POD X3: Low-latency monitoring using VST in DAW in lieu of direct hardware monitoring ?

[KillrBuckeye]

I use a POD X3 as my audio interface (USB connection) for my DAW computer now running Windows 10. I am able to turn off the hardware direct monitoring of the X3, send the dry guitar signal to my DAW, and hear the processed signal from the VST plug-in (not a Line 6 plug-in), but I estimate the latency / delay to be greater than 100 ms. I have set the POD X3 buffer size as small as possible in the Line 6 driver settings dialog, but latency is still unacceptable. Has anyone had success with this monitoring approach using the POD X3 as the audio interface? I am wondering if the problem is with the X3, or something else in my software settings?  My PC should be able to handle the processing with relative ease: I have an overclocked i7-3770k w/ 16 GB of RAM.

 

Another unrelated question. I realize that POD Farm 1 is not officially supported for Windows 10, but I am able to install the Win7 version and it works with my old REAPER projects that use the POD Farm 1 plugin. However, when I create a new track and try to add the POD Farm VST, it does not show up in the list of available plugins within REAPER. I have found a workaround in that I can copy and paste the POD Farm plugin from another track, but it would be nice if I could select it from a list. Is anyone else using POD Farm 1 on Windows 10, and if so have you experienced this issue?