Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

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Michael Willis
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Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Michael Willis »

I think the motherboard and/or processor in my music machine just died an agonizing death this week. It has been acting flakey for a few months; occasionally when I would try to power it up, the light would turn on and the fans would spin but it wouldn't POST. I could usually get it to work by cutting the power and trying again in a few minutes. Now it won't ever POST, even after about a dozen tries. I even tried disconnecting almost all of the peripherals, using different combinations of RAM, etc., but had no luck.

I took a cursory look at some sites that sell hardware. All of the top offers are these PRO GAMER POWER COMBOS that run so hot that they require a commercial restaurant refrigeration condenser as loud as a jackhammer to keep the CPU below 80° C so that it doesn't turn into magma.

I'm not a big hardware geek at all, so I don't know where to start. All I want is a CPU that is good enough to support a DAW with a few plugins and runs cool enough that I can minimize the noise of fans, and I don't want to spend a whole month's income on it. I have a slight preference for AMD after the recent Intel debacle... Any suggestions?
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by davephillips »

Hi Michael,

I build my own machines. My current desktop configuration includes the following hardware:

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 mobo
AMD FX-6300 6-core CPU with passive cooling system (no fan)
16 GB memory
nVidia GeForce 210 GPU fanless

Oldies but goodies. The PSU is an ultra-quiet supply with on-demand cooling. The case is an Antec Sonata II. I don't like noisy machines.

Even with two monitors this is a low-cost box.

I need accelerated 3D graphics for a few programs, so I use the nVidia binary driver for the GPU. I also run a realtime-enabled kernel for Fedora 23 from the Planet CCRMA repo.

HTH,

dp
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Michael Willis »

Thanks Dave! That is indeed an affordable setup.
davephillips wrote:AMD FX-6300 6-core CPU with passive cooling system (no fan)
Is that this CPU? https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6819113286

The specs say that its TDP is 95 watts, which seems kind of high for passive cooling. Do you know what temperature your CPU hits when it has high load?

I have this passive cooler, I'm hoping to be able to continue using it: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... BY76PZ6177
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by lilith »

Is there any preferred mother board company for Linux? When I bough my last PC (~3 years ago) I have chosen MSI as I read positive reviews for Linux usage and it also has military specs so I thought it's robust too. I try to avoid any fans on my next PC if possible as computer noises drives me crazy sometimes. This got much better with SSDs though :D There's nothing worse than crackling hard drives.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Michael Willis »

42low wrote:I would go for the adviced game combinations. That is fast hardware and goes well for sound and video too.
Which? I don't know. I used non-self-build multimedia and game dedicated computers with those fast sorts off hardware in it for that.
I just don't like how hot the typical gaming rigs run, with the associated loud cooling systems.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by asbak »

I'd avoid any kind of gamer machine and their ridiculous cooling and overclocking setups and just go for standard and very well established chipsets.
That usually means Intel + Intel + Intel.

Not because I think Intel are great or trying to promote them but simply because they are the standard against which a lot of standards and gear gets tested and developed, which helps reduce the likelyhood of bizarre incompatibility problems, bluescreening and all kinds of nonsense.

I'm using a Lenovo T430 right now as my Linux audio machine. Got it cheap s/h, crammed in 16GB of RAM and a SSD and it works just great with an Edirol UA-25 or a Behringer UMC 404.

If I had to go the motherboard route and build a box it would possibly be some kind of Asus motherboard with the standard Intel chipsets. There are obviously other options and vendors some of whom will work great but who has the time to investigate them all and keep up with it all. Asus stuff is usually well designed and reliable.

The AMD Ryzen platform may be an interesting choice but I haven't got one so cannot say how well it works.

Think for audio it's much more important to have a QUIET system, meaning no exotic and high powered cooling & CPU and GPU options and all the crazy fan noise that goes along with it. Or the ridiculous water cooling setups. Who needs the hassle.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by lilith »

asbak wrote:I'd avoid any kind of gamer machine and their ridiculous cooling and overclocking setups and just go for standard and very well established chipsets.
That usually means Intel + Intel + Intel.

Not because I think Intel are great or trying to promote them but simply because they are the standard against which a lot of standards and gear gets tested and developed, which helps reduce the likelyhood of bizarre incompatibility problems, bluescreening and all kinds of nonsense.

I'm using a Lenovo T430 right now as my Linux audio machine. Got it cheap s/h, crammed in 16GB of RAM and a SSD and it works just great with an Edirol UA-25 or a Behringer UMC 404.

If I had to go the motherboard route and build a box it would possibly be some kind of Asus motherboard with the standard Intel chipsets. There are obviously other options and vendors some of whom will work great but who has the time to investigate them all and keep up with it all. Asus stuff is usually well designed and reliable.

The AMD Ryzen platform may be an interesting choice but I haven't got one so cannot say how well it works.

Think for audio it's much more important to have a QUIET system, meaning no exotic and high powered cooling & CPU and GPU options and all the crazy fan noise that goes along with it. Or the ridiculous water cooling setups. Who needs the hassle.
+1
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Michael Willis »

asbak wrote:Think for audio it's much more important to have a QUIET system, meaning no exotic and high powered cooling & CPU and GPU options and all the crazy fan noise that goes along with it. Or the ridiculous water cooling setups. Who needs the hassle.
Right, that's what I was trying to say through all of my exaggerated sarcasm.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Gps »

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/be ... ,4390.html

This would be good place to ask this question.

Tell them you're budget, what you want to do with the pc and that is should be quiet. ( on the forum )
Also tell them you want to run Linux.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Michael Willis »

Wow, false alarm. My friend suggested replacing the CMOS battery. I didn't think it would work, but it was easy to try. Like magic, the computer POSTs successfully now.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by khz »

\o/ && :-D

@CPU AMD because of safety
. . . FZ - Does humor belongs in Music?
. . GNU/LINUX@AUDIO ~ /Wiki $ Howto.Info && GNU/Linux Debian installing >> Linux Audio Workstation LAW
  • I don't care about the freedom of speech because I have nothing to say.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Gps »

Not sure if I qualify as a gamer.
My pc is build by me, I used a best buy guide from a Dutch site, which is a like Toms hardware. ( for the Dutch: Tweakers )
They publish about every three months guides.
Usual 3 to 4 versions, from cheap to expensive.

My Pc is a gamer pc with an mobo that can do overclocking, and a Phenom II X4 blackedition.

I have never overclocked but it would be very simple with this set up.
Bios has a setting were I can turn my 3.2 ghz cpu into a 3.4 one ( and void all warranty )

When this pc, and all the fans were still new, it was very quiet. ( last year I replaced all case fans because of the noise they started to make )
When it was new, I could hardly hear it when I turned it on.
When I gamed , it did get louder, mostly the stock amd cpu cooler, and the vid card. ( HD 5700 )

A game pc does not have to be loud.
Some general tips, do not get a small case, and use big case fans 140 mm.
You might wanna replace the stock cpu cooler by a bigger ( more quiet ) one.
Get a power supply and vid card that are not to loud.
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Re: Suggestions for motherboard/processor combo

Post by Lyberta »

Gamer here. I've just recently bought NZXT Kraken X72 liquid cooling and BeQuiet Dark Base Pro 900 and this build is extremely quiet in audio workflow.

I have AMD FX-8350 which gets really hot and the stock fan is really noisy so liquid cooling is amazing here. There are also GPUs with liquid cooling too.

I actually started documenting it here.
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