Improving system and STS-4000 performance with BIOS settings

[John Cooper]

. I've been playing with some BIOS settings (see the <a href="http://epsilon.silicon.net.my/adrian/Sp ... htm">speed demon's BIOS guide</a>) trying to improve memory performance and cut down on "dsp timeouts" with the STS-4000.

I use a Abit BX6 (award BIOS) and the default settings were a little conservative. I have never touched some of these settings before as I didn't know what they were for. Here's what I found:

I changed SDRAM RAS to CAS delay to 2 (from 3)
SDRAM RAS precharge time to 2 (from 3)
SDRAM CAS latency time was set to auto - other wise would change to 2
SDRAM precharge control to enable (was disabled)
Delayed transaction to enable (was disabled)

This has not caused any crashes or problems at all (with Cakewalk 9, Pulsar w/trusty old sample players etc, and approx 10-14 tracks of audio, and a few MIDI tracks), and *has* to make memory performance better.

Next - the dreaded STS4000. I was able to load up a few soundfonts and Akai samples (previously I was only able to load 1 program at a time without crashes - although this could have been caused by the "not giving up dsp" bug - as I was previewing a lot of samples, and my dsp load is at least 3/4 of my Pulsar at present). The sampler ran great! And it only crashed when I tried to load another sample while the sequence was playing! Since this is a known bug, I'm pretty sure that from now on, all my STS problems will be due to STS bugs amd not my system.

The MIDI timing seems fine (is this only a logic problem?), and I haven't tried to use individual outs or program changes (I'd never loaded enough samples for this!) I'm still happier using the sample players until the STS fix comes out (although maybe I'll do a little more "experimenting") 'cause I'm wasting more time "testing" than "playing", but I have faith that the STS bugs will be fixed. The STS *does* sound great, and will be easier than the wav2akai/sample player/awave combo (after the bugs are fixed). If anyone else wants to try these BIOS settings, let us know how you make out.

For ASUS CUSL2 users, check <a href="http://radified.com/Misc/cusl2.htm" target="_blank">this useful webpage</a>.

Thanks to <a href="mailto:jbraner@compuserve.com">John Braner</a>.

[subhuman]

I just wanted to say that this is good advice, but not all ram can do CAS2 timings, nor work at PC133 (133mhz). So, if you get instabilities or crashes after you adjust your RAM latencies down to "2" from the more conservative "3" settings, just move them back.

Of course, if possible, only get decent ram like PC133 CAS2, or PC2100 CAS2 (called PC2600 in some places), then John B.'s settings improve your performance nicely.