Best motherboard for music production

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Am looking at buying a new pc today or tomorrow, only think Im stuck on is motherboard. Have been looking at the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, looks like a good board that would do the job well. But Im thinking is there too much focus on graphics facilities when Im not going to be using that at all, is there another board that would be better, am going to be using cubase, other parts include -

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
OCZ Vertex 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (VTX3-25SAT3-
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit Akasa AK-CC4008HP01 Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3
Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2UK Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 High Performance 850W Power Supply

Money isnt too much of an issue, would I benefit much from going for a higher end board like the Asus at about 300? or would I not see many benefits?

Thank you
 
There is very little difference between the onboard sound solutions of those boards. Both will be ok but lack refinement and clarity, and both will probably be quite noisy. If you're serious about music production you will be wanting a good low latency sound card, in which case it won't matter at all which mobo you get.
 
There is very little difference between the onboard sound solutions of those boards. Both will be ok but lack refinement and clarity, and both will probably be quite noisy. If you're serious about music production you will be wanting a good low latency sound card, in which case it won't matter at all which mobo you get.

This. Just get any board, something like this as it won't make any difference: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-360-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Or if you're planning to use the onboard GPU on the 2600K: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-192-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Then spend the rest on a high quality soundcard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-008-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

I'm a sound noob though so I'm not sure what's good for music production, maybe ask around on the sound forum.
 
Asus adverts its motherboards as winners with reduced radiation, it might be helpful if you want to record anything with mic, or just line-in.
Except this, any motherboard which is equipped with minimum 1 PCI slot, is the same for your purpose in my opinion.
Most important is sound card which gives low latencies, has MIDI port and is problemless - I use M-Audio Delta 2496 Audiophile, for example, and it is completely fine now with Sandy Bridge platform. I've got my Yamaha keyboard plugged in via MIDI port, sometimes I record samples from it (line in) and Cubase or Reaper do the rest.
 
like Biuro74 says Maudio all the way for music production. ive had mine for about 7 ish years now fantastic product and the driver support is good to. currently using cubase 5 with an I5 2500k at stock. loads of vsti's vst's etc.
 
Yea Iv got an audio kontrol 1 but am going to sort a better one after pc, thanks for input everyone, think ima go with the one I suggested
 
i wouldn't worry about it i do a lot of music production and the motherboard choice didn't even enter my mind.

cubase / reason / and z3ta 2 , im in love with that vsti :)
 
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