Anybody use this card at all?

I currently use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB interface but considering purchasing this as I only hear good things about RME and having an internal PCI will like improve latency and the DSP help lower CPU usage.

Is it worth an upgrade? Any comments on usage? It will be on a Windows 10 Pro 64 bit system and using Ableton 9 and Reason 8 as my DAWs.

 

If it covers all you need it for then you can't go wrong, reprogrammable boards make them always up to date too.

 

RME is a great audio interface , never buy USB !!!!
just a tip build a good pc before you buying good audio interface .

 

I can only say good things about my RME HDSP 9652, really. So transparent, just works at whatever latency I throw at it. 100% stable. I have never had any problems with it whatsoever. TC StudioKonnekt 48 gave me far more troubles to set up and make it work stably. With RME you will get extremely good low latency performance and using less CPU. Best driver on the market aside from Lynx'.

But I wouldn't recommend using Windows 10 for audio in general, and with RME, even though the newest drivers work with it. Using the newest Windows OS is always just calling for trouble. Use cut-down and optimised W8.1 or even better W7 SP1 and be a happy camper.

 

I use exact the same card with windows 10 and am totally satisfied. Rock solid drivers and a great performance with every latency. You should give it a go!

 

I have a PC with a Core i7 4960x Hex Core CPU, 48GB RAM, Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gamings GPU and SSDs so fine on that front. Sound is the final element

 

then you ok .
just go and buy RME , you will be really happy
great transparent sound without any Clicking Crackling like usb interfaces .

 

Rock solid. You won't regret it.

Only question is whether to get the PCI vs. PCI-E version. PCI is legacy at this point, of course.

 

Excellent conversion and zero latency BUT remember its PCI and Macs have not had PCIs for years so you will be limited to Windows with it. The PCIe version RME AIO is even better and will work in Macs as well.

 

I use Windows anyway and have an Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard, which has a legacy PCI slot in it.

I have just picked up an RME HDSP 9652 Hammerfall for £110 on ebay. It seems to retail in UK at the moment, new, for £325-450ish, so a bargain i hope and everyone always says PCI is superior to USB interfaces and RME seem to be touted as (one of) the best in the consumer range. Can't wait to get it now

 

i could be wrong but i get the sense you have insufficient RAM, is there any way you could bump it up at all?

 

Without kidding, I do plan on upgrading to 64GB soon. It's cos I do a lot of film score type music mainly and then Kontakt libraries swallow up RAM (if you don't do the purging etc).

 

Here Hammerfall, Digiface, ADI 8 DS
Happy bunny

 

For 110,-, what could possibly go wrong
I know this is really basic knowledge but you'll need additional converters as the hammerfall only sports adat and s/pdif and if you go Behringer on those, the hdsp would be kinda pointless ;)

 

Hm, it seems that 9652 really doesn't have DA converters, never noticed that

That means that the deal on that card is not the best...I mean, you still need to buy a great converter, and those doesn't come cheap. I would say that hdsp 9632 iz much better deal, you get the full package and it goes aroung 250eur used.

I had the 9632 for 5 five years and only recently bought used hdpse aio because of planning to buy haswell-e based system, and there are no x-99 boards with PCI legacy slots. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't change 9632 for sure.

 

Bollocks! I think I must have read the 9632 blurb and assume the 9652 would have them too!

Any suggestions on a good solution that's not too expensive so I can have speaker and headphone outs and a 1/4" and XLR in?!?! Don't record much in as I work mostly in MIDI.

 

Even if your board has a PCI slot, it's not native but bridged, since X79 obviously doesn't have PCI support. That might be a problem for audio interfaces.

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2016

I used my 9632 card with gygabyte P67A board which also desn't have native PCI but bridged...everything worked beautifully.

 

Well, 9652 is a pro piece of gear, and it's made to hook up the converter of your choice. Cheap standalone converters? unfortunatlly, never heard of those ...maybe there are some though

 

Yes, it's just a warning.
There are different bridge chips and many of them are not the best solution for time-critical application. The latency always increases this way. So, sometimes everything is fine, but sometimes unfortunately it's not...

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2016