My X2 experience so far...

[Akis]

I recently upgraded to an AMD Athlon X2 440 and an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard. Before you ask, the reason I went for the MSI and not the famous ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo is that the MSI is the only mobo for which there are positive reports that it works with a Powercore. I can confirm that, as my 2 Powercores (PCI mkI and II) work flawlessly. Furthermore, I asked UA and they said that any motherboard should be fine with v.4.0, as long as it is not an nForce 4 mobo.

Well... no, it is not fine.

With UAD-1 software v.3.9, I get the usual crackles and pops that usually are gone after the correct PCI slots are used; the only difference is that slot switching doesn't work here, at least not so far.

With v.4.0... well, here lies the real disaster: the crackling is far worse than with 3.9 and the audio sounds kinda warped or warbled. Totally unusable. Switching slots etc. does nothing, as does PCI latency tweaking. Bummer.

My system specs are:

AMD Athlon X2 4400
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
GeForce FX5200 128MB
2x1GB Kingston DDR400
Zalman CNPS7700Cu
RME Multiface v.2.94
2xUAD-1
TC Powercore PCI Classic v.1.95 SR1
TC Powercore PCI mkII v.1.95 SR1
WD JB 120GB IDE System Drive (Primary Master)
WD JB 200GB IDE Audio Drive (Primary Slave)
WD JB 200GB IDE Samples Drive (Secondary Master)
Enermax 465W PSU

Win XP Pro SP2
Nuendo 3.1.934

Re: the X2 performance, well, that's the good part: it's a beast!

Now I just have to wait for UA to fix these issues... :|

 

[Suntower]

I gots 2 UAD-1s and one PoCo Element in the Asus. I know everyone freaks about VIA chipsets, but...

No problems here. And I've been as anal as a proctologist lookin' for flaws. So far none.

I know that doesn't help -you-, but if you can swap, I'd think on it.

Good luck!

---JC

PS: If I hadn't heard that UA was testing on Asus, -I- would've chosen an MSI or Gigabyte board myself. Every dog has it's day, I guess.

 

[d500]

Hi suntower

What asus motherboard are you using for your X2. I have a powercore element and a uad-1 and would like to upgrade to a stable dual core system

Thanks

Dave

 

[Suntower]

A8V Deluxe. Just look in the webzine for UA's test system. I simply copied their parts list. (Why take chances just for a little more performance?)

---JC

Hi suntower

What asus motherboard are you using for your X2. I have a powercore element and a uad-1 and would like to upgrade to a stable dual core system

Thanks

Dave

 

[Special_T]

Try a different soundcard. The RME 9652 paired with UAD-1 caused crackles on my X2.

 

[Akis]

Try a different soundcard. The RME 9652 paired with UAD-1 caused crackles on my X2.

On what mobo?

BTW, thanks for all responses so far - I've just been too busy to reply in detail. JC, if you do a search, you'll see Captain Caveman had issues with an ASUS A8V, an X2 and a PoCo mkII; his issues were gone as soon as he replaced the ASUS with the MSI.

 

[Suntower]

First of all I have a 9652 and it's workin' great.

Second, I have a Poco Element, so maybe there's some difference there. I'd try taking out the MkII and seeing if -that- was the deal.

Thirdly, I thought Captain Caveman swapped mobos -before- trying 4.0. If true, that's not a fair test.

Fourthly, maybe the GeForce is a factor? (I'm using Matrox P750).

I am by no means a hardware-boffin. Just givin' people my experience. As I've said before, I also have had better luck in the past with MSI.

Good luck!

---JC

Try a different soundcard. The RME 9652 paired with UAD-1 caused crackles on my X2.

On what mobo?

BTW, thanks for all responses so far - I've just been too busy to reply in detail. JC, if you do a search, you'll see Captain Caveman had issues with an ASUS A8V, an X2 and a PoCo mkII; his issues were gone as soon as he replaced the ASUS with the MSI.

 

[Akis]

mkII works fine here; if I remove it, nothing changes re: the UAD-1's.

Captain Caveman had problems with the mkII, so I don't think the UAD-1 software v.4.0 would have anything to do with it.

 

[Captain Caveman]

hi

when there wasn't a solution to the freezes i was having with the asus a8v del , x2 and uad-1, i sold the uad-1 (before v4).

i then sold my poco firewire and got a poco mk2. this caused exactly the same freezes on the asus without the uad-1 (fresh install of xp) being at all present.

i then got an msi a8n neo 2 plat which works perfectly with the poco mk2.

unfortunately, as i discovered today when my new uad-1 arrived - it doesn't work with the uad-1. horrible garbling, warbling, digital distortion which gets slightly better when using huge latencies of +2048. but still terrible.

arrgghh!

 

[Captain Caveman]

mkII works fine here; if I remove it, nothing changes re: the UAD-1's.

Captain Caveman had problems with the mkII, so I don't think the UAD-1 software v.4.0 would have anything to do with it.

h4nc0 has his uad-1s working on the msi k8n since the 4.0 update.

i'll pm him and ask him if he has any setup tips.

8)

 

[Akis]

I see we have the exact same symptoms. However, I just received an ASUS A8V Deluxe and will give it a go later on. I'll let you know of the results. [-o<

 

[Captain Caveman]

I see we have the exact same symptoms. However, I just received an ASUS A8V Deluxe and will give it a go later on. I'll let you know of the results. [-o<

i've just sold my asus. :evil:

keep me posted. hope it works for you cause it defo didn't with me.

i've pm'd h4nc0 to see how he has setup his system to see if i can get help on the msi thang.

8)

 

[jrankin]

A8V deluxe X2 4400, 3*UAD, 1*Poco Mk2 working fine here. RME fireface for sound, Nvidia 6600GT graphics.

Not a great help to know for those with problems but if you have any questions them I'm happy to try to help. I have load tested the UAD's VERY hard and the Poco fairly hard and things have been good so far.

 

[Akis]

Nice to know. Off to switch the mobo!

 

[Captain Caveman]

A8V deluxe X2 4400, 3*UAD, 1*Poco Mk2 working fine here. RME fireface for sound, Nvidia 6600GT graphics.

Not a great help to know for those with problems but if you have any questions them I'm happy to try to help. I have load tested the UAD's VERY hard and the Poco fairly hard and things have been good so far.

could you check to see if you get a freeze when working all the poco dsps +85%?

also, akis - what audio interface are you using?

 

[jrankin]

I just ramped up the 3*UADs to 93% constant load using a modified version of the Thonex test on Cubase. Nice and stable. I then started ramping up the Poco and got a fairly heavy load (probably around 75% average) and did a get a lockup. However I was also getting short of memory (I only have 1Gb !) so I cannot be confident as to what the problem was that caused the crash. I will try again with a different configuration of the project. As I loaded up the Poco the cpu usage went up very quickly - far more than loading the UADs, but that may have been a symptom of the memory shortage. Before it crashed the cpu meter in Cubase was at 95%

I'll try a different project structure.

BTW. The cpu temperature immediately after I reset was 37 degrees. These AMD processors (+Zalmann 9500 cooler) really don't get close to overheating !

 

[Akis]

RME Multiface. Just installed the board and updated the BIOS. In a couple of hours I may post some news...

 

[jrankin]

I have just changed to my audio project I used to test UAD v4 software. With this project:

1. 3* UADs loaded at 90%+ run OK no problems
2. Poco Mk2 loaded at 80-85% average runs OK
3. Running both at high load will eventually cause the old \"machine gun\" freeze

I guess running both at such a high load must be pushing things very hard but it is difficult to work out what triggers it. I certainly cannot get the Poco loaded above the levels above before serious crackles set in (with or without UADs running). However, this does represent a lot of DSP processing and well above my normal levels so in \"normal\" situations things work very well.

 

[Akis]

Hmmm... Using my old system, I used to max out all my cards with 0 problems. BTW, jrankin, which slots have you put your cards in?

 

[Akis]

Nice, just got my first freeze - no pops or crackles, though. jrankin, I really need you to tell me how you have your cards arranged, I think it'll save me a lot of hassle. :wink: