Firewire performance and graphics - PCI or PCI-E?

[GB_Joe]

Halloo there!

I'm researching a new DAW (yeah, that old chestnut), and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about graphics cards...

My current front-running system is an Asus P5B Deluxe with E6600 (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!). I have a choice of two audio interfaces; up until now I've been using an Aardvark Q10, which is lovely, but recently a Mackie 1620 desk with firewire has become available (the bass player bought it!), so I'm thinking I'll probably make that the mainstay in future.

Now the main thing is to try to get the maximum firewire performance, so where do I stick my graphics card? PCI or PCI-E? I'm leaning towards Matrox, as that's what I've got now (AGP - d'oh!), so either is possible. There are two other conflicting factors:

1. What if I want to use the Q10 too? That'll be on the PCI bus, so perhaps PCI-E graphics would be best.

2. Is firewire performance better using an external card? If so, I should probably put that on the PCI-E bus... so I'd maybe be better off with PCI graphics...

Any thoughts appreciated guys! I really don't want to shell out money on the wrong things, and I'm open to any ideas. I'd even go Opteron if I had any idea what MB to buy... I've never actually bought an Intel system before, and it's a bit scary...

Cheers!

[itsplayed]

PCI-E for graphics card and if you not gaming, get something modest....Matrox is a good choice. As for the Firewire interface, and internal(on-board) device is fine as long as the chipset is supported by the hardware.

[GB_Joe]

Thank you sir!

There will be no games on this PC. I have the luxury of a second for all that stuff, but not the luxury of time to use it, sadly...

Apparently the P5B Deluxe has a TI chipset, which seems a favourite on these forums, so with any luck that should be fine and dandy. I have no idea how it's routed though... PCI bus probably... which would be another good reason to go with your suggestion!

If you have any other suggestions on the system I'd be glad to hear them! I've just been reading some scary doo-dahs about Mackie support and drivers, but I guess as long as I've got a choice between that and the Q10 I should be okay...

[sabianq]

actually i tend to think AGP is superior to any of the PCI (-E, -X) as the AGP slot is a dedicated graphics port and does not interfere with the PCI bus. It seems to me that this would actually eliminate the chance of errors caused by data collisions.

as far as i can tell, the digital audio stream and the video stream have nothing in common and should be separate entities.

am i wrong?

also, why do you want to down grade to the Mackie A/D from your Aardvark?

If your looking for portability, then it is a good choice but IMHO the aardvark is a superior A/D.

[GB_Joe]

Ah, sweet AGP... well, without ebay-ing for second hand stuff, that's gonna be a little tricky these days. My old system's a Gigabyte GA-7DXE, packing a whopping XP2400+ processor. Feel the power! I thought it was time I got a little more up with the times, but it seems AGP and Dual (or Quad) cores don't crop up together too often!

I was wondering when someone would ask why I was thinking of ditching the Q10...

Well, it's been the constant factor in my DAW for many years... and I couldn't help but think it could therefore be the root of my problems! I just had to complete some drum tracking using aforementioned bass player's Mackie and ickle Powerbook, and the ease of simply plugging it in and it all working appealed to me... So I like the option of both, but it seems sensible to allow for working with a company that's still in business as a long-term prospect!

As to why I had to switch system mid-session, it seems my MB and/or CPU has fried...:( Froze on Friday night, no obvious fault, but stripping it down to just the MB and graphics (even tried a spare card) still no POST. Bah.

[nagal]

I remeber reading somewhere that with the Asus P5B the internal FireWire is wired directly to the Northbridge so there should be no worries about interference on the PCI buss.

[GB_Joe]

If that's true then it's very good news indeed! Thanks dude - even if you just made that up, at least I'll feel happy about it, and as long as it works I'll be none the wiser.

Of course, if it doesn't work now, I'll hold you personally responsible...

;)