I’ve decided to upgrade from my Gigabyte X58A-UD3R with an i7 950 - 12gb Corsair ddr3 to the i7 2600k with 16gb Mushkin Blackline. I have had really good luck with Gigabyte boards lately so I’m considering them again.
Anyone have any opinions about these boards for my Cubase 6 DAW?:
GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
GA-Z68XP-UD3
GA-Z68XP-UD4
I’m considering these right now because I can get really good bundle prices.
Will I have any issues with my two MR816’s and the Via firewire chipset on these boards? Anything else to be aware of?
Hey, pretty powerfull setup you already have. You could wait for the X79 chipset which should arrive late this year, early next year. Of cause, unless you’re in need of something faster then you already have.
Personally, I’m running a much slower system than yours, and first now I’m starting to suffer bad from needing more memory on win XP. The normal default limit is about 1.5-1.6GB. And with todays sample libs, synths… this limit is way to low I would be more than happy to have yours 12GB
I’m thinking if I should wait for the new X-series intel chipset (6 core cpu’s), or get a current Z-series motherboard?
As for the mobo’s you mentioned, then many are using the smallest least expensive. It hasn’t got firewire TI chipset, or any fancy BIOS UI, but you’ll get tons of interesting BIOS settings. I’m not sure if the more expensive mobo’s will do more for your audio, personally I don’t think so.
Generally you should avoid paying extra for features you don’t use anyway. If the core architecture of those boards is similar just go with the simplest one unless you need the extras. More components only means a higher chance something starts playing up, more drivers that can cause issues, more power drawn (more heatproduction and therefore fan noise.) etc.
The first one (GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3) is the “standard” board with all the features most users would need. The other two come with an onboard HDMI port (not needed if you have a video card) and the UD4 also comes with some eSATA ports and maybe a couple other ports. If you think you would use either of those features go with one of the respective boards, otherwise just stick with the GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3.
Good options, Gigabyte is my personal choice for motherboards right now.
I would be more than happy to have yours 12GB