PCI interfaces & the 'noise' problem

Reilley

Reilley

New member
I had just made up my mind to buy a PCI card, when I read [for the 117th time] that they can be noisy:

"""A 24 bit 96 khz converter mounted on a PCI card inside the computer will pick up a phenomenal amount of radiation (read: noise), as much (if not more) than 16 bit 44.1 khz converters. Having an external converter with a digital input into the computer sound card is the most important issue to address."""

Well:
1) Is this really true in practice? Are they noisy?
2) Are there PCI cards with breakout boxes which take the converters outside the computer? I think NOT, that the breakout box is just to house the connections more conveniently, but then...... I don't know, maybe there is one or more which does that.

I can't figure out if the noise matter is overblown, or real, and I don't want to find out the hard way.
 
Reilley said:
Well:
1) Is this really true in practice? Are they noisy?
2) Are there PCI cards with breakout boxes which take the converters outside the computer? I think NOT, that the breakout box is just to house the connections more conveniently, but then...... I don't know, maybe there is one or more which does that.
Click to expand...

1. Yes. My Delta 1010LT was pretty noisy on the output side in a first generation PowerMac G5. Input was clean. No idea why output was bad and input was clean, but since the important direction was okay, I suffered through it for a couple of years.

2. Yes. The M-Audio Delta 1010 has outboard converters. There are probably others.

My suggestion is this: a decent FireWire PCI card will cost you about $35. When your next computer doesn't have legacy PCI slots, all you'll be throwing away is a $35 card.

Oh, did I mention that PCI is being phased out? Most major logic board manufacturers as of about two years ago were planning to basically be rid of parallel PCI by the end of THIS YEAR. So in essence, parallel PCI as a bus architecture is on life support. Unless you're about to replace your computer, your next computer will probably not have PCI slots. Buy accordingly.

An audio interface is an investment in the future. Don't buy something that has no real future. :)
 
They are proned to noise... BUT, I've never had any noise in my productions with the 24/96 m-audio... The only time I hear noise is when I crank up my mixer & be able to hear the noise floor. Other than that, it's pretty clear.
 
PCI isn't being phased out by the end of this year. All manufacture's still have motherboards that have PCI slots in them. I haven't seen even 1 motherboard that doesn't have a PCI slot.
 
Actually, with most makers including PCI-X and PCI-E, regular PCI is being slowly phazed out. But most audio interfaces are growing along with the technology and moving to the upgraded forms of PCI. The bad side is if you have multiple first gen UAD's or TC powercores (or an old interface that is not voltage compatible i.e. older 1010lt's). Though most boards allow PCIx to be downgraded, there are alot of problems with trying it with those older cards, things like clock sync between slots making them not work.

Firewire will introduce a bit more latency than PCI. Then again, I use a MOTU 828MKII and a RME Fireface800 and use VSTi's with both and can get really low settings that are nearly invisible to me. But the very best stuff (PTHD, Lynx, RME MADI, etc) does use digital PCI cards with external converters.
 
Mindset said:
PCI isn't being phased out by the end of this year. All manufacture's still have motherboards that have PCI slots in them. I haven't seen even 1 motherboard that doesn't have a PCI slot.
Click to expand...

All last generation PowerMac G5 and Mac Pro motherboards, for starters. Abit boards are mostly down to one standard PCI slot, and if you have two graphics cards, the second card blocks that standard PCI slot, giving you no usable slots. Shuttle XPC has no PCI slots.

That said, I didn't say that it will be gone by the end of the year. I said that in 2004, several motherboard manufacturers said they intended to phase it out by mid to late 2006. There's a subtle difference. They're being more reserved about it than originally planned. That doesn't mean it isn't on its way out.

Also, there's a critical point in the transition where parallel PCI audio cards will start to misbehave. Once parallel PCI slots become bridged to PCI Express lanes, latency will increase, and many audio cards will be unable to cope. If boards with bridged parallel PCI aren't out there yet, they will be within a few months.
 
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