Forrest, I have a dedicated drive for OS, another for temp file usage, and the last for music-specific audio file storage. Oh, and I'm quite anal about keeping on top of file fragmentation. But it's certainly good advice for anyone. Thanks!
Blackinfinity, thanks for the suggestion for RME, however their units are overkill for what I'm looking for. I was pretty sure I tested with that software but I tried again. It peaked at 100 microseconds during playback, which I believe is normal. Thank you.
APK, sorry I should have mentioned that the same problems occur regardless of what I have my latency set to. I can set it to 40ms (the highest option) and still get the random popping. If it makes any sense, the popping I'm referring to sounds different than latency problems. I've found latency problems to sound more like grinding.
I'm fairly sure my problems are driver-related, given I'm using Windows 7.
Originally I was looking at the M-Audio Firewire Solo, but I was iffy about it since I've heard a lot of bad things about M-Audio. The reason I was looking at that device was because they just released new Windows 7 (64bit) drivers, which told me they were still planning on supporting the device. But delving deeper, I found that anyone using the drivers said they were - for lack of a better word - shit!
So I've decided that if I want results, I need to pay for it. So I did some checking on the Edirol FA-101, and could only find positive comments, even on tech forums. Full Windows 7 support, and confirmations from users saying they're rock-solid. It has way more inputs/outputs than I'd ever use, but not a big deal.
Does anyone have or heard any comments on the FA-101?
I'm still open to suggestions for alternatives.
Thanks again everyone for your suggestions and advice!
