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Finally upgraded my six year old computer; Win 7, ASUS MOBO, Intel Core i7 3.8 GHz. Piles of RAM (12).

Only one problem - the PCI EMU 1820M that has served me so well and works so well won't physically fit into the slot next to the PCI video card (fairly high end video for photography, and it's just too wide to permit anything beside it).

One reasonable solution - replace the EMU. EMU makes PCIe cards that will fit, but several opinions on the Multimedia Production Forums (where Mac shows up from time to time) indicate that EMU hasn't kept up with the world (apparently haven't issued drivers specifically for Win7).

So am looking for a reasonably high end S/C that is PCIe. Going to Firewire would require purchase of a F/W card. And latency when playing Pianoteq through the system can be an issue. The nice thing about the EMU cards has been their dedicated ASIO drivers that work very well. I've heard that some other brands have questionable ASIO drivers.

Haven't looked at cards for at least six years now, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

Any and all suggestions will be considered.

Glenn

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Take a look at RME sound cards. The have a PCIe.

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Get a new PCIe video card instead. Lots of choices if you go that route.


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I would have 2nd'ed Mick's opinion, but right now, we are dealing with a very weird issue with an RME Multi-face, with the HDSPe/Express card connection and a piece of software that has been trouble free up to now.

This is on a Thinkpad core i7 running Win7 64 pro.

Stay tuned.

-Scott

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OK - update to our recent issue with the PCIe connected RME MultiFaceII:

In speaking with RME US techsupport (handled in the US by Synthax, believe it or not), they gave us a bunch of tips on what to disable as it pertains to power management.

There's quite a bit of power saving stuff in Win7 settings as well as BIOS that can be disabled - we went for the power hog option and disabled all the power management features on this machine.

Now the PCIe card is working fine.

Edit: Wherever you see PCIe in this post, I meant 'Express card'. Sorry for any confusion.

This issue was pre-driver installation issue - as soon as ANY PCIe card was introduced into the slot, the computer would immediately go into it's ENIAC era mode. Didn't even want to give the acknowledgement post about a card being introduced into the slot.

As soon as we disabled BIOS and Windows power management stuff, the card works fine.

Also, I gave an incorrect stat on the CPU, it's a Core i5, not an i7.

With all of that said, I wouldn't want to give up the ghost on the EMU. The 'm' series from EMU is known far and wide as probably the best pre-amp and A/D converter 1-2 punch in the PC audio world.

-Scott

Last edited by rockstar_not; 11/15/11 05:19 PM.
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Being on a similar subject, in my thread Silvertones suggested a PCIE to PCI adapter card, if there is a spare PCIE slot with room why not try that direction and retain the original EMU card, hopefully drivers for it may be available.

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CornetNev - he said the box doesn't have the physical room to add the card due to the video card. I considered suggesting your option earlier, but adding more stuff (the adapter) most likely wouldn't help accommodate the EMU. Selecting a different PCIe video card may be a better option as it may give a video upgrade, save $$ in the long run, and allow him to use the EMU still, which (as mentioned) is a very nice card. He'd have to determine if it would save the needed room though.


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rharve, I got the impression from the way Glen wrote it, that he has two PCI slots one used by the video card, which covers the other PCI slot. He then mentions a new sound card of PCIE architecture, meaning to me he also has PCIE slots, at least one of which can be used. I may be reading his post wrong, but I would agree that with a small low profile case there may not be room for both an adapter and the original card, however he obviously has a PCIE slot that is not obstructed by the video card.

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Got it. I see now.


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Clarification:

The machine has two PCI slots, but one is taken up by a gigantic video card with its own onboard cooling fan. Consequently the other PCI slot is virtually not useable as it would be too close to permit proper cooling of either the video card or daughter card of the EMU.

The machine has two PCIe slots that are not too close to the video card so these could be used.

I thought of getting an EMU 1616M PCIe card, but when I asked advice on the Multimedia Production Forum, several of the gurus were not terribly confident that EMU would be a good choice. One comment was, "the Beta driver is getting old to put it politely.” And someone else said that Win 7 drivers died in the beta stage. Not encouraging.

Some users have good results with Win 7; others not so much. Seems to be a bit of a crap shoot.

That being said, the present 1820M is working well and is very stable. With the on screen mixer it's easy to switch between headphones and bi-amp near field speakers, or the piano.

The PCI to PCIe adapter sounds interesting. If it works, it could be my solution.

Thanks for all the comments - they are appreciated and helpful.

Will be back later tonight - 10:00 p.m. Pacific time, but you’ll all be in bed.


Glenn

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The adapter *may* work fine. I'd try a little research before purchasing.

My instinct is it may be more fiscally responsible (and futureproof) to replace the video card instead. It might be possible to spend less on a better PCIe video card and leave the PCI space for the EMU. Just another way of approaching it, worth considering. Your system has plenty of RAM already. Video may not be an issue at all from the git-go.


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Quote:

The adapter *may* work fine. I'd try a little research before purchasing.

My instinct is it may be more fiscally responsible (and futureproof) to replace the video card instead. It might be possible to spend less on a better PCIe video card and leave the PCI space for the EMU. Just another way of approaching it, worth considering. Your system has plenty of RAM already. Video may not be an issue at all from the git-go.




Bob:

I agree about the adapter route - adapters are things that often fall into the compromise category.

The whole purpose and main purpose of the new machine was to be able to handle 25 MB photo files without having spiders spin webs around me while waiting for an image to load. The video card that was put into the machine is part of the solution. It would be difficult to return an installed video card that is part of a custom built machine. I'm pretty well stuck with it.

I just assumed (stupidly it seems) that the EMU would fit into the new box.

I think the final solution (unless something suddenly pops up) is to keep the machine with the EMU until both die (or I go first )

Glenn

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Quote:

I think the final solution (unless something suddenly pops up) is to keep the machine with the EMU until both die (or I go first )

Glenn




This is what I have done with nearly every DAW upgrade. Keeping the older hardware with the older machine and OS, which is likely to be well shaken-down and worthy, while finding the best sound device option for the new machine.

Lots of good reason to do so, for example, no forced downtime because the new thang does not yet cooperate fully, for whatever reason, perhaps drivers need to be rewritten, BIOS, etc. you never know what may crop up and then you always have Old Reliable on the job and can still get that music work done while the iron is hot, so to speak.

And then there is the comfort of working with Old Reliable as well as all those softwares accumulated that may or may not be designed to run on the new system...

Seems that just when all aspects of the older DAW are mature and things are working as planned, it is time to fork out money for the newest-latest-greatest-fastest etc. - and the whole dance starts anew.


--Mac

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That aspect is what made me debate on volunteering to send an older system (motherboard/processor) to another user here. I worried I would regret it during just such an occasion. So far so good though <fingers and toes crossed> .. so far Win7 seems stable with everything I use music-wise.


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Quote:

The whole purpose and main purpose of the new machine was to be able to handle 25 MB photo files without having spiders spin webs around me while waiting for an image to load. The video card that was put into the machine is part of the solution. It would be difficult to return an installed video card that is part of a custom built machine. I'm pretty well stuck with it.




I think this is the key right here. Are you sure you really need that whopper of a video card? Have you actually tried rendering those big jpeg's with a standard sized video card? Tell us what it is because with an i7 machine like yours with 12 gigs of ram I wonder if you really need that over a more standard $100 card. Looking on Newegg's website all the video cards that are like you describe are $350-$550. Gamers love those, you should have no trouble selling it on Craigslist if it turns out a smaller card would work just as well. And of course if that's the case problem solved.

I have the EMU 1820M as well and when I was researching my new machine I also was all over the EMU Production forums site and while there's no guarantees, the beta drivers work fine on my AMD Phenom Win 7 64 bit machine. With this stuff you can only research so much. After that you have to just throw the dice and see what happens. Remember, the market for what we do is miniscule compared to the number of users who could help you with some problem with Office 2010. Many times you simply can't find a definitive answer to something like this, you have to be your own guinea pig and then tell us all about it afterwards.

I'm a bit of a geek, I would buy a smaller mid level video card, one that you can return, pull that monster out and see what happens. Note the rendering times first of course.

Bob


Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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I was thinking the same thing jazzmammal. With 12 gig RAM, even the onboard video would have plenty of roomm for a 25 meg file. <grin>
But I already made my suggestion twice. PCIe video card; future proof. 1820 soundcard; very nice.
Money saved? dunno..
Wouldn't have to be a smaller mid-level video card if he went with PCIe format (which should be faster anyway).


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It sounds a bit like overkill having a monster graphic card for stills, video production and games yes. I agree with rharv, a cheaper vid card, sell yours and get an adapter for the cardbus.


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He hasn't said exactly what components he has Rharv but I looked on Newegg's website for ASUS mobos with an i7 and none of them have any onboard video so he needs some kind of video card.

Bob


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Some good comments above, thanks to all that participated. Mac your comments are particularly valid.

I will keep the Old Faithful and the 1820M because they work. Underline they work.

The video card may be overkill, but: one of my lenses will easily do stitched images (for you photographers, it's a tilt/shift lens) - the image can potentially be four or six times 25 MB - now it's getting monstrous. And the video card is a done deal. And my camera does videos - I just haven't gotten around to doing that. Future proof as someone said.

Now that I've had the machine for a week, the cheapest option is to do nothing; keep the old guy and the 1820M. Money saved = zero, additional money spent = zero.

Glenn

PS - thanks Mac. BTW, the comfort aspect is quite important.

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Back just to say, lots of good idea's from everyone. Plenty of the old food for thought for anyone with similar problems.

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