SUPERMICRO MBD-H8DCL-6F-O ATX Server Motherboard Dual Socket C32 AMD SR5690 DDR3 1600/1333/1066

Pros: With this motherboard setup, I've finally got the power at the cost I need to mock-up a realistic sounding, full symphony orchestra using a music notation program (Sibelius 7.1), rather than a sequencer. The difference? I can write an orchestral score just as I might on paper and still obtain a reasonable rendering of the music, something that was beyond the cost of the typical PC as recent as 2010. No pops or clicks. 16bit CD quality (44100 kHz)

I've pushed this machine at times: 16 cores running at 99% utilization (~12 GBs of data loaded in RAM) for 8 hours straight about 10 times in the last six months. Lots of shorter multi-hour runs as well. When on occasion Sibelius or Kontakt gets flaky and crashes, I now know it is not because of lack of resources.

Although this is a smaller board, the layout is well-designed, and even though I'm using the enormous Noctua CPU cooling fans installation was pretty straightforward. It is in Supermicro's standard tower case, BTW, despite using two Noctua units (one of the 5.25" fans wouldn't fit, but no problem for the other three).

Cons: Should come with more than 2 rear USB ports, and a single PCI slot is only barely enough for a workstation. Has trouble booting from Acronis Trueimage so I'm using a freeware Linux backup utility off from Hiren's Boot CD 11.1. NOTE: most cooling solutions will be LOUD and so this may not meet the requirements of most live recording artists, unless they connect remotely (say, via network) so that the actual machine resides in another room than the studio).

Other Thoughts: Hear the results on Youtube; search for the Novaclassica channel. I'm buying another entire system as a spare. In more than a dozen years, this is the first system under $3,000 that will handle the demands I require, and it is reliable.

Software:
Sibelius 7.1 music notation (18 staves, 70 instruments, 100+ pages)
Kontakt 5.03 sample player (up to 410 simultaneous voices)

Hardware:
* Windows 7 Pro 64bit
* 2 x AMD Opteron 4284 Valencia 3.0GHz Socket C32 95W
8-Core Server Processor
* 2 x Noctua NH-U12DO A3 for AMD Opteron Servers CPU Cooler
* SUPERMICRO MBD-H8DCL-6F-O ATX Server Motherboard Dual Socket C32 AMD SR5690 DDR3 1600/1333/1066
* 4 x Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ECC Registered Server Memory DR x4 Hynix C Model KVR16R11D4/8HC
* M-AUDIO Audiophile2496 Soundcard PCI 4-In-4-Out Professional Audio (26 ms latency as measured by Kontakt, 92.88 latency as measured by Sibelius)
* EVGA 512-P3-1300-LR GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 32-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card
* PLANAR PX2710MW Black 27" Full HD HDMI WideScreen LCD Monitor
* 3 x Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500GLFS 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
* Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
* SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal HD
* ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
* SuperMicro PWS-865-PQ 865W Single Server Power Supply
* SUPERMICRO CSE-733TQ-645B Mid-Tower & Workstation Server Case
Software:
Sibelius 7.1 music notation (18 staves, 70 instruments, 100+ pages)
Kontakt 5.03 sample player (200 - 300 simultaneous voices)