Hi mates, well I have decided to build my PC , I have already bought a nice case, but that is just the begining. A friend of mine gave me a list of some of the few best options out there, but as I read the reviews from people it confuses me a lot, so I need your help please.

AND NO, I WON'T BUY A MAC, SO PLEASE , SAVE IT, THAT IS NOT AN OPTION.

So, the first thing to decide is the motherboard, I know I wanna buy an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor, but as you may know, I need to find a motherboard (which is the mos problematic part of the PC) compatible with this processor.

I have an option with a motherboard developed by ASUS here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813131541

But the reviews do not satisfy me enough, what are your view considering I'm building this PC for Music Production?
Can anyone point me out to a better option on the motherboard with a minimum of RAM capacity of 2 GB?

Thank you buddies.

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Der Mystik's Music

Hi!

You might wanna check this thread on the subject:

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/s...&fpart=1#225749

Viktor

I find 512kb L2 cache is a little low for audio production, isn't it? I have a dualcore opteron with 1024kb which clocks at 2500ghz each core. I think L2 cache makes a big difference.
As a board I got a msi k8n neo2 platinum with nforce3 chipset because I never trusted VIA (maybe that has changed but I had bad experience with via and video-editing some time ago). You shouldn't take nforce4 or any other pci-express device if you have a pci audio-interface, problems have been reported on different boards.

Thank you very much buds, your info and link has been really useful.
I won't getting an ASUS motherboard, since I've researched various forums and their users were not very satisfied, in the other hand users of Gigabyte Motherboards out of 135 Reviewers, the average score was 5/5, not bad at all!!

So so far the PC parts that I'll be ordering will be:

* Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard.

* AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1 Ghz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor.

* Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L300R0 300 GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive.

* 1GB kit (512MBx2) RAM Ballistix 184-pin DIMM DDR PC4000 (will expand to 2 GB i the future)

* Connect3D 3038 Radeon X800GTO 256 MB GDDR3 PCI Express X16 Video Card

* Samsung 740-Black 17" 8ms LCD Monitor

* LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW - 160P6S

I have an E-MU 0404 Sound Card at the moment, so I hope that one will be compatible with the system I'm gonna build, if not, I'll get a sound card compatible with it, possibly with more ins and outs.

What you think?

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Der Mystik's Music

Hi, there are some hints I gave you that you didn't take into account in your config.

quote:

* Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard.

This IS an pci-e board which might cause the problems I mentioned as you...

quote:

...have an E-MU 0404 Sound Card at the moment,

I also have this PCI Card and thats why I chose an older nforce3 board.

You do not necessarily get problems but I wouldn't risk it. If you only want to do audio with this machine you won't need pci-e. Reports on different forums regarding this topic are very confusing so I decided to go the safe way.

quote:

* 1GB kit (512MBx2) RAM Ballistix 184-pin DIMM DDR PC4000 (will expand to 2 GB i the future)

If you want to expand, why do you take 2x512. then you are limited to 2gb

oh Ok, thanks very much for the nforce4 head up, how about this one, is an nforce4 with no PCI-E slots, of course, I'd have to get then another video card because the video card I wanted to get is only supported by PCI-E, but I just want a video card that can offer me dual visual monitoring chances in the future.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128307

Thanks for the feedback buddy.

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Der Mystik's Music

Last edited by PDM on Feb-28-2006 at 01:56

I have no experience with ULI chipsets, can't help you with that, sorry. But in general the problems occuring with pci-audiointerfaces have something to do with powermanagement and voltage-drops on the pci-e buss, I am really not into this technical stuff. You could search for this topic on the cakewalk forum for example.
If you want to have a pci-e graphic-card, which you don't need for an audio-workstation, you have to try it. I have no definite answer if it is just with nforce4 or with all pci-e chipsets. Maybe you should ask on a more specialized hardware forum.

I have a PCI express Nforce 4 motherboard and have only had problems with the on board LAN. I upgraded my soundcard shortly after I got the new machine though anyway (I wanted more ins/outs as well). I bought a PCI firewire card for my external soundcard and haven't had any issues with it.

don't be afraid to use PCI-express, it works perfect with PCI-soundcards 9 times out of 10.

Going with a gigabyte motherboard though is not something I would recomend. Go with MSI or DFI instead, much much muuuuch more stable than any gigabyte card will ever be. (okay well maybe except for the DFI Lanparty nforce 4 expert :P)

I'd also say skip the 3800+ dualcore and go for a Opteron 165 for socket 939 instead. 512mb L2 Cache more on each core and prolly at a cheaper price

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quote:

Originally posted by davedresden i suggest getting the gabriel & dresden prog-a-minute. in 3 easy steps you too could change the face of dance music. batteries not included. - dave

heh i am on the same situation as you, i am going to buy amd dual core 64 x2 i spoke to one guy and i am 100% sure i will buy it, for motherboard i will choose asus a8n-e nf4 ultra i read its great, and for rams pdp patriot with radiators are great too, that would be my configuration soon i hope now i have to find some graphic card as i dont need them for games i was thinking about radeon x600 pro maybe someone could suggest any good at that price maybe even cheaper??

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crowdfunding for my new album on vinyl

for the pci-e issue read this:
http://www.rme-audio.de/techinfo/nforce4_tests.htm

quote:

...At present the NF4 single cpu chipset cannot be recommended for demanding pro DAW work. Multimedia users, recording hobbyists or semi-pro DAW users who use a limited combination of streamed audio tracks, samples and/or VSTis may not face the aforementioned limitations and performance may be as good as on any comparative platform.

I have heard of many people having problems.

@wood0292: Firewire-Audio has never been a problem, just pci.

quote:

I'd also say skip the 3800+ dualcore and go for a Opteron 165 for socket 939 instead. 512mb L2 Cache more on each core and prolly at a cheaper price

Just what I said. I have the 165 and I OCed it from 1,8 to 2,5 without any heat problems.

Thanks buds for the useful information, I got some questions left please?

What is the difference between Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2?
The X2 confuses me a lot cause it gives me the idea that is a better version of Athlon 64, but I might be wrong. Also, I can't find a mother board compatible with Opteron when I search at different stores, when I search , the results give me "Motherboards compatible with CPU Types:
Athlon 64/Sempron , Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Athlon X2 & Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Sempron but it does not mention Opteron at all, plus I find Opteron is for server motherboards, are server motherboards different than a regular motherboard?

Thanks mates.

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Der Mystik's Music