INTEL system advice needed for an an AMD guy

[niggles]

I have been asked by a friend to help him build a studio audio computer based on Intel chipset. It's not really a gaming machine, although it may be used for low end games from time to time. It will not be overclocked, but it does need to be rock solid in terms of stability. While I have been trying to read up more an more on Intel machines recently (I am an AMD guy on my own machines), I know not a lot about Intel based machines. What is the best reasonably (on the low end) priced mother board to build the machine on if my friend needs the following:

2.5 -3 Ghz Pentium 4
a board with onboard IEEE 1394 Firewire and
One that works with his AGP GeForce 3 and is based on Intel chipset.
1 GB of Ram
Suitable case
120GB drive

He already has a very high end audio card (much more advanced than an Audigy) so on board sound is not required.

Thanks all

 

[niggles]

ahh... ok, just got the specs on the audio external card that he has: http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828/body.html/en
.... anythoughts on a mobo?

edit: it's connected through firewire

 

[OCn00b]

sorry i dont reallt know a lot about intel but if i was him i would just get an x2 3800+ and a refurb dfi lanparty, that system would be could...

 

[BTA]

he wants stability and you suggest a refurb DFI?

Just get him an Intel branded motherboard that supports what he needs.

 

[Fenuxx]

Yeah, something with an 865PE or 875P (I suggest the 875P) should work fine. If he wants all-out stability, then go with an Intel-branded board.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: BTA
he wants stability and you suggest a refurb DFI?

Just get him an Intel branded motherboard that supports what he needs.

hehehee....I love it..........He wants stability!!!

I guess a reburbished mobo would provide that....rofl.........

 

[stevty2889]

Gigabyte 8IK1100 for socket 478 CPU, Abit AS8 for LGA775 cpu.

 

[jose]

The Asus P4C800-e w/ a 3.2C northwood processor is nice.

 

[akugami]

I'm wondering if a low end Pentium D wouldn't be the best option for him. Speed doesn't seem to be his top priority but the dual cores may help him with whatever audio apps he is using. I'd also recommend 2x1GB of RAM. Relatively speaking it's not that expensive right now for the RAM, and I've worked with WAV files before while syncing it to a movie and they can get pretty darn big. The audio tracks can easily get larger than the video file you are working with.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: jose
The Asus P4C800-e w/ a 3.2C northwood processor is nice.

did some homework on this one and we went with the deluxe, we put a p4 3.0ghz and it smokes. The music files that he used to work with would take 60 to 70% of the CPU, now it uses 10% tops. It's a smokin fine machine. Thanks all for your help.
p.s. the gigabyte looked nice too, but the asus seemed to offer a little more.

 

[international]

needs a more powerful CPU....

look at a
P4 660 3.6Ghz (2mb L2)
Asus P5AD2-E Premium (FSB 800/1066)
Asus AX800XT PE
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
Seagate 160Gb X2

 

[niggles]

uhm... I don't know that you read my posts. He doesn't need more power as he is only utilizing a small fraction of the CPU to do what he needs to do, further more why would he want an Audigy when he has a much, much more powerful external audio card? Perhaps you meant to reply to a different thread.

 

[BTA]

Originally posted by: niggles
uhm... I don't know that you read my posts. He doesn't need more power as he is only utilizing a small fraction of the CPU to do what he needs to do, further more why would he want an Audigy when he has a much, much more powerful external audio card? Perhaps you meant to reply to a different thread.

lol indeed. I'd actually never suggest a sound blaster anything for a serious audio person.

I think the only real change you could make would be a dual core cpu like the guy above mentioned.

That's if he was going to be doing other things while working with his audio stuff though.

 

[niggles]

interesting thoughts. I actually did leave out that this guy has a host of other computers including an imac and a mac laptop. An HP laptop and a couple of 1 gig AMD based desktops. if he needs to simply use a computer to surf etc he is covered. In terms of speed we went with hyperthreading as it's the best economical way to achieve what he needed to. Still, I'll look more into the benefits.

Cheers