PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hi guys,
I would like to build a new powerful PC with DDR4 memory and M.2 storage. Are there any contemporary motherboards having PCI slot for old Pulsar card available? Or do you have experience with PCI to PCI-E adapters?
Thank you for any recommendations.
Peter

Hi Peter,
I recently UPDATED my main daw to be compatible with windows 11.
I bought an ASUS PRIME B460 Plus which has 2xPCI slots.
I installed a i9 10 core cpu and 64Gb of DDR4 RAM and M.2 SSD.

I do not have any SCOPE cards installed (I use XITE-1 only with that daw) so I cannot comment that side of things, but I am sure they would work fine with SCOPE 7.
I have ended up reverting my C: drive back to the original SSD (2Tb) and I intend to use the faster M.2 as my main sample library drive (Just waiting to make sure there are no issues with the cloned drive before reformatting the M/2 for its new role).

I went after this boards because it had the PCI slots and it was win 11 compatible.
I do have a Pulsar 2 card in another daw and I wanted to have the option to be able to swap it over should I see a need to do so.

My experience with this board has been very positive, but you might have trouble getting one as I had real trouble sourcing the MOBO back in Sept 2021. Finally got one from newegg.

Hope this helps
regards
maus

Thank you Maus for good board proposal,
still considering ASUS PRIME B460 Plus but also thinking about something newer now in 2022 (with PCI for Pulsar 1).

Does anybody have any experience with other boards for latest processors?

BR
Peter

i would look at commercial boards in that case. remember, PCI slots are obsolete.

Not sure if I got it, what do you mean by commercial board?

not a consumer or gamer board. one made for business.

Hi guys,
another year is over and I am still using Pulsar I card with older computer. But this is very limiting in 2023.
Did anybody of you find or experience newer MB than recommended older ASUS PRIME B460 Plus?
Thanks for hints, now is really time to replace but I would like to keep Pulsar!
Peter

There are websites with motherboard databases
One of them: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/
You can chose what you need, 1 PCI, 1 M2, CPU socket, max memory etc.
I don't know if the PCI slot wil work with old Pulsar cards?
You can have a modern CPU if you chose a modern CPU socket. LGA 1700 : generation 12 and 13 CPU.

Highly recommended you expand your existing machine with a Gen2 card and slave it to a new PC running a soundcard with good ADAT & AES/SPDIF plus MIDI to connect to Scope PC.

I wished, SCOPE v8 connected to network via "Dante Virtual Soundcard".
Since Dante Virtual Soundcard is compatible w/ ASIO, I wonder why it shouldn´t work WHEN the new SCOPE ASIO driver would be optimized for.

Dante Virtual Soundcard is low latency (4ms max.) and costs about 55.- bucks.
Buy for each machine, install, connect machines to a gigabit network switch, buy iConnectivity MIDI interface and use rtpMIDI (over LAN).

Would save a lot of cash making RME RayDat and Wordclock module obsolete and allows long (network.) cable runs.

Is that imaginable ?



Bud

Not by fluke (although I guess it could happen), but I wouldn't start to imagine it unless Holger specifically includes it in Scope for v8 and tests around it, pushes out the release date for the R&D, advertises it as a feature and factors it into the price of the upgrade

But anyway this is a discussion for another topic isn't it ?

There are ADAT cards for Dante, which would work fine in the same PC. The added latency over ADAT itself seems unnecessary though.

dante wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 1:15 pm Not by fluke (although I guess it could happen), but I wouldn't start to imagine it unless Holger specifically includes it in Scope for v8 and tests around it, pushes out the release date for the R&D, advertises it as a feature and factors it into the price of the upgrade

But anyway this is a discussion for another topic isn't it ?

No, it isn´t because I replied on Valis´ post about interconnectivity via ADAT and MIDI when using more than 1 computer and when there´s not the right mobo w/ enough or perfect working PCI slots in reach and old computers must be used for the PCI cards.

And,- there´s a difference in making a SCOPE hardware device a "Dante"-hardware device,- or just only using SCOPE ASIO to connect to Dante Virtual Soundcard.
There is no special software or hardware neccessary for SCOPE when using Dante Virtual Soundcard except the SCOPE ASIO driver should work perfect and highly efficient w/ the virtual soundcard.

In fact, you´d connect a SCOPE PCI card and/or XITE via SCOPE ASIO2 module(s) to Dante VSC.
The routing is done by Dante Controller software running together w/ VSC.
So, Dante Controller should recognize SCOPE ASIO channels the way any other DAW application allows routing of (SCOPE-) ASIO I/Os.

But it needs a highly efficient ASIO driver because Dante VLS adds latency of up to 4ms,- depending on system, network speed (gigabit recommended) and quality of network switch.

A RME RayDat is EUR 599,- @Thomann and currently not available ("available in several MONTH").
You get 32x32 ADAT channels max..

Dante VSC offers 64x64 channels of audio via 10Gbit network and when installed, makes the computer a hardware Dante device being visible in every network you connect to.
Investment is 50 dollars for Dante VSC and another 50 for a quality consumer gigabit switch.

We all know, the SCOPE v7 ASIO driver can currently introduce issues.
When it were perfect using SCOPE ASIO w/ Dante VSL should work flawlessly already now.

@Valis:

dedicated Dante hardware is generally expensive.
AFAIK, all Dante hardware cards are made by Audinate even these are part of other manufacturer´s devices.
IMO, you only need these Dante cards or interfaces urgently for large networks, PA and such,- not for the home studio network.

And yes, we could make this a separate topic/thread,- so feel free to move.



Bud

Do I need for Pulsar 1 PCI card motherboard with native PCI (pci controller in chipset) or newer board using internally pci-e to pci bridge chips are also fine with Pulsar 1? Any experience or recommended chipset? Thanks

Native PCI is at least better,- if not essential, when you want best performance,- AND the PCI slot(s) should deliver 5 Volts !
This is valid for every SCOPE PCI card.

No need to move threads. Until ADAT I superseded it remains the best low latency option. I am interested in Dante for other uses so I chimed in

valis wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 9:14 pm No need to move threads.

not the whole thread ...
We could start a new topic and the move related posts when it makes sense.
But it´s not urgently necessary.

valis wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 9:14 pm Until ADAT I superseded it remains the best low latency option. I am interested in Dante for other uses so I chimed in

For me, it´s matter of cables and length.
I´d prefer a single long network cable running into another room over 8 long ADAT cables for (only) 32 I/Os.



Bud

You can convert to other optical formats, or even ethernet, without Dante. Use optical in trunk runs from FOH to stage all the time in large scale events.

OR if it's not that far, you can just use ADAT snakes

valis wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2023 10:24 am You can convert to other optical formats, or even ethernet, without Dante. Use optical in trunk runs from FOH to stage all the time in large scale events.

OR if it's not that far, you can just use ADAT snakes

It´s all good gear,- but I want to avoid purchase of a RME RayDat,- last but not least, because PCIe x1 shares so many IRQ/devices on my Z97 main DAW machine.

Now, the Intel i7 4790k is fast enough and the ethernet has very high priority in Windows,- it should be possible to handle 64x64 channels via a gigabit ethernet port (there are 2 of these !) and (Dante) Virtual Soundcard w/ very low latency.
I doubt I´ll need 64x64 channels at all, but that´s the theory.
S|C XITE-1 wouldn´t be connected to that machine,- instead running standalone being connected to laptop,- also fast Intel i7 quad and w/ gigabit ethernet port.
When Virtual Soundcard and the controller app is installed on both the machines,- it still saves the ADAT ports on XITE-1 for my 2 Scope PCI 32Bit Win 7 systems and I can connect A16Us via Z-Link in addition.
AFAIK, Dante VSC and/or at least the Dante Controller app won´t run on a 32Bit Win7 (or XP),- so these should go via ADAT and MIDI.
That´s the plan at least.

The ADAT extender you mentioned above might make sense for my 32Bit WinXP DAW using a older RME Hammerfall 9652 w/ 3 ADAT I/Os.

But now,- I´m still waiting for the SCOPE beta8 news and perfectly working ASIO and WAVE drivers to come !



Bud