Intel Brand Sandy Bridge Mobos have TI FW

[Finnish]

Wow, that's all you need...

[fireberd]

Good info on the new boards. Upgrading by DAW system is in the works for later this year.

I suspect any Intel board that has firewire uses the T.I. chipset. I have an older DP35DP motherboard and it too has the T.I. chipset.

The DP35DP motherboard is made by Foxconn for Intel. When I got the board (new) it had a Foxconn blank in the CPU slot. (Foxconn custom makes a lot of Dell motherboards).

[gregwar]

nice 1. seen that mobo too

i've been looking around and can't seem to find sandy bridge chips that go past the 2600k. this isn't a problem now but its just weird that there doesn't seem to be follow up chips on some platforms.

iirc the current i7 chips don't work past the lga-1156 socket doesn't look like there will be more cpus released for it. so the lga-1155 (sandy bridge) apparently goes to like q4 2011 where the lga-2011 will be released.

just seem odd before i used to invest in a mobo/platform when it came out knowing i could buy a newer faster cpu right as they were being phased out but now that doesn't seem to be the case.

i guess just use the tools for the task at hand and don't worry about the next next thing. coming from core 2 duo this is going to be dramastic. its just lame if u have to buy a new mobo every time you want to upgrade.

[troggg]

Well, when you buy a new car, you can't exactly drop your old engine in. Sorry, motherboards are not eternal. However, the quest for them is!

[MyDarkStar]

Foxconn also manufactures logic boards for Apple.The logic board in the Mac Pro I used to have was a Foxconn.

[ekwipt]

I'd stick with the high end Gigabyte boards:

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7

Both have T.I. FireWire and your basically choosing between having faster pcie lanes on the UD7 an extra network Port and extra sata ports

[Jorock]

How would some of you experts fare those Gigabyte boards just mentioned with something like a middle of the line Asus ie. P8P67 PRO


Also, is the fact that the newer Sandy Bridge boards have limited memory bandwidth something to be concerned about over the 1156 socket boards. As I was thinking of a 950 build, but with recent benchmark postings and the similar cost I am defiantely leaning towards a 1155/SB setup.

[troggg]

Originally Posted by Jorock

How would some of you experts fare those Gigabyte boards just mentioned with something like a middle of the line Asus ie. P8P67 PRO


Also, is the fact that the newer Sandy Bridge boards have limited memory bandwidth something to be concerned about over the 1156 socket boards. As I was thinking of a 950 build, but with recent benchmark postings and the similar cost I am defiantely leaning towards a 1155/SB setup.

1) It should be a great mobo, but won't have a TI firewire chip, so, if you use firewire, you'll need a card that costs between $5 and $50.

2) The "limited memory bandwidth" of which you speak is really in comparison to the 1366 socket boards, not so much 1155 vs. 1156. And I suspect you would need to be running some extremely CPU-intensive VIs to ever feel the difference - or run quite a lot of them at once. 1366 would seem to have about a third more bandwidth - check Scott's recent sandy bridge posts for exact figures. From cruising gaming sites - which are now finally running some audio-crunching tests - it would appear the 1155 has a little more bandwidth than 1156.

[Jorock]

Originally Posted by troggg

1) It should be a great mobo, but won't have a TI firewire chip, so, if you use firewire, you'll need a card that costs between $5 and $50.

I dont understand as the ASUS still has a firewire input, I figured it would be useable in my situation?

Can you explain the function or purpose of the TI firewire chip as in what difference it makes, as right now I run an Apogee Rosetta 800 exclusively via firewire so I will definately be relying on a stable firewire setup for this new build.

[troggg]

Originally Posted by Jorock

I dont understand as the ASUS still has a firewire input, I figured it would be useable in my situation?

Can you explain the function or purpose of the TI firewire chip as in what difference it makes, as right now I run an Apogee Rosetta 800 exclusively via firewire so I will definately be relying on a stable firewire setup for this new build.

While any old firewire port will work for firewire tasks that are not pro audio, things get quite finnicky for pro audio interfaces - remember, way less than 1% of computers are used for pro audio, so satisfying this market is pretty much meaningless to a company like Asus. The reason Gigabyte mobos are popular for pro audio, is that they use the TI chipset which has proved to be reliable for the majority of interfaces. TI chipsets cost more and take up a little more space, btw, which is why most mobo manufacturers save the money.

Some people like Intel mobos because they are generally perceived as less-overclocked and built more for stability than features - though this is changing. But for the people who value stability over features, the fact the Intel sandy bridge mobos use TI makes them more valuable for pro audio.

All that said, it's always hit and miss, so whatever Firewire controller Asus uses on the new Sandy Bridge mobos might possibly work with your Rosetta. However, your odds of working are always better with TI. Search the site - there's no end of threads about the perils of non-compatible firewire.

[Jorock]

Ah thats good information to have. I had no idea about the general instability of firewire, I guess im lucky cause believe it or not, I have been using a desktop computer for home recording that was built in i think about 2001. Its an Asus Motherboard, Pentium 4 2.3ghz with 2gb of ram, and for some reason way back my dad put a second hard drive in it, which may be the only reason it can handle some of the minor multi-tasking my recordings require; although I have pushed it much further than you would think. I have recorded a full band on a few occasions and done a decent ITB mix, mind you I think I capped out after about 25 plugins, but it has forced me to work harder getting better sounds going in (which is never a bad thing!).

Firewire with my apogee rosetta has been completely flawless at 44.1/24 bit.

[valis]

Originally Posted by troggg

Some people like Intel mobos because they are generally perceived as less-overclocked and built more for stability than features - though this is changing. But for the people who value stability over features, the fact the Intel sandy bridge mobos use TI makes them more valuable for pro audio.

The main advantage of using Intel for motherboards (and certain other parts like NICs) is the number of hours of validation they put into their products vs. the nearest competitors. This can directly translate into stability for most things, you bet.

[troggg]

Originally Posted by valis

The main advantage of using Intel for motherboards (and certain other parts like NICs) is the number of hours of validation they put into their products vs. the nearest competitors. This can directly translate into stability for most things, you bet.

So, which one do you have your eye on . . . paired with which SB processor?
Looks like there's no firewire at all on the Intel H series boards that have onboard graphics, so it has to be the P series, unless I'm missing something. The Intel extreme board is black with the flashing skull which has some appeal, as does saving the 50 bucks and getting an SSD.

[valis]

I don't have my eye on anything Since I use some Mac-related software I'll wait until Apple launches their SB laptops to decide what to do there, but it's likely I'll add a 2nd 17" to my backpack from this SB lineup. Desktop is going to wait until fall both financially and since I think I'll still keep it upper tier (just maybe not a Xeon.) Price:performance on this current gen is great though!

[Jorock]

Given the above info I think i'll be goin for a UD5 boards with a 2600k cpu. I will basically go with whatever I can get for the money im saving (approx $1200)