ASIO4ALL? Please let's not mention this again... Or warn me first so I can go out for a jog or something...
 

Again, ASIO4ALL has caused problems for me just by virtue of being installed, without even using it. It's worth trying to uninstall and seeing if it makes a diff.
I still use it sometimes, but since I'm now aware of the issues I simply uninstall it after I'm done. I keep the installer on my hd for when I need it again. Takes all of 20 seconds to install or remove it.

As far as I know, I am not using ASIO4ALL.

Just reading in and noticing ASUS Sabertooth 990-FX board..using SSD drive...what is the controller for hard drives being used on the Motherboard?...MLC?..As I was using A similar model x58 Sabertooth with similar issues , clicking and popping, cpu issues, and bad performance with all attached....Just keep looking, but keep the idea in mind, that it could be the controller chip on the motherboard for the Drives you are using...Might be, might not...but for me tweaking everything to hell and back, has not solved for my issues with the Asus Sabertooth brand....So I suspect it may be faulty...
 
If you cannot solve for the issues no matter how much you tweak the settings...and driver updates and such do not resolve...then it has to be Something ...tying  sort of common things together may help route out the culprit. 
 
Luck and blessings!
 
Sir Les

i'm curious as to the asio4all issues - i've never had any, over 3 different lappys and a couple of different external sound devices... could it come down to the wdm drivers being wrapped?

thanks Les.
 
I haven't updated the mobo drivers in a while. I would also like to state that 8.5 is rock solid. I know more CPU sucking features are present in the 'X' series, but this is a very quick and stable system otherwise. The win7 rating is 7.7 out of 7.9.
 
here is the chipset for the drives:
JMicron® JMB362 controller :
2 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
1 x Power eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), green
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red
 
Not using any eSATA ports.

Is there any other interface you could use or borrow? Just to exclude the RME as the culprit?

ASIO4ALL has been mostly fine for me too, but I've had some headscratchers that were solved after uninstalling it. Most recently, my Fast Track Pro midi ports ceased working while it was installed.

No, I do not have anyone nearby that can let me borrow an interface. In order to resolve my issue, I would need to borrow a UFX and see if that is the issue. I would not want to have another interface that was not the standard to which I have spent all this money for.
 
There is a BIOS update and chipset update for my mobo. I am going to try an update to these and see if that helps or not.

Oh I agree, I just meant it might help to indicate if there's a hardware issue with your specific unit or perhaps some driver corruption. Any random other interface would do for that, since the performance issues you're having are ridiculous for your system.

I was told early into my Build for PT 9.0 to turn off the JMB controllers, by Sweetwater sound tech,..and use the MLC one...as there were problems with JMB back then......Seems I have issues with the MLC controller as well, and USB 3, I was then forced to use MLC for SATA because the AHCI worked better for win 7, and when used had less issues,...
 
Not saying you are having this type of issue at all......but look into it...google the controller and see if any issues have been noted...setting up the ssd correctly on a controller that is smooth was sweetwaters intentions for me and this board....well it was told with good intentions....But "I" suspect the older controller chips being used By Asus on their Sabertooth line, kinda problematic...
 
Something to read up on..?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JMicron