Which MB/Cpu combo for gaming/streaming/DAW workhorse?

TheWookieWay · Jul 12, 2016

I don't care about overclocking as I care about stability. I don't care much about SLI right now.
I want to be able to Game anything, and Stream in high quality, at the same time.
I also want to be able to use my DAW at professional levels and stream, at the same time.
my old AMD A-10 5800K and MSI A55M-ED33 military grade motherboard (SATA2!!), are holding me back, and it's time for a core i7 (minimum) upgrade. I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 vid card for now.

I am looking and thinking the i7-5820K may be enough for what I need, but want to be sure. Possibly a Xeon?
I am NOT sure on which compatible motherboard will be the best for audio quality for my needs. There must be zero motherboard noise/interference.
I would like to spend $500 to $1000, but want to meet my requirements and have as much future proofing as makes sense. I don't have USB 3.1+ interface, nor Thunderbolt, yet. But this may very well be my next upgrade on the pro audio side.

Any audiophiles or professional DAW users out there who can help?
If I get a i7-5820, which motherboard will meet my needs, and be 2 to 3 years future proof?

(read this: ELNA Audio Caps

Who says high quality audio is only available on high-end motherboards? ASRock applied ELNA audio capacitors on mainstream and entry-level motherboards! Compared with traditional solid caps, the leakage current of ELNA audio caps is merely 3uA. This is the key to reduce noise level significantly and satisfy even the pickiest audiophiles.) <-- any bearing on my audio needs?

TheWookieWay · Jul 19, 2016

This seems to be the best I've found so far, still researching. Any feedback?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132586&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL071916&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL071916-_-EMC-071916-Index-_-IntelMotherboards-_-13132586-S2A2B

EDIT: i see now I need an X99 MB for the cpus I'm looking at .. 5820k or 6800k (or higher) .. 2011-v3 socket.

TheWookieWay · Jul 19, 2016

is it possible to get high quality audio chain attention without having to buy the $600 x99 motherboards? I don't see one yet.

TheWookieWay · Jul 29, 2016

Maybe there is an audiophile type forum that would be more helpful for me to direct my questions?

Verndewdimus · Nov 12, 2016

you never want to rely on a motherboard for the audio in a daw, you want an external usb,thunderbolt or friewire device, because internal audio cant handle the strain that daws put on the dac and ad/da converters, they simply arent powerful enough , so get a cheap mobo and find an inexpensive external interface like an Mbox. You dont need anything above 24x48 khz until you absolutely need it since the best youll be rendering is 24 x 16 for super cd.You can get interfaces pretty cheap, even focusrite interfaces dont cost a lot these days

TheWookieWay · Aug 12, 2017

I didn't see this until today! .. guess I haven't been logged in for a while, and missed it in email.

I have a Steignberg UR 44 USB (2.0) interface for now, for my "soundboard" for my DAW and instruments, but the need for good onboard sound channels as well, is when using a 2 PC setup to stream. The pc with the interface, and doing the DAW (or gaming or similar) work, would then pipe out the audio and video to the streaming pc, which does the downscaling (if needed) and streaming to the internet. An interface, or USB mixer on the streaming pc would work, but there are other needs for a quiet audiophile sound path on the motherboard as well. Also, using a 2nd USB interface/mixer, puts more latency into the total solution. Trying to avoid that to have more options.

I DO have an old MAudio firewire solo interface (2 channel?) and a firewire pci card that I have never intstalled into my desktop because I got the UR 44 and haven't needed to move things around yet. No money for upgrades now, so it's all been on the back burner. Now that OBS works with an NDI "plugin?" , i can pipe the OBS output from one pc to the other pc into OBS and then stream it. It still has it's audio problems though, requiring a workaround until they fix the audio stutter on the main sound coming through.

BTW , my newer interface goes up to 192k because I'm that much of an audiophile snob!

So it's a year later, and still have not upgraded my desktop to a modern I7, DDR4 and modern motherboard. This military class MSI motherboard may last forever, but SATA2 is a pain in the ass and a real bottleneck!

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Which MB/Cpu combo for gaming/streaming/DAW workhorse?

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