i7 Motherboard with 3 Scope PCI Cards

[johndunn]

I consider my Scope cards to be more like musical instruments than upscale sound cards, because they are largely immune to computer obsolescence. If I baby them, which mostly means not letting them overheat, they will continue to provide the best sound creation setup available, bar none. I started with a Pulsar some ten years ago, and I can't even remember how many computers it has outlived.

But the PCI protocol IS getting obsolete. So finding a next gen motherboard that still has 3 Scope-friendly PCI slots is getting tricky.

Some 3 weeks ago during a Texas lightening storm we were hit with a power surge that wiped out my computer. Motherboard and power supply fried. So it seemed to be a good time to make the leap to an i7 board, especially as the Intel i7-975 Extreme Edition Bloomfield was being released on June 3rd, just a few days away.

Trouble is, there are precious few i7 motherboards that have 3 PCI slots. There's the Gigabyte EX58-UD4 and the ASRock X58 boards. I'm guessing the Gigabyte EX58-UD4 is a better choice than the ASRock, but it's not available in the US as far as I could tell. So I went with the ASRock X58 Supercomputer board from Newegg:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157150

Bottom line, it can be made to work. Mine is working now with my 3 Scope cards and Scope v5.0, and all are working just fine. But there were some serious problems getting there you should know about if you are thinking about going down the same path.

There are two main issues. The first is in common with the Gigabyte board, that the video PCIe card is right next to the PCI slot, so there is no room for a double wide video card. Even a single wide air cooled card is going to run really hot jammed up so close to the full sized Scope card. And I don't want to even think about the stress the adjacent Scope card will suffer.

So water cooling is probably essential unless you are using a very low power video card. I admit to playing computer games and MMORPGs from time to time, so I want to keep my high performance graphics card. Trouble is, the video card slot is so close to the 3rd Scope card slot, the GPU water block I had been using wouldn't fit because the water fittings took too much space. So I had to buy a new GPU water block card. Danger Den has GPU blocks for most of the performance graphics cards, that has the fittings on top of the card, and the hose nipple pointed backward. It just barely fits, but it does fit.



Second issue is that the support cooling is badly implemented. Notice how small the southbridge cooling setup (right around the CPU) is, and the northbridge chip not only has a minimal heat sink, the top is covered by that stupid X58 label. The end result is that the board burns out very easily. Especially when there are 3 long Scope cards obstructing air flow.

As I write this, I am on my 3rd ASRock motherboard. The first fried after only 4 hours burn in with Primes95. CPU was cool enough, about 59 degrees C., as it was water cooled. But the northbridge and southbridge chips were too hot to touch. I didn't cotton to this at first, as I had read reviews that a large percentage of the boards arrived DOA or died shortly after install, but didn't mention why. So when the 2nd board arrived, I put it together the same way, and it lasted about 8 hours before self immolating. So on the third board, I ordered some aftermarket cooling:


http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6717/ ... g40c16s230


http://www.frozencpu.com/products/4110/ ... 36c121s262

This seems to work. It is a little noisy, especially the little 40 mm fan on the X58 heatsink that whines like a turbine. But it's only marginally more so than before, and it's tolerable. I also have a fan mounted in the computer case right above and pointing down on the 3 Scope cards, to keep them happy.

Bottom line, the best solution probably is to get an XITE-1. But if you have 3 Scope cards already and you want to keep them even as you upgrade your computer to the latest and greatest, it can be done.

[j9k]

have you done the masterverb test yet?
or any heavy tracking above 32

j9k

[johndunn]

Not sure what you are asking, so I guess the short answer is "no." It runs the same as it did before, the faster speed shows up when compiling and other computer intensive tasks, not so much with Scope - which is the point of all those DSPs, right?

[j9k]

how many can you load before a pci overflow.

http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=300

j9k

[dawman]

I am sure that depends on how many of the PCI-e 16X slots are on the mobo.
It seems like the Intel DX58SO had pitiful 32bit PCI performance and that's why DAW builders have chosen the Ultra Durables from Gigabyte, but longer trace routes and making PCI-e 2.0 the important factor is what drives the sales of these boards.
I am curious to see the resluts of this test too.

[johndunn]

An update on the ASRock motherboard. I've had 3 of these boards die, the last one even after I put in the chip cooling (in this case, the back USB ports all crapped out). On my 3rd RMA call to Newegg, they said I could replace it with a different board, so I picked the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-EXTREME
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128361

...and so far it's doing great. Have it running stable at 4.33 gHz. I picked it because the chipset is optionally water cooled, but it turns out it's a much better built boatrd all around. Bios is easier to work with too.

Only problem is, there are only 2 PCI slots. Not a good solution for running a 3 card Scope setup. I solved that particular problem by ordering an Xite-1

[netguyjoel]

I know you will be happier with that decision, & when they get the PCI cards working flawlessly w/ XITE both running 5.0...the planets will allign... congrats john....

[dawman]

The Ultra Durables are the best i7's and X4 boards out there.
Several DAW builders are swearing to those.
I never thought I would stray from Intel but they don't want to compete with their top tier guys.

Congradulations on the XITE-1.
I would also be interested in any software you create that was made to use with the XITE-1.

[johndunn]

I would also be interested in any software you create that was made to use with the XITE-1.

ArtWonk and MusicWonk both have been tested extensively with Scope. They are MIDI pumpers, so there is no reason they won't work with Xite-1. They connect to up to 4 sets of Scope software MIDI I/O devices simultaneously.

That's the good news. The bad news is that it's not really performance software, at least not in the typical sense. It's more along the lines of algorithmic / academic / experimental / generative music. But feel free to download it and check it out.

The free download does not allow patch saves but anyone on this forum can PM me for an unrestricted 30 day license. Include real name, snail mail address and email address.