Synkrotron
New member
Righty ho then... due to the fact that I've pretty much screwed up my current DAW during my recent upgrades to make my AMD PC quieter (trashed a hard disk that's going to take £600 to recover the data AND trashing the IDE0 controller on the motherboard) I'm now seriously thinking of making some major changes.
Before I start listing my concerns could I just say that I have used both Google and the search utility of this board and found many items on the subject but nothing that really satisfies me. So forgive me for raising questions that may have been asked/answered before.
OK, here goes:-
1) I've been AMD for some time and I'm currently on an XP2600+ which, despite many problems with various things, when it's worked all has been fine and I've had no issues with lack of CPU power.
But the AMD is noisy (or at least the bits that you need to install to keep it cool are). I've just upgrade the CPU and case fans and it's much quieter than it was but I'm wondering if I could go quieter still by switching to Pentium. The reason I say this is because all the PC's where I work are all Pentium based and they are much quieter than I've ever had my AMD even after upgrading my fans.
So, which would you recommend? AMD or Pentium. I'm not too bothered of going to 64 bit yet and I don't even need the latest and fastest 32 bit CPU...2.6 ghz or there abouts would do IMO.
2) having made my mind up about CPU selection I then need to think of a motherboard to stick it on.
This, I have come to find, is an absolute mine field... I read around and have sussed out that I need to select a motherboard whos chipset is based on the maker of the CPU so, for instance, if I plumb for an AMD then I'm better off finding a motherboard who's main chipset is also AMD. It seems that most recommend that you stay away from Via chipsets.
Then there's an absolute myriad of MoBo manufacturers (Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, ECS just to name a few.
Which brands would you recommend and which would you stay away from entirely?
3) RAM - Again, I've read a couple of articles about RAM. Go for branded RAM not generic... but which brands? Or are the pretty much of a muchness nowadays?
All the other bits and pieces I'm pretty much happy with. I've already decided that I'll start running with two hard drives (OS plus Audio).
I look forward to hearing your opinions
andy
Before I start listing my concerns could I just say that I have used both Google and the search utility of this board and found many items on the subject but nothing that really satisfies me. So forgive me for raising questions that may have been asked/answered before.
OK, here goes:-
1) I've been AMD for some time and I'm currently on an XP2600+ which, despite many problems with various things, when it's worked all has been fine and I've had no issues with lack of CPU power.
But the AMD is noisy (or at least the bits that you need to install to keep it cool are). I've just upgrade the CPU and case fans and it's much quieter than it was but I'm wondering if I could go quieter still by switching to Pentium. The reason I say this is because all the PC's where I work are all Pentium based and they are much quieter than I've ever had my AMD even after upgrading my fans.
So, which would you recommend? AMD or Pentium. I'm not too bothered of going to 64 bit yet and I don't even need the latest and fastest 32 bit CPU...2.6 ghz or there abouts would do IMO.
2) having made my mind up about CPU selection I then need to think of a motherboard to stick it on.
This, I have come to find, is an absolute mine field... I read around and have sussed out that I need to select a motherboard whos chipset is based on the maker of the CPU so, for instance, if I plumb for an AMD then I'm better off finding a motherboard who's main chipset is also AMD. It seems that most recommend that you stay away from Via chipsets.
Then there's an absolute myriad of MoBo manufacturers (Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, ECS just to name a few.
Which brands would you recommend and which would you stay away from entirely?
3) RAM - Again, I've read a couple of articles about RAM. Go for branded RAM not generic... but which brands? Or are the pretty much of a muchness nowadays?
All the other bits and pieces I'm pretty much happy with. I've already decided that I'll start running with two hard drives (OS plus Audio).
I look forward to hearing your opinions
andy