Video/Audio 'stutter'

[waltf62]

Hi, hopefully somebody can help...

My son and I very successfully built a machine recently with GB MB and Graphics card (as per profile), worked out of the box, flawlessly. Great.

Installed WC for the CPU and OCd - no problem. Installed GTX 680 OC. Fine.
Replaced 680 with Titan - fine!

Today upgraded the Titan with a watercooling system (Arctic Accelero) GPU temp is nice and low, max 60C whilst running 'Heaven' and 40C in idle) and all of a sudden ANY video (audio alone is fine) stutters - youtube, eyeTV or iTunes-videos or benchmarks like Heaven (shows great FPS and overall results though). Starts OK for two or three seconds and then freezes (audio and video) for a split second repeatedly and continues afterwards.

Does anybody have the slightest idea what the problem could be?

Thanks!!

P.S.: Windows continues to be fine - so I do not think I did anything to the card...

 

[waltf62]

Did not get any responses, still want to share an update...

In the end it seems like the problem was the onboard audio of the Gigabyte z77x-up5-th. I found a detailed review of the board that showed two separate audio chips for front and rear panel, so plugged the speakers in the front socket and... it worked. Not 100% as there was some slight static noise, however, it worked. Windows seems to behave more tolerant, so I did not realise there was a problem immediately, but there were occasional stutters as well. Significantly less though.

I did not want to send the board to repair, so I searched for a sound card. (I actually was thinking about a somewhat better performing card anyway...) not easy to find here, but somewhere saw a hint towards the ESI Maya PCIe.

Works like a charm. OSX drivers come with it. Great sound (a huge difference) - in particular with the Edifier S730 speakers the machine now really 'rocks'.

All-in-all we now have a great system with massive performance, much better than I originally expected. I started this project with a remaining constant thought in my head that I might eventually declare it a 'great learning' but am very happy about the result.

Very robust behaviour - in particular with CPU and GPU both watercooled. Great.

I have a Cinema Display (mDP, not TH) 27" connected as well, in total a great experience.

Thanks Tonymac for the great guides - would not have had the slightest chance to succeed without those.

A slightly more responsive community would be great though