Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[cmcquistion]

UncleP,
For cooling I ordered the Arctic Silver NEW Premium High-Density Thermal Compound($5), SK-7 Heat Sink($21.99) and the 80mm Panflo L1A($8).

Not sure if I really needed the Arctic Silver but it was only 5 bucks so I wanted to have it handy just incase...anyone have any comments on this?

-bl

Yes, use the Arctic Silver on your heatsink, according to the directions given on Arctic Silver's website.

[AK65]

Hi Allen

I've been trying for weeks to get my hands on either the Asus A7V333X or the A7V8X. There are none in my country (South Africa) and the only one available is the A7V333 / RAID, which apparently does not support speeds higher than 2GHz, and costs a lot more than either the A7V333X or the A7V8X if there was stock. I am going for a Barton XP2500+ processor. I have browsed both Bzboyz and Newegg, but they don't ship internationally, and from this it would appear that these dealers all don't ship internationally ......so, I have to make another plan.

Currently I have in the studio machine an ultra reliable DFI P2XBL board (Intel 440BX chipset), and a PIII850MHz processor, which is starting to tire with heavy dense mixes, and the BIOS has trouble recognising modern hard drives, even though I have flashed it, so it is time....

The question is, are there other mobo equivalents that can do the job as well as the Asus? What are the technical reasons for only the Asus being recommended? Has anybody got any joy from using say, Gigabyte or DFI?

In the meantime, I am going to try the DFI AD77, which uses the KT400 chipset, as the supplier (with whom I have had a long relationship) has kindly agreed to to loan it and take it back if it isn't suitable. I will post results here.

Anybody got good results with gigabyte? What model? An attractive feature of the Gigabyte is the 3 year warranty.

- Angus

[cmcquistion]

Hi Allen

I've been trying for weeks to get my hands on either the Asus A7V333X or the A7V8X. There are none in my country (South Africa) and the only one available is the A7V333 / RAID, which apparently does not support speeds higher than 2GHz, and costs a lot more than either the A7V333X or the A7V8X if there was stock. I am going for a Barton XP2500+ processor. I have browsed both Bzboyz and Newegg, but they don't ship internationally, and from this it would appear that these dealers all don't ship internationally ......so, I have to make another plan.

Currently I have in the studio machine an ultra reliable DFI P2XBL board (Intel 440BX chipset), and a PIII850MHz processor, which is starting to tire with heavy dense mixes, and the BIOS has trouble recognising modern hard drives, even though I have flashed it, so it is time....

The question is, are there other mobo equivalents that can do the job as well as the Asus? What are the technical reasons for only the Asus being recommended? Has anybody got any joy from using say, Gigabyte or DFI?

In the meantime, I am going to try the DFI AD77, which uses the KT400 chipset, as the supplier (with whom I have had a long relationship) has kindly agreed to to loan it and take it back if it isn't suitable. I will post results here.

Anybody got good results with gigabyte? What model? An attractive feature of the Gigabyte is the 3 year warranty.

- Angus

Gigabyte makes some good boards, but I would stay away from DFI. DFI is fairly cheap quality and not particularly tweakable.

[Allen Hallada]

Hi Allen

I've been trying for weeks to get my hands on either the Asus A7V333X or the A7V8X. There are none in my country (South Africa) and the only one available is the A7V333 / RAID, which apparently does not support speeds higher than 2GHz, and costs a lot more than either the A7V333X or the A7V8X if there was stock. I am going for a Barton XP2500+ processor. I have browsed both Bzboyz and Newegg, but they don't ship internationally, and from this it would appear that these dealers all don't ship internationally ......so, I have to make another plan.

Currently I have in the studio machine an ultra reliable DFI P2XBL board (Intel 440BX chipset), and a PIII850MHz processor, which is starting to tire with heavy dense mixes, and the BIOS has trouble recognising modern hard drives, even though I have flashed it, so it is time....

The question is, are there other mobo equivalents that can do the job as well as the Asus? What are the technical reasons for only the Asus being recommended? Has anybody got any joy from using say, Gigabyte or DFI?

In the meantime, I am going to try the DFI AD77, which uses the KT400 chipset, as the supplier (with whom I have had a long relationship) has kindly agreed to to loan it and take it back if it isn't suitable. I will post results here.

Anybody got good results with gigabyte? What model? An attractive feature of the Gigabyte is the 3 year warranty.

- Angus

Angus,
I know of one guy that set up the Gigabyte KT400 chipset motherboard here but I think it was for a friend. Not sure how it worked out in the long run. The old GA7DX was one of the first motherboards I recommended on here two years ago, but I stopped recommending Gigabyte because of quality control issues and set up problems. In the last year I have seen my share of Asus quality control issues starting with the early A7V333s. There were a few on here that got sent back. Performance wise the A7V333 and A7V333-X has been hard to beat and I don't know of any lemons with the A7V333-X series. I try to avoid all the onboard thrills when setting up a PTLE system. Keep it simple and you should be fine.

Allen

[AK65]

Thanks Allen

As I mentioned, I cannot get my hands on either the A7V333X or the A7V8X - there seem to be none in the country - distributors are out of stock.

What I plan is:

Try the DFI AD77 board ($90 in my country) & see how it performs on the DaveC test and with PT6 LE overall. If it fails, then try the Gigabyte board or try to import an A7V333X.

A note to users: According to Tom's Hardware, the KT400 chipset performs better with DDR333 RAM than DDR400, and the newer KT400A performs worse than the KT400 on DDR333 RAM. And, as you and other have quite rightly mentioned, the KT333 chipset outperforms both the KT400 and KT400A anyway. Pity that this chipset is on the way out.

The system I have in mind is:

Motherboard - DFI AD77 or Gigabyte GA-7VAX
512MB DDR333 RAM
VGA - Matrox G450 Dual VGA or G550 w/ 32MB (ATI not available)
Barton 2500+
XP Professional
System Drive: 40GB WD 7200
Audio: 2 X 120GB Seagate 7200
Digi001
PT6LE

I'll report back when I get all the goodies - comments welcome!

[Phil O'Keefe]

Yes, you want to use the Arctic Silver... but the trick is in not using too much. But a little bit improves the heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink. It would be a mistake NOT to use some thermal compound, although I don't know if there's much real world difference between the A.S. and the stock white stuff they give you with most CPU coolers.

[butter_lover]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking but better stated. I figured the heat sink or the CPU would come with something along the lines of the arctic silver so I wasn't sure if I'd need it (arctic silver) but picked it up anyway just incase. We sell Intel exclusively so I wasn't sure what to expect when the AMD CPU is delivered. When you order an OEM Intel CPU, you get a heatsink, fan and the compound - Since the heatsink appears to be separate (unless allen in suggesting buying a separate heatsink because it is better, which I'm betting this is not his reasoning) I wasn't sure if the AMD CPU comes with the compound, the heatsink comes with the compound or neither comes with the compound. So, I spent the $5 for the assurance.

-bl

[cmcquistion]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking but better stated. I figured the heat sink or the CPU would come with something along the lines of the arctic silver so I wasn't sure if I'd need it (arctic silver) but picked it up anyway just incase. We sell Intel exclusively so I wasn't sure what to expect when the AMD CPU is delivered. When you order an OEM Intel CPU, you get a heatsink, fan and the compound - Since the heatsink appears to be separate (unless allen in suggesting buying a separate heatsink because it is better, which I'm betting this is not his reasoning) I wasn't sure if the AMD CPU comes with the compound, the heatsink comes with the compound or neither comes with the compound. So, I spent the $5 for the assurance.

-bl

The SK-7 will come with a tube of silcone heatsink compound. Arctic Silver is better, but the stock silicone stuff is generally good enough for most things. I keep it around for old systems, northbridge heatsinks, and Video card heatsinks, where using AS would be overkill. I always use AS on AMD systems, though.

[Allen Hallada]

Angus,
I would definitely go with the Gigabyte over the DFI board. On the KT333 chipset, I agree with you. But that is what runs the economy is upgrades even though the performance isn't as good. It is just a number. Will be interesting to see how the KT600 and KT800 chipset boards perform. We also have the new Clawhammer's arriving from AMD this month. They will require a new motherboard.

Good luck,
Allen

[agent fu]

Angus,
I would definitely go with the Gigabyte over the DFI board. On the KT333 chipset, I agree with you. But that is what runs the economy is upgrades even though the performance isn't as good. It is just a number. Will be interesting to see how the KT600 and KT800 chipset boards perform. We also have the new Clawhammer's arriving from AMD this month. They will require a new motherboard.

Good luck,
Allen

Has anyone been known to test out PT with the kt600 boards yet? I'm about to upgrade and it would certainly be a better move if I could go with one of the newer mobos.

I'm pretty happy with the way PT performs at the moment, but I'm looking for a setup that'll be faster at rendering 3D, amoung other things that I do as well as making music.

I'm almost tempted to just take the risk, but it would be quite painful if it didn't work properly. No money trees in my back yard.

Thanks.