hello everyone.
up to now I have used an old laptop combined with REW, E-mu USB sound card, power amplifier and microphone. little by little I have transformed a small unused room into a simple unpretentious laboratory to do my experiments in the audio field.
the time has come to retire the old laptop and replace it with something else. unlike what I have done up to now the new hardware will always remain in the room without ever leaving it and therefore I am not forced to buy another laptop. for the moment I only use REW, ARTA and spicyTL, I can not know if in the future I will use particularly demanding programs. I intend to buy another sound card to use alongside the one I already have. one to measure the impedance with LIMP and the other to measure the frequency response with REW. this way I do not have to continuously assemble and disassemble the connection circuit every time I want to change the type of measurement. I would like an RME 9632 HDSP but it only works with the old legacy PCI slot that has been banned from most recent motherboards. Apparently the best choice is a socket chip with native PCI legacy 32-bit/33 MHz support. So I come to the point: I would like to choose hardware that is sufficiently suitable for this type of audio software but that has at least two (in case of failure I can change slots) legacy PCI slots. I could orient myself towards a computer already assembled and ready to use or buy a motherboard, CPU and accessories, power supply, RAM, video card and screen but there is a problem, I have no idea which product I should orient myself towards.
what do you recommend? .
bye and thanks
up to now I have used an old laptop combined with REW, E-mu USB sound card, power amplifier and microphone. little by little I have transformed a small unused room into a simple unpretentious laboratory to do my experiments in the audio field.
the time has come to retire the old laptop and replace it with something else. unlike what I have done up to now the new hardware will always remain in the room without ever leaving it and therefore I am not forced to buy another laptop. for the moment I only use REW, ARTA and spicyTL, I can not know if in the future I will use particularly demanding programs. I intend to buy another sound card to use alongside the one I already have. one to measure the impedance with LIMP and the other to measure the frequency response with REW. this way I do not have to continuously assemble and disassemble the connection circuit every time I want to change the type of measurement. I would like an RME 9632 HDSP but it only works with the old legacy PCI slot that has been banned from most recent motherboards. Apparently the best choice is a socket chip with native PCI legacy 32-bit/33 MHz support. So I come to the point: I would like to choose hardware that is sufficiently suitable for this type of audio software but that has at least two (in case of failure I can change slots) legacy PCI slots. I could orient myself towards a computer already assembled and ready to use or buy a motherboard, CPU and accessories, power supply, RAM, video card and screen but there is a problem, I have no idea which product I should orient myself towards.
what do you recommend? .
bye and thanks
A secondhand HP Z440/Z640 workstation fits your bill almost perfectly. Powerful enough to run current SW with PCI 32/33 slot. Sadly only one.
If you can find them the previous generation HP XW8600 or XW9400 are maybe better. Virtualization is not their strong suit though.
Both options are workstation class and build to last.
If you can find them the previous generation HP XW8600 or XW9400 are maybe better. Virtualization is not their strong suit though.
Both options are workstation class and build to last.
Unfortunately you need to go back some generations to find MB's with PCI interfaces. You can get PCIE sound cards however in my experience the cheaper ones are not well suited to audio. I use an EMU 1616M or 1212M but I need to run it in 32 bit win 10 for it to work well. There is no 32 bit Win 11 but none of this hardware is really supported anyway. In an older machine I had at one point The EMU, an RME 9632 and a Lynx L22. They all coexisted. Its an ASUS M5A97 AMD motherboard. Here is one with processor and ram for $100 https://www.ebay.com/itm/1870490514...+DijcQqmO89GW5MBReFX8do4YvRg|tkp:BFBM0rnEpbRl
The MB's are $50 or less. Microsoft is trying to make all this stuff landfill but it all works great for many tasks.
The MB's are $50 or less. Microsoft is trying to make all this stuff landfill but it all works great for many tasks.
Since many of current PCI-e soundcards are "just" the older PCI models equipped with PCIe/PCI bridge (see ESI Juli@ vs Juli@ Xte, Asus Xonar ST vs. STX , ESI Maya 44 vs. 44 EX etc.), often with ASMedia ASM1083 or TI XI02001, a standalone PCIe/PCI adapter board could solve the issue. Mounting the PCI soundcard would take some minor work, but there is usually plenty of space in desktop PCs.
I tried to get the ESI Juli@ PCIE to work but there were too many issues in the system that had the PCI version working. I ran out of patience and switched the system to the EMU 1212M on Win 10-32 bit. Some times its not worth the effort to figure out the issue.
PCI is a dying breed, as USB is fast and reliable enough today to take it's place. And other devices just work over lan (ravenna/dante/... protocol). I would not invest in a PCI rig anymore. A USB device will make your device usable longer i think,
but even using only USB sound cards it can be very useful to know some tricks to get better performance.
one of these could be the installation of a card on one of the slots directly on the motherboard for additional USB ports, each with its own dedicated controller.
do you know other tricks?
one of these could be the installation of a card on one of the slots directly on the motherboard for additional USB ports, each with its own dedicated controller.
do you know other tricks?