Ncq and DAW's

[qtuner]

for those that don't know what NCQ is, Here is a link:

http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4...a/index.x?pg=1

Does this benefit DAW applications? I would guess that it does. I just bought an nforce 4 ultra mobo and 3 drives that support ncq. I will find out if it does anything for us, and post back soon.

[jcschild]

the NCQ does hit the CPU, so far i have not seen it help or not help.

as to the Nforce 4 board a very bad decision

Scott
ADK

[qtuner]

do you not like the nforce 4 board? why?

what setup did you test ncq on? which drives did you use?

[o---]

http://www.rme-audio.de/english/tech...rce4_tests.htm

[qtuner]

thats an interesting article. I will run the test this weekend and report the findings for the msi neo 4 platinum board.

I don't have a problem running the hypertransport at rated speed. I am running my HTT at 250 x 4.

The problem with that article you referenced is that they don't say what the pci express payload size was in the article. By default it is 4k. I've tweaked computers in the past to lower pci bus latencies. Has anyone experiemented with payload size setting in the past?

time to research how pci express works, and see if this is a viable option.

here is a decent article I found: http://www.plxtech.com/products/pci_...ss_Q4-2003.pdf

hopefully my current machine doesn't become a dedicated gaming machine.

[jcschild]

HI,
as to NCQ, i tried Maxtor 16meg cache (seems to improve but not sure if its the cahce or not) yes i tred both with and without NCQ.

WD 250G Sata Raid edition. (these are the fluid bearing ones 5 yr warranty)

try downloading the Cubendo test from our site and tell me how you fare!
hate to be a bearer of bad news

and hey whats wrong with a brand spanking new kick butt gaming box!
thats where the N4s do shine as well as video editing.

Scott
ADK

[qtuner]

with the pciexpress boards, has anyone experimented with different payload sizes?

lucky for me I have an ati x300 so this may work out.

does cubendo require cubase? I run samp 8.11.

[hmurchison]

Typically with a DAW you're reading or writing streams of data. NCQ was designed to reorder read/write requests as efficiently as possible. This benefits you if you have a computer that is heavily multitasking but it doesn't do much for overall throughput. I suspect you'll see a slight improvement which may be attributable to the 16mb cache if you have that model or increased arial density if you recently purchased the drive.

[jcschild]

Originally Posted by qtuner

with the pciexpress boards, has anyone experimented with different payload sizes?

lucky for me I have an ati x300 so this may work out.

does cubendo require cubase? I run samp 8.11.

the X300 does not help on the N4s, only helps the P4 PCIe systems

Scott
ADK

[qtuner]

facts are in.

NCQ is trash on an nforce 4 mobo. there are disk curruption issues. Major sites recommend turning off NCQ.