I hate to spend money on anything computer related but my computer is in dire need of an upgrade and has quickly pushed its way to the top of the priority list.

What motherboard/processor combos have been working well for you?


Jason A.

ASUS and P4. I'm running an RME Digiface and Nuendo 2.0 with XP with no issues since late '03.

War

I was thinking about adding a Roll Your Own forum for system builders.

My last system was an Intel D865PERL with a 2.8 gHz P4.

I recommend Intel mobos as they when you update the BIOS you don't run the risk of screwing everything up. It's the easiest update out there.

I'd suggest going to New Egg and checking out the P4 and D865 descriptions and then coming back and asking questions.

I'd recommend Windows XP Home Edition for your system. I've got XP Pro at the office and I think XP Home is more in tune with music.

Hmm. Is that even after setting all the preferences so the automated stuff doesn't intervene with audio function? I wonder why.

Bear

XP Pro just has networking capabilities and other things you will want to disable for audio use! So yeah Home seems the way to go.

War

I've built a few computers before so I'm OK in that department. I am fairly up on the newer chipsets as well. I was looking for people that might have done a fairly recent upgrade and how things are working for them stability wise.

Another question though, this is my first "upgrade" (meaning just buying mb/proc/ram). Have any of you done this? I've heard bad reports of doing this without a clean install of Windows. Obviously, I'm not dying to do a clean wipe so if there is a way around it I would be grateful.

Thanks for the input


Jason A.

Clean install is the way to go. I suggest have a two disk system so you can load your data to the second disk, wipe the first disk and install system on the first disk.

I've never been able to update a mobo without issues on the OS end of things unless I did a clean install as well.

For some reason I've heard the opposite in other places. I don't remember the reasoning though. It may be worth investigating the pros and cons a little more in depth.