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I really like the Mini-ITX and Micro ATX AMD boards because of the no wasted space, but also the 128MB Sideport RAM feature.
It is a great way to avoid buying a PCI-e 16X graphics card, which is the only reason I have the 4U ATX chassis' anyways.
The downside of the small form factors is that they are saddled w/ DDR2 1066, even though they claim DDR2-1333, I am finding that even w/ Intel i7's and AMD boards, when all 4 or 6 DIMM's are populated, if it says DDR3-1600 support, it means DDR3-1333 will work with populated DIMM's.
But ATX boards using the AMD 785G usually have fast DDR3-1666, but no Sideport RAM.
Asus happens to fill this gap nicely, and low latency DDR3-1333 will work fine and maximize the streaming of sampled content.
The new AMD X4 965 Black Edition CPU has quad cores running @ 3.4GHz w/ 8MB's of cache.
Plenty of power for a streamer.
The 1U case below is perfect for cooling.
CPU ventilation, and mobo sidefans, HDD fans and RAM w/ a self contained 1U fan design should keep everything cool and stable. The RAM below is actually the i7 version and too tall for a 1U, the AMD version is only for 4 x DIMM's and a little shorter.
The PCI-e 1X Riser Card rounds out the parts needed.
Total cost is 780 USD for XITE-1 to have another 1U buddy.

AMD...sniff

Hey if Intel would quit acting like M$ and bring us the lower cost options at the same time they shove 300 dollar mobo's at us, I would opt for them.
At the end of the day XITE-1 and a streamer is all I need. i7 is a great achievement, but I am tired of chasing O.S.'s and technology that can't even be used.
Marvel SATA 2.0 chips go on mobo's w/ zero Quality control that have 600MB's of throughput while I won't ever need more than 150MB which is stil PATA's limit....#$%$@?
Intel is already cancelling their 34nm SSD drives they recently announce because of bugs.....
I do not want 3 x PCI-e 16X slots, when I don't even actually need 1 of them..
This Sideport RAM is long overdue. I know all of this bandwidth is a waste for my apps, as I had a Matrox G450 running Gigastudio, Scope DSP cards and Cubase and it's 32MB's.
So I know the little 128MB Sideport is all I need.
I pay extra for an O.S. that I use 5% of MAYBE,...............years of 256MB PCI-e 16X's I don't ever need because I don't play games. I'm sick of this shit.
We are all suppose to be buying " Green " gear, etc. Well I am being a patriotic " Green " kind of guy by not falling for this nonsensical overkill of features that burns up more energy by having a totally overkill design from the ground up.........
I am even going to a 2 x HDD config, and a cheap SSD for the O.S. + Apps.
So cutting down the excessive power I don't use, while cutting costs is a fine business model.
I have embarrassed myself here publicly before and have no problem as it is a learning experience, so if this thing sucks, I will be the first to admit my mistake. But if it works I will have condensed a truck load of gear and 28U worth of hardware to a simple 4U, with a single 88 noter and Solaris synth. I gotta give it a shot, and since the only connector will be a PCI-e 1X I feel like I might get lucky.

This is good stuff. Thanks for sharing your research as always.

Having worked at Intel, I can for one say that they often under-test newer designs that they throw out onto the market (such as SSD's), just to shift the focus of the overall industry (or slow it down so that they can catch up). They also push up prices in order to gain advantage in R&D (supposedly). Intel are shim-shammers to the extreme.

This is a good approach, since yes, the OS becomes less relevant (in your situation), and you really just need throughput for the streamers.

Personally I need streaming overhead for Kontakt, Omnisphere, etc. (at least until I replace/emulate Omni with Scope synths and what-not ), and for higher track count in/out of Samplitude (at least 16 tracks real-time while tracking and editing up to at least 40 tracks). So, I still think my next step may be a mondo laptop with Xite PCMCIA/PCIe slot, and I'll be ready to go (I hope).

Greg

p.s. today's tests will be to rip out my old SRB and maybe even the old PulsarI in order to alleviate any other possible bus issues, and see how many tracks I can do real-time with Xite. It's time for some throughput testing before I get back to playing around with the synths.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3615
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17328
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-785g- ... 5gmm-test/

I eventually will have to incorporate more 1U extensions if I need to have a giant template for Orchestral mock ups.
Adding extra 1U's will be in a seperate ATA case and be optional, but using Gigabit Ethernet and a Host that can be cross platform, while hosting 3rd party applications is an important consideration. Vienna Ensemble 3 does this already, but one must use VSL libraries. They will be releasing Vienna Ensemble Pro before long which can host Mac or PC, as well as third party apps. This will be a dream come true, as no extra sound cards will be needed.
Playing it safe and using Windows 7 64bit, each 1U can be Brass, Woodwinds or Strings, each w/ 8 GB's of RAM. They will cost very little as long as they are spec'd as I described above. Case and everything is 700-900 depending on if you want a 2, 3 or Quad Core CPU.
This string ensemble below using all articulations and fully loaded needs around 8GB"s of RAM. Loading just the Cellos and 1st Violins is around 5GB's.... Below Just using the Vienna Ensemble Pro the need for a graphics or soundcard is eliminated as the host sends MIDI and recieves Audio back from 3rd party apps. Having the Main DAW " collect " all of the audio and then sending it to the XITE-1 is the future. This is why I toss and turn with designs for over a year now. I have to make sure the design is Modular and flexible, and not needing Graphics or audio cards was the missing link. So now I can start to build my first 1U this Fall, and just add more as the gigs dictate.
One thing is certain though, having this power in a mobile rig will be a big advantage and even help me to get more studio calls, as I can shave hours of set up time and recording time from the experience I get from using it live.

I was checking some 1U stuff out by Visionman...

If you haven't yet...you may want to take a look.