> Message: 4 > Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 14:06:17 -0700 > From: Malcolm Baldridge <linux-audio@xxxxxxxxx> > Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Inexpensive > motherboards/chipsets for > linux audio > To: A list for linux audio users > <linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Message-ID: <1084655177.40a68649e8140@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 > > > > Does anyone have experience using an ECS N2U400-A > or > > ECS K7VTA3 motherboard for audio work? > > Let me guess, you're finding the recent > CPU+motherboard offerings from Fry's > to be tempting? Nothing about that store is tempting. Unfortunately my lack of disposable income limits my options to the least expensive equipment. > Well, ECS motherboards are at the bottom of the > barrel. You might get > something that works, you might get a noise factory, > who knows? I have read conflicting reports re: those boards for general desktop usage, some say they are rubbish, others say that they offer the best value. I figured I'd ask the list for some linux audio specific info. > I know I > found my ECS Pentium 4 motherboard to be barely > adequate and that was just > for a TELEPHONY logging application where I could > tolerate a -65 dB noise > floor. (OUCH) I guess I should have mentioned that I am not building a DAW for a home studio or anything. I mentioned that my current machine is a PIII-550 without room for any significant upgrades. It is more or less sufficient for most of what I am doing (word processing, telecommunicating, web development, etc.) but for the bits of audio that I am doing it is a little slow. E.g., remastering field recordings with Jamin is a big hassle and completely ties up the computer. I am not doing any 24 bit recording on this box or anything, no analog signals being recorded at all really so RFI or whatever causes the noisyness shouldn't be that relevant (or should it?). > The K7VTA3 is a VIA-chipset system with all of the > usual vagaries and bugs > implied thereto. Okay, so the VIA chipset is problematic re: audio? Could someone who has experienced this briefly outline the problem or maybe point me toward some documentation? > The N2U400 is an nVIDIA nForce chipset motherboard, > which === message truncated === [that's what I get for using my backup webmail interface w/ lau in digest mode I guess] So the upshot is that the nVIDIA chipset is significantly better than the VIA board? Because it is also 40% more expensive as well. But if it really offers a better value then I might go for it. Any informed opinions? Thanks, Barton __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/
