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Motherboard for a music production workstation ?

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Oct 11, 2018
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Hi

Here are the specs i'm thinking of buying :

Intel i7-8700K or Intel i7-9700K or Intel i9-9900K CPU
16 or 32 gigs of RAM
1 to NVME SSD + 1 to regular SSD
Built-in graphics that support 4K 60 fps (i don't do videos or games so i don't need a GPU)
Quiet cooling all around

I'm looking for a mATX motherboard (i don't want something too big), one that provides as little hassle as possible. One with working wifi / bluetooth, with properly powered USB... (I will use my audio soundcard but it's USB powered) Does it exist ?

Thanks for any info / help !
 
Intel i7-8700K is available now, the i7-9700K and i9-9900K arrive soon, the new CPU models are likely to be considerably more expensive, but will have (for the first time in many years) a soldered thermal interface material that will help to reduce temperatures when the processor is under load.

It would appear that board manufacturers are also upgrading the new Z390 boards to have better VRM cooling for these new processors, to allow them to run under sustained load without processor throttling. Z390 boards are only now becoming available and you will find that already many Z370 boards have become unavailable in retail channels.

If you want 4K 60 fps and macOS support then you need a board with a DisplayPort 1.4 socket, MacOS does not support HDMI 2 - Apple use DispalyPort. Z390 mATX boards with this feature may be available soon - otherwise look at adding a supported GPU (no additional Nvidia drivers available at present). Some Nvidia Quadro cards may be worth considering for this purpose.

For cooling, many use Noctua NH-D14 for music production. Case options to consider, either a quiet case with maximum dampening to reduce noise or a high airflow case to keep temperatures low. A happy medium is a quiet case with high quality cooling and fans set to run at low speed to provide some airflow with minimum noise.

Nanoxia - produce some really solid (and heavy cases that are often overlooked in the mainstream.
https://www.nanoxiausa.com/collecti.../products/deep-silence-4-micro-atx-case-black

Fractal Design - well known for decent mainstream quality computer case models.
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series

BeQuiet - well known for building cases to focus on noise reduction.
https://www.bequiet.com/

To get working WIFI and Bluetooth you will probably be required to replace any on-board hardware with macOS compatible hardware. Intel wifi is common on motherboard - it has a cost advantage (perhaps also due to Intel's influence in the marketplace), but it doesn't work with macOS.

So which motherboard you get will be determined by the choice available at retail and your own requirements. As new models are coming onto the market right now, it is difficult to suggest anything until it becomes widely available or there is plenty available information from manufacturers. We are not in this position to date, but you do have some things to consider.

There is additional wifi card info in the Buyers Guide under Accessories for PCIe cards. For cards that fit directly to the board, the network section provide additional information.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-airport-pcie-half-mini-v2.104850/

Laptop section also has good info on wifi/BT
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/wi-fi-and-bluetooth-cards-for-laptops-with-mac-os-os-x.97099/

Reading some of the golden builds will also give you some more precise information for compatible wifi/BT hardware - especially builds from some of the moderators.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/forums/golden-builds.87/

There is also a music section of the forum that you might be interested in looking at:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/forums/music.21/
 
Hi

Here are the specs i'm thinking of buying :

Intel i7-8700K or Intel i7-9700K or Intel i9-9900K CPU
16 or 32 gigs of RAM
1 to NVME SSD + 1 to regular SSD
Built-in graphics that support 4K 60 fps (i don't do videos or games so i don't need a GPU)
Quiet cooling all around

I'm looking for a mATX motherboard (i don't want something too big), one that provides as little hassle as possible. One with working wifi / bluetooth, with properly powered USB... (I will use my audio soundcard but it's USB powered) Does it exist ?

Thanks for any info / help !
Here's a new Gigabyte Z390M board that looks like one to consider. There is no onboard DP but you could use an RX560 card. They are very quiet and affordable for natively supported graphics.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813145096&cm_re=Z390-_-13-145-096-_-Product
The Z390 motherboard can be paired with any of the new Intel CPUs.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137124&cm_re=msi_rx560-_-14-137-124-_-Product

When doing your audio production the fan should stay quiet as you're only powering the graphics display via DP and not editing video with it.
 
Last edited:
Wow thanks both of you for such great feedback !

i think i'll probably go with the i7-9700K so i'm waiting for the benchmarks next week.

What do you think of this motherboard : ASUS PRIME Z390M-PLUS
https://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00257625.html (french)
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-Z390M-PLUS/
is it a good fit ? is it hackintosh ready ?

I'll still have to buy a cheap GPU for my 1440p monitor i guess ? (i said 4k 60 fps for it to be future proof but i currently have a 1440p BenQ BL2420PT). Same for wi-fi...

thanks again
 
Looks like a decent candidate - obviously no one has installed macOS on one of these boards yet, but I don't foresee any real issue. A GPU would make sense for your preferred 4K 60fps support
 
Looks like a decent candidate - obviously no one has installed macOS on one of these boards yet, but I don't foresee any real issue. A GPU would make sense for your preferred 4K 60fps support

What are the Ethernet Lan specs? Are they solvable? Latest and greatest boards often have incompatible audio and Ethernet setups. That may be a big consideration if importing or exporting large files.
 
I am not aware with an issue with either Intel I219V ethernet or audio at this point in time. High Sierra should run fine and MultiBeast for Mojave should be available before the new processors hit the street. Mojave still seems buggy but nothing new there....
 
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