Here it is:

- Gigabyte K8U-939 (Uli chipset) loaded with latest Uli integrated drivers (2.20)
- 2 Gb of Kinston DDR400 value ram
- AMD X2 3800+ (Manchester at 2gHz)
- Matrox dual-head G450 with 5.86 drivers and bus mastering disabled
- Echo Mia first generation (not Miamidi) with 6.08 WDM drivers (sometimes using also the ASIO 6.14 ones)

First, I had to tweak a bit (because I like to tweak):

I installed the AMD Cpu drivers followed by AMD dual-core optimizer and MS Dual-core hotfix. I also tweaked the PCI latencies a bit, 48 instead of 64 for the Matrox and 128 instead of 64 for the SATA controller (this way, the ASIO driver does not dropout when streaming samples at 128 samples). I also made a dual-boot XP setup with one being the DAW with minimum services and disabled unused hardware like NIC's, scanner and printer.

With my old Athlon XP 1600+ (MSI K7T Turbo LE, Via KT133A chipset, 768 mb of SDRAM) I had a project in Sonar 5.2 with a few tracks of audio, a lot of freezed softsynths and a particularly cpu intensive plugin (FreeAmp 2) and I was unable to play it without clicks and pops unless I the latency was at 92 ms or above. And even with latency as high, there were sporadic glitches...

Now, the same exact project plays at 2.9 ms without a glitch. If I unfreeze the disk streaming samplers in the project (VSampler and sfz), I have to push the latency slider to 7-8 ms). CPU use is in the 20-25 range

Another example: A testing project with a big piano and a lot of pedal sustain (Vintaudio C7 6 velocities in VSampler 3.5: something like 3-4 Gb ) and a reverb (Sonitus) as insert on the track plays nicely at 2.9 ms. At this latency, CPU use goes to 30-35. I wouldn't even think to try it on my old system

To conclude: I'm very pleased by the performance of the beast. The only thing that bugs me is that I can't play big samplesets in VSampler at 1.5 ms without a few clicks and pops here and there

--------------------
Patrice Brousseau

Just for the sake of summarization:
Any latest words on the PCI-e issues of earlier last year? Is anyone having these issues on Core 2 Duo systems?
are there any other recurring issues on any of the core 2 duo systems?
thanks
Jeff

I built my own in December

ASUS P5LD2 VM DH Mboard
Intel Duo Core E6300
MAudio 1010
2 160GB SATAs
3.something GB RAM
Nesteq fanless PSU
Silentmaxx aluminium disc holders
Quiet processor fan that I've forgotten the name of. Big thing though.

Graphics I just use the onboard ones, and the front panels are open to let air in and cool whatever needs cooled.

Running XP home (with all updates) and Cool Edit Pro II, Floops, Notation and sometimes Sonar 6.

Built it no problem in around 2 hours, loaded software over longer period and no problems. Fully back to working on music in a day.

The difference between this and my previous 2.4 Pentium is astonishing. So much more processing power, especially when running a bunch of Altiverbs, Waves or the like. Previously some songs would literally stick until I 'locked' 10 or 15 tracks, which itself took a good 20 or 30 minutes. Now, I discovered by accident, it'll actually move without locking, and when it comes to locking, what took 3 minutes to lock, takes 10 or 20 seconds.

I've worked a number of 10 or 12 hour sessions on the system since December and I've yet to have any problems.

Any chance of splitting this topic up with a section just for Windows laptops using dual core? So many variables in the desktop system that don't apply to my notebook setup.

Actually that's a very sensible suggestion loopgarou, especially since so many people post here asking for laptop models that work well with audio software/hardware.

I'll start another sticky thread, but will I'll open it out to include all PC laptops, since the majority of new ones are likely to be dual-core models anyway.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

OK, finally got round to upgrading. I was going for a similar set-up anyway but after reading Martin's article I decided to use pretty much the same components.

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 CPU
Intel DP965LT
2 gig Kingston 800mhz DDR2 ram
128mb ATI Radeon pci-e grahics card.

I'm running 2 x UAD cards and a Powercore Element which fills my three PCI cards up leaving 3 pci-e sockets left for future upgrades. My RME Fireface 800 plugs straight into the built in firewire.

This set up worked first time with no hitches. I've put a Ninja Scythe Passive cooler on the CPU. Completely silent and runs 5 degrees cooler than the standard Intel fan.

Cheers Martin for the great article. Saved a lot of time, pain and expense!

Glad you found it useful - judging by the mumber of people posting here who are using my suggested list of components I expect this will become a popular machine


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Martin, the card you chose has a substantial amount of ram which is more than adequate for DAW work. However it does borrow from the system ram when required. Is this a function you can turn off? Or is a normal DAW environment never going to use the onboard ram? I wouldn't really be comfortable letting my graphics card have access to large parts of the ram. One of the cards you recommended (Ati X300) only has 16 - 32mb of on board ram I believe).

It may also not be so applicable now but maybe if or when we start to use Vista in a DAW setup.

Guys,
can anyone have a look at this and tell me if this configuration makes any sense

Moederbord Asus M2N-E

Voeding (power supply) Asus Atlas A-45GA

Behuizing CoolerMaster

Cavalier 3

Processor AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4200+

Grafische kaart (PCIe) Asus EAX1300HM512 TD

Geheugen Buffalo 2 GB DDR2-667 Kit

thanks!

Just as a thought after reading your article Martin, as you have gone for silent running what are your CPU temps, idle and on load when sequencing?

--------------------
http://www.biodiode.com

Hi Biodiode!

My figures are still a little bit 'in-progress', since Peter Cyriax (the PaQ case designer) has recently sent me a 140mm fan to replace the 120mm one I specified in my feature.

With the 120mm fan idling at ~850rpm my E6600 CPU was at ~38 degrees Centigrade, and when running two instances of the Prime 95 'torture test' (both cores running flat out at 100%) the fan speed rose to ~1200rpm and both CPU cores to 62 degrees Centigrade (well within Conroe limits).

However, with the 140mm fan I've set this to idle at ~380rpm for even lower noise levels, resulting in CPU core temps of 54 degrees C, and with the 100% torture test this rises to 58 degrees C and ~1000rpm. Meanwhile both my hard drives are sitting there at around 30 degrees C.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Recently finished building my own system due to a motherboard failure on my old system. Followed MW's Dual Core DIY feature.

Motherboard/chipset: Intel DG965WH/82G965
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Graphics card: on-board
Audio interface: MOTU 2408 PCI-424
Any DSP cards: none

Unexpected issues:

The so-called "conventional" PCI slots didn't support my 5 volt only cards (MOTU PCI-324, Yamaha DS2416, AX-16).

The RAID utilities provided with the Intel MB didn't work due the default BIOS settings. Got through my XP install only to have to start again from scratch after a few BIOS tweaks.

My 10/100 Linksys router was incompatitble with the Gigabit LAN in the Intel MB.

The location of the IDE connector on the MB presented a few challenges. Standard IDE cables aren't long enough.

My CPU reaches 100% when playing back audio via SoundForge.

WaveLab hangs when attempting to write a CD to my new Lite-on LH-20A1H.

Sadly, I will miss my DS2416. Also had to spend an unexpected $100 on LAN hardware grades and $310 on a new MOTU PCI-424e card.

Welcome to the SOS Forums ShirStar!

Sorry to hear of your problems - the DP965LT motherboard I used provides standard 5-volt connector slots, as shown in this photograph I took for my feature:




These slots SHOULD be compatible with most PCI expansion cards of the 5-volt variety, with the notch further away from the backplate, as shown in this photograph I took of my Echo Mia soundcard. More modern audio interfaces like the ESI Julia shown beneath it provide both 3.3-volt and 5-volt notches (you an read more about the differences in this PC Notes column from December 2004 ( www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec04/articles/pcnotes.htm ):



Trawling back for photos of your DS4216 DSP Factory card it looks to have (as expected) a 5-volt slot, as does Motu's original PCI-424 card, so I'm confused as to why you couldn't fit these in the DP965LT board.






More info required


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Thanks for the info...

Both my DS2416 and PCI-324 fit in the MB as expected. The DG965WH appears identical to the DG965LT as far as the PCI slots. The problem is that the DG965 series is PCI 2.3 (3.3v). The DS2416 and PCI-324 are 5 volt only cards.

I tried to boot with the PCI-324 card installed but it was not recognized. The PCI-424e worked fine.

I tried to boot with the DS2416 installed and my system wouldn't boot.

Cheers

Thanks for the feedback ShirStar!

That makes more sense - it can be a bit of a minefield out there, since apart from the physical notches/keys that determine a 5-volt PCI, 3.3-volt PCI or Universal 5/3.3-volt designs, according to my researches some cards seem to look like 5-volt only according to their notches, but are actually universal cards.

By the way, according to the Intel web site the PCI spec for the P965LT is actually revision 2.2, but this is academic if your two elderly cards don't work.

Has anyone else experienced elderly PCI audio interface cards that aren't recognised or prevent booting in a new PC?


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Hi forum,
Forgive me if this is not quite on the correct thread - this is my first post.

I was just about to make the plunge and build an exact copy of Martin W's sos Dual core set up - However i believe that the Corsair "memory recommender" no longer recommends that pc6400 to go with the Intel dp965lt probably due to voltage issues.

Martin as i guess many people like myself would like to build this box following your recommendations - could you recommend an equivalent memory kit?
Thanks

Welcome to the SOS Forums Nick!

Loads of people have had success with the RAM I specified in my article, despite the 1.8/1.9 volt issue, and by July 2006 Intel had allegedly released a new BIOS update that was claimed to use the RAM's SPD (Serial Presence Detect) feature to auto-select 1.8 or 1.9 volts. This was confirmed by other builders who could now boot with 1.9-volt RAM for the first time after flashing this BIOS, and this Corsair RAM/motherboard combination has since been employed successfully by a lot of different builders.

Indeed, on-line retailers are still selling this combination e.g. www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-004-OK

So, unless you've discovered any on-line reports that disprove the success of this motherboard/RAM partnership I'd go for it!


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Hello all!

Thanks Martin for providing such a wealth of useful information and advice on dual core builds.

I have a question regarding the current crop of core duo-compatible motherboards and their ability to accept my RME Multiface II PCI connector. I am concerned that motherboards with PCI slots will soon become unavailable leaving me with an obsolete soundcard.

Cheers,
Gordon

Just built a dual core system..


Asus M2N-E Socket AM2 NF570ULTRA Audio Lan USB2 2000FSB SATA ATX
Corsair 2 x 1 GB DDR2 667 MHz 2x128Mx64non-ECC 2x240 DIMM Unbuffered CL5
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core (2.0GHz) Socket AM2 L2 cache Retail Boxed Processor
Asus EAX300SE-X TD 128Mb Radeon X300SE 128MB DVI-D/VGA PCI-e
Ebuyer Extra Value 17" 400:1 8ms (1280x1024) Black MultiMedia TFT Monitor 3 Years Warranty

First impressions. Stable no crashes as of yet. SX installed no problem and clear playback at 6ms with an m audio soundcard. Not to sure about these people rabbiting on about buffers and poor latency sounds to me like they haven't selected the right drivers. I'm gonna through all i can at it tomorrow see if it keels over and splurts. My graphics card gets a good high resolution that doesnt effect system performance. Favorite game call of duty wouldn't load thats a shame but apart from that i'm chuffed to bits. The tft was a bargian at 75 quid also. I might get a quiter fan, heatsink if such a thing exists and a faster dvd burner thats a bit of a bottle neck only 8x, from old system. Ok thats all before I bore you to death.

Hi, I'm thinking of putting one together, don't want full on power but it's better than the AMD64 3000+ yeah?
i have HDDs in the current one, plus, as quoted elsewhere on a thread of mine, my Delta 24/96 card...

opinions on this.. it comes to about 550 or so? thanks!

#
Intel CPU Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz 1066FSB LGA775 2MB cache Retail inc.Fan (3yr Manufacturers Warranty)
£117.50
#

550W Titan Silent Neon PSU PFC 12cm SATA ATX 24Pin w/ detachable 4 pin section
£20.29
#

Asus Extreme 7300GS 256MB DDR2, PCI-E, DVI, HDTV Out, Retail
£36.10 - just wanted that in case i indulge in some older games.. tbh, i'm not too bothered nowadays, but it's a nice to have
#

2x Samsung Original 1024MB DDR2 800 PC6400 RAM memory
£124.80
#

250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache Hard Disk Drive oem
£38.99
#

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro P4 upto 4.4GHz (socket 775)
£14.20
#

Coolermaster RC-631 Mystique Black tower case NO PSU
£57.95
#

Asus P5B Skt 775 Intel P965 Core2 Extreme / Core2 Duo 1066FSB PCI-E x16 SATA RAID Giga LAN 8 ch. Audio ATX Motherboard
£63.45

--------------------
cheers, Rob

Thanks Martin,
Parts on order.

Hello all--a question for martin.

I have just built a new system as below

PAQ case
Asus P5BE plus motherboard
E6600 core duo
3x WD 250 gig sata2 drives
2x 1gig corsair ddr2 800mhz memory
Gigabyte graphics card (256mb)

First up -- I love the PAQ case -- it is indeed super quiet and in fact as martin said in his review you find yourself saying is it switched on?

Just a tiny low level noise in the background - definately able to record in same room as PC now -- Highly recommended!!!

Only problem is my Echo Gina 24bit soundcard -- I just cannot get it to run -- Keep getting error message "unable to load DSP" -- I have tried everything I can think of -- reinstalled various versions of drivers --different PCI slots -- Changed memory settings manually - Checked hard drive settings--The card will play back audio fine but when I try to record, it comes out metallic and flanged sounding both with analog and digi inputs -- the card works fine in my old machine with an ASUS P800 mobo so must be something on the new set up.

I see a previous poster on this forum said he could not get an Echo Mia card to run on a particular ASUS mobo -- Do I give up and buy a firewire card -- any advice u can give would be appreciated.

Hi alex!

And welcome to the SOS Forums!

I'm pleased you agree with me about the PaQ case

Your Gina24/Asus P5BE might be a fundamental incompatibility (several of the Echo cards don't get on with the Asus A8V for instance, and won't boot up at all with one in any PCI slot). However, if your card will play back audio then it's almost there, so this doesn't sound like so bad.

I would personally email Echo and ask them if they've had any other reports of this combo having problems.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Hello Martin,

Thanks for the reply -- actually I had already e-mailed Echo technical support --but they took a few days to reply so thought I could get a quicker answer here ( U didn't let me down)--but now the postcript -- Echo have indeed replied to say it is an incompatability issue and it looks like the Gina will not work with this Mobo/configuration -so a warning here for anyone thinking of upgrading be prepared to spend more than u originally allowed for.

Oh well -- I was thinking of upgrading the card anyway - it has now been forced upon me I suppose - a firewire or perhaps the new RME PCI-express when it is released.

Thanks for your help - alex c.

Quote alex c:

---

Hello Martin,

Thanks for the reply -- actually I had already e-mailed Echo technical support --but they took a few days to reply so thought I could get a quicker answer here ( U didn't let me down)--but now the postcript -- Echo have indeed replied to say it is an incompatability issue and it looks like the Gina will not work with this Mobo/configuration -so a warning here for anyone thinking of upgrading be prepared to spend more than u originally allowed for.

Oh well -- I was thinking of upgrading the card anyway - it has now been forced upon me I suppose - a firewire or perhaps the new RME PCI-express when it is released.

Thanks for your help - alex c.

---

Many thanks for posting this.

Im just about to buy a dualcore pc after five years of loyal service of my AMD 2200+ 1.8Ghz

Im expecting a big increase in performance.

But i was hoping to transfer my gina24 PCI card over and it looks like ill have to be careful.

Sorry to hear about your problems !

Thanks,

Ben

edit: ive also been recommended a 6600 processor two with 2 gig of corsair ram. Only difference is an abit mobo has been recommended rather than an asus. Ive had an asus in this one for years and its been great. Ill email echo about abit compatibility. Im not building it personally, but once i get one (hopefully working!) ill post it up

Cheers

Edited by Paradigm X (14/03/07 07:52 PM)

New system:
Asus P5W DH Deluxe i975X motherboard
Intel E6600 Conroe
Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler (idle 24C 100% load 40C)
2048MB DDR2 533RAM
Asus EN7600GS512 Silent PCI-e
m-Audio Audiophile 2496

Old system
Asus P5LD2 945P motherboard
Intel P4 3.2HT
Gigabyte Silent Blue CPU cooler
2048MB DDR2 533RAM
Asus 6600GS PCI-e
m-Audio Audiophile 2496

Both systems use Antec TX1050 case and Antec Smartpower500PSU

Both running Sonar6 rewired with Reason3
Projects that dropped out or ran at c90% CPU on old system now use 20-30% CPU. My track count has soared and I'm a happy bunny although I'd love a better audio interface and better AD/DA converters with super accurate sampling clock...........never ending money pit...

Hi Martin,

I can't seem to find the article of the Dual-Core system that you specidied. May I kindly ask which month's issue was it? Or even better, could you post it in this thread?

Mick'sBoy,

Martin's first part of his PC build was in Feb07 issue and the second was in Mar07.

Martin, if you're reading, how about a sticky thread on 'Free samples' (in line with your, excellent, 'Free software' one)?

regards

Frank

PS, will post my dual PC spec soon. I have MOBO, drives, CD-ROM, case etc but waiting (maybe forlornly!) for an imminent (2nd Quarter?) price cut on E6600! . Memory and fan to come too as my, long time, supplier of PC bits don't seem to hack it on Memory prices anymore. Still they do an amazingly cheap (£26) case with a Quiet 400A power suppy!! OK it's not the very quietest, I suppose, but it's certainly the Quiet/Price combination winner (AFAIK) so I got that and the other stuff from them.

BTW, I got chewed up, in an unpleasant 'zero tolerance' manner for mentioning them in a post a few weeks ago which surprised me, very much, as I see this supplier and others mentioned all the time by others. I'm still not sure what the policy is!

Quote Hardy Heern:

---

Martin, if you're reading, how about a sticky thread on 'Free samples' (in line with your, excellent, 'Free software' one)?

---

That would be a more suitable sticky for the Music Recording Technology forum, but a good idea nevertheless.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

I just assembled a new daw

Core 2 Duo 2.4 E6600
Intel D946GZ board with on board graphics
2 Gb Micron DDR2 533 RAM
1 PCI Firewire 400 Belkin card with a VIA chipset
1 80 GB 7200 SATA Maxtor Drive
1 250 GB 7200 SATA Maxtor Drive
RME Fireface 800

Now I had some trouble setting up this system but 24 hours later it is working flawlessly.

I experienced clicks and pops in Cubase whenever I moved the scrollbar or there was any major graphical movement going on. I started investigating the on board graphics and discovered that it uses this DVMT technology that dynamically manages the RAM the graphic suck up. I disabled this in the BIOS with no success but once I uninstalled the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator driver all clicks and pops were gone and I can now run a Cubase project that would only run with a 512 samples buffer on my old P4 3.2 with 1Gb of RAM at 48 samples with 50% CPU usage


If anyone uses a board with this DVMT thing just uninstall the driver if it gives you trouble and you should be fine.

Edited by Nuno_ (05/04/07 09:00 PM)

Just want to say: THIS IS A VERY GOOD THREAD. I learn so much from here. Kudos ALL

--------------------
k k

My new system:

Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi/AP motherboard
Intel E6600
2gB Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 RAM
Asus EN7600GS512 Silent PCI-e
Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower Cooler
Antec Solo Quiet Mini Tower Case
Seasonic S12-430 V2 PSU

I'm also running a Hammerfall Multiface DSP sound card.

First off, I have to say that the Antec case is reallly good for 50 squids. Nice shiny black finish, good hard drive mountings and very quiet. Also has a couple of handy USB and firewire ports on the front.

Construction of all these components was straightforward (put the PSU in *before* the mobo and CPU cooler!) and it's gots me lots of flashing LEDs. Wooh.

So far everything keeps cool and quiet and all music software is running fine with the Hammerfall Multiface - Cubase 4, Wavelab 6, Reason.

I have a dual-boot setup with Windows XP Professional on one partition and Windows Vista Business on the other. I've been comparing running Cubase 4.03 on both OSs with some interesting results...

In XP, I can set the Hammerfall to a low latency of 32 or 64 samples and Cubase 4 plays fine (with "Multi-processing" ticked ON in Cubase's device setup.) However, in Vista I can only go down to a 128 sample latency and I'm still getting crackles and pops when playing back in Cubase. I actually have to *disable* the "Multi-processing" option in Cubase to get a better result.

Does anyone know if this is because Cubase 4 needs to be re-written for Vista?

DB

--------------------
Ouch!

Quote Nuno_:

---

I just assembled a new daw

Core 2 Duo 2.4 E6600
Intel D946GZ board with on board graphics
2 Gb Micron DDR2 533 RAM
1 PCI Firewire 400 Belkin card with a VIA chipset
1 80 GB 7200 SATA Maxtor Drive
1 250 GB 7200 SATA Maxtor Drive
RME Fireface 800

Now I had some trouble setting up this system but 24 hours later it is working flawlessly.

I experienced clicks and pops in Cubase whenever I moved the scrollbar or there was any major graphical movement going on. I started investigating the on board graphics and discovered that it uses this DVMT technology that dynamically manages the RAM the graphic suck up. I disabled this in the BIOS with no success but once I uninstalled the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator driver all clicks and pops were gone and I can now run a Cubase project that would only run with a 512 samples buffer on my old P4 3.2 with 1Gb of RAM at 48 samples with 50% CPU usage


If anyone uses a board with this DVMT thing just uninstall the driver if it gives you trouble and you should be fine.

---

Just wanted to add that I came to the conclusion the problem wasn't the advanced graphics driver but that I had disabled hardware acceleration for the graphics card. I noticed that if I did that even with the driver uninstalled the clicks came back, so I installed it again and enabled accelaration and everything is fine.

I am very pleased that I can use 48 samples buffer size up to the mixing phase.

Quote Dada Beatnik:

---

In XP, I can set the Hammerfall to a low latency of 32 or 64 samples and Cubase 4 plays fine (with "Multi-processing" ticked ON in Cubase's device setup.) However, in Vista I can only go down to a 128 sample latency and I'm still getting crackles and pops when playing back in Cubase. I actually have to *disable* the "Multi-processing" option in Cubase to get a better result.

Does anyone know if this is because Cubase 4 needs to be re-written for Vista?

DB

---

To answer my own question to some extent - disabling "Desktop composition" in Vista (Aero glass features) certainly improves things and I can set the "Multi-processing" option back on in Cubase.

But what kind of a monster machine or graphics card do you need to be able to run Vista Aero with all apps?

--------------------
Ouch!

Hi All
I just assembled a new DAW - it took a few hours (4-5) to build and setup but I did take my time as it's the first one i've built myself:

Intel Core2Duo E6600 2.4Ghz.
Asus P5B-VM.
3GB DDR2 667mhz.
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7,200rpm.
Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000rpm.
nVidia Geforce 7600GT 256MB.
M-Audio Audiophile Firewire.
19” Widescreen TFT.
Antec NSK2400 Case, 380w.
Aiwa Amplifier, Aiwa Monitors.
Samson CO1U Studio Condensor (main mic)
Roland Edirol PC-300 MIDI Controller Keyboard.

SOFTWARE:
Cubase SX3.
SoundForge 6.0.
Using predominantly the following VSTi's:
Korg – M1, Wavestation.
Novation – Bass Station, V-Station.
Kontakt 2.
Battery 3.

DRIVE ALLOCATION:
SEAGATE 500GB:
1. 100GB – OS, Apps.
2. 200GB – Storage.
3. 200GB – Spare.

RAPTOR 150GB:
1. 150GB – Cubase Project data, Bank, Audio files.


I have found this drive setup to be most efficient, especially using the Raptor to feed into Cubase - works like a dream. The processor is perfect for the multiple simultaneous VSTi's & plugins I invariably use, especially when coupled with the multiple audio tracks (again running from the Raptor). The case is more than powerful to run the system.

The Mic does need improving upon, as do the monitors, but apart from that the quality of the system is great. The Audiophile Firewire soundcard is superb too.

Any thoughts on the system? Recommendations/criticisms or stories about experience with similar components are more than welcome. I have been running this for only a week and have yet to come across any major issues.

Hi Everyone,

I just built this system ~2 week ago. Having a problem getting my old Yamaha DS2416 working correctly

The new system is configured follows:

Pentium Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz
ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard (P965 chipset)
2GB Corsair DDR2 800 RAM
2 Western Digital 250GB HDs
Antec Neo 550 (550 watt) power supply
Antec Solo case
ATI Sapphire Radon 1300 graphics card PCI-e 16X
Yamaha DS2416 Audio interface
Yamaha AX44 IO
Windows XP professional
Sonar 4 Producer

Computer runs great but….
Installed in this computer, the DS2416 keeps cutting out. At first I thought this was the usual issues with buffers etc in the audio program , but I have found that it happens any time the card is activated and just sitting idle (e.g no audio playing).

This became evident because I kept hearing randomly spaced clicks through my headphones while the card is active, with or without audio playing. I verified that the clicks were due to the dropouts by playing a single wave file while keeping the master fader on the software mixer (DspCtrl) down, and watching the meters on the outputs. This way I could see the audio activity and still listen for the clicks. For every click, the meters would drop out indicating no sound.

I have tried everything I can think of to fix the problem including:

-reseated card
-tried different PCI slots
-updated motherboard BIOS
-reloaded Yamaha drivers (latest drivers from 2002!)
-disabled all startup items in Windows
-disabled onboard sound and all un-needed hardware
-lowered CPU/FSB speed
-used a utility to change PCI latency

Admittedly the DS2416 is an old card, and I was afraid it might have problems in a new system. Now I’m looking at the MOTU Ultralight or RME Fireface 400 (not sure if I can justify the $$$ for the RME)

Erich

Welcome to the SOS Forums ErichS!

Ironically I discuss this very issue of PCI Soundcard compatibility issues in my latest PC Notes column (May 2007 SOS, which came out last week), and specifically mention the problems faced by some musicians attempting to install their elderly Yamaha DS4216 card.

In fact, other people haven't been able to boot up their dual-core PCs at all when a DS4216 is plugged into any of its PCI expansion slots!


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Quote Martin Walker:

---

Welcome to the SOS Forums ErichS!

Ironically I discuss this very issue of PCI Soundcard compatibility issues in my latest PC Notes column (May 2007 SOS, which came out last week), and specifically mention the problems faced by some musicians attempting to install their elderly Yamaha DS4216 card.

In fact, other people haven't been able to boot up their dual-core PCs at all when a DS4216 is plugged into any of its PCI expansion slots!


Martin

---

Thanks for the welcome and the information. I have scoured the web trying to find out if anyone has tried the DS2416 in a new computer. I feel better knowing this was not just a problem with my setup.

Meanwhile, I opted for the Fireface 400. Just recieved it today and so far it is working perfectly. I'll put it through it's paces in the next few days and let everyone know how the system is performing.

Thanks,
Erich

Hi Martin,

I've had a PC based home studio for years now and every time I plan an upgrade, I begin with reading Martin Walker's reviews and articles. This tradition has helped me to build fully reliable systems (2 desktops and a fine laptop with Echo Indigo IO) so far, thank you!
So now I want to upgrade to Dual Core with a Core 2 Duo processor and I'm hesitating on which motherboard to choose. I have an old (only 5V) Marian Marc X soundcard, which I 'd like to keep, because it's been working reliably for years now. First I thought of building a system on an ASUS P5B Deluxe, because I've always used ASUS boards, but then I read your article about your Intel DP965LT system, and I was quite impressed with that. But then I read the latest article about PCI issues (May 2007) and decided to do a little research on what kind of PCI standard Intel and Asus are using. Soon I found that there is revision 2.2 in each Asus P5B-type board, and after some hours I learned that Intel's DP965LT board uses revision 2.3 under the name 'conventional PCI'. Now it would be clear that I should choose Asus P5B Deluxe, but I've just read here that it won't work with an old 5V Yamaha card... Now I'm totally confused.
I might choose the P5B because I know of two Marian Marc A cards (the same make, similar to Marc X) working pair in a P5B motherboard. Any opinions?

Thans in advance,

Norbert Varga
from Hungary

Hi Norbert!

I personally ruled out the Asus P5B beaus ealthough it was excellent value for money it had no on-board Firewire ports, which means having to buy a Firewire card and using up one of your expansion slots. The P5B-V versiondoes have two Firewire ports, but no serial/parallel ports (which may or may not sway you), while the P5B-E does has one Firewire port, as does the Deluxe version (which also adds Wi-Fi support), but only has one PCIe slot

Echo PCI cards seem to have problems with the P5B board according to alex c previously on this thread, but I've checked, and as you mention it's PCI 2.2, so it theoretically ought to run the 5-volt only cards like your Marian Marc X, and the Yamaha DS4216 mentioned by Erich S above (perhaps the DS4216 takes exception to a few motherboards like the Echo range, unrelated to the PCI revision).

I've just searched this thread for others who've chosen the Asus P5B, and Static 2313/Ronny Pries/Dada Beatnik have all had great results with RME HDSP9632 and Hammerfall cards, Alexandra Studios with a Motu 24 I/O, Doublehelix with a Lynx AES16, kamrai99 with an M Audio Audiophile Firewire, so this motherboard does seem to be generally proving fairly compatible.

Hope this helps!


Martin

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