Mobo suggestion for audio production?

[Sonarcade]

Hi,

Upon purchasing an Asus A7n266-C with the nforce chipset, I realized that there are many benchmarks that show that this doesn't really perform up to par with many of the mobos with the kt333 chipset. I shyed away from the kt333 because of the VIA controversy about it producing crackling sounds and giving bad latency. I also was attracted to the nforce's dual ddr bandwidth feature, which doesn't seem to be all that impressive if put side to side with the kt333's superiority in various other tests. So to cut to the chase, I wanted to know if anyone can suggest a motherboard that will help me get optimum performance for recording audio, which as you might already know, would entail giving beefy dsp support amongst other things. As you can tell, I'm not completely up to speed with the hardware out there that will give me what I want and who knows, maybe I should stay with the mobo I have right now. I did download the latest drivers for both my audiocard and motherboard and other hardware, and tweaked Windows XP. Thanks.

Current hardware:
Asus A7n266-c
1024 mb pc2700 samsung ram
80 gb seagate barracuda IV
AMD xp 1800+
Windows XP tweaked with SP1
M-audio audiophile 2496
Matrox g550

 

[Sonarcade]

Can someone pleeeeeasse help? Thanks.

 

[Grminalac]

Tube motherboard

Thats the new motherboard by Aopen, supposedly the best for audio production...

However its Intel only.

 

[Vette73]

Look at the New Epox 8k9a+ board. It has the KT400 and 8235 southbridge. Epox makes some great boards

 

[kgraeme]

You are much better off getting a professional audio card instead of worrying about a few percentage points of performance on a mobo.

 

[Sonarcade]

Originally posted by: kgraeme
You are much better off getting a professional audio card instead of worrying about a few percentage points of performance on a mobo.

This is my current audiocard.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php

I consider it up to par with RME Hammerfalls, the Echo line, etc. in terms of latency and adc/dac convertors. If you feel otherwise, please let me know of any alternatives. But I just thought since I'm pretty set with the rest of my hardware, I just needed to concern myself with my motherboard. True, SCSI is recommended over IDE for audio production for hard drives, but I'm guessing I'm not compromising as much when choosing IDE as I am when I get a crappy mobo. Thanks.

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: Sonarcade

Originally posted by: kgraeme
You are much better off getting a professional audio card instead of worrying about a few percentage points of performance on a mobo.

This is my current audiocard.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php

I consider it up to par with RME Hammerfalls, the Echo line, etc. in terms of latency and adc/dac convertors. If you feel otherwise, please let me know of any alternatives. But I just thought since I'm pretty set with the rest of my hardware, I just needed to concern myself with my motherboard. True, SCSI is recommended over IDE for audio production for hard drives, but I'm guessing I'm not compromising as much when choosing IDE as I am when I get a crappy mobo. Thanks.

Oops, I didn't actually look closely at the specs you listed to see the audio card. Really my point is that the mobo you have is fine and spending more on something with slightly better performance is throwing money at tech companies instead of using what you've got to make money. I'm not trying to be insulting, though I'm doing a damn fine job of it, I'm just saying that most pros I know don't fiddle with their hardware so much as they fiddle making music, graphics, video or whatever. Heck, I have a G4 450 that I use for graphics production that is still serving me well.

BTW, I actually clicked into this thread initially just to see what you've got and what people suggested because I'm going to be building an audio production system soon as well. Are you doing recording in the same room as the computer or is it just an editor?

 

[Sonarcade]

Originally posted by: kgraeme

Originally posted by: Sonarcade

Originally posted by: kgraeme
You are much better off getting a professional audio card instead of worrying about a few percentage points of performance on a mobo.

This is my current audiocard.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php

I consider it up to par with RME Hammerfalls, the Echo line, etc. in terms of latency and adc/dac convertors. If you feel otherwise, please let me know of any alternatives. But I just thought since I'm pretty set with the rest of my hardware, I just needed to concern myself with my motherboard. True, SCSI is recommended over IDE for audio production for hard drives, but I'm guessing I'm not compromising as much when choosing IDE as I am when I get a crappy mobo. Thanks.

Oops, I didn't actually look closely at the specs you listed to see the audio card. Really my point is that the mobo you have is fine and spending more on something with slightly better performance is throwing money at tech companies instead of using what you've got to make money. I'm not trying to be insulting, though I'm doing a damn fine job of it, I'm just saying that most pros I know don't fiddle with their hardware so much as they fiddle making music, graphics, video or whatever. Heck, I have a G4 450 that I use for graphics production that is still serving me well.

BTW, I actually clicked into this thread initially just to see what you've got and what people suggested because I'm going to be building an audio production system soon as well. Are you doing recording in the same room as the computer or is it just an editor?

 

[Sonarcade]

Originally posted by: kgraeme
Oops, I didn't actually look closely at the specs you listed to see the audio card. Really my point is that the mobo you have is fine and spending more on something with slightly better performance is throwing money at tech companies instead of using what you've got to make money. I'm not trying to be insulting, though I'm doing a damn fine job of it, I'm just saying that most pros I know don't fiddle with their hardware so much as they fiddle making music, graphics, video or whatever. Heck, I have a G4 450 that I use for graphics production that is still serving me well.

BTW, I actually clicked into this thread initially just to see what you've got and what people suggested because I'm going to be building an audio production system soon as well. Are you doing recording in the same room as the computer or is it just an editor?

D'oh. After writing a whole buncha crap in response to the thread, something went wrong and I lost all of my text only to find out that the previous response was submitted.

Anyhow, here's a digest version of what I typed in

1) it sucks that the more expensive nforce is inferior to the cheaper via kt333
2) I do in fact make music with the equipment when I'm not too busy obsessing over hardware as shown on www.mp3.com/sonarcade (although all of that was done with a 750 MHz tbird)
3) I agree with you on that some people overdo the whole gear thing that they don't make music/art/etc. but gear CAN make a difference as I've noticed w/my upgrading from 750 MHz to 1.4 GHz and 256 mb to 1 gb of ram
4) I record with my computer as well as edit
5) Lemme know how your box comes out and what kinda software you're using.