I haven't reasearched Athlon XP MOBOs lately to see if they havfe onboard SATA. If I were spending money on a MOBO, though, I'd get an Athlon64 MOBO and save up just a little more to get the Athlon64 processor to go with it.

I don't have time this morning to find a controller card, maybe later today. I suggest you find a local shop for ease of return/swap out. I know that Best Buy carries Adaptec SATA PCI adapter cards, so you could start there if you wish.

Not give plugs but I have had good luck with newegg.com for having my techneeds its not the same as going to the store but the prices are better as is the selection.

"I'd get an Athlon64 MOBO and save up just a little more to get the Athlon64 processor to go with it."

I also built a computer recently and looked around at the 64 bit systems but couldn't see spending the extra for tech that I was not able to use. I do know that Cakewalk typically comes out with there new versions (of Sonar) around this time do you think they will be making the next one 64 bit and what would the advantages be to a 64 bit system over the current setup?

Ken

ORIGINAL: ken_earl2000
Not give plugs but I have had good luck with newegg.com for having my techneeds its not the same as going to the store but the prices are better as is the selection.

Ordinarily, they'd be the first that I recommend, but at this stage of the game the PCI SATA controller card is a bit of a crap-shoot, and it's usually a lot easier to return something to a local shop.

I also built a computer recently and looked around at the 64 bit systems but couldn't see spending the extra for tech that I was not able to use. I do know that Cakewalk typically comes out with there new versions (of Sonar) around this time do you think they will be making the next one 64 bit and what would the advantages be to a 64 bit system over the current setup?

It's not so much about the 64 bits right now as it is the chipset. The nForce3 chipset, for example, runs nicely with SATA. You could go Pentium4, of course, but it would cost more and the Athlon64 is, dollar for dollar, a better performer.

Thanks, Tbone. That article was helpful. Looks like more and more are catching on to this whole PCI latency thing.

I have had issues with the Midiman Audiophile /SATA. The card is great and it worked fine in my old HP Pavillion!!!, but now I am having serious issues with my current setup:

Asus p4c800 deluxe (Intel Chipset)
P4 2.4GB (Intel)
512 MB RAM (patriot)
120 GB SATA HD (Seagate)
40 GB IDE HD (Seagate)

I have read this thread a lot and played around with Powerstrip, Sondra, Fresh Diagnose, and disabled everything unnecessary in the BIOS. I have switched PCI slots, updated the sound card, and SATA controller drivers and I am still having problems.
If I boot off of the IDE there is a lot less clicking ,popping and weird noise. If I boot off the SATA I can't even minimize a window and play an MP3 in Winamp without awful sounds coming out!
I have tried the onboard sound as playback only, and tried it with the onboard disabled, using the PCI Audiophile for playback and recording.
I cant run Cakewalk homestudio at all.
Am I missing something?

ORIGINAL: cwalk1
I have had issues with the Midiman Audiophile /SATA. The card is great and it worked fine in my old HP Pavillion!!!, but now I am having serious issues with my current setup:
Asus p4c800 deluxe (Intel Chipset)
P4 2.4GB (Intel)
512 MB RAM (patriot)
120 GB SATA HD (Seagate)
40 GB IDE HD (Seagate)
I have read this thread a lot and played around with Powerstrip, Sondra, Fresh Diagnose, and disabled everything unnecessary in the BIOS. I have switched PCI slots, updated the sound card, and SATA controller drivers and I am still having problems.
If I boot off of the IDE there is a lot less clicking ,popping and weird noise. If I boot off the SATA I can't even minimize a window and play an MP3 in Winamp without awful sounds coming out! I cant run Cakewalk homestudio at all.

Sounds like you should take a deep breath, find your center, then, like Agent Smith said, "...wipe the slate clean, make a fresh start". Use the little "go-back" button on PowerStrip to bring all of your PCI latencies back to factory default.

That MOBO should be excellent for a DAW, SATA or otherwise. Question: Did you make sure to plug your SATA drive into the right SATA port? Two ports are from the ICH5 Southbridge chip, and two ports are from the Promise controller. Choose wisely (ICH5 is the most likely path to success here).

Thank you so much for the ideas and this thread. I still have not resolved my issues but is is nice to know there are other people out there who want to throw their DAW off a bridge.

I have the SATA cable in the right spot. It's the ICH5 chip ,since I am not using a RAID. I forgot to mention I have a GeForce2 MX 400 video card with 64MB RAM on it.

The default latency settings are as follows:
AGP 248, audio 96, NIC 96 I have tried -
AGP 128, audio 96, NIC 32 , and also,
AGP 144, audio 104, NIC 32 , as well as some others.

I even made sure all my drives are on seperate cables and disabled the USB in the BIOS. There is no IRQ sharing going on.

ANY IDEAS????

Thanks,
Clark

Losguy the Great! Conqueror of the SATA Empire! Uniter of the continents of Hardwaria and Softwaria!

If a knucklehead at RSPE Audio could just get his act together (he's mailed me the wrong cable for my Rosetta 800/Lynx AES16 setup twice now over a long month of waiting), I'd have replaced my firewire MOTU 896 (anyone want to buy it? Scratchless at $600 and incl firewire PCI card), and I'd be messing with the latency settings for that Lynx card already. Powerstrip has almost enitrely cleared up my crackles with the MOTU, however. I just set the IEEE firewire card higher than the AGP card, which was, typically, at 248 originally.

Merry Christmas, Losguy, and Sonar dudes and dudettes!

ORIGINAL: jaz@jackzucker.com
My solution was to switch the controller mode in the bias to ATA from SATA. That seems to be the best solution from what I could see. No more messing around with having to have SATA drivers on a floppy which was important since my computer doesn't have a floppy drive!
This also allows the software to work properly with the XP Install and various partitioning and backup/restore programs which boot off of CD.

Not sure what you mean by "controller mode in the bias". You must mean BIOS. If so, then MOBO models will vary slightly in this regard. SATA was new enough when by A7N8X came out that the BIOS doesn't even recognize SATA as a boot drive in the base BIOS. It can be done, but you have to do a few gymnastics with a special SATA-RAID BIOS. I never really bothered with it since I always boot off of IDE.

ORIGINAL: losguy

ORIGINAL: jaz@jackzucker.com
My solution was to switch the controller mode in the bias to ATA from SATA. That seems to be the best solution from what I could see. No more messing around with having to have SATA drivers on a floppy which was important since my computer doesn't have a floppy drive!
This also allows the software to work properly with the XP Install and various partitioning and backup/restore programs which boot off of CD.

Not sure what you mean by "controller mode in the bias". You must mean BIOS. If so, then MOBO models will vary slightly in this regard. SATA was new enough when by A7N8X came out that the BIOS doesn't even recognize SATA as a boot drive in the base BIOS. It can be done, but you have to do a few gymnastics with a special SATA-RAID BIOS. I never really bothered with it since I always boot off of IDE.

Of course I meant BIOS! Nice typo though...

My bios lets me switch between SATA and PATA modes off the same drives. The advantage is that XP and everyone else knows how to talk to PATA out of the box so Norton Ghost, Partition Magic, Acronis Disk Manager, Acronis True Image and of course XP Install/Repair all know how to communicate with the hardware. Prior to switching back to PATA, I had to always boot into the bios and select the PATA mode when I wanted to do any partition or save/restore stuff from a boot CD. That was crazy and not worth the effort. Apparently some versions of XP SP2 are now shipping with SATA drivers for certain intel chipset implementations though SP2 doesn't work as well for audio in my tests.

Thanks, Mark. That summary may be a little longer than originally expected, but I'll get a 'round to it eventually.

Hey losguy et all -I'm back into this thread with an update. Everything you advised me on, Carlos, made great improvements in my DAW performance but I am sad to say that my SATA Never came through 100% (mine is an SIL3112 added onto the Intel D845PEBT2 motherboard). While I was working this issue, I discovered that my SCSI drive, which was used for GigaStudio samples, would work smooth as butter; it just didn't give me the throughput I was looking for. So I decided to rob my server of it's SCSI RAID 5 array, which is hosted by an AMI-based controller with 32MB cache.

The SATA disks went to the server attached to a Promise card (non-RAID; I made a software mirror in NT) and the SIL3112 controller is disabled, until such time as I get an SATA-based DVD burner.

The SCSI RAID is doing the job that I hoped SATA would do for me, but never quite made it. Everything Carlos and others put in this thread has been very helpful, and I'm still running Powerstrip.

I'm not telling folks to follow my lead here; for one thing, the RAID array cost me over $1000 (3 10K RPM disks, the controller, & a data cable with terminator), it makes more noise, and it uses more power than the SATA RAID did. but since I aleady had it and it was overkill for use in my server, I went with it in the DAW. It is nice to have RAID 5 protecting my data, fer shure.

Warpman - be certain your Delta is not sharing an IRQ - the lowly SB PCI is not as demanding on your resources as the Delta can be. I had probs with my twin 1010's until I finagled the IRQ stack into submission. Shut down any peripheral that you do not use (in my case, the 2 serial ports, the second IDE channel, and the SATA controller)

EX:
1 PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)
2 - the redirect to 9 through 15 - can't touch this
3 DELL PERC 3/SC RAID Controller
4 M-Audio Delta 1010
5 ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
6 Standard floppy disk controller
7 Intel(R) PRO/100 S Server Adapter
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Intel PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller
10 QLogic QLA1280, 64 bit PCI DUAL LVD SCSI HBA
10 Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller - 24C3
11 Matrox Millennium G550
11 Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2
11 Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection #2
12 Logitech PS/2 Port Mouse
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE Channel
15 M-Audio Delta 1010

warpman, it sounds like you're faced with the same situation as me. I guess your SATA controller is actually bridged to the chipset rather than truly integrated into it?

If you want to spend a litle money, consider a Promise SATA PCI raid controller. The only reason I went with my SCSI card was - I paid for it quite a while ago, and I don't have cash to put into a computer right now.

Hi Zlart, thanks for getting back with the update. Your findings could help others in the same boat. Yes, if I had my choice of SATA controllers, I would love to go with RAID 5. That represents the ultimate luxury in track count AND data reliability.

Now if only we could only find a MOBO that integrates this right into the CPU chipset! Any takers?

Thanks for the reply losguy!

An alternative for these, like Z said, short of getting a new MOBO, perhaps is to go with a PCI card SATA controller. At least with that, you can try different cards (and the drivers that go with them) rather than being stuck with just the single set that came with your MOBO. Also, you could always try a different audio card, perhaps from a different manufacturer (funds permitting, of course).

As I mentioned in my reply to Z, I had to get a quick fix for this, which ended up in buying a WD 80G Caviar to replace the Raptor that was in place... But considering another sound card may be a solution. I'll see how funds go in the future...!

Anyhow, thanks again for the advice. I'll keep watching this thread!

Best.