Motherboard/CPU recommendations regarding latency etc. for DAW upgrade

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Hello people!

I am looking for a modern mobo/cpu configuration that I can upgrade my DAW system with:

Hardware that already exists:
2 SATA HDD (1 WD Blue 640Gb for system, 1 WD Black for audio)
1 RME HDSP9652 PCI + Focusrite Octopre 8-mic preamp
1 Corsair PSU TX750W

Some questions:

  1. Should I go for an Intel or AMD oriented system? (price is not that much of an issue…although I dont want to pay double if the cheap option can also do the job as good)

  2. A friend is selling his i7 system for $800 (mobo: Gigabyte EX58-UD5, i7 920, 12Gb RAM, NVidia GTX260). I am not very familiar with motherboard, is there an issue with latency these days e.g. game-oriented or audio-oriented motherboards? Or will anything having a modern CPU can do just fine?

Thank you very much for your patience!

/Kle a.k.a. Muadib

#2

http://ardour.org/node/4292

This sort of discussion crops up with depressing regularly - and also A LOT on mailing lists e.g. just hang around on the Linux Audio Users list for a while and I’m sure someone will start up the thread again :frowning: and along with discussions about which kernel to use etc, is almost always entirely inconclusive. For every recommendation, someone else will most likely have something to say against it. Any modern system will do, if price is not an issue then it doesn’t matter whether you have intel or AMD CPU(s) and as long as you make sure there are linux drivers for your soundcard / video card / chipset etc then things should work - that’s about all it ever amounts to.