I have had this issue as well but I think less often than Paul. In a two hour listening session it will usually happen one time, but sometimes two. It's always random and always in the middle of a track. Here it is somewhat like a popping sound though not very loud so it seems like a tick. I haven't tried adjusting the buffer yet but will give it a try. It happens with both the ASRock and ASUS mB's. Never happened with W7, which I haven't listened too in quite a while.

After listening to the ASRock Extreme 4-M for the last 3 weeks, it seemed like it was time to post final impressions. So, yesterday morning I started this post,  but as I wrote I began to feel less and less confidant in my impressions. Weren't there times that the ASUS sounded every bit as good as the ASRock? Aren't there folks here, other than Mani and Nick, who went the ASUS route based on our collective use of this very expensive board? What if it's just placebo-- drinking the Nick cool-aide--and now, by "preferring" the ASRock, I might influence others to foolishly spend more money. So I stopped writing and spent the better part of the day swapping out MB's, CPU and thermal paste.....

Boy am I glad I did it. With real confidence I can say that the ASRock is a very significant step up in SQ. To quote Nick's first post in this thread, "there was confusion, digital hash and hardness" with the ASUS, and, regarding the ASROCK, " I know this is a well worn statement but the change in sound is fundamental  EVERYTHING has changed, even more so than when a Seasonic supply was fitted. It may or may not be relevant to the change in sound that the new motherboard has reduced the amplitude of noise traces taken at the output of my DAC by about 70%." I'd bet that the reduction of noise traces is certainly relevant. Again, thanks Nick. Mani, I think you may want to dust off that Zalman case.

One possible issue with the ASROCK that may be of concern is heat if you are going fan-less. When I first installed the ASROCK I had the case turned upside down so I could mount the seasonic on the bottom where it could properly vent. Doing so caused the MB to run about ten degrees (Celsius) hotter, around 50 degrees, than the ASUS board had ever run. Concerned about that I used an external fan with the PC case left open to keep everything cool. After some googling, I turned the case right side up and removed the PS, setting it up on some rubber/cork isoblocks right next to the PC (this is a great free tweak, talk about articulation and clarity!) Anyway, set right side up, the MB temp dropped by 6 to 10 degrees; however the ASROCK BIOS gives three temp readings: CPU, MB, and SB. I don't know what the SB stands for, but turning the case right side up didn't help "SB" to run cooler; with no fan it has remained between 48 and 50. I can't find anything about SB temps and am hoping someone here can advise? I emailed ASROCK support two weeks ago and never received a reply. My CPU runs between 38 and 40 and the MB between 40 and 43 with no fans (water cooled cpu). Is a 50 degree SB temp too hot?

I think it was Paul who recently said that given all of his recent changes, it will take several months to be able to fine tune his system. I feel the same way, but at least I know which MB will be listed on EBay this week. Nick, I feel like I can now begin to apply your BIOS tweaks. Will post results as time permits.
 
 

Peter just posted as I was about to send this:

 So, if we are done making faces  , I am eagerly awaiting a new thread that contains a link to a batch file for installing two IMdiscs, such as the one Juan described!

Hey Cohen, when I get a chance I'll give this a try and let you know if there's a difference here. I have a beautiful selection of old ties here that Peter may like!

Right, it's not like I made them up out of thin air: http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2657.0

 

Thanks Nick. Will give those settings a try as time permits. As the ASRock X79 Extreme 4M is the one Peter is using in his custom PC's, am very much looking forward to a forum thread about Bios settings. Peter? 

Hey Nick, I've had the ASRock MB in for a few days and the sound is getting better and better. It certainly now sounds as good as the best I was ever able to achieve with the ASUS board, though I really need to give it more time, and maybe even a switch back to the ASUS at some point, to really have a sense of how much better it may be. One thing that took me some time to adjust to is the difference in the strength of the audio signal: I'm playng tracks about 3 to 4.5 db less than I was playing them with the ASUS. This difference in volume level takes me back to volume levels I used with my old Dell which also had a micro ATX MB.

Unfortunately, I've had very little time for critical listening. Am hoping that will change by next weekend. Will post again with further impressions as things change. One other thing, I am underclocking the processor by 50% and running the memory at 800 mhz along with as many other BIOS tweaks that I could find which were identical to the tweaks I had made with the ASUS.

One sign that "special" things are happening in my listening room was given yesterday: I asked my wife to give the system a quick listen. After a minute or two she turned to me and said the sound was so smooth and life like it felt like an LSD trip! Now I didn't know her back in the 1970's, but i take this as high praise from one who does NOT share my passion for this hobby!

Peter's settings do sound great; however, Q1 at 30 causes Hi Res stuff here to stop in the middle of a track. I posted about this weeks ago. An alternative which seems to provide a similar sound is to set the clock res to .5, Q1 to 14, but keep Q1 factor at 10 and, lastly, Q5 to 5. All other settings identical to Peter's. I also like the responsiveness of the GUI with the lower Q1 setting. Not sure if these settings sound as good as Peter's but they certainly sound very good here.

Thanks Nick. So, I got impatient, considered who it was that said the ASRock sounds better than the ASUS, and ordered the ASRock MB about an hour ago. 

Thanks Nick, I've never installed the ASUS MB drivers and just used the generic windows drivers. Because of this, I'm wondering if I can just install my current OS hard drive if I swap MB's or would I need to reinstall the OS should I swap MB's?

I think I'll wait till Mani reports on his experience with the ASRock X79 before I take the plunge on a new MB. Am pretty sure my continued use of the APEXI capacitor card, which really helps the sound here, is because of the problems you've described, Nick, with the ASUS board. Am wondering though, when you were using the ASUS MB, did you install the MB drivers from the disc that came with your old ASUS MB, and did you do the same with your new MB? Also, if you did not install the ASUS MB drivers, did you reinstall the OS when you changed MB's? Hope this makes sense.

Brian

Great post Anthony. Hopefully that urge to just try a better usb cable has been finally put to rest. 

What I'm wondering is has the use of DVI for video operation been known to help SQ or, Nick, did you just stumble into this discovery? Really, it has been one of the most significant tweaks I've ever experienced with my system. Have others tried this too? Perhaps Nick, Georg and I happened to drink from the same batch of cool aide? It's sort of weird that others have had nothing to say about this. 

A strange start up issue I've had for months now has been the sudden ability to turn the PC on by hitting and combination of two keyboard keys. In my BIOS there is an option for using the keyboard to turn the PC on after a power failure; however, this has always been disabled. (A while back I enabled/disabled this to see if it helped but it didn't.) Yesterday, for the first time in 3 or 4 months I went into full OS mode from minimized to do basic maintenance--defrag, etc. After going back into minimize I am now not able to start the PC with the keyboard. Just an FYI.

....to Nick!