Glyn, I have seen that. The company that I started discussion with offers this as well. I was not sure if it increases system performance compared to HHD or SSD.

My worry is this: what you do about the drivers? lets say- I buy the Windows 8 from Microsoft. What about everything else? The DVD drivers, the network drivers- when I look at my hardware list on current computers- there a lot of staff. Silly little things. Everything has drivers. Even USB drives, Fire Wire drives- does it come with the device when you buy a card and should be installed one at a time?

I am not sure of what you meant in your post about drivers.

If you are talking about drivers on a new machine, the motherboard will come with a disc that has the drivers for the chipset, bios, networking, etc.

Devices like hard drives and such will have drivers in Windows already.

Things like your audio interface will have to have their own drivers, and many companies still do not have Windows 8 drivers for their interface products, so you have to look into that - but just about everything else will be fine.  Oh, the video card(s) will have their own drivers too.

Bob Bone

I do not find any disk performance issues with the faster SATA 3 drives, whether they are SSD or not does not matter - they are plenty fast enough for Sonar.

I think just having a computer with a good processor, decent memory, good components, and SATA 3 drives is sufficient - without having to go to extremes.

Bob Bone

Ok, so lets say I have network card (wired Cat 5 internet port), FW card and USB card. Will the drivers for it come with the motherboard? Will the ports be a part of motherboard or PCI cards? I thought it all separate cards you have to research and buy.

 Fair questions.

You do not need a separate card for networking.  Virtually all new motherboards I have seen for years now have built-in LAN ports, as well as several USB ports.  MOST have built in video as well, but not all.  Since you would be using a dedicated video card that would not be an issue anyway.  Most motherboards have built-in hi-def sound.

Your video card would be a separate card, but that should be your only one, other than perhaps a Fire Wire card, although many motherboards also have built-in Fire Wire ports (usually 1, if present).

The motherboard will come with drivers on a disc that you load and run the installs for.  The drivers will be for all of the components that are part of the motherboard, such as the overall chip set drivers, the BIOS, networking, etc., and any cards you plug in, like a video card, will have its own driver disc.

Did that answer your questions?

Bob Bone

Yes, it does. Would computer boot before drivers and OS or will I have to operate in DOS? I have limited experience configuring hard drives.

That Gigabyte [font="arial; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 16.200000762939453px"]z77-ds[font="arial; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 16.200000762939453px"]3h motherboard has a bunch of ports - it has video ports, but does not have on-board graphics, but again you would be using a separate video card anyways.
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Here are the specs for that motherboard - which would b a great motherboard for your new system, by the way.  There are a lot to choose from, this one would work as well as most, and has great support for memory (32 GB).


Specifications Chipset North Bridge Intel Z77 BIOS AMI BIOS Supported Chipset Technologies Intel Smart Response Technology
Intel Rapid Start Technology
Intel Smart Connect Technology CPU Supported Socket Type LGA 1155 Intel CPU Support Core i7
Core i5
Core i3
Celeron
Pentium Memory Maximum Memory Supported Per Slot 8GB Memory Type DDR3 Memory Speeds Supported DDR3-1600, DDR3-1333, DDR3-1066 Memory Slots 4 x 240pin DIMM Max Memory Supported 32GB Memory Channel Support Dual Channel Supported Memory Technologies Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile Storage Controllers mSATA 1 SATA 3Gb/s 3 SATA 6Gb/s 2 SATA RAID 0/1/5/10 Video Onboard Graphic Chipset None Audio Audio System Realtek ALC887 Audio Channels 8-Channel Networking LAN Chipset Atheros GbE LAN LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps Expansion Slots PCI Express 3.0 x16 1 PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 PCI Express x1 2 PCI 2 Back Panel Ports PS/2 1 VGA 15-pin 1 DVI 1 HDMI 1 USB 2.0 4 USB 3.0 2 LAN RJ-45 1 Audio Ports 3 Internal I/O USB 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (supports 4 additional USB ports)
1 x USB 3.0 Header (supports 2 additional USB ports) Other I/O Front Audio Header
Front Panel Header
S/PDIF-Out Header
1 x CPU Fan Header
1 x Clearing CMOS Jumper
TPM Module Connector
3 x System Fan Headers
1 x Serial Header Power ATX Power Connector 24-pin ATX12V / EPS 12V Connector 4-pin Regulatory Approvals FCC
CE Physical Specifications Form Factor ATX

Having just built a new system, I'd like to mention that even though drivers will be included on a disc with the motherboard, the drivers will most likely be out of date. Just plan on downloading them from the motherboard manufacturers's website (probably the best bet) or from the component manufacturer (like Intel).

Paul P


Having just built a new system, I'd like to mention that even though drivers will be included on a disc with the motherboard, the drivers will most likely be out of date. Just plan on downloading them from the motherboard manufacturers's website (probably the best bet) or from the component manufacturer (like Intel).

+1 on that.  I was just addressing the generic question of where does one get drivers.


Thanks, 


Bob Bone

I have a list of my components in a spreadsheet along with the links for their drivers :)

I like me some spreadsheets!