc..

Underclocked -12%
3.344 ghz 4 core



4gb ram 2 gb a chanel at 1600mhz 0.C. for mother board only thing o.c. still less
than CPU standard speed etc... update later maybe ???

*sataI 500gb hard drive *to be updated later


fan manual on turbo mode mimimum rpm 600 for now etc etc etc...

*****may use a Foxconn PVA092G12P will See if it fits the heatsync*****

[lazyklimm]

my current configuration:

Ivy Bridge G2030T (TDP 35W)
Gigabyte H61N-D2V
8G Kingston+Hynix DDR3 RAM

Works like a charm, it is small, cool, almost quiet and fast enough for me.

[bazsound]

Personaly i would shy away from amd's apu's . yes its great having an all in one solution, however youd get much better results going with a seperate graphics cards. Plus its still quite new and im not sure how good the linux support is for amds apu's yet.

You dont need a super expensive card either.

The best thing to do is check out the linux compatibility with the hardware. Bleeding edge can sometimes be a bit iffy. The motherboard will probably work fine but possibly other things on it wont like if it has built in sound.

Dont skimp on the power supply, theres no point having a super board and cpu if the power supply cant keep up with demand or more critically the rails voltages fluctuate. Ropey power supplys will cause system instability.