Motherboard Chipsets and Firewire 400

[Juzz]

Hi folks,

I'm in the process of a new computer build for my DM4800 and have discovered that there appears to be issues with the latest motherboard chipsets (being Z170 and X99) and firewire 400 PCIe cards. Has anyone here been successful with either of these chipsets and thier DM3200/4800? If so what motherboards/configuration are you using?

I have already purchased the SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe (TI chipset) (NN-E20012-S2) which is what I would like to use for my new setup. I'm hoping someone here can shed some light.

Thanks in advance.

Justin

 

[cmaffia]

What is the nature of the conflict with these new chip sets? Have you not begun the process yet? Are you moving to a new OS as well?

 

[Juzz]

Thanks for your reply. Apparently firewire 400 is unreliable and not supported. Firewire 800 works and is supported. I believe there are issues with the newer motherboards (Z170 and X99) such as dropouts blue screens and FW cards not being recognized. I have already purchased a SIIG fw card and was about to purchase a Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 and i7 6700k for a new rig until I stumbled across this info.

I just wanted to check here to see if anyone is successfully running thier dm4800/dm3200 with these newer motherboeards. Any info would be appreciated.

I was thinking of updating to Windows 10 but would be happy sticking with Win 7. BTW Thanks for your insightful windows 10 tutorial. Really well done.

 

[cmaffia]

As long as you use the legacy OHCI 1394 driver it should work with the right FW chipset which it sounds like you have. See the Windows 10 sticky for OHCI 1394 driver info.

 

[Juzz]

Apparently the legacy OHCI 1394 driver has been tried with no positive results. I would be interested to hear from any users here that have manged to get their DMs working with these newer motherboards. I'd hate to invest in a new computer to find out that firewire 400 is not supported or is unstable. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[cmaffia]

Is this from experience or what you're reading? Is it all PCIe FireWire cards? What's the details of this? I can't seem to find anything on this subject in my google searches. Also FireWire 800 is backward compatible with FireWire 400 peripherals but you'll need an adapter. If you're so concerned maybe look at a slightly older motherboard to avoid these chipsets.

 

[cmaffia]

I found this link. It sounds like the problem is related to the FireWire card chipset being used which was always a shot in the dark before these newer boards. When I had my current machine built in 2012 I had to go through 4 different cards to get it to work 100% as the previous card I used in another machine in XP didn't work well. In my experience, these issues vary from manufacture to manufacture even when using the same chipsets.
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1027357-skylake-firewire-issues.html
It may end up being a trial by error scenario. Either buy an older motherboard or take the plunge and try some of the boards and FireWire card combinations that are reported working in that thread. No guts no glory! Sometimes you need to do that when you're wishing to use old hardware on the latest and greatest. Remember ALWAYS use the legacy OHCI 1394 driver. I did not see that mentioned at all in that thread.

 

[cmaffia]

As far as compatible FireWire chipsets with the IFFW/DMMKII, here again is both Tascam's official recommendations along with what I have tried in my workstation:

FireWire Chipset Compatibility 1394a (FireWire 400) ports:
The IF-FW/DM MKII is designed to work with 1394a, a.k.a. FireWire 400, S400 or Sony i.LINK.
VIA chipsets are widely used and are a good match for the IFFW/DMMKII.
The IF-FW/DM MKII has been noted to perform badly with some NEC and TI branded chipsets.

A later manual revision got more specific as to which chipsets work best:

• Agere/LSI FW323
• VIA VT6308
• TI TSB43AB23 (Personally I find this one is the most reliable)

What I have used successfully:

DP FireWire PCIe (VIA chipset) [SIIG model NNE20022S1] - Works fine no issues
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Siig-NN-E20...889076?hash=item210b713434:g:0HwAAOSwr7ZW4aRh

and

SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe (TI chipset) (NN-E20012-S2) - Works fine no issues.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Siig-NN-E20...889076?hash=item210b713434:g:0HwAAOSwr7ZW4aRh

 

[Juzz]

Thanks so much for your info. It's really appreciated. The gearsluts link was one of the links I found and there is a few other on the RME forums too. I guess I'll risk it and take the plunge. Worst case scenario is that I'll have to buy another firewire card.

 

[cmaffia]

Did you ever take the plunge and if so, what were your results?

 

[Juzz]

Hi there, I've only just purchased the components a few days ago . still waiting on ram. I've taken a bit of a risk but from my research i decided to go with the asus x99 and 6800k processor . it will some weeks before I get time to install and test with my dm4800. i will post back here with my results in due course.
I am also torn between going win 10 or sticking with win 7. Do u think its worth the switch? is there really that much advantage ? Cheers
Justin

 

[Juzz]

Well I have good news. I've built my system and all is well.
I ended up using an Asus X99-A II motherboard an with an i7-6800K processor and KINGSTON HX424C15FBK4/64 64GB of ram.

I installed windows 7 x64 on the new Samsung 950 PRO M2 drive and have had quite good results with the SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe TI chipset NN-E20012-S2. Using my DM4800 control panel I set the buffer to 128 and the "mode" set to "normal". This yields stable results. Changing the IEEE driver to "Legacy" made no difference.

Interestingly I tried a SYBA 2-port of 1394b + 1-port of 1394a Firewire Ports PCI-Express Controller Card (SY-PEX30016). This has the TI XIO2213B chipset and I had better results with this. Also changing the IEEE driver to "Legacy" made no difference.

Using Cubase 8.5 and with the lateset beta drivers (1.30f9) installed I can achieve an input latency of 1.7ms and output latency of 2.3ms with no CPU strain or audio crackling. I tried this with a project with over 100+ tacks of audio playing. The settings used were "mode" = "low latency" and a buffer set at 64.

Over the coming weeks I will endeavor to test windows 10 using cmaffia's setup guide and see if this OS will offer any better overall performance compared to win 7.

 

[Juzz]

I decided to go with Windows 10 x64 and SYBA 2-port of 1394b + 1-port of 1394a Firewire card. I've had very positive results with this combination. Following cmaffia's setup guide everything works as reliably or better than Windows 7 x64. The only issue is windows OS doesn't detect sample rate change from the DM. This is an easy work around though. So far I have had several all day sessions and my system has been very stable. I hope this info helps others.

 

[Rockum]

I have a Gigabyte X99 motherboard and the SYBA card you mentioned using the legacy drivers, but have frequent dropouts. I have been trying to troubleshoot the issue but can't seem to solve it. It is not so much with my DAW more when I am using the card for gaming or video.

 

[Juzz]

Hi There, Sounds like your issues could be graphics card related. I've had similar problems with some Nvidia graphics driver updates. I've had to roll back to older drivers to fix the issue. If you run LatencyMon (https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon) you will be able to see the culprit. Hope this helps.,

 

[Rockum]

Justin, which version did you have to roll back to?

 

[Juzz]

I found version Nvidia 398.36 to be the best.

 

[Rockum]

Thanks. I ordered a cheap fw 400 to 800 adapter, if that doesn't work I will give it a try! Thanks again.

 

[Shorts]

I have just set up my DM3200 on an ASROCK Phantom Gaming 4 X570 motherboard with a Ryzen 3600. Only bug i think i have is PC will crash if i turn the DM off

 

[Juzz]

Always use DM shut down procedure by pressing these 3 altogether - shift - ctrl - shutdown