[64studio-devel] Re: Studio 64 on a dual opteron

[Daniel James]

Hi Terri,

> Its PHYSICALLY impossible to use both the PCI_Express slot and the PCI
> 2.3 slot because the nvidia card that I have is physically FAT and takes
> up two end slots (sighs).

Now I get what you mean. I presume using the on-board video chipset is 
out of the question for the kind of work you are doing?

You'd have to check about backwards compatibility of the PCI-X slots 
with more modern PCI sound cards, but the M-Audio Audiophile is claimed 
to be both 5v and 3.3v capable, and therefore PCI-X ready:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html

Watch out for earlier versions of the card which might be hanging around 
on places like eBay though - these may not be PCI-X compatible. The one 
I have is labelled 2003 Rev-B and appears to have the PCI-X style three 
tabs on the edge connector, although I've only ever used it in PCI slots.

Alternatively you could get hold of an external USB audio interface, 
such as the M Audio Mobile Pre (the more recent, USB class-compliant 
version with the grey front panel). These aren't expensive and are fine 
for everyday use, as long as you don't need very low latencies, more 
than two channels of I/O, or high sample rates. I use one with my 
laptop, with good results.

Cheers!

Daniel