Thread: AMD system worththe expense?

Yay Jack, I cannot speak for the US market of course. My findings on these points are based upon stuff I encounter here in The Netherlands. Since we're such a small country I guess a lot that goes here is the same in more countries in Europe. No one will bother making Dutch motherboards, right? Though I can think of a couple of nice designs.

These are my individual findings with Dell and Packard Bell in our little country which may not speak for every pre-built in Europe.

on #1 Packard Bell uses motherboards (I'm not saying exclusively) that are only in the OEM channels, not in retail. I never feel good about using that with a DAW PC.

on #1 + #6 I was kinda hoping Dell get their PSUs from the usual manufacturers. It's just that I read the pinouts used to be different in the old days. It seems to me that a motherboard in that case cannot be in retail channels. According to what you're saying that may have changed, though, or was only briefly the case.

To sum it up it is perhaps better to say then: * There are hardly any reference models, as in "good for DAW", motherboards in pre-built PCs. So you run a risk of incompatibility with your soundcard.* We all know how chipsets can make or break a DAW. Now that's fairly easy to google.

on #6 I got the idea that on assembling your Dell that you get a beefier PSU when you go all out on options, extra HDDs, better GPU-card etc, but you get a lower rated PSU when you stick with the standards. That's maybe another reason why extra's look expensive with Dell, apart from them making a nice margin. So when you want to upgrade you can hit a wall with your PSU. True? Bear with me for a moment.

I guess no one wants to run the risk of having to upgrade the PSU of your pre-built. A friend of mine wanted a better graphics card. His Dell PC was all standard in the beginning, 1HDD, 200W PSU P4 3.0GHz. He bought a bigger LCD and needed a better GPU for it. The one in there couldn't handle the bigger screen. He couldn't just simply get another fat graphics card, but had to choose carefully not to overload the PSU, the first one he got from a store was too heavy for the PSU. He was lucky enough I had an obsolete AGP GPU lying around, so he could upgrade for free. Now how often do you hear that? This couldn't have happened if he would have ordered the machine with a fat GPU in the first place. They would have had to upgrade the PSU at assembly. Now I know his PC is kinda old, being AGP and Netburst and all, but still. The GPU I had for my friend was just as old, it could have been available at Dell, chronically speaking. Is this only Logic or could it grow some flesh?

About visting DAW-builders: yeah, absolutely, that's how I picked up a lot, shamelessly I might add, but also reading here on RO, various other forums and reviews. DAW builders are however less and less open about the choice of motherboard though and for good reasons we can understand. Would you disclose all your mixing secrets?

I also read somewhere: You choose a soundcard first (based on facts and features) and then get to the manufacturers FAQ and info to learn what's the best motherboard/chipset for this particular soundcard. Once you have the motherboard everything falls together easily. Sounds good to me.

It was in 2006 when I built my rig. Right now I couln't tell anyone what parts to choose. Are chipsets still hit and miss these days?

Current prebuilts are still sketchy for audio editing. You can't find one with a P4 for many years now. Even five years ago a new machine would had a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo. PSU purchased today have motherboard harnesses that have a base connector for older motherboards and additional tongue in groove connectors to also plug in to newer style. The best new psu have modular harnesses and are very nice.

Prebuilt moherboards are still proprietary but many can have cpu upgrades but you have to know the pinout to be sure. It is he memory controllers on them that are so useless.

Modern chipsets are quite good if you start with the X58 (intel) and newer. Also if you buy server class parts it is much better.