So many new motherboards, which one?

[wakestyle]

hey building a new comp, was pretty much settled on gigabyte x48 chipset as it's so similar to the proven x38, but clocks higher.

There's at least 4 models from gigabyte to choose from, and sad to say, I'm confused...

Anyways if anyone has some advise for me, I will gladly hear it!

I plan to build a high perfomance multi-function future ready daw.

Price really isn't that important, and I'm really not all that interested in the cheaper $100 style budget boards (although I'm sure there fine for basic needs).

[theother]

Depending on your DAW-software of choice and hardware I/O, which you haven't told us, I'd go to the relevant forums and check out what's working.

[bitman]

I have a gigabyte p35ds3 somthing or other a like it but I dont OC.

[wakestyle]

Steinberg...

[wakestyle]

Chances are I'm going 4 one of the x48 boards by gigabyte. Anyone relate?

DDR2 or DDR3??

[allencollins]

INTEL the one and only
they make the cpu the design the chip sets

[needle]

Hey Wakestyle...

Im my opinion, it doesnt really justify the extra money the new X48 Mobos costs (it depends on your Budget of course), at least and for sure...get a Quad Core Intel CPU Q6600 2,4Ghz. The most important thing for producing Music on a Computer is the CPU and you cant get any better CPU for that price right now in the Market (well you can get a Intel Xeon Quadcore go buy a Mac! and prepair a Mortage!)

You can get the Q6600 2,4 very cheap right now, if you can get the G0 Stepping version, the better.. you can overclock it very easy and stable to 3.0 Ghz (Only if you really NEED that horsepower)

Ok now to the Motherboard... and trust me on this, because I tested it myself.
I had a Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 board with intel Core2Duo 2,4Ghz +2GB DDR2 Ram and wanted to upgrade to QuadCore CPU and possibly the Mobo, so I was very lucky to test them prior at a firends computer store.
I tried 4 different motherboards with chipset (965, P35, X38 X48)
Asus and Gigabyte Mobos with an Quad Core Q6600 processor
There was very very little improvements with the X48,38 and DDR3 Ram. Compared to my 965p Gigabyte - Mobo. The P35 was very nice but did not justify the upgrade.
(test used on all boards was Cubase SX3 with Orangine Stress test http://www.citriq.com/support/Orangi...ss_Test_v2.rar )

Guess what?? I kept my 965P Mobo... upgraded to another 2GB DDR2, and also the Quad Core Q6600. The Money I saved for the new Mobo I invested in a second TFT 19" Monitor

This is the best investment you can do which will last you for a long peroid.
You have to wait for late 2009 for affordable 8 core processors and Mobos, which woud be the next "justified" upgrade on your Hardware Gear, but trust me, with this config right now, I barely pass the 49% CPU meter, using around 24-28 tracks (electronic music , vsti, lots & heavy fx plugins, samples)

I dont know which Motherboard you have right now but in case you have a Pentium 4 Prescott or something else, older or not upgradable to Core2Duo, my choice would be a P35 chipset, Maybe the Asus-P5K which is very nice and Penryn Compatible and cheap!!. or the Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 even the Abit IP35 Pro is a good choice and way much under the price of a X38/X48 board.

This is soley for a PC planned for Music Production, if you also are a harcore Gamer fanatic and need that Crossfire/SLI fancy stuff... ok thats another story...

I hope this was usefull to you.
If you have more questions let me know.

Greetings from Spain.

needle

[heathenichaer]

2 months ago i bought Gigabyte p35 or ep35 and i'm happy with it, everything works properly

[blim]

Originally Posted by needle

...get a Quad Core Intel CPU Q6600 2,4Ghz. You can get the Q6600 2,4 very cheap right now,

In my opinion, the Q6600 is no longer the best value in CPUs. For another $125, you can buy the just-released Q9450, which has 2.66GHz processors, 2x6MB of L2 cache, and, best of all, a 1333MHz front side bus.

[wakestyle]

Originally Posted by needle

Hey Wakestyle...

Im my opinion, it doesnt really justify the extra money the new X48 Mobos costs (it depends on your Budget of course), at least and for sure...get a Quad Core Intel CPU Q6600 2,4Ghz. The most important thing for producing Music on a Computer is the CPU and you cant get any better CPU for that price right now in the Market (well you can get a Intel Xeon Quadcore go buy a Mac! and prepair a Mortage!)

You can get the Q6600 2,4 very cheap right now, if you can get the G0 Stepping version, the better.. you can overclock it very easy and stable to 3.0 Ghz (Only if you really NEED that horsepower)

Ok now to the Motherboard... and trust me on this, because I tested it myself.
I had a Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 board with intel Core2Duo 2,4Ghz +2GB DDR2 Ram and wanted to upgrade to QuadCore CPU and possibly the Mobo, so I was very lucky to test them prior at a firends computer store.
I tried 4 different motherboards with chipset (965, P35, X38 X48)
Asus and Gigabyte Mobos with an Quad Core Q6600 processor
There was very very little improvements with the X48,38 and DDR3 Ram. Compared to my 965p Gigabyte - Mobo. The P35 was very nice but did not justify the upgrade.
(test used on all boards was Cubase SX3 with Orangine Stress test http://www.citriq.com/support/Orangi...ss_Test_v2.rar )

Guess what?? I kept my 965P Mobo... upgraded to another 2GB DDR2, and also the Quad Core Q6600. The Money I saved for the new Mobo I invested in a second TFT 19" Monitor

This is the best investment you can do which will last you for a long peroid.
You have to wait for late 2009 for affordable 8 core processors and Mobos, which woud be the next "justified" upgrade on your Hardware Gear, but trust me, with this config right now, I barely pass the 49% CPU meter, using around 24-28 tracks (electronic music , vsti, lots & heavy fx plugins, samples)

I dont know which Motherboard you have right now but in case you have a Pentium 4 Prescott or something else, older or not upgradable to Core2Duo, my choice would be a P35 chipset, Maybe the Asus-P5K which is very nice and Penryn Compatible and cheap!!. or the Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 even the Abit IP35 Pro is a good choice and way much under the price of a X38/X48 board.

This is soley for a PC planned for Music Production, if you also are a harcore Gamer fanatic and need that Crossfire/SLI fancy stuff... ok thats another story...

I hope this was usefull to you.
If you have more questions let me know.

Greetings from Spain.

needle

thanks for the notes mate!

I see that because your using the older q6600 cpu when testing the x48, you obviously would not have come any where near pushing the FSB to it's 1600mhz rating. So I can see how you would not have noticed much difference there... not to mention ram speeds...

btw, Ill be grabbing the 9450 45nm cpu.

aNd YES, I'm running a prescott!

[George Necola]

ASUS P5KR

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

3 PCI slots, if you are dealing with older cards, like I do.

[wakestyle]

Originally Posted by allencollins

INTEL the one and only
they make the cpu the design the chip sets

hey, can you recommend any 'deluxe' mobo's by intel?

[RobML]

my personal opinion is that the DP35DP is a really nice board. i'd stick a quad core 2.4 or 2.66 on it depending on budget.

solid as a rock. i wouldnt risk it on any other brand of motherboard.

if you want extreme, check out the D5400XS, but you better have some cash
Intel® Desktop Board D5400XS Overview

cheers

[wakestyle]

...anyways I seem to have found one nice and new board... the asus p5q3 deluxe, hosting the P45 chipset. Still no real improvements with this board either over ALL of the P35, X38, and X48 chipsets, but has some nice features and is all My only gripe is that the ddr3 controller only supports up to 1333mhz ddr3.

It is true, that of this generations boards are neck in neck, with virtually no differences in performance (at least with current benchmarks), X48 does pull ahead with ddr3 for any application likely to require 10000 plus mb/s I could see how the X48 is geared towards hardcore gamers.

In the end it came down to the X48, or this board. With performance not mattering, I looked to features, and price.

the p5q3 is coming in at $230.00 ca, which is reasonable for a 'deluxe' mainboard.

One nice feature of this board is the memory OC charger, new I believe to the market, which should eliminate the need to adjust by hand memory timings. ~nice!

thanks for tha advise peeps.

[wakestyle]

dunno if there will be any concerns, but I will be using UAD-1 and duende on this board, along with the N12.

Peace

[allencollins]

Originally Posted by RobML

my personal opinion is that the DP35DP is a really nice board. i'd stick a quad core 2.4 or 2.66 on it depending on budget.

solid as a rock. i wouldnt risk it on any other brand of motherboard.

if you want extreme, check out the D5400XS, but you better have some cash
Intel® Desktop Board D5400XS Overview

cheers

Deluxe? I can see the flame wars now. Define deluxe? :>))
It seem on GS a 'Deluxe' mb is defined as 4+ PCI slots.

What socket? for LGA775 check out the DX48BT2
For my XEON I have a D5400XS. The thing smokes...........

Intel really makes the some of the best. Also Tyan has some nice MB's

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by wakestyle

hey building a new comp, was pretty much settled on gigabyte x48 chipset as it's so similar to the proven x38, but clocks higher.

There's at least 4 models from gigabyte to choose from, and sad to say, I'm confused...

Anyways if anyone has some advise for me, I will gladly hear it!

I plan to build a high perfomance multi-function future ready daw.

Price really isn't that important, and I'm really not all that interested in the cheaper $100 style budget boards (although I'm sure there fine for basic needs).

Your fine with an X58 for a Nehalem (i7) from EVGA or the P6T V2 from Asus. If you are going Core 2 Quad, a P45 would be a great choice, but P35 is great also and cheaper. I would keep away from Nvidia chip sets for Intel CPU's not because theyre bad (I have a 790i so...) but because Intels are a bit more out of the way and dont run so hot. Nvidia are for enthusiasts, like me, and for extreme overclocking which they dominate.

Stay with DDR II if you dont use massive amounts of plugins and samples (VSTi's) all the time. In the other case, you might benefit from DDR III at or above 1600 Mhz. Also keep CAS timings under 9 for DDR 3 and UNDER 1.65 volts for Core i7 (and up to 1.9v for Core 2 Quad). Il be here all night folks!

Most people think that motherboards impact the working factor for DAWs, or speed well they DONT. Its all about what it supports, the build quality (solid state caps, multi phase power, cooling) that matters. That doesnt mean that any board will be great for recording, but the only thing you should be worried about is what CPU it supports, what type of RAM, how many SATA ports (or SAS) and how cool it runs. Otherwise, theyre all the same (in running software).

[strings]

Thread is a bit old, so Fall 2009, what are the PC motherboard recommendations out there now for DAW?

[R3altruth]

Socket LGA 1366 I7's
Good board
Newegg.com - ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Better board.. better Firewire chipset... more SATA
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Socket LGA 1156 Lynnfield
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
and Micro ATX version
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
which is actually great if you don't need as many PCI or PCIe slots

Socket AM3 790GX chipset
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
I love this because it has a very usable IGP... no need to get a noisy video card unless you're a gamer

Socket AM3 790fx chipset
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

[strings]

Thanks R3altruth!!

I'll definitely check those out.