[linux-audio-user] Delta 66/new mobo question

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, 2004-09-02 at 13:12, Tobias wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 11:05:29AM -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > Dave Phillips wrote:
> > >Mark Knecht wrote:
> > >
> > >>Mark Knecht wrote:
> > >><SNIP>
> > >>
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > >
> > >Best,
> > >
> > >dp
> > >
> > 
> > 1394 hard drives work pretty well for me under both the 2.4 Planet 
> > kernels and 2.6 Gentoo kernel. I have more trouble with CDRW/DVD drives 
> > which do not work well under either in my experience. This is probably 
> > not an issue for you. I do 1394 chips and software for a living so I try 
> > a lot of this out on my company's nickle.
> > 
> > 1394 performance under Linux is not what it should/could be. The Linux 
> > 1394 stack doesn't optimize gap count automatically so throughput is 
> > slow. (Maybe 5-11MB/S?) I think there may be some little stand alone 
> > apps that will allow you to set the gap count by hand which would help.
> 
> just skipped shortly through the archives and could'nt find anything on recommendations for 
> external-harddisk Firewire/USB cases.

I don't know of any Linux folks that depend on 1394 for audio. I use it
under Windows successfully. It seems to *work* under Linux, meaning well
enough to do a little testing, or even record a lot of tracks in the
studio in some made up test case, but I don't use Ardour so I cannot
comment on whether it's stable enough day inand day out.

I've ordered a number of units from http://fwdepot.com. Most have worked
with Linux, but not all so I'm very hesitant to really recommend
anything. I know my Ice Case drive units have consistently been the
best. The Pyro stuff has been OK for hard drives but not for other
stuff.

Linux 1394 is *only* 5 years old. It still doesn't optimize gap count on
a simple 2 device bus even with the newest drivers, or some I'm told. Go
in this direction with lots of careful reading...

> 
> Can anybody give me a hint?
> I'm looking out for a case, maybe both firewire and USB. 
> Cheapest ones in the shop around the corner are 45 EUR.
> So buying that and the HD separately seems reasonable.
> But I guess they have a catch.

No, I think that's about the right price. If they use Oxford Semi
chipsets, most notibly the 911 for 1394a, then they have been pretty
good for most folks. I'm about ready to get a 1394b drive and cardbus
adapter and try that out, again mostly in Windows but certainly a bit
under Linux...

> 
> Any recommendations or docu welcome.
> 
> cheers, tobias.
>