Following my own advice, I went to the Intel website, looked under Products > Desktop > Chipsets and looked up the 845PE.

It doesn't look like SATA is integrated on the 845PE chipset. I cannot predict if you will have problems, but you could if your system matches the conditions at the top of this thread. But that is precisely the main topic of this thread, to help people with systems in just this condition. Point: Even if you do encounter SATA/PCI problems, you are not necessarily stuck!!

The recipe in my last post is admittedly a little off-topic (my apologies). It applies only if you are considering SATA and you haven't bought a MOBO yet.

But again, if you are in the situation described at the top of this whole thread, then you still have hope. The bottom line is good news: You don't necessarily have to be so afraid of SATA anymore. Good luck with your SATA (RAID) rig!

Quick word about RAID: RAID is about using multiple drives to make a storage system where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. RAID 0 is about speed, RAID 1 is about reliability (automatic transparent backup), RAID 0+1 is both (at double the expense in drives). I use RAID 0 and I love it. But I also back up my projects onto CDR!

RAID and SATA are not synonymous. You can have RAID with IDE drives too. The new nForce3 chipset even lets you mix & match SATA & IDE in your RAID setup. Oh the joys of MOBO chipsets!

By the way, thanks Marquis42 for your informative support. Your answers are excellent.

Hi Oengus73, sorry to hear that you're having such a hard time with your system. I have a few questions:

1) Since you have the A7N8X Deluxe, did you try optimizing PCI latencies with your audio card either in PCI Slot 4 or Slot 5, and no other PCI cards installed?

2) What are your system default PCI latencies? With PowerStrip installed, you can get them back by clicking on the "return to default" button (the little square button near the lower right corner, with the clockwise arrow). At the next reboot, the latency for that device will be set back to the driver default. (Evidently the utility does not bother storing the device driver default values.) You will need to click the button once for each device that you have changed.

3) When you say "play a simple .wav", are you using SONAR or some other app? I'm not sure if the Audiophile fits in this category, but I've noticed that my Terratec soundcard is finicky about playing back sounds through the Windows system, like with Media Player or with Windows system sounds. That's actually the reason (in fact, the only reason) why I keep my onboard nVidia sound enabled. Anyway, I keep the Terratec audio card dedicated to SONAR/WDM.

4) Are you using WDM? I don't use ASIO, so I haven't confirmed any results with that driver setup.

Some system combinations can be particularly stubborn, and yours looks like it could be one of them. Still, I wish you the best in sorting it out.

Thank you very much and DITTO! Helped my laptop to play at lower latencies! Much appreciative! Excellent work.

Hey tony,

You're the first one to post about this, in this thread at least. I figured that optimizing the PCI latency timers could help smooth out other system issues besides just SATA/PCI bottlenecks... unless, that is, you actually do have a laptop with SATA! Now that would be something to crow about, just on its own!

Thank you very much and DITTO! Helped my laptop to play at lower latencies! Much appreciative! Excellent work.

great ... HE deserves all these "thank you" posts ..BUT you are the second guy who thanks HumbleNoise
its just the wrong the reply button there clicked , the excellent post was by losguy !

Oh my, HumbleNoise is stealing some of my precious glory? Well, it's a funny thing about calling yourself "humble": The moment you acknowledge that you're humble, you are in fact proud of your humility and no longer humble. So, HumbleNoise, unless it is your noise that's humble, then you are a living contradiction in terms!!

Seriously, it's not a big deal... but wait... is there a thread award on this forum? I smell a conspiracy...

Of course this post was meant for losguy.

Aw shucks, thanks! Glad to be of help...

This is a little OT for this thread, but I'm having my own set of SATA issues unrelated to those discussed here. Seeing as we have a few people who're rather more more knowledgeable than I, perhaps I could invite someone to take a peak at the thread I've just started in the Gear Forum and see if they could offer some advice.

SATA Transfer Rates under XP

Many thanks

>;o))

Aha, someone from the old home town - try to avoid the place these days if I can (except on match days of course )

>;o))

Great to hear, phreedood. (Or rather, not to hear, glitches.) I have subscribed to this thread, just in case someone comes along later with a question or success report (like you!). Congratulations!

FYI, I'm still cruising along on my system, old v1.4 MOBO and all, smooth as silk. FWIW: I'm aghast that ATI has maxed out their default PCI latency to 255. I thought mine was bad at 248, but this takes the cake (though anything above 100 is really overkill except for gaming).

Your motherboard spec shows that you have the Intel 845 E chipset, which does not have integrated SATA support, so by default it has a SATA controller hanging off the PCI bus. That you have not experienced glitches indeed makes a fortunate individual.

Credit for PCI latency balance could go to your MOBO, but more likely it belongs with Echo, who wrote the device drivers for your Layla card. Even more credit should go to your graphics card manufacturer for achieving their performace specs without abusing PCI latency (64 is quite an agreeable number). I'm curious... What graphics card are you using?

ORIGINAL: Dakes

I'm using a Matrox Millenium G550, which Sandra also reports set at 64 clk. I went with the G550 because it's a no-frills card, and seemed to get good reviews from other DAW users.

Now I know the real reason for those good reviews. Matrox wrote their driver to be audio-friendly from the start, from a PCI latency timer perspective. By the way, here's your card, and here's mine (or, at least the closest cousin to it that's still available). Higher on every spec for a fraction ofthe cost, but I can only gloat partially... with this card, PowerStrip is all but a must, because of the way that ATI gooses their PCI latency timers. So, by the time you pay for PowerStrip, you're pretty much even again (though I'd still get PowerStrip because it's such a cool utility). I still feel a little buyer's remorse, though, because for a DAW, even this card is overkill!

Thanks for all the detailed info losguy!!!

I finally got the time to really sit down and absorb and begin to process all this and here's what I've found. My system is an ASUS P4PE mobo with 845PE 2.4 gHz P4. I, too, have the Matrox G550 Dualhead vid card, and I've got an RME Multiface sound card, which is a Firewire device. The PCI interface for this card is in slot #2.

I installed and ran PowerStrip and oddly enough I only have one entry for the Matrox (I expected 2 from your results). It is on IRQ 16 with a latency of 64.

PowerStrip reports the Multiface as a "Xilinx Audio Device". It is running on IRQ 22 and has a latency of 248 (which from your article would be near maximum-priority).

Here's where it gets dicey. The AsusTek Firewire bus is also on IRQ 22, and it reports a latency setting of only 32. Now I'm assuming it's expected for the Multiface (Xilinx) and Firewire bus to both be using the same IRQ, right? Should they also have the same latency setting? Even if the Multiface is running a latency of 248, isn't it going to be "starved" if the bus itself is set to 32??? Am I reading these tea leaves right here? ;)

It reports USB controllers (I'm not presently using any USB devices, although I do have a D-Link USB adapter I've been meaning to install for my wireless network - right now I'm running cable to my studio machine).

I don't think I'm running SATA on this box, even thought the mobo is (somewhat) capable of it. I'm running 2 80 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital drives, but I don't know the model numbers.

PowerStrip says my IDE controller is disabled, rather than DMA, which is what I would expect.

I don't experience any crackling audio - my main problem is very high and unstable CPU usage.

I appreciate all the time you've put into helping myself and others with your very detailed posts. If you have any additional insight into this situation I'd be very grateful to hear it! :)

zendin