MOTUnation.com

Here••™s the thing: I••™ve got a brand new audio pc, based on the Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard. I also own two Motu 896 8 channel FireWire audio interfaces.
The don••™t work together!
Every time I tried to switch sample rates (in for example Nuendo 3) the Motu••™s go bezerk and one is not (clock)syncing. The clock sync light is blinking, sometimes it stays on the correct sample rate, most of the time the second Motu is not getting its sync at all. The consequences are clear; bad playback (glitches etc.) and no way I can record 16 channels in 44,1Khz (let go; 48, 88,2 or 96Khz). With only 1 Motu connected the situation is a bit better, but also not 100% error free. The FireWire card always has it••™s own IRQ (21) I want to use the 896 internal word clock.
What did I try:
-shorter FW cables
-both Motu••™s on separate cables/fw ports
-integrated fw chip on P5B (Texas Instruments), own/single IRQ 21
-(external) PCI FW card (TI, Via, Agere), own/single IRQ 21
-all possible Motu drivers I could get my hand on (5 versions)
-complete new installation OS etc.
-the XP SP2 ••˜registry hack••™ for FW800 support••¦..(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us)
-tried Nuendo (1.5.2, 2 & 3), Wavelab, Cubase (all with comparable problems)

I think I can bring the problem back to the combination of the motherboard (chipset, CPU?) and firewire, because in 3 other computers. All these also with the TI 1394/fw card/chip, (••˜older••™pc••™s though; PIV, 2,4 Ghz, PIII, 900Mhz) and they all work like a charm. I can record 88,2 in 16 channels with no problem and playback also with no errors.

Maybe the Core 2 Duo Intel CPU might be the problem••¦••¦
I don••™t know, maybe someone out here does!

Maybe using an external word clock could solve this but A. I don••™t want that (also portable purpose) and B. I know (see above) that it can work just fine••¦••¦

Question one is does anybody know a solution and another question might be, should I buy another motherboard and if yes; which one is known to perform well/stable in the professional audio world (what is THÉ motherboard to have!)

The full specs are:
MB: Asus P5B Deluxe, NB: Intel P965/G965 rev. C1, SB: Intel 82801HB/HR (ICH8/R) rev. 02
BIOS: 1101 Date 03/09/2007 (latest)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 2.13GHz
MEM: 2048 MBytes DDR2, 333.3 MHz (4:5)
OS: Windows XP Prof SP2, all updates

Thanks in advance••¦••¦

Get this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131039

BradLyons wrote:Get this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131039

And why is that?
Is it better?
Are there known problems with the P5B?
Or is it only as a response to the question about the ultimate motherboard?

The motherboard you're using isn't ideal for a PC Daw, which is why I suggested this other one.

BradLyons wrote:The motherboard you're using isn't ideal for a PC Daw, which is why I suggested this other one.

Ok clear, well, maybe i'm a bit persistant, but can you explain a bit more why it isn't ideal?
Besides the fact that i want a good, stable PC DAW, my hobby is computers as well, so..........

EDIT: as far as i can see, a few differences:
975 chipset instead 965
ICH7 instead of ICH8 (?!?!)
8 USB instead of 10
Marvel SATA instead of JMicron
2 PCI slots instead of 3

I am/was also looking at another motherboard: Intel Desktop Board DP965LT.........any comment on this one?

The 975 chipset is better for professional audio than the 965. More robust, better resource allocation. The one Brad suggested is THE mobo to use with PTHD if you're using Core2.

So the best and only advice/solution for my problem is buying a new motherboard?
(no offence btw, to the 2 people who responded to my post)

Is there nobody out there who recognizes my problem and/or has some other tips i could try?

well.... the two people who responded happen to work for 2 of the biggest pro audio system builders on earth.

You gotta understand, the motherboard IS your computer. There is nothing more important than choosing a motherboard that has all the best components for pro audio. These requirements are very different from whats the best for gaming, enteprise office work, or even pro video.

Way back when I bought my first pro interface, I researched heavily as to which motherboards and systems worked the best for the interface I wanted to use. When I found lots of success stories with a certian model, thats what I bought.

I can assure you its not a problem with the Intel Core2Duo processor, as we've put thousands of them in DAWs and they are spectacular. Its probably in the way the 965 chipset splits the PCI resources with other onboard perepherials, something the 975 doesn't do.

Hard2Hear wrote:well.... the two people who responded happen to work for 2 of the biggest pro audio system builders on earth.

You gotta understand, the motherboard IS your computer. There is nothing more important than choosing a motherboard that has all the best components for pro audio. These requirements are very different from whats the best for gaming, enteprise office work, or even pro video.

Way back when I bought my first pro interface, I researched heavily as to which motherboards and systems worked the best for the interface I wanted to use. When I found lots of success stories with a certian model, thats what I bought.

I can assure you its not a problem with the Intel Core2Duo processor, as we've put thousands of them in DAWs and they are spectacular. Its probably in the way the 965 chipset splits the PCI resources with other onboard perepherials, something the 975 doesn't do.

Ok thanks!
The thing is too that with the suggested MB i only have two PCI slots. One is for a Powercore the other maybe for a PCI firewire card. Or maybe another PCI soundcard in the near future ( i still have a Hammerfall as well). Then i'm already out of PCI slots.....

What other considerations should i do when installing XP?
Hyperthreading/ACPI,APIC/??

Everything is moving to PCIe anyways, there are lots of those on that board, and all future boards are headed that way. UAD, TC, RME, MOTU all have PCIe versions of their cards already, and the lesser companies will be along shortly.

Ok, I am negotiating with my supplier about another mainboard. I also bumped into the Asus P5W DH Deluxe....is that a good choice as well?
It also has the 975 chipset. I don't see many differences with the Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional.
The Pro uses a Marvell chip for SATA/RAID. The DH a Jmicron.

Why would the P5WDG2 WS Professional be a better choice?

thanks again......

Because it's proven to be reliable and just work.....

kaajee wrote:Ok, I am negotiating with my supplier about another mainboard. I also bumped into the Asus P5W DH Deluxe....is that a good choice as well?
It also has the 975 chipset. I don't see many differences with the Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional.
The Pro uses a Marvell chip for SATA/RAID. The DH a Jmicron.

Why would the P5WDG2 WS Professional be a better choice?

thanks again......

I upgraded from a P5W DH Deluxe to a P5K which uses the new generation of chipset. I have had no more problems and no fewer problems going from the 975 to the latest set. That said, unless you are a bugger for punishment, if you have a surefire recommendation, that may be your solution. I enjoy the chase so I spend most of my time trying to get the damn thing to work right.... The P5K deluxe is a week old so it is too soon to tell what problems I will have. Vista is a headache for sure. period. XP is running my 8pre and Cubase SX3 with no trouble.

hello ( i searched ASUS PK5 motu and found this thread.)

i just bought a P5K premium ...it wont even see my Motu 324 pci card....yet it will see other cards...and i know my MOTU works i have tested it in 3 other machines. totally strange.

I'm just about to RMA it..id love an ASUS but after this it is very scary.

I'm thinking of a gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6, iX38.

something unnerving about these ASUS boards.