<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by faithmonster:
...You also mentioned the i440GX for
1 or 2 processors. Would there be any advantage to running two processors? I can see the benefit of 4 DIMM sockets.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I realise now that I missed adding a line for the i440BX mobo description in my last message above, so...
A clarification on i440GX: You don't have to have a GX-based mobo to have up to 4 DIMM slots or even dual processors. There are also BX mobos that will do this. The RAM limit for an i440
BX mobo is 1 GB or RAM. However, i440
GX mobos allow you to use the high density 512MB DIMMs to achieve greater than 1GB of RAM -- up to 2GB of RAM -- for those *high-end* applications.

For about US$70 extra, you can go with an i440GX-based mobo.
But in as far as
dual processors go... For those who needing high background performance in a multi-tasking environment and/or those who may need raw processing power like mixing dozens and dozens of audio tracks + effects without glitches, et cetera -- should consider a dual processor machine and probably fast RAID storage as well. But these are *upper* mid-range and high-end options. You can put a single processor into a dual-processor mobo, then add a second equivalent processor later.
Another note: Win95 and Win98 can't use more than 1 processor, only WinNT and Windows 2000 can. And, assuming you are using WinNT or Win2kPro, if you add a second processor later you'll have to reload the operating system as the multi-processor kernel along with the proper hardware abstraction layer must be installed during setup.
You can custom build your own DAW or have a vendor build a basic machine that you can add peripherals to (audio boards and other interfaces)...
A high-quality American-made mobo like a Supermicro P6DBU (an i440
BX mobo)...
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440BX/p6dbu.htm
http://www.supermicro.com/images/Imag_html/P6DBU.htm
...goes for around US$375, can support 1 or 2 Pentium III processors, 5 PCI slots, and has built-in Ultra2 SCSI that can be upgraded to Ultra2 RAID with a small add-in card (Adaptec ARO-1130U2) for about US$260. If you don't need the RAID upgrade, you can use the onboard SCSI channel to connect an Ultra2 SCSI hard drive. If you just need basic cheap ATA/33 storage, of course, there are a pair of IDE channels. With those 4 DIMM sockets, you can get up to 512MB of RAM using less-expensive 128MB DIMMs, although if you were in need of this much RAM you would be smart to go with ECC (error correcting) memory which costs about 20% more than non-ECC RAM.
A similar Supermicro BX mobo, the P6SBU, has one processor slot, 3 DIMM slots, 5 PCI slots, and 1 Ultra2 SCSI channel, goes for around US$275 street price.
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440BX/p6sbu.htm
The P6SBA has one processor slot, 3 DIMM slots, 4 PCI slots, and no onboard SCSI. Street price is around US$95.
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440BX/p6sba.htm
There's also a 370-pin socket-style Celeron equivalent of the above i440BX mobo -- the 370SBA. It also has about a US$95 street price.
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440BX/370SBA.htm
High speed Celerons can make perfectly good home DAWs.
Another *nice* capability to have -- and this is certainly not a requirement -- but it can make things much much nicer to use, is dual display monitors.
A Matrox Millennium G-400 32MB "dual-head" AGP display adaptor (the standard retail version) can drive 2 separate computer monitors or 1 computer monitor and 1 television monitor. Basically, you can setup a giant virtual desktop that spans the two monitors. You just drag your mouse pointer between the virtual desktops as needed. The Matrox Millennium G-400 32MB "dual-head" is the only
AGP graphics adaptor on the market that is capable of driving two different monitors in this fashion. The Matrox G-400 is also an extremely fast pixel writer and its drivers are known to be very stable. The Matrox Millennium G-400 32MB "dual-head" adaptor is around US$150 street price.
More information at:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g400/applications/dh_main.htm