Intel mother boards recommended for DAW?

[Megadrum]

Specifically the Intel BOXDZ68BC (Newegg.com - Intel BOXDZ68BC LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard). I can't find many reviews on this board at all (went through google, tomshardware.com). I'm finishing up my build and I'm trying to decide between this board and the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro, and the only reason I'm leaning towards the Intel now is for better reliability. Also, is overclocking really helpful in your DAW? All help is appreciated!

[rksguit]

That board looks good,but if you can shop "new egg"[Australia....can't],you have amazing choices at great prices.

That said, Im overclocking an i7 2600k @ 4.5GHzwith stock voltage,and load times are crazy fast,amount's of instances of Guitar rig 4/5 are almost endless[I haven't reached a limit]

The MOST important thing with OC'ing is obviously stability, but more so-HEAT!

At 100% load I never get above 60c[good]

Standard temp is 28-32-36c

Im getting super low DPC [20-40us] with a Giga GA-Z68XP-UD3 [rev.1.0] and a Powecolor 6770 graphics card[GPU often has a bearing on DPC]

[projektk]

I recommend gigabyte boards.

I'm running a GA-Z68X-UD4 with i7 2600k 8 GB Crucial DDR3 RAM and a XFX 5770 graphics card with Mac OS 10.6.7 installed and running stable since August.

Sent from my LG-P925 using Gearslutz.com

[diogo_c]

Gigabyte and MSI are the ones I'd recommend. The Intels are just pricey when you want a better feature set.

[Megadrum]

Thank you all for your replies. I will definitely look into those gigabyte boards mentioned.

Originally Posted by diogo_c

Gigabyte and MSI are the ones I'd recommend. The Intels are just pricey when you want a better feature set.

what about Asus? Any reason gigabytes and msi are better for a daw? And yeah the intels lack some bells and whistles, but arent they more reliable? i will also be getting into video editing on this build as well. Thanks again everyone!



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[Megadrum]

After looking into the Z68 Gigabyte boards, I noticed they don't have integrated graphics, which is a problem for me because I'd like to utilize integrated graphics for the time being in order to save money at the moment (in the future i do plan on buying a GFX 560 ti for video editing). I'm leaning towards the Intel BOXDZ68BC for the IG, Firewire, reliability, and discounted price (which will be over tomorrow on NewEgg). I've read it's not the best for overclocking, but I'm a bit of a noob so I don't plan on getting really heavy into that at the moment. But as far as features go would the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro be a better choice for future proofing?

[iain_m]

Gigabyte are one of the few manufacturers who specify on the website the brands of firewire chips used on their boards, and have several boards using Texas Instruments firewire -- well worth considering if you'll be using a firewire audio interface, or transferring video via firewire.

I think Asus specify firewire chip brands too, but it was a while ago since I looked.

If you don't get a board with a Texas Instruments chip, factor in the cost of a PCI-E firewire card.

[Megadrum]

Originally Posted by iain_m

Gigabyte are one of the few manufacturers who specify on the website the brands of firewire chips used on their boards, and have several boards using Texas Instruments firewire -- well worth considering if you'll be using a firewire audio interface, or transferring video via firewire.

I think Asus specify firewire chip brands too, but it was a while ago since I looked.

If you don't get a board with a Texas Instruments chip, factor in the cost of a PCI-E firewire card.

Thanks for the reply! I noticed the Gigabyte mobos had the ti firewire ports, but then I'd still have to pay extra for a graphics card. I'm just trying to figure out what motherboard features would i be paying extra for that won't apply to what i am doing, and if I could get the same DAW workflow off a cheaper motherboard. I am looking at the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro, but it's the highest priced one I'm interested in ($205). It also has a lot of overclocking friendly features, but I believe I am a bit too much of a noob to be playing with that stuff (along with altering other things within BIOS). And again I will also be getting into video editing (nothing TOO crazy, just starting to learn on Sony Vegas Pro 11). Here are the other components I have picked out so far for my build (open for more suggestions):

CPU: Intel i7 2600k
MEMORY: Corsair XMS3 16GB 1333 9-9-9-24 ($54.00 after rebates)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600 9-9-9-24 ($95)
HEATSINK: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Evo ($35)
HDD's: 2 X Western Digital Caviar Blacks 1TB 32MB ($260 already purchased)
SSD: Intel 510 120GB ($235.00 already purchased)
PSU: Corsair Professional Series 650w ($90)

Again I appreciate all of your guys' help, it has helped me out a lot so far!

[Yutaka]

I think skipping the FW anything altogether is the way to go, unless you have invested in an interface you want to keep using. More and more manufacturers are dropping FW in favor of USB 2.0 because of the consistency with chipsets.

Anyway, even the VIA chipset these days are reported to work fine with FW interfaces. On Gigabyte boards, TI chipset is used on UD5 & UD7. UD3 & UD4 are VIA.

I think going with a PCIe based audio interface is better idea for a desktop, as you get better & more solid performance than with FW or USB stuff.

I have a Z68X-UD4-B3, with 2600k @ 4.3 GHz w/HT. It's been working flawlessly for running Cubase and lots of VSTi plugins. As much as I'd like to believe that I've chosen a better board, I think comparably priced boards are more or less the same. I fell for more copper and more durable claim, and thought blue tsunami heatsink on ASUS looked ugly. The integrated graphics is included on boards with Z68XP model number from Gigabyte (HDMI). I have a Radeon HD5450 30 bucks piece of junk that does the job without DPC oddity for the time being, but want to get something better. My board has old school BIOS that looks like it's from 80s, not modern pretty looking UEFI. Does the job, though.

Integrated graphics would use about 1GB of system RAM, BTW.

I have been reading that workstation graphics cards are better suited for video editing and such than consumer cards which are suited for gaming. You might want to check to see if the kind of work you do for video editing may benefit from using FirePro or Quadro, rather than Radeon or GeForce.

A lot of people around here seem to advise against overclocking, probably because of their bad experiences in the past, but overclocking a Sandy Bridge CPU is really simple. Up to 4.3-4.5GHz, you probably won't see much difficulty doing OC. Intel recommends not going over 1.38v and 70C for 24/7 use. My system can run tons of plugin instruments without any problems, and still have plenty of power to spare. Regarding the stability and longevity of the processor, as long as you keep the OC within reasonable number, things should be fine. I think Intel ships the chips with lower clock because they don't know what kind of system these processors will go into, and they need to guarantee the performance on cheaper systems.

By the way, if your RAM sticks have tall heatsink fins sticking out, you might want to make sure your CPU cooler would fit with fans attached. I have a Noctua NH-C12, and the bottom fan would not fit.

[Megadrum]

Originally Posted by Yutaka

I think skipping the FW anything altogether is the way to go, unless you have invested in an interface you want to keep using. More and more manufacturers are dropping FW in favor of USB 2.0 because of the consistency with chipsets.

Anyway, even the VIA chipset these days are reported to work fine with FW interfaces. On Gigabyte boards, TI chipset is used on UD5 & UD7. UD3 & UD4 are VIA.

I think going with a PCIe based audio interface is better idea for a desktop, as you get better & more solid performance than with FW or USB stuff.

I have a Z68X-UD4-B3, with 2600k @ 4.3 GHz w/HT. It's been working flawlessly for running Cubase and lots of VSTi plugins. As much as I'd like to believe that I've chosen a better board, I think comparably priced boards are more or less the same. I fell for more copper and more durable claim, and thought blue tsunami heatsink on ASUS looked ugly. The integrated graphics is included on boards with Z68XP model number from Gigabyte (HDMI). I have a Radeon HD5450 30 bucks piece of junk that does the job without DPC oddity for the time being, but want to get something better. My board has old school BIOS that looks like it's from 80s, not modern pretty looking UEFI. Does the job, though.

Integrated graphics would use about 1GB of system RAM, BTW.

I have been reading that workstation graphics cards are better suited for video editing and such than consumer cards which are suited for gaming. You might want to check to see if the kind of work you do for video editing may benefit from using FirePro or Quadro, rather than Radeon or GeForce.

A lot of people around here seem to advise against overclocking, probably because of their bad experiences in the past, but overclocking a Sandy Bridge CPU is really simple. Up to 4.3-4.5GHz, you probably won't see much difficulty doing OC. Intel recommends not going over 1.38v and 70C for 24/7 use. My system can run tons of plugin instruments without any problems, and still have plenty of power to spare. Regarding the stability and longevity of the processor, as long as you keep the OC within reasonable number, things should be fine. I think Intel ships the chips with lower clock because they don't know what kind of system these processors will go into, and they need to guarantee the performance on cheaper systems.

By the way, if your RAM sticks have tall heatsink fins sticking out, you might want to make sure your CPU cooler would fit with fans attached. I have a Noctua NH-C12, and the bottom fan would not fit.

The reason I'm favoring firewire is because I already have an M-Audio Profire 610 interface. I also have a Fast Track Pro (usb) so it's not 100% ESSENTIAL at the moment. And I didn't know that about the gigabyte boards, thanks for clearing that up for me As for the video editing, Sony Vegas Pro 11 recommends GFX 470/570 gpus. The Quadros are way out of my budget! I'm also no pro either! And the other day I helped my friend build his computer and he used an Asus Z68 board with Corsair Vengeance RAM and was able to fit in the cooler master hyper 212 plus evo heatsink. The only reason I'm hesitant to go directly to purchasing the Intel BOXDZ68BC motherboard is because I can't find many reviews on it (though the ones I come across seem to praise it) and if I were to have problems on it, it would be even harder for me to get help on specific issues on the board being that it's not very popular. The ASUS P8Z68-V Pro on the other hand, is a very popular board and if anything were to go wrong with it I could quickly find help, which is a big consideration since I'm new to building. As for the overclocking, I'm sure I won't need to do it for the stock speed of the cpu should do just fine, right?

[iain_m]

Originally Posted by Megadrum

Here are the other components I have picked out so far for my build (open for more suggestions):

CPU: Intel i7 2600k
MEMORY: Corsair XMS3 16GB 1333 9-9-9-24 ($54.00 after rebates)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600 9-9-9-24 ($95)
HEATSINK: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Evo ($35)
HDD's: 2 X Western Digital Caviar Blacks 1TB 32MB ($260 already purchased)
SSD: Intel 510 120GB ($235.00 already purchased)
PSU: Corsair Professional Series 650w ($90)

Again I appreciate all of your guys' help, it has helped me out a lot so far!

You are welcome. I'd suggest avoiding the Corsair XMS3 RAM - I had two packs of 2x2Gb sticks, bought over a year apart, and each pack contained a faulty stick (!). Corsair will replace them for free, but still... I'll probably choose a different brand in the future.

Yutaka makes a good point that it may be less hassle to avoid firewire (and even USB) altogether for audio. But I disagree about the Via chipset -- there may be some reports of it working, but it'll be the first thing that audio interface manfacturers tell you off about, if you email them with problems!

BTW I'm pretty sure that the UD3 Gigabyte boards do have TI chips; or at least they used to - perhaps this changed with later revisions of the board.

[Megadrum]

Yeah I did come across a lot of people mentioning faulty XMS3 RAM. Just to be safe I will probably go with the Vengeance. As for my firewire interface, I'm not sure if it even works! I can get it to install on my laptop, but when I select it as my audio driver in my daw, i can't get any sound to come out of it (or even any sound in windows at all!). After going through m-audio forums, i came to the conclusion that either my interface is defective (which I ended up getting a refund for anyways) or that it's because I'm using it on a laptop. I may look into PCIe cards instead, what would the benefit be? I'd still like to record occasionally. Maybe get an M Box? Thanks again, it's a tremendous help

[Megadrum]

I decided im going to go with the Asus p8z68v pro gen3. i read through more threads here and that one seems to be great for audio work. hopefully I can get my profire 610 to work with a pci card. thanks again everyone!

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[fastlanestoner]

I did an x58 build a while ago that is still light-years ahead of the game. I've heard the x79s do even more damage. I'm a huge fan of Intel/Gigabyte

[projektk]

You should still get a dedicated graphics card. All you really need is a 512 MB VDDR3 Card or better.

Asus has awful customer service. One time I called and in the middle of the call the Guy said you know what I get off in 3 minutes, call back then so our international tech support will help you, and those guys are the biggest f*c*ing morons you'll ever talk to. I've been building my own computers ever since.

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[Lackofcolor]

I've been reading through this whole thread and it's really helped me make a few decisions about my build I'm working on. The feedback on this forum is amazing. I'm definitely a new big fan of it. And I just wanted to agree with projektk in that ASUS has absolutely horrid customer service. I was calling about some questions about a mobo I had purchased and I was informing the person that I am new to building computers and I asked him about a few of the features I thought were on the board but actually weren't and he ended up saying, "Well that's not my problem." So sort of shocked and disappointed I hung up and sent the board back. I'm definitely considering GIGABYTE this time.