Best chipset/Proc for music production

[The Greater God]

I'm looking to get a new system for doing music production and using VST/VSTi and DX based effects and synths. I want it to be zero latency (or not noticable) yet rock solid and stable. I mainly want to run stuff from Native Instruments and Propellerheads (Reason²) along with my graunlization programs. What chipset/proc would offer the best performance and the highest amount of stability ? I know the XP's have an absolutely amazing FPU but I don't know anything else about them or how they compare to an equally "priced" P4. Also, I'm eyeing the new titanium powerbooks from apple. Numbers (ie: how many of this or that I can run) is not important as usability, and stability.


If you could offer some advice or post your experience with audio production and a certian chipset/Proc, it would be greatfully apperciated.

[c9-2001]

an athlon XP system with a motherboard that has a nvidia chipset... rock solid, fast and with work perfect with any program just fine...

[erichenryus]

I don't want to start and AMD vs. Intel war here but this has been my humble experience. Take it for what it's worth.

I've used both AMD XP1900+/Asus A7M266 and Intel 2.4B/D845PEBT2 and I'll tell you what....I'll NEVER use AMD again. I spent more time swearing at that computer than I did recording with it. And now it's my internet computer/radiant heater for the first floor (sucker runs HOT).

I just built a system using an intel mobo and processor and it worked flawlessly from the time I first flipped the switch! Not a single cuss word in the process and now I enjoy near nothing latency (<5ms) using Kontakt and Sonar and most importantly it never fails on me. And the processor temp never goes above 38 degrees!

PLUS....it's quiet as shit. The stock heatsink that comes with the intel processor is so quiet I wasn't sure it was running when I first turned it on.

So there you go. I'm all intel now and I'll never go back. But, I am thankful to all you guys who keep buying AMD processors. Keeps the price of Intel in check!

So my advice to you is buy an AMD processor so my next Intel processor is less expensive!

Thanks in advance.

[The Greater God]

What audio interface are you running over there ?

[lucid]

erichenryus: my AMD setup (xp1800/a7m266) runs FLAWLESSLY. i have never sworn at my com. maybe the trouble is elsewere? a power supply that doesn't provide enough juice may be your problem, who knows...

and yes, the AMD chip run hot, if you use the shite stock cooling that is. slap on a nice heatsink and an adjustable fan and you can go silent.

thing is, AMD will work really well with audio apps as long as you stay away from the VIA266 chipset. That is the only usual complaint right? if you have some time before you buy, i would recommend checking out some of the new (and soon coming) nForce 2 (nvidia) based boards.

good luck!

and BTW i am running a delta 44 soundcrad and samplitude producer 2496. i get LOTS of tracks and huge amounts of direct-x on-the-fly plugins. AMD makes an amazing chip, and so do intel. up to you if you want to spend less or more money and personal preference really.

[subtractor]

ASUS Northwood

[James Argo]

Originally posted by lucid
...as long as you stay away from the VIA266 chipset. That is the only usual complaint right?

Right !!! specially VIA K7 chipset. Whatever you choose, make sure you run Intel chipset on your system. You know why ? Intel is known as leader chip / processor industry (...argh, don't blame on me!). And almost every hardware / software manufacturer outthere always test their product with Intel first ( ...if they don't use us as a tester ) for compatibility issue. If they don't get lazy, they will continue test with AMD, Cyrix, VIA, etc... but Intel is the -must on the first- test. If it failed (contains bugs/error) on Intel, then they'll think twice to realease it, no matter how good it is on others chipset...
That would be my 2 cents...

BTW, let's devide the word "BEST" by two category. Budget and Performance. Here you can have better make sense oppinion...

[elevate]

Whatever you choose, make sure you run Intel chipset on your system.

Well that rules out any Athlon processors.

[erichenryus]

To be fair, I did finally get my AMD rig running stable just in time for my internet computer to crap out, however, it took 8 months of swapping components and applying patches to get there. I suspect the problem was somewhere between the VIA 4-1 drivers and the midiman drivers.

All I'm saying is that the Intel rig worked as soon as I turned it on and installed my software. No mods to make it quiet, no patches. It just works.

Sure I could have saved a couple of hundred bucks going AMD but I'm just never sure that it's going to work. Always those things like "stay away from this, or make sure you don't do that...." Hell I didn't even have to disable the onboard sound on the Intel board and my gear works fine.

When I built my first rig, I was hunting around on the bulletin boards for info and looking back then (and now) you will find a noticable lack of complaints about intel systems not working. And lot's of threads about AMD problems.

I'm with James Argo, stick with the system that everyone is testing their software and hardware on and you've got a good jumpstart on getting yourself to the point of all this.....making music.

So I'll echo the advice that I failed to heed about 8 months ago...stick with intel proc/motherboard and you'll have less headaches overall.

That's just my experience. Nothing against AMD, I love underdogs, but I beleive there is a lot of truth in 'getting what you pay for'.

[Slackmaster2K]

There are no hard & fast rules in this game anymore. It used to be easy: Intel all the way, avoid AMD like the plague. Times have changed.

I have had an equal number of bunk Intel based P3/P4 (i845) machines as I have crappy Athlon (VIA) machines. Hell, I've had compatibility issues with Windows XP and Intel-brand motherboards! That's something I wouldn't have expected just a few years ago.

Research specific motherboards, and take all "reviews" with a grain of salt. Use deja.com to search for any obvious problems, but realize that almost all usenet posts are negative, and it's your job to weed out the morons from those with real cause for complaint.

My current universal PC building rules:

1) Power supply is majorly important. Right now you need at *least* a 300W supply and only buy name brand (e.g. Enermax). Make sure it supports whatever specs will be required by the motherboard/chipset you choose. A good power supply will set you back $50. Don't skimp here.

2) Use only high quality memory. In fact, buy all of your memory from crucial.com , because I'm not sure there's any reason NOT to! Do not use excessive amounts of memory either, 512MB is fine. One stick or matched 256MB sticks will work equally well (this is chipset and motherboard dependent). Right now you'll want a system with either DDR or RDRAM...regular SDR SDRAM (PC133) is waving bye bye.

3) Buy your CPU retail, it's worth the extra $15 for the 3 year warranty and CPU fan. Installation will be a no brainer and you won't have to worry about adequate cooling, etc. The only exception to this rule is if you're going with some ultra quiet cooling solution.

4) The only thing I'll be specific about: nVidia. If you don't want driver issues now or 2 years from now, stick with a video card based on something like the Geforce4 MX chipset. It's cheap, performs well, and the drivers are unobtrusive and frequently updated. I'm speaking statistically here too...while I've had plenty of cards from other manufacturers that have worked fine, I have had nothing but success with cards built with nVidia chipsets since the first TNT came out some 3-4 years ago. In fact I have workstations here that still have 16MB TNT and Vanta cards and for non-gaming/3D application I can't tell the difference between them and workstations with Geforce4 cards, either in performance or driver installation/use.

5) Never buy anything with the intention of overclocking. If you're not a real geek, overclocking is not worth the savings, and makes it very difficult to troubleshoot future problems.

6) There is no substitution for experience. Find a friend who knows what he's doing...preferably one who hasn't just put together one or two machines. I have recommended complete systems by individual components to people in the past, and invariably if they're inexperienced they'll end up with problems...when I know darn well that if I'd set them up personally the machines would run fine. There are too many little things to consider when setting up a machine and maintaining it for the first couple of months...no amount of FAQ's will help

7) DO NOT TWEAK. Never ever "tweak" a machine until you're damn sure it's performing great and is stable. Even then, make sure you have a goal for each tweek, and that each tweek shows a measurable performance gain.

Good luck.

Slackmaster 2000

[christiaan]

Excellent post Slackmaster

[webstop]

Its a question of personal belief, really...

I think the best you can do is to consult the vendor of your soundcard.