Skip to main content

Hello everybody,
this is my first post here,
I'm going to build a new machine - i hope in one week or something like, due to the need to work again….
I ecided to build the new daw around the core I7 (920) and x58 chipset motherboards platform, so not only every advice is is personally welcome, but i think would be useful to collect in a dedicated thread all the relevant infos we have (personal or other peoples experiences, reviews, tests and benchmarks, useful links etc.).
Moreover there is also a lack of generical pc’s magazines reviews and tests about several potentially interesting x58’s based motherboards. All we can easily find is some magazine comparison and benchmark scores in the game area (I don’t know how much can interests us…my ignorance?).
In the audio world I wasn’t able to find something who really clarify ideas about which are the mobos with good audio performances. ‘official recommendations’ on the argument are completely missing for what I saw.
Talking with some builder in my country and reading in some forum, and for all I recommend the thread Intel i7 Motherboards - X58
http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=679250&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#679250
( there are several daw builders discussing, so I found it enlightening on different aspects)

The main problems are to me at the moment:
1) it seems that some of these x58 mobos works really bad with audio - this is really frightening –.

2) the hoped compatibility of some motherboard of the so called ‘grapchic slots’, who connects at high velocity to the x58 chipset and non graphic cards. Most of the audio users won't use 3 pci 2.0 x16 for graphic cards! So there is the need to find a board in which we can put other kind of pcie, like audio card etc.

I have to say in the first moment i was attracted to the so called ‘workstation series’ of asus (p6t6 ws revolution and p6t ws professional) – these seems to have a more robust design and are full of features for future expandibility also – but aren’t at the time easily available, and neither I found a review about them, just presentations.

So … somebody has tried x58 mobos?
whats your opinion in general on the argument?
Every kind of help in contributing to this thread is very, very, very welcome
Many thanks !
rads

Comments

pr0gr4m Mon, 12/08/2008 - 02:28

Too new. There some info (not audio specific) about them out on Tomshardware.com and Anandtech.com. As a matter of fact, AnanaTech has an x58 roundup right on their home page today.

My experience is that the audio community seems to be a little slow, or to be more accurate, cautious when it comes to new computer hardware. x58 is brand spankin new. Generally when someone is looking to build a new computer they want to know what works and what's stable...so when something brand new comes out it takes a while before there is info about it.

I say unless you desparately need core i7 either go with x38/x48 or wait a few months. Or you could be the guy who gets it and let's us all know if it's worth the upgrade or not.

eFe Mon, 03/16/2009 - 06:10

This is only my opinion.

Sometimes, you need to think in a more commercial way.

i7 processors are the latest technology, also the most expensive one. Maybe you should think of buying a Xeon or C2Q or C2D with the best motherboard, RAM, HDDs, etc.

What I'm trying to say is, that maybe if you buy a not so expensive computer you will be able to recover the inversion sooner than buying the most expensive computer you can afford. If you double your budget on the PC that does'nt mean that you can double the price of your studio.

From my experience a PC that costed U$S 2500 on July 2008 would now cost around U$S 1200. Just think about it.

It's not the same with computers than with audio Hardware. I could easily spend the extra U$S 1200 ina 414 or such.

Just a pont of view...

Good Luck!
eFe