pci sxpansion

[winger]

Has anyone tried this product for pci expansion, or running a pci card on a laptoP? This would be a cheap enough option if it worked with scope.


http://www.pciexpansionbox.com/shop/exp ... x-kit.html

[chriskorff]

I'd be slightly put off by the fact that it requires an ATX case and PSU... If you were after a portable Scope rig, wouldn't it make more sense to get a rackmount PC in the first place, and then a 1U or 2U rackmount monitor and keyboard thingy? Otherwise you'd basically be dragging a PC *and* a laptop around with you...

Cheers!

Chris

PS. @ Jimmy, did you (ages ago) post a link to some very cheap rackmount slidey keyboard/monitor jobbies? I seem to remember they were a bit of a bargain, and they normally go for a fair bit more. I'd be tempted to go mobile if I could get a good deal on one!

[winger]

From my perspective, this is a cheap solution(assuming it will work) since I have many atx cases and power supplies at my disposal. Most of the other solutions are a lot more money. The same company has this available in a case with power supply but the you get the question of whether it will take the full size scope pro cards and if the power supply can handle 3 cards.

I emailed the company and they said I could return it if it did not work. But shipping is $62.00 to the US, so I am assuming it would cost me $122.00 to find out, even it it does not work. I saw on the UAD site some people had used it successfully. Just hoping someone had tried it with scope.

[astroman]

I'm not sure if it was exactly the same model, but someone here has used such a case succsessfully with ONE Scope card. Can't remember if it was just some mistake but there were problems with multiple cards.
The point is that Scope uses the PCI bus to access auxilary memory on the motherboard for reverb and delay effects if those exceed a certain limit.
It needs full bandwidth then, which not even the Magma cases can't supply.
I wouldn't expect more PCI performance than a single Pulsar One which means 3-4 instances of Masterverb.
Don't even think to start any of the new Scope 5 reverbs, in particular the Ambience device.
UAD and Powercore are more forgiving, because they are not realtime
Except for the conversion the Scope effects are latency free...

You may have specific stuff laying around, but if you consider something of the size of am ATX case anyway, a 2nd hand system of reasonable size is less than 200 Euro.
It will perform way better than even the most modern notebook with a cardbus adapter could.
Most TFTs can be removed from their stand and have vesa mounts on their backside.
It doesn't need publishing quality, it's dead cheapo, too...

cheers, Tom

[winger]

I am already using an atx case for live. But I would like to use a laptop as the controlling computer for a number of reasons. Size of the atx case is not the issue since it is already rack mounted.

I am using it for a live mixing system. I generally only use one instance of the classic reverb and 1 multitap delay but lots of I/O, eq and compression. No Synths.

[Fluxpod]

Somebody tried this solution with pthd and pt mix cards.It worked with the core card and if i remember right 1 additional dsp farm-accel card but that was it.If he started to add more protools didnt even start and if it did lots of errors occured.I doubt it will work with multiple cards but 1. 14 dsp card could work fine.I am curious about that.If you try it out please report back.

[winger]

And, it is also getting harder and harder to find mother boards with more than 2 pci slots.

[kylie]

I had a hard time to get the right screws that fit into the small drilled holes on the pcb and mount to matching spacers (actually, the inner thread of the spacers was a problem).
only this week I found what I needed, having that board combination lying around for months (apart from the fact that I did not have a minute to spare for scope and stuff).
yes I promised it many times ago but I feel I soon might have the time to rip some cards off my old machine and start some MV tests, finally.

my case is already prepared. it just needs to be stuffed with dsp...

I mean, I could just.... nah, it's 30 to midnight, now way

[winger]

I ended up buying this one. http://www.cooldrives.com/exca3topcexe.html

I did htis because it was cheap and ordering the one from virtuavia would come from Europe, for a big shipping cost.

First thing I did was remove it from the case since the case is too small. I stuffed an old pulsar I card in (4 DSP), plugged the pci express card into my laptop and powered up. I am running windows 7 so I installed scope version 4.0 using xp compatibilyt mode and it worked.

I then powered down and added another pulsar I card and booted up. Both cards work. I know I will not be able to add a scope card (15 dsp) becuase of power limits. Power supply is already running a little warm.

I asked cool drives about the 36 watt limit and they said with a large power supply it should have not problems. My scope cards are installed in systems right now. But what I plan to try next when my sopce cards are idle is to rig a PC's 12 volt power supply (I think the one I have will do 150 watts or so), and try adding a scope card to it to see if it works.

[winger]

Well, I started just using the 12 volt supply from a pc pwer supply. With this I could run 2 pulsar cards but could not run a scope card. The problem is that the 5 volt and 3.2 volt supplies are drived on the board from the 12 volt supply and cannot provide enough current to power that many dsps.

I contacted the company again and they said whoever told me this would work did not know what they were talking about and that I should return it. But I was committed because I had modified cables to connect the 12 volt.

So I decided to go the furthern. I lifted the output pin on the 5 volt regulater and connected the 5 volt from the pc power supply directly to the board.

I now have a scope and pulsar II card running it it for a total of 21 dsps. I have more pular cards but cannot try them because my stdm cable only has 2 connectors on it (home made). I will get another connectro and confirm I can run 3 cards at once in the system.

[garyb]

be sure to attach photos showing your work!

[monoman]

my experience with that expansion box might not help but just for your information: i tried the same expansion box with an uad1 card. it did work but adding another card failed. pretty expensive experience i should have bought a walt mart toaster instead

[monoman]

there are a lot of different expansion boxes distributed by exsys.

have a look here: http://www.exsys.ch/index.php?main_page ... anguage=en

i live in germany so it's no big deal for me to get them. if you pay for the extra shipping costs i would order one for you. let me know if you are interested.

[siriusbliss]

Are there any single /1U setups for 3 PCI cards?
I'd like to build a 'Xite lite' with my Pro/PulsarI/SRB.

Greg

[lagoausente]

I´m just testing the ATX version. I´m using a IBM T400 laptop. I have a problem, midi doesn´t work ok. Can´t send midi to the sequencer and STS sampler doesn´t work, no sound. Have you tried this winger? Maybe I have a problem with my laptop or setup?? I´m thinking on returning the unit and keep using my old T40 and the magma.
I´m using Scope 4.0.., it should compatible with multi-core.., isn´t?
Also, STS that doesn´t sound gived me low memory error. I went to msconfig/boot avanced and fix a max memory at 1GB (have 4GB) and it loaded the entire program, but still no sound.
Can anyone give me some light?

[erminardi]

The ATX versione of Virtuavia should works, as for UAD and Protools boards (browse around web and musician forums for some good reviews).
If the midi don't works but Scope OS works, maybe the problem is in your Y cable.

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/full-packa ... -case.html

The secret is the power supply (ATX) that support our beloved boards.

[winger]

I found another sdtm cable. I installed a scope, pulsar II and pulsar card and it worked. I will be out of town now for a week. Whne I get back I will run it through some serious tests to see how it performs and I will do some photos in case anyone else wants to try it.

[lagoausente]

The ATX versione of Virtuavia should works, as for UAD and Protools boards (browse around web and musician forums for some good reviews).
If the midi don't works but Scope OS works, maybe the problem is in your Y cable.

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/full-packa ... -case.html

The secret is the power supply (ATX) that support our beloved boards.

Can you explain that? What Y cable?
What do you mean with the secret is the power supply ATX?
I need to find out if really can make it work 100% before returning the unit, please help!.

[lagoausente]

If you refer to the Scope Card cable, the cable is OK, it woks perfectly on the Magma and the desktop. Using virtuavia it freezes, then after some time STS enters in a soundloop.
On Cubase, it may be some minutes without receiving midi, after some time it receives one note only, and stops again.
Sometimes when I try to change the clock from master to external or vice-versa, or just close STS sampler just got a bluescreen.
My laptop is a T400, Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM. XP shows only 3GB, I guess if there is any other problem with my setup other than the Virtuavia.
I should like any other one to confirm that midi works on this setup...?

[lagoausente]

I guess is this could have something to do with the midi problem?:

http://technet.microsoft.com/es-es/libr ... us%29.aspx

Gurus, I need you,

I realized that STS gived me low memory message on my T400 with 4GB of RAM. Windows shows only 3GB, I have read something about PAE, but didn´t understand very well..., is PAE enabled or disabled by default? There is nothing added to the boot.ini.
I tried limited the max memory on the msconfig and the low memory message dissapeared, but still no sound on STS, something bad with midi.
So seemed that limiting to 1GB, that´s means XP will use only 1GB and so STS will have more free avaible RAM? I don´t undersand.
Curiously I can load around 650mb on the old T40 that has only 1GB of ram, seems not very logigal but there must be a reason.
On the link before, it talks about "improvements" on SP2 and later, DEP that can make incompatibilities.
Hell, there are so many parameters to have in account and missing things.....
I still have the Virtuaria ATX ready to ship back.., but I´m guessing if I could modify something on XP to make it full working.

Edit, another very good link (in spanish but it´s worth): http://www.taringa.net/posts/ebooks-tut ... e-ram.html