Maybe we've found the right AMD motherboard mates

[Drowningman]

I've found this advice in the Cubase forum, so I've decided to send an e-mail to the guy
who wrote it and he told me that SIS chipsets together with a ASUS A7S333 motherboard are a really good combo for Pulsar users too and he told me that he has a costumer with this mobo and a Pulsar card. What do you think about it mate?

"I build a LOT of Turnkey DAWs... and thus have a chance to test most every popular brand/type of motherboard.
Without question, the SiS735 and SiS745 chipsets are currently the best choice for an Athlon XP system.
Under WinXP, PCI bandwidth absolutely smokes the KT333, ALi1647, and Nforce 420.

Don't believe me?
Here's a simple test (using the UAD1)that will reveal PCI bandwidth issues:
Record 8 stereo 24Bit/44.1k audio tracks.
Assign one of the UAD-1's 1176 plug-ins to each of the first 6 tracks.
Bring up the VST performance meter... and start playback.

The KT333, Nforce 420, and ALi1647 all show substantial CPU use.
SiS735 and SiS745 chipsets show almost no CPU use.

You'll notice that I didn't mention the AMD761 chipset. The AMD761 does offer excellent PCI bandwidth under WinXP... but it's starting to get a bit long in the tooth and it has problems dealing with multiple 512MB sticks of DDR RAM.

That's another issue most folks don't know about. MANY MANY current motherboards actually have trouble coping with 512MB sticks of DDR. Sure, the machine will fire up and operate without page faults... but run Memtest 86 and (often) you'll see that one or more of the tests failed (errors).
Again, the SiS735 and SiS745 cope well with 512MB sticks of DDR. You still need to run Memtest 86 to be sure the exact combo 'jibes'... but you can get a combo that runs without any memory-related errors.

So... my (longwinded) advice is get the Asus A7S333 (SiS745 chipset).
If you're running a Frontier Dakota/Sierra, you may want to opt for a SiS735 motherboard as the current driver has a MIDI input problem with that motherboard.

BTW, The Asus A7S333 is only about $80."

And after he was flamed with senseless arguments by another guy he wrote this:

"Blackhawk,

So you want to get into a pissing contest?

I suggest you do a google search on my name.
I'm one of the more knowlegeable folks in the country regarding PC DAWs. So can the attitude...

Audio card was a Hammerfall DSP (Digiface).
Same exact tweaks to the OS, Audio app, etc.
Same exact system hardware (other than the motherboard).

I don't work for SiS... and I'm sorry if it annoys you... but the A7V333 *does indeed* have poor PCI bandwidth when running WinXP.
That's not to say that you can't use the A7V333, but the A7S333 will perform significantly better with the UAD-1.
That's a fact.
And for someone who's about to purchase a new motherboard, it's damned good information to know.

BTW, Show me a screenshot of your CPU use with the test I mentioned.

Also, If you search around, you'll find it very clear (across the board) that the SiS735/745 chipset mobos (not all SiS mobos) are performing extremely well.

One last thing. How many DAWs have you personally built/configured over the last 5 years??? When you're in the high hundreds... then we'll talk.


Jim Roseberry http://www.studiocat.com/
jim@studiocat.com"

Waiting for your comments/experiences mates




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Drowningman on 2002-08-20 17:18 ]</font>

[remixme]

I think you'll need a brave soul to test it fully with pulsar before people are convinced.

But SIS has had sucess on Pentium, according to reports elsewhere in this forum.

Ultimately though, is seems VIA, NVIDIA, and SIS have all started to get their arse in gear regarding the pci issue, so the question will come back down to reliabilty, features and stability, as opose to pci bandwidth. Only time, and unfortunetely user experience will tell.

[Immanuel]

I have tried the ECS k7s5a with the SiS735 chipset. I bought it for my Pulsar - and I sold it, because it did not perform well enough PCI-vise.
Shure, the bandwith is over the top on the paper, but I had crackles running a 3DMark demo...
I remember Subhuman once putting out a sidenote about timing maybe being more important than bandwith. I never heard more from you on this issue Subhuman.

So he has build houndreds of DAWs? And he has had a custommer with a Pulsar. I wonder, where all the pro-PC-techs hide in real life, because there are so many of them on the net...
Shure I have no basis for saying, if this guy is one of those "forum heroes", or he is the real thing, but I am in general sceptic about people, who have made houndreds of PCs.

Immanuel

[at0m]

My previous deck, an MSI694Dpro w VIA (Apollo133?) chipset had slightly higher PCI bandwidth in benchmarks than my current Acorp 6A815EPD w Intel 815 chipset.
Both of them had/have 512 MB SDRAM 133 2/2/2.

I could load no reverbs on the VIA, I can load 12 now.

[Drowningman]

Mates, keep in mind that we're talking about the Asus A7S333 with SiS745 chipset, not about all SIS chipsets (old and new) like the 735

... and yes, he told me about only one Pulsar costumer with that board: as you can see from his sign he has a DAW shop, so I think he has some experience and in my case no need to sell anything 'cause I live in another continent: maybe if he wanted to push me over his own experience he could talk about dozens of Pulsar users with that mobo...

Probably he doesn't sell many Pulsar cards but PCI capacity affects other cards performance as well, so if his results are so good with other cards, at least I think it is worth the test mates, don't you? Subhuman did it with Nvidia/Nforce chipsets, why not with SIS if someone can do that?



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Drowningman on 2002-08-20 17:56 ]</font>

[Immanuel]

Quote:

"Without question, the SiS735 and SiS745 chipsets are currently the best choice for an Athlon XP system."

[Drowningman]

So... my (longwinded) advice is get the Asus A7S333 (SiS745 chipset).