The best motherboard for Gigastudio and Audio?

[Kenn159]

I know the answer to this question changes every few months ,with technology changing as fast as it does.
I have decided to go with a AMD 1600XP because of the price performance ratio, now I just need to figure out which is the best performing and stable motherboard at a good value.
I would like the motherboard to have 4 IDE connections on the motherboard [for up to 8 hard drives/cdr/roms].
I would like atleast two of them to support UDMA ultra 133.
And be stable and fast.

I read a little bit about the Gigabyte GA7DXR+ motherboard which seems pretty interesting but it doesn\'t have the Via KT266A , it has the AMD 760 chip set.
Any Idea which chip set is faster and more stable?

[ellle]

While your at it why not go for dual AMP mobo: http://www.tomshardware.com/technews/technews-20011213.html (\"http://www.tomshardware.com/technews/technews-20011213.html\")

I planning the same;

ellle

[killerbobjr]

You might want to consider the ECS K7S6A -- a SiS 745 chipset with DDR333. SiS has a licensing agreement with Intel, so their PCI bus implementation is much more solid than Via\'s. That translates into better compatibility with soundcards. The chipset doesn\'t have ATA133, but since no IDE drive even comes close to saturating an ATA66 interface, let alone ATA100, your only real benefit from ATA133 is the higher initial burst of data from the hard drive buffer, a relatively umimportant feature for reading Gigasamples. If you\'re interested in real hard drive speed, you would benefit much more from a SCSI setup than ATA133.

[pantonality]

While I understand the desire for latest and greatest and the fastest computer on the planet. Remember it won\'t be the fastest for long. In my experience Giga doesn\'t need more than an Athlon 700. So the question is are you doing sequencing and digital audio on the same system. If yes, perhaps you should rethink that setup. If not then just build a good system for Giga and invest the big $$$ on your DAW. That\'s where you need the processintg power.

Steve

[KingIdiot]

Completely agree with pantonality.

If you plan on doing alot of Effects in GigaStudio itself then yah more power/processor. If not an athlon at around the 800-1 gig area should be more than enough. Spen your money on SCSI drives for fast access, and then buy sample libraries http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Having everything on one system is cool for the \"look what my system can do\" aspect but why? you get more flexibility on multiple systems.

shouldn\'t be talking tho, run giga on the same as my DAW http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

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Really...I am an Idiot

[clueless]

I am using an 800MHz PIII and find that runnning one reverb in GigaStudio with a high polyphony mix causes discernable delays in the output. I have a separate computer (MAC) running a sequencer (MOTU Performer).

clueless

[Doc]

Take a look at some of the reviews on the net for the new Abit KR7A-Raid motherboard, this may be what you are looking for.

[Kenn159]

Hi All
I don\'t think I need the latest greatest, if I did I guess I would buy a dual 2 gig CPU machine.
It just seems the 1600xp AMD is at a good price performance point [$116 at price watch]from what I read they have better floating point than pen 4\'s which is nessasary for audio.
By the time you run giga at 160 voice and a few audio tracks and effects in your sequencer you\'ve over task your 800 mhz machine.
Hey doc Ill check out that Abit .

[Kenn159]

Thanks for your input King Idiot , but I absolutely refuse to buy scuzzy hard drives.
After all the years of headaches ,problems conflicts and calling adaptec[one of the main suppliers of scuzzy controller boards] and them changing me $25 per incident to talk to them .
Im glad we are at the point were they difference between scuzzy and IDE is very small [especially with DMA which bypasses most of the cpu drain]
If you create a problematic archaic product and then over charge them when they need tech support , they probably won\'t be your customer next time around.
Hence my dislike for scuzzy.