A new Workstation (Mainboard/PC)

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rocker101
Posts: 72
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:08 am

A new Workstation (Mainboard/PC)

Post by rocker101 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:29 am

Hey Guys,
i need some help. the time has come to buy a new Workstation soon (PC) with Win10. I am just wondering which mainboards are suggested today?!
The plan is getting an Intel i7 3,8 Ghz with 32GB Ram and 1x SSD/1x HDD, RME Soundcard 9632.
(Software: Ableton, Cubase, some NI stuff and VSTs).
Years ago i can remember some MBs causes some problems with audio. What about today? Are there any recommendations (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI?) or known problems with Mainboard XY?.

thanks
andy

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: A new Workstation (Mainboard/PC)

Post by jestermgee » Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:09 am

Whatever works with the CPU you plan to use, not aware of any motherboards causing issues with audio in the past, especially if you use external audio interface. I recall a time way back in the early 2000 where AMD CPUs were completely unsuitable for audio production as they did not process floating point numbers correctly (or something) and to this day I still cannot bring myself to build an AMD based system even tho that has not been an issue in 25 years now, that and the horrid performance of early AMD video cards still has me not using them for anything.

When quoting PC parts for analysis by users, simply quoting "i7 3.8ghz" and just ram sizes etc is not all that useful (I have an i7 4.8Ghz.... But it's 10 years old and overclocked way above what it should be). Doing proper design of a system you want every model and part number to compare and cross check to make sure what you choose will efficiently work together.

If you want to get right into the nitty gritty, start with top brands (ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI etc) then look at the USB controllers and chipsets they have, check for MOBO updates (indicating they are active in updating things still) and of course cross check your choice (and speed) of RAM against the MOBO recommended compatibility list. Almost everything else is a crap shoot of luck but these days with the speed and power at which everything works, differences in bottlenecks internally within the system are negligible. I've spent so long in the past researching a systems components and benchmarks that by the time I had to purchase I needed to redo things over because the parts were outdated already.

Only motherboard I will not use again is ASRock for the simple fact the one I have currently fails to POST if I have either a Maschine Studio or Komplete Kontrol keyboard attached and switched ON. For some reason it seems to detect it as some kind of boot device, even with USB Boot switched off in the bios. That's enough for me to look elsewhere but TBH, my PC is now almost 10 years and still going strong so it's done well.

rocker101
Posts: 72
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:08 am

Re: A new Workstation (Mainboard/PC)

Post by rocker101 » Wed Jun 09, 2021 5:45 am

hey...thanks a lot for the informations!!!

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