an another via question

supikoira · Post by **supikoira** » Fri Jun 07, 2002 7:45 am

i have creamware lunaII and i am considering about purchasing of pulsar xtc (they are so cheap now) BUT i have via kt133? chipset on my motherboard...

will those work or will my system crash completely? is there any vay to get them working?

well i know.. this is surely asked before but those forums were so confusing that i was unable to find answers

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Fri Jun 07, 2002 8:11 am

With a luna, you may get by after a few tweaks with basic soundcard stuff, ins, outs etc.
But for anything other than that you are letting urself in for serious headaches.
And forget about combining the pulsar XTC, and getting respectable performance.
Go Intel if you want to be productive.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Jun 07, 2002 8:56 am

You should be okay if you avoid DSP-based delays, reverbs... using nearly all Pulsar synths, you'll be fine on a via...

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 2:13 am

Sub, was that sarcasm I detected there? Or just subtle wit?

supikoira · Post by **supikoira** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 4:10 am

hmmh.. but what am i supposed to do now..

my luna works fine!!! but i i'll buy that xtc what will happen then?!

well i am not going to use those foolish sts samplers at all!!

or if i buy motherboard with amd 761 chip? will my system work then?

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 8:06 am

If you buy an XTC you simply won't be able to make full use of the card without getting pci overflow errors.
I should imagine that after some tweaks you might stretch to five masterverbs. But I think that on a heavy project you will get frequent errors such as pci overflow, and other strange crackles and blips.
For the money you will spend on a new dsp card, you may as well sell your motherboard/chip+memory on ebay, and buy a P4 motherboard/chip/memory.
Or buy a new computer and keep your old one for the internet or midi sequencing.
It does not make sense to put hundreds or pounds/dollars/euros worth of sound equipment into a computer that isn't up to job.
Unfortunetely I have learnt that lesson the hard way, don't make that same mistake.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 11:06 am

Like subhuman said, you'll get pci-overflow only if you use dsp delays and verbs. Synths won't produce pci-overflow. You can use the XTC as and SRB board, to beef up the luna (total of 9 dsps). The XTC mode isn't reliable enough to really use it to it's full extent. But since you already like Luna, you'll get a luna of 9dsps, plus the optimaster, and a couple of synths and effects that come with the XTC board. I think it is very useable. Anyway, are you using frequently 5 masterverb in any of your mix?

Intel is better, ok, that's true, but amd is working ok too i guess. Not as much PCI performance, but for IOs, synths and effects (except verbs) it's more than enough.

And yes, an AMD based board is better than ANY via or ALI or nForce boards for now. An AMD761 based board for example could be Asus A7M-266.

supikoira · Post by **supikoira** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 3:20 am

ok thanks for everyone for the information.

yes i am going to buy that xtc and new motherboard after that!!

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 9:02 pm

marcuspocus with the newest BIOS it looks like the ASUS nForce board has the best performance for the Socket A platform of all chipsets for use with Creamware... I have heard of <a href=http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... orum=1>one person here</a> now has good results with this board since the BIOS fixes issues

<a href=http://www.tech-report.com/onearticle.x/3704>nForce PCI writes mystery: Solved!</a>

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 10:37 pm

Thanks Subhuman, i've took note this times. I remember you telling me this some times ago, but you weren't that convinced at the times. Now it's nForce with latest bios...

Post by **garyb** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 2:02 am

i had 12 dsps on a via mobo b4 i got my current p4.you'll be ok.you just won't have the BEST performance.upgrade the mobo to amd 761 or try the nforce if you find you have problems.