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the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 2:14 am
by the19thbear
Hi.
Used scope many years ago. Some of you might remember me

I'm toying with the idea of getting a pulsar 1 card with adat ports and having that between my A/D converter and my RME adat inputs. Simply to use the pulsar1 as a way of getting zero latency monitoring with effects on.
Then the old problem arises: PCI!
I want to use my existing computer that has no pci ports.
Ideally I would insert a pci to pcie adapter into a pcie slot and from there, pull a pci flex cable down to an available slot in my chassis and install the pulsar1 there.
Is there such a solution? All the solutions I find, result in he cards being to "high" because they have to sit on top of an adapter card.
Come to think of it there is no space in my computer case. Might have to make an external solution. But currently i'm interested in electronics that actually work for this. Then I can always find an external case.
Any known good solutions?
Thanks!

Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 7:08 am
by garyb
yes, you can do this, however adaptors always compromise PCI performance and you have a Pulsar1 which already has a lesser PCI performance compared to later cards.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 1:40 pm
by valis
Old PCI based system, host Scope on that. Connect to modern system via ADAT, SPDIF/AES & MIDI.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2025 6:49 am
by the19thbear
valis wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2025 1:40 pm
Old PCI based system, host Scope on that. Connect to modern system via ADAT, SPDIF/AES & MIDI.
I would like to avoid that. I would like one single system that has everything.
But thanks.
Any known good pcie to pci adapter systems that have been tested and are successful here on planetz? I have searched a bit but can't find anything conclusive.
Thanks

Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2025 7:07 am
by garyb
adaptors always compromise PCI performance and you have a Pulsar1 which already has a lesser PCI performance compared to later cards.
otherwise it should work.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2025 11:28 pm
by the19thbear
Thanks Gary. I'm just looking for a trusted device, that has been tested and everything

Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2025 2:42 pm
by the19thbear
garyb wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2025 7:07 am
adaptors always compromise PCI performance and you have a Pulsar1 which already has a lesser PCI performance compared to later cards.
otherwise it should work.
By the way Gary. If I decide to get the card and an adapter, and want to test it, is there a way to get a demo of the newest version of scope? I just want to see if my combination works before shelling out 165 euro.
Thanks
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:39 pm
by garyb
of course.
1. install v7.
2. copy/paste the request string into an email to support that asks for a temporary key.
3. profit.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2025 11:07 pm
by the19thbear
Cool. Thanks.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 10:02 am
by the19thbear
@garyb
What is likely to cause less issues: Using a pcie to pci adapater with a pulsar2 or pulsar1?
I get the impression that pulsar1 is more finnicky?
And what exactly is the difference between scope 5 and scope 7?
I'm using win11. Any reason to use scope 7 over scope 5? (sorry, been out of the loop for many years)
Thanks
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 10:49 am
by garyb
Pulsar2 has better PCI performance. it should be significantly better.
for win11, you should use v7. v7 has a signed driver.
win11 will remove the v5 driver every update. win11 is a SERVICE, not a PRODUCT. it is 100% maintained by m$. it must update or it makes trouble. win11 does not allow unsigned drivers, although you can install an unsigned driver by disabling driver signature security. the problem is that you'll have to continuously reinstall the driver, which requires test mode. otherwise, v5 is fine. win11 should be connected to the internet, for the most part.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 10:59 am
by the19thbear
Ok cool.
So other than installing v5 for every update, everything else is pretty much the same? I of course want the lowest latency/most stable drivers. SO if there has been no under the hood stuff really done to the drivers, then I guess I could stick with v5, right?
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 5:29 pm
by garyb
sure there are changes, but you probably would not notice them.
v5 on win11 won't be that fun, but it is doable.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 8:54 pm
by valis
I sent him a message reminding him that a brand new Scope cards are also on the Sonic|Core shop.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 10:28 pm
by garyb
i think those are long gone...
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 10:49 pm
by valis
Ah, I just checked the shop to see if they were listed. But you're right, I didn't click through to each individual one to see the red "Out of stock" print. Oh well.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:13 am
by the19thbear
Thanks for the thought Valis.
Looks like I will be getting a used 6dsp card with v5 in the near future. Now I just need to find out if I can actually get it working with a pcie to pci solution. We will see.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2025 5:59 am
by the19thbear
Ok update, got one of these:
https://fyndiq.dk/produkt/desktop-pci-e ... b6cdb4a15/
It sees my card and installs the driver.
So far soo good.
But I made the mistake of assuming that scope 5.1 and scope 5 could run from the same key file. Turns out that 5.0 is only 32bit, so have just requested a demo for v7 from soniccore.
I wrote
info@soniccore.de
Should I write a different email? (EDIT: FOUND THIS
support@soniccore.de)
@♦garyb do you know if there is an upgrade discount from scope 5? I assume not, since as far as I remember scope 5 was released 12 years ago or something.
Once I have the demo, I will do a masterverb test.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2025 7:28 am
by garyb
no, v7 is just cheaper than v5.1.
Re: the good old pcie/pci problem
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 1:46 am
by the19thbear
Just did a masterverb test. Never hit a limit (other than running out of dsp).
The whole system is a bit slow and loading stuff takes a while. That is probably because of the pcie to pci converter.
So far so good.