Chipset Tests

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Sun Mar 10, 2002 1:19 pm

Did this thread die or what?
I would very much like to have some sort of response to my idea in my previous reply.
Thanx,

Rob

WayneSim · Post by **WayneSim** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 1:37 am

well Sub,
I guess many of us are waiting for your chipset tests. Me like many are looking for a new PC SOON. I was going to buy an Athlon xp before I came to these forums. Now i'm looking at a P4 Northwood. But I really need some hard numbers to go on. I really need it soon. I'm looking to buy a complete New PC and a Pulsar 2 no later than in 1 month. (I'd buy it this week if I knew what to buy. I only what to spend the money once...)

So please let us know what's going on. Also what about the a Dual Athlon xp vs a P4 Northwood. Cause I could probably build them for about the same price.

Please keep us informed.
Thanks

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 3:32 am

remember unless you are buying your setup from infinitevortex any reply from subhuman is a kind gesture.

On 2002-03-11 01:37, WayneSim wrote:
well Sub,
I guess many of us are waiting for your chipset tests. Me like many are looking for a new PC SOON. I was going to buy an Athlon xp before I came to these forums. Now i'm looking at a P4 Northwood. But I really need some hard numbers to go on. I really need it soon. I'm looking to buy a complete New PC and a Pulsar 2 no later than in 1 month. (I'd buy it this week if I knew what to buy. I only what to spend the money once...)

So please let us know what's going on. Also what about the a Dual Athlon xp vs a P4 Northwood. Cause I could probably build them for about the same price.

Please keep us informed.
Thanks

WayneSim · Post by **WayneSim** » Sun Mar 17, 2002 11:54 pm

On 2002-03-11 01:37, WayneSim wrote:
well Sub,
I guess many of us are waiting for your chipset tests. Me like many are looking for a new PC SOON. I was going to buy an Athlon xp before I came to these forums. Now i'm looking at a P4 Northwood. But I really need some hard numbers to go on. I really need it soon. I'm looking to buy a complete New PC and a Pulsar 2 no later than in 1 month. (I'd buy it this week if I knew what to buy. I only what to spend the money once...)

So please let us know what's going on. Also what about the a Dual Athlon xp vs a P4 Northwood. Cause I could probably build them for about the same price.

Please keep us informed.
Thanks

BUMP

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 12:45 am

On 2002-03-11 01:37, WayneSim wrote:

(...)

Also what about the a Dual Athlon xp vs P4 Northwood. Cause I could probably build them for about the same price.

(...)

I would not take $ as relevant for pc parts when it comes to your DAW with, probably, soundcards as a high part of the expences. If there's one thing you want to avoid, it's to offer stability. Go for the P4 Northwood!

I work in my home-studio, but if I'd be a pro and have customers waiting I would not buy a dual cpu setup again for my CW computer. I'm getting one of these P4's too, soon. When I've saved the €€€

I'll get an ADAT only card from RME probably and link the two pc's.
I have a dual PIII mobo, because of that Pulsar sometimes drives me mad. Do not go dual cpu on CW cards, stick to single cpu setup.

There's enough convincing talk in other topics here for me to get a P4 NorthWood on Asus P4B266-C (the one without the optional onboard audio ?).

at0mic.

_________________
He who always lays on the floor will never fall down.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-03-18 00:56 ]

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-07-10 00:19 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 12:51 am

To rvberkel:

11 MV's is a huge PCI load! It's true that ASIO or WAV use additional PCI bandwidth, but it's a standard that every one of use can reproduce. ASIO->MV's in parallel->Mixer->Analog. Cos not everyone has hardware devices via SPDIF. I personally use only ADAT, Analog and Z-Link for hardware sources.

ps: I've been told that a MV takes about 100x pci load from an ASIO or WAV bus.

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:36 am

Thanx AtOmic for the reply; if what you say is true, and WAV or ASIO-load on the PCI-bus is a mere percent of the load a MV puts on the bus, there's no use in forcing the chipset-test to be done through only physical I/O's. But in the ongoing effort to standardize the chipset-test, should we use the regular Masterverb of the Masterverb Classic? What about the mixer? Which one to pick.
To Sub: will you collect and publish the various results of the tests? If so, what <A HREF="http://www.berkel.net/mv.gif" TARGET="_blank">proof</A> will you be needing to publish accurate results?

Rob

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:56 am

I made 2 example projects, they're here. I think they're approved, although no official confirmation.

Try running the projects for an hour or so. If it keeps running, you don't have to worry

I once did a full SiSoft Sandra benchmark during one of my Subtests, it didn't bring Pulsar down! This is not 'official' on Z, but be free to do some extra tests. Ie. can you access LAN? Can you use USB,SCSI, RAID during the Subtest? These are all things that make it harder for your PCI bus, and are lickely to cause errors. If you succesfully use extra PCI hoggers, pls let us know

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:25 am

Maybe part of my succes with 11 MV's was disabeling all PCI-hoggers (PCI-LAN, SCSI, USB), although USB has no impact on PCI performance on the i850 chipset.
Btw, I tried loading your projects, but too many complaints about non existing devices stopped me from doing so. Did you use non-standard locations? Is it the software-version (I'm using v3.01, all default locations on 2 PulsarII boards)

Rob

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:32 am

My Pulsar is installed in D:Pulsar3... so you could just replace the 'D' by 'C' I guess, Pulsar will ask you where your devices are located on your disk.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:37 am

My Pulsar is installed in D:Pulsar3... so you could just replace the 'D' by 'C' I guess, Pulsar will ask you where your devices are located on your disk.

Using PCI hoggers like those you mentioned are not advised on DAW's, cos they're likely to cause PCI problems. But if you don't encounter any Pulsar problems, why disabling them? I noticed that I cannot load more than 9 or 10 MV's, but there's more PCI bandwidth available than for my ¨Pulsars alone, apparently. While sitting on my 'PCI Master Overflow Limit', I can still use USB and LAN. That doesn't change my SubTest, neither did SiSoft Sandra. Don't ask me why.

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:45 am

That doesn't change my SubTest, neither did SiSoft Sandra. Don't ask me why.

Why, AtOmic, WHY?

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 3:07 am

euh... cos I have dual PCI bus?

I quit for now, it's noon and I need sleep.

afraid of the light,

the atom.

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 2:54 am

Hi subhuman,

my "test-surrounding" is just a little bit different from yours but reveals the performance of my GA7DXR as well. I can get only 4 MV on this motherboard. Please read my post "PCI Latency for maximum performance" too.

Cheers,
Uwe

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 1:32 am

I'm wondering (and I wonder if I'm wondering alone): Why do ppl spent big money on pulsar boards and run them in crappy VIA mobo's? Reading all the threads about (tech-)problems reveal nothing but problems and limitations when using VIA. I started on VIA myself, thinking I would be able to solve those problems, but in the end I found myself spending more time on tweaking than on using the machine as a DAW.
I bought an Intel board and CPU (costing only 50% of my first PulsarII board) and said goodbeye to all the problems and limitations. Maybe something to consider...

Rob

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 2:05 am

rvberkel: Its all very well if you can afford a pentium. Not everyone that uses pulsar is a pro musician, there are plenty of hobbyists. My use for pulsar is for great sounding synths and a home studio.
I had crappy via chipset before I bought the pulsar, and don't have the money, or inclination to replace mb, athlon xp, and memory, just to suit one component.
It is a good point you make though, its universally known for a good DAW; use Intel.

Can any people though with results from nforce chipsets with athlon please post here.

WayneSim · Post by **WayneSim** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 2:34 am

Can any people though with results from nforce chipsets with athlon please post here.

I believe that no-one has posted the results becasue the nforce chips REALLY sux with creamware cards. That's just what I heard.