Onboard graphics possible?

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 5:58 am

I'd like to mount a couple CW cards ina rackmount 2U case.
I need it just for live operation of Modular, Synths and Fx and I would operate it probably from a remote desktop on a laptop.

The problem with 2U rackmount cases is that they just allow for 2 PCI cards with a raiser and the installation of an AGP card is problematic.

The solution could be to use a Mobo with onboard graphics, I know it's not the best choice for a daw, but considering the main dsp use of the machine what could I expect?

The choice for the 2U size is that I would put it in a Professional Flight Case Rack I have that's 4 units, with Noah.

Any idea on a good solution?

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:25 pm

I'm betting nForce3 would be fine.

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:57 pm

I think the Intel 865 based boards have been doing well for Scope. Intel does make a micro-ATX version of the board ( 3 pci slots ) that has builtin graphics. That's the Intel 865G chipset.

Note: the 945G chipset has been getting good reviews. I just haven't seen anyone here use the Creamware on it yet. See also the 915G and so on. I only mention the 865G since there are a lot of examples of people using 865 based systems. At this point, I would almost generalize that Intel chipsets have been working well in most cases. See the Masterverb thread a couple down from this one for examples of performance.

As the other person suggests, of course, NForce3 stuff is quite nice also. I'll be using an NForce3 Ultra board fairly soon and will post results once that is in place. They are getting harder to find, but some of the best results I have seen here have been on Nforce3 boards.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ScofieldKid on 2005-11-19 19:31 ]</font>

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:14 am

On 2005-11-20 03:33, stardust wrote:
I'd try to go for a passive cooled low end AGP card selected by size of card, since you then have PCI seperated from AGP and dont run into the 'onboard' question.

Not easy to find a 2U rackmount case that allows for that...

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:42 am

I never had a problem with onboard graphic as there were MSI 6215 (Intel 815), VIA Epia M10k, Gigabyte Intel 865.
The Pulsar One is pretty bitchy about PCI bandwidth, but a dedicated card never improved anything.

cheers, Tom

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:00 pm

Have you looked at the new Antec Take 3 case? A 3U case would let you use any board you want. That case is about 25lbs I think, so do factor the weight into it.

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 12:37 am

On 2005-11-20 21:00, ScofieldKid wrote:

Have you looked at the new Antec Take 3 case? A 3U case would let you use any board you want. That case is about 25lbs I think, so do factor the weight into it.

At that point a 4U is the same, the space I have available in the flight case next to Noah is 2U, I'd like to fit the pc and Noah in 4U space...

...wow, 25 lbs??? are you sure? that's a lot!

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:45 am

Today I went to the music shop and changed the 4U flight case with a 6U one, so I can have both Noah and a 4U PC case together.

Problem solved...ehm...removed!. Thanks for al the answers, cheers.