• Registered: 2016-09-10
  • Posts: 3

Topic: PCI card help

Friends,

First post and feel like a gate crasher. Don't own any RME product, but facing a problem. Cakewalk forum suggested you guys are the experts if anyone knows, so asking for advice.

Have an M-Audio 1010LT. Sync'd with one of their Audiophile 2496 cards. 10 channels rock solid input on a ten year old Vostro quad core machine, running win XP.

Have to bite the bullet soon and get a new rig. Would like to stay with what works well, plus several hundred dollars investment in preamps.

Problem I probably share with many of you is that the cards are PCI slot, and PCI has gone the way of the world leaving hardware that won't fit in the PCIex bays.

Can you advise about the PCI to PCIex adapters, if they work or not. Realize it requires a metalwork project to fit the back panel, but would be a way to not lose the entire investment.

Thanks for helping an outsider. You guys came highly recommended.

Very best to all of you,
John K

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2016-09-11 08:51:14)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,183

Re: PCI card help

Maybe you could consolidate preamps with an up to date RME device ?
You will be amazed by RME products: rock solid drivers, driver performance.
Even the USB / FW driver come close to the low round trip times shown in DAW (Cubase, etc) via PCIe.

What inputs do you require ? How many micro, line in, ADAT ?
Do you want again a PCIe based card or would USB/FW/Thunderbolt be an option ?

Another option for you would be to search for mainboards which come still with a PCI slot.
Intel 6700K is a very nice performant CPU. Socket 1151.
And these boards would still offer to you PCI:
http://geizhals.de/?cat=mbp4_1151&x … 9_1#xf_top

And these mainboards with DDR4 RAM and Thunderbold AIC: http://geizhals.de/?cat=mbp4_1151&x … AIC#xf_top

If possible I would look to still get a mainboard with Windows 7 drivers and get Windows 7 as many people still seem to have issues with Windows 10 (and maybe you know the privacy discussion in terms of Win10). I would also recommend to get thunderbolt support on the mainboard as USB3 and Thunderbolt are the next generation i/o ports for recording interfaces.

The only thing which is unclear to me is, whether you get still stable Windows 7 or even Windows 10 drivers for your old HW which you want to connect to the PCI bus. So eventually a change to a newer modern recording interface would also be advised.

Having a list of your preamps and i/o port connection demands for your recording interface would make more clear what RME interface would be feasible for you to think about this "Plan B" to update to a RME device. RME devices get very long driver support and have also the advantage to use only less value, shall you need to re-sell.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2016-09-10
  • Posts: 3

Re: PCI card help

Thank you Ramses,

Looking to go with win 7 if possible, and do understand that the M-Audio card is not being updated, so the technology will be receding into the past.

I was looking for at least 8 inputs, line that can be controlled by my still relevant M-Audio external pre's, mic pre's on the card being an option, but not necessary because the external pre's have mic and phantom power as well.

Have not had good luck with a USB 2 Presonus 22VSL box used on a laptop. Works okay, but greater latency to get a good signal than my hard wired M-Audio. Have been however advised that all USB 2 inputs are not equal and that a proper USB 2 card can get close to hard wired results. My avoidance of USB 2 being colored by a bad experience with one product.

Would be looking ideally for a PCIex card with 8 in/out and a midi port.

Thank you for the links and your time to answer, and advice as to what RME products are available.

Best,
John

  • garry
  • S/Mux specialist
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  • From: Wales, UK
  • Registered: 2007-05-12
  • Posts: 251

Re: PCI card help

i recently upgraded to intel i7 6700k with asus z170-a motherboard, my HDSP9652 is PCI, and had no reason to want change it, its an amazing card, and it still works just as well now in the new board than it did in my old board.
The Z170-A has 1 x legacy PCI slot

_

RME HDSP9652 | | RME Digiface USB

5 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2016-09-11 19:51:01)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,183

Re: PCI card help

brahma wrote:

Thank you Ramses,

Looking to go with win 7 if possible, and do understand that the M-Audio card is not being updated, so the technology will be receding into the past.

I was looking for at least 8 inputs, line that can be controlled by my still relevant M-Audio external pre's, mic pre's on the card being an option, but not necessary because the external pre's have mic and phantom power as well.

Have not had good luck with a USB 2 Presonus 22VSL box used on a laptop. Works okay, but greater latency to get a good signal than my hard wired M-Audio. Have been however advised that all USB 2 inputs are not equal and that a proper USB 2 card can get close to hard wired results. My avoidance of USB 2 being colored by a bad experience with one product.

Would be looking ideally for a PCIex card with 8 in/out and a midi port.

Thank you for the links and your time to answer, and advice as to what RME products are available.

Best,
John

What you might not know, that even the RME USB / Firewire Interface come very close to PCIe cards.

You can see here the round trip times of audio packets which you can see in i.e. Cubase.

http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … ME-RayDAT/

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96192996/tonstudio-forum.de/blog/RME-UFX-als-PreAMP-an-RayDAT/09-UFX%2BRayDAT-Latencies.jpg

To explain the excel sheet, I am using the RME UFX as PreAmp in front of the RayDAT PCIe card.
I mapped the relevant inputs (mic, line) to ADAT channels.
From the excel you can get 3 things, Round trip time of audio packets
- when using RayDAT alone
- when using UFX alone
- when using UFX as Preamps in front of the RayDAT PCIe card (via ADAT)

You will notice, that the Round trip times ("latency") is very close to each other.
Such a good USB / Fw driver performance you only find with a few vendors.

So if you remember the values of your card you can compare now.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2016-09-10
  • Posts: 3

Re: PCI card help

Friends,

Thank you for these links, information, the time for you to reply. The chart is quite instructive, especially when getting to the 512 buffer size..

Have never had an RME card, but well aware that the name RME sends chills down the spine of anyone seeking quality and dependability.

Price is often an issue, so we settle for something substandard, all the grief included.

Will do my homework from here. Save some pennies and get a real interface.

Very best to all of you.

John