multiple outputs on the Gina card....clogs the computer

[mixmkr]

I posted this on the *cooledit forum*, but I am hopefully getting away with a little *spamming* here, as there isn't as much feedback over there as this board....so scuze me ;-)
Anyway...running Win 95 on a PII 233 computer with 128 mgs of ram. Using all my analog outputs on my Gina card on playback (4 stereo...or 8 mono), and using Cooledit as my software multitracker, my computer seems *challenged* when I get upwards of 20 tracks and using all these outputs (extra mixes out...in cooledit). I have messed with buffer settings, background mixing priorities in cooledit, etc, but this seems to be about my limit. If a make a total track adjustment (like volume), the background mixing meter in cooledit takes about a minute to catch up. I can get away with smaller tweaks...like the volume and pan *rubber band* envelopes...but a larger change and the system boggs down to catch up....it'll eventually catch up...but it takes a good minute. Is this normal for this older system?....would 256 mgs or ram in Win 95 help?....what do you guys get with newer, beefier systems?

 

[Emeric]

Your pushing the envelope, with your machine. Sorry to say.. time for an upgrade and not just memory. A PIII800 and a 7200RPM harddrive (for audio only) should do the trick. As well, I'd suggest going to windows 98, getting DMA to work properly in 95 is a bitch.

Depending on your motherboard, you may be able to just pop in a PIII800, what is it? If it's a BX chipset your most likely ok via BIOS flash (unless it's an ultra-generic mainboard). I bet it's LX though, being a 233. In which case you will need PC-100 or PC-133 SDRAM to replace your current memory (unless it is already either), and a new motherboard.