PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hey Fine Z Peeps!

Well, it's time for that upgrade and I was reading that some people are having quirks with the P4C800-E Deluxe board.

I'm basing my new SCOPE Host Box with that particular board...

CONFIG:
Chassis: Lian-Li PC6070+Mod clear panel
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 550 watts
MoBo: P4C800-E Deluxe
Proc: P4 3.2GHz (Prescott)
RAM: 2GB (2x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR400 Kits)
Video: ATI X800 Pro
HD1: 40GB Seagate ATA100
HD2: 40GB Seagate ATA100 (removable tray)
SCSI HD1: (external U160 for audio/video)
SCSI HD2: (external U160 for audio/video)
DVD-ROM: Asus 16x
DVD-+RW: Sony 16x Dual Layer

PCI COMPONENTS
SCSI: Adaptec 29610
DSP1: SCOPE Professional
DSP2: SCOPE Booster Board

OPERATING SYSTEMS:
Windows XP Pro SP2 (bare)
- Cubase SX3
- Wavelab 5
- Logic Platinum 5
- DVD/CD burning software

Ubuntu Linux
- Cinelerra video editing suite


Now, as far as PCI placements for the CW cards. Many are recommending the 1st PCI slot, or either the 4th or 5th.

Currently, my PulsarII+ is happily working on the 4th slot of my P4P-E board. The other PCI component I have is the Adaptec 29160 SCSI. All my on-board I/Os are active (USB2.0, Serial, Parallel, etc.) So far, my Box is running stunningly well without any hitch...

For my upgrade, I'd like to do this right on the beginning, hopefully without or very minimal quirks...

I'm planning on placing the SCOPE Pro on the 5th and the SRB cascading on the next slot. I read somewhere that it's beneficial to have both CW cards on the 1st and 5th slots?? Anyway, any advise would be much appreciated....

Thanks much!
~Z





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Z Station on 2005-02-09 06:10 ]</font>

I've got the P4C800-E Deluxe board with the same power supply and ram as you're using. There's a Scope card in slot 1, SRB in slot 5 and an Adaptec scsi card in slot 2. The Scope cards share an IRQ. I've disabled all the onboard devices, but USB 2 is enabled for a DVD drive. This setup works beautifully.

/dave

Thanks Dave!

What about the cable connecting the SCOPE cards? I suppose their long enough to reach...

Thanks again!
~Z

Yep, cables reach fine, not too snug.

You could use, as you suggested, slots 4 & 5, but PCI slot 4 shares an IRQ with the firewire port (if it's enabled), so you'll use 2 IRQs. With 1 & 5, only one IRQ is used. Also, the separation allows better heat dispersal.
Remember with 2 scope boards you want the I/O board to be "Board 0" in the Scope environment, so place it in the higher slot. You can also achieve this by editing the cset.ini file (in the manual).


/d

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dbmac on 2005-02-09 14:04 ]</font>

Slot 1 for the I/O board eh? Doesn't Slot 1 share the AGP or is this not the case on the more modern boards... My CUBX board had the same IRQ sharing and it's very limiting. What about the video noise interference having SCOPE being next to the video card? That's why I always place any audio cards as far away from the video card as possible...

I'm just probably behind the times and technology has improved since then...

I've always been a SCSI fan and I've invested a lot of $ on my Adaptec cards, ext. SCSI Chassis + removable trays, and SCSI drives.. Also, SCSI arguably has the best and more efficient bi-directional throughput, faster seek time (10K/15K rpm) and media longevity. Not dissing ATA or S-ATA at all, they're great stuff, too. It probably doesn't matter as much anymore but I've always been partial to SCSI and am looking forward to SAS....

Yeah, slot 1 on this board is not linked to the AGP. But it is close, so interference (physical or electronic) with the video card is possible. I haven't noticed any problem with my ancient Matrox G400 dual head.

You could always put the I/O card in slot 5 and make it "board0" in the cset.ini file.

/dave

I use scsi but I use it on a 64/66 PCI bus (pci-x) to keep the 32bit bus bandwidth free enough for audio duties. Scsi is still superior to IDE and SATA when it comes to intellegently load balancing tasks and freeing up the device chain to do other duties. However IDE/SATA perform well enough now that not many people benefit from the extra performance, especially given the massive price difference. Hence it doesn't make sense in terms of cost/performance for most users.

Tanks for the tip, dbmac!

Hey Valis, what make is your mobo? I've been eyeing on a SuperMicro board but it's rediculously expensive so I opted on the P4C800-E and perhaps start migrating to S-ATA...

Well, I found another board! As much as I've been obsessing with the P4C800-E for the past year, I found another board that has everything I want and can finally use my Adaptec 29320 card that's been sitting in my closet for ages...

So, I guess I'll be selling (maybe) my P4C800-E and get the Super Micro P4SCT+II...

Anyone here using this board?