[LAU] New Linux DAW build. AMD790GX chipset working OK?

[Kevin Cosgrove]

On 29 January 2009 at 6:07, "R.Wolff" <musicwolf at web.de> wrote:

> Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
> > I'd go with Tyan or ASUS for your motherboard.
> 
> I surely can't afford a Tyan board. he cheapest one I can find
> here in germany cost about 3x as much as the ASRock. And I
> already mentioned that my budget is extremely tight.

OK.  I don't know whether the ASRock stuff is good or not.  You've 
got some other comments, and you're doing the right thing by asking
here.

> > Do your homework when choosing the RAM.  It's got to be
> > good in the motherboard you're using, and memory errors are
> > terrible to diagnose, if you have them.
>
> Yeah, I know this from hard learned lesson. But I thought that
> OCZ is a good memory brand?

I don't know about that RAM.  It might be good.  But, find out if 
it's on the approved list for ASRock.  Sometimes motherboard 
manufacturers will recommend RAM for their boards, which raises
my confidence that something will work.

> > Since you said DAW, I'd add "quiet" to your list of power
> > supply features of utmost importance.
>
> The quiet factor is too important to me, the PC is well hidden
> and not disturbing me that much. ;)

That's good.  Large, slow spinning quiet fans are nice, and much 
cheaper than liquid cooling.  Fanless components, like video cards,
are even better.

> > Besides DAW, you mentioned that you need excellent graphics.
> > Are you going to produce video, or maybe you're trying to
> > build a machine for gaming too?
>
> That's a misunderstanding, maybe I'm not expressing myself very
> well.  What I meant was, does this iGPU (ATI HD3300) work well
> under linux? What I need most is solid 2D performance over two
> monitors.

Better description.  Thanks.  Unfortunately I don't know much about 
that ATI unit.  At one point I couldn't get a couple of my ATI cards 
to work -- one would hang the system -- after I upgraded my 
distribution and got a newer kernel and xorg version.  I switched to 
nVidia at that time.  Those were an ATI 9200 and 9250 card.

> > You'll need to choose your audio interface for the DAW, and
> > that might impact your choice of motherboards, which will
> > ripple through all of your other choices.
>
> Well, I'll use my Delta 1010LT from the old box, which is rock
> solid under linux :D

Nice choice!  I have the non-LT version.  They are really great.
The add the requirement to have PCI slots on the motherboard.

Good luck.....

--
Kevin