Looking for the best mainstream motherboard for music production - Gigabyte or Asus? Advice needed

[manish30885]

Hi guys!

This is my first post so please excuse me if I post this in a wrong section.

I've a Gigabyte motherboard purchased in 2008 model GA-EP45-UD3R. My CPU is Intel Core 2 Quad Q9505 @2.83 Ghz. I am satisfied with the performance and stability as it has been serving me for 8 years but recently when I upgraded my system RAM from 2 GB to 8 GB, it started having lot's of problems.

Although Gigabyte states on it's website that this model supports upto 16 GB of DDR2 RAM, I think that's a far cry. This thing doesn't even support 8 GBs of RAM in it's default BIOS settings! You need to overclock your memory just in order to stabilize the system when using 6 or more GB of RAM. Moreover, I couldn't find any 4 GB single DDR2 RAM module in the local market so as to combine 4 of the sticks for achieving a total of 16 GBs.

Hence, I am planning to soon upgrade my whole system as my PC workload requires more than 8 GB of RAM. I need a motherboard with atleast 32 GB of RAM support. Also, 64 GB of support would be awesome for future expansions. Please suggest a good mainstream motherboard with these features. I am not a gamer but a creative professional. I work on video editing and music production. So, kindly keep that in mind before suggesting me. Also, I want none of the non sense like additional overclocking requirements just to run 32 GB of RAM. If motherboard says that it supports 32 GB, then it should be able to run that size memory at stock settings by all means!




Also, I am confused between choosing Gigabyte or Asus. I've a slight bias for Gigabyte as I have been using this company's mobo for 8 years now but also hear great things about Asus when it comes to motherboard manufacturing. Which one of these are best suited for long term durability for a heavy power user like me who spends 8 hours per day on computer. So, I am willing to buy an Asus mobo if it's worth it in durability department.




My budget for the motherboard is 5-10k (INR)
My current CPU won't be compatible with the new motherboard so, kindly suggest me a good multitasking CPU as well. (my budget for CPU is 20k)

I've done my own research and based on that I've selected these components:

Motherboard:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100-Working-Desktop-Motherboard-For-Asus-P8Z77-V-PRO-System-Board-Fully-Tested/32801594223.html?spm=2114.13010308.0.0.piDNt5

CPU:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-lntel-Core-i7-3770K-i7-3770K-3-5Ghz-8MB-4-cores-Socket-1155-5-GT/32697183270.html?spm=2114.13010308.0.0.piDNt5

RAM:
https://www.amazon.com/G-SKILL-Ripjaws-32GB-19200-F3-19200CL10Q-32GBZHD/dp/B006TBMLQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492035038&sr=8-1&keywords=F3-19200CL10Q-32GBZHD

Let me know what you think about these parts and wether they are fully compatible with each other or not and will provide me enough juice to run my music production environment for quite a few years.

I know these parts are getting quite old in 2017 but latest components here in India is ridiculously high priced (more than double it's US pricing), so I've decided to go for 3rd gen model and not latest 7th gen.









thanks in advance,

regards,
man30885

 

[the nerd 389]

Asus is my go-to for long term builds. They read spec sheets when designing motherboards, and adhere to modern standards.

These days, the same cannot be said for Gigabyte. The issues are mostly limited to the cooling systems, though.

I don't know what the markets look like in India. Please bear that in mind when reading what follows.

Regarding your choice of parts, those components are already quite outdated. I wouldn't use them for a new build unless new parts were unavailable or outrageously priced in your area.

For a modern build, you should consider getting an R5-1400 or R5-1500x instead of an Intel CPU. The R5s have the Intel i7s beat when it comes to productivity, multitasking, and price. This depends on what you can get in your area, though.

 

[manish30885]

Asus is my go-to for long term builds. They read spec sheets when designing motherboards, and adhere to modern standards.

These days, the same cannot be said for Gigabyte. The issues are mostly limited to the cooling systems, though.

I don't know what the markets look like in India. Please bear that in mind when reading what follows.

Regarding your choice of parts, those components are already quite outdated. I wouldn't use them for a new build unless new parts were unavailable or outrageously priced in your area.

For a modern build, you should consider getting an R5-1400 or R5-1500x instead of an Intel CPU. The R5s have the Intel i7s beat when it comes to productivity, multitasking, and price. This depends on what you can get in your area, though.

I agree with you. The parts I selected are quite outdated already but again, latest computer parts are quite expensive in my area... especially latest gen Intel CPUs and DDR4 RAM. My budget is around 50k INR only (roughly 800$) Going for latest parts will cost me around 1500$ at least. The service taxes in India is quite high. Computer components here cost almost double it's US listed price!

About AMD CPUs, I am not sure how good they are as a long term investment as they are new series while Intel Core i series has been running for quite a few years and well established series. Also, I read they have some driver related issues with certain motherboards.


Thanks for the advice for motherboard. I will consider Asus models only now.