Topic: PC requirements for MADI PCI card?
What are the basic PC requirements for running a PCI MADI and Digiface PCI card simultaneously?
Does RME have a list of basic motherboard or PCI buss requirements.
I have been using a dual digiface setup without problems, but upon attempting to upgrade to a MADI/ADI648 & Digiface combo I am having all sorts of problems. The computer is terribly unstable, crashing unexpectedly, restarting unexpectedly when attempting to start Digicheck or alter VST connections in Cubase, not waking from sleep mode, and problems passing audio correctly.
(eg Audio passes to my digital mixer and the meters look fine, however, the sound output is a strange electronic beeping, in time with the meters. All clocks however show correct sync, and levels in totalmix and meterbridge of the desk look fine. I have tested an identical setup (using the Digifaces and minus the MADI/ADI648) without problems using the same signal chain to my DAC, so it is definitely an issue with the MADI/ADI648.
I am currently running an Asus P5AD2E-Premium board, with 3GB RAM, and a P4 3.2GHz CPU. My video card is an ATI Radeon X800 PCIe card.
I use no other PCI cards and have not had any trouble running my two digifaces. All PCI cards (including MADI PCI) have been flashed to the latest revision, and I am using the latest driver WDM/ASIO driver(3.02). I have tried every possible combination of PCI slots, and would like to know whether it is a simple bandwidth issue on the PCI Buss that is causing all the problems?
The task manager does not show undue stress on the CPU, so I can only assume a PCI bandwidth issue. I assume that the 56/64 channels of the MADI card are always active and thus eating bandwidth, but what sort of motherboard/CPU would one require to run the MADI and Digiface PCI cards comfortably, without stressing the CPU and PCI buss. Do you need a server board, with multiple PCI busses? Will one of the newer Intel 965 or older 975 chipsets do the trick??
Any help would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
George