Motherboard recommendations for new AMD DAW

Ben wrote on 3/17/2005, 5:17 AM

I have always built Intel DAWs until now, but it seems the pendulum has really swung in AMD's favour recently.

I'm thinking of building a DAW based on the Athlon 64 3500+. My problem is that when it comes to non-Intel based motherboards, I'm clueless. One of my worries is that a lot of the 'recommended' ones I've read about in forums are based around a VIA chipset, which I've had problems with in the past. Specifically I'm concerned that I'll have compatibility problems with my Echo Mia Midi soundcard and my UAD-1. Am I worrying unnecessarily - are VIA now ok?

As well as these compatibility worries, I also obviously want the machine to be as fast as possible. Plus, ideally, on the mobo I'd like:

- 4 PCI slots
- 1 AGP slot
- Firewire slots
- USB 2
- LAN

Finally, I'm not really concerned about PCI Express at the moment, as I want as many PCI slots as possible; should I really be thinking about PCI-E though?

So, this a very long winded way of asking if you can recommend me some rock-solid motherboards to work with audio and Vegas for the Athlon!

Thanks

Ben

Comments

MyST wrote on 3/17/2005, 7:04 AM

ASUS boards with nForce chipset.

Mario

Rednroll wrote on 3/17/2005, 7:20 AM

My ASUS motherboard with a VIA chipset hasn't given me any problems and I'm using Echo Gina sound cards. I believe some of the problems I heard about in the past was due to VIA chipsets and earlier AMD processors (ie pre Athlon development).

I don't have any particular recommendation, but am looking at buliding a new PC here shortly with the same processor you're getting and my shopping preference will go like this and a VIA chipset will not be a concern unless someone else can enlighten us with some other information.
1. ASUS
2.Abit
3.Gigabyte

MyST wrote on 3/17/2005, 9:14 AM

To confirm what Rednroll's saying... I had a Via chipset before with my Athlon T-Bird 850Mhz.
It worked really well with my Echo Mia.
What I did was contact Echo to ask if my hardware was compatible with the Mia before buying it.

My suggestion is to call them with your final choice of hardware before you buy it. They'll be able to tell you if it will work well together. Whether it's an nForce or a Via chipset.

Mario

Ben wrote on 3/17/2005, 11:10 AM

Thanks guys, that's helpful stuff.

Are they any Athlon 64 users successfully running a UAD-1? (of course 'success' is a relative term when it comes to the UAD and Vegas). If so, what mobo are you using?

Many thanks

Ben

nocixel wrote on 3/17/2005, 11:11 PM

I am using an MSI K8N Neo Platinum with an Athlon 64 3500. I have 3 uad-1's, a tc powercore and a Lynx aes-16 running flawlessly.

Ben wrote on 3/18/2005, 4:05 AM

Just been looking at that motherboard, does look good.

Interesting none of the ASUS non-PCI Express boards for the Athlon socket 939 use the nForce chipset - all use the VIA. And I'm after as many PCI slots as possible.

Good advice Mario - I emailed Echo and they told me the current common VIA chipset in these boards, the KT800, is NOT compatible with the Mia! Lucky I asked. So I'm now looking at boards based on the nForce3 chipset, such as the MSI one.

Cheers
Ben

Rednroll wrote on 3/21/2005, 5:54 PM

Thanks for letting us know about the feedback you got back from Echo audio. Now I wonder if that's the case just for the Mia or all their cards?

drbam wrote on 3/21/2005, 6:09 PM

>>Now I wonder if that's the case just for the Mia or all their cards?<<

The VIA chipsets will not work with the new Echo cards. My friend has a Layla 3G and built a new AMD 64 system with a VIA chipset mobo and of course it wouldn't work. He had to replace it after Echo confirmed it was their issue and was working on developing new drivers. That was 2 months ago. . .

drbam