| For a longterm solution, you want the GE Fanuc Embedded Systems (formerly SBS) PCIe to PCI-x 7 slot. I have 2 of them. They kill the Magma, of which I also have 2.
The SBS uses a x4 PCIe connect and provides 3 seperate PCI busses in the chassis. Being PCIe based, the PCI slots have nothing to do with the computer's onboard PCI slots, so that any peculiarities of the computer's PCI are a non-issue.
Because of the 3 seperate PCI busses, each of which has the full bandwidth of a 64 bit/ 66MHz PCI bus *at a minimum*, you can segment your audio card, DSP cards and any hard disk/RAID controllers seperately. That's a big deal.
With computers gaining so much CPU power, the bottleneck is moving to the I/O. 7 high performance PCI-X slots on 3 seperate busses gives you a lot of options to add UAD-1, Powercore, RAID controllers, etc without choking the system's audio I/O. I have 2 RME MADI cards in several different setups, and the chokepoint is no longer the CPU. It's now having enough PCI bandwidth.
PCIe does solve the bandwidth problem, but it will still be a while before there is no need for standard PCI slots in an audio machine.
__________________
Regards,
Brian T
|