Core i7-3970X, GA-X79-UD5 Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

[gxsolace]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

HI I Have a small doubt . i also use Angelbird for Vienna Instrument .. but its giving me problem. i always get a "boot GPT error " when angel bird is plugged in can u help me please ? first time when i boot with 4 angelbird crest (before Formatting) it booted . and then after making the raid its giving me boot Error . when i unplug the angelbird PCIe card the system works fine

Hi hemanth -

Did you:

1/ Install the Wings driver? What OS are you using?
2/ Did you create the RAID inside OS X using Diskutil?

/ gx

 

[gxsolace]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

surprised you used such a lowend board for such a highend chip. woulda gone ROG myself, but hey, to each their own
20k geekbench===yEEEEEEA !! badass no doubt

I went ud7 on my build and wish i wouldn't have. theres no topping asus

Hehe, thanks.

I went for the UD3 even though a UD5 was available due to the PCIe arrangement, and also, it was a spare new board laying around. So I didn't actually have to buy it, nor pump money into ROG.

/ gx

 

[morganb]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

I use that board and vdroop even on f12l is a cow. 4.5 is the max stable I can get and it gets hot too. got past 22k the other day on geek so Im happy but man it was a paint to get it and I am SURE its the board. Cant find a meaningful reason to take it past 4.5 though.

Love the angelbird layout. very smart. Didnt know that product existed.

Great build, well done and its the best board for a hassle-free high performance build. I solved the audio issue with a pair of Akitmate Micro's http://www.whathifi.com/review/epoz-aktimate-micro

 

[Dnk_Productions]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

Amazing build and write-up. I hit the road quite often and would love to get a board with thunderbolt to hasten the transfer to SSD's for editing on my MBPr on the road. Did you look into any thudnerbolt board? Stork has a post where he uses the following board: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LTB3QW/&tag=tonymacx86com-20?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20

I plan to boot from a standard SSD and therefore don't need the PCIe expansion placement that you need. This build is all part one of modernizing the workflow so I am also looking to get a DAS for backups (rather than NAS as I'm really into speed here) so would like a thunderbolt out to transfer from my three drive RAID0 setup that I would put in this box.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[gxsolace]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

I use that board and vdroop even on f12l is a cow. 4.5 is the max stable I can get and it gets hot too. got past 22k the other day on geek so Im happy but man it was a paint to get it and I am SURE its the board. Cant find a meaningful reason to take it past 4.5 though.

Love the angelbird layout. very smart. Didnt know that product existed.

Great build, well done and its the best board for a hassle-free high performance build. I solved the audio issue with a pair of Akitmate Micro's http://www.whathifi.com/review/epoz-aktimate-micro

Heya morganb -

Thanks!

What is CPU cooler are you using? Also, keep in mind every CPU is different too. And yeah, I don't see a meaningful reason to go really high and risk stability. For me, stability is key, and everyday I have thoughts of bringing my CPU back to stock clock frequencies lol -- although it is completely stable at 4.2GHz.

The audio popping issue is indeed solvable with the onboard audio. You just have to use a DSDT with a layout that forces ML into using ID 898 instead of ID 1. Indeed the Gigabyte boards are the most hassle free boards for hackintoshing purposes.

Nice speakers BTW.

/ gx

 

[gxsolace]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

Amazing build and write-up. I hit the road quite often and would love to get a board with thunderbolt to hasten the transfer to SSD's for editing on my MBPr on the road. Did you look into any thudnerbolt board? Stork has a post where he uses the following board: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LTB3QW/&tag=tonymacx86com-20?ie=UTF8&tag=tonymacx86com-20

I plan to boot from a standard SSD and therefore don't need the PCIe expansion placement that you need. This build is all part one of modernizing the workflow so I am also looking to get a DAS for backups (rather than NAS as I'm really into speed here) so would like a thunderbolt out to transfer from my three drive RAID0 setup that I would put in this box.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks Dnk_Productions!

The reason I didn't go with a similar board like Stork's is because I need to use the X79 chipset (socket 2011) for the Intel Core i7 3970X.

The PCIe expansion SSD boards I'm using is actually not for booting. I am booting directly from a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD. The PCIe RAID array is actually for my /user directory and half of my /Applications directory. I've moved them because /user is the most frequently accessed location, and I have certain programs in /Applications that I load and unload a lot.

Why didn't I boot OS X off the RAID? I get random (but non critical) EBIOS read errors if I try to boot off the array. Sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not. Fixing them requires that I clear my cache every time I shutdown or reboot. Admittedly, I don't shutdown or reboot often, but it's still an annoyance that I've had for a long time and I'm finally glad to get rid of. This is all thanks to the Samsung 840 Pro that is blistering fast -- the 256GB model is a lot faster in write operations than the 128GB model.

Since USB3 is working natively for me, I don't really have a need to go Thunderbolt at this time. I don't have any external TB enclosures either. For me, I tend to like internal storage, as it's one less box to worry about and plugging in. Therefore, I have all my large HDDs installed internally, except my TimeMachine drive, which is running on USB3, but internally is identical to the drives I use inside the chassis -- Western Digital Blacks.

/ gx

 

[Dnk_Productions]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

Thanks for the insight. Very interesting to read about those PCI SSD's that you're using, is the reason that you are using them over regular SSD's is to save the SATA ports for your storage drives or is there a speed increase? Once I have a better backup system in place I could probably get away with less accessible files but with three-four projects going during a stretch at about 500GB-1TB per I need to figure out how to store everything.

 

[gxsolace]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

Thanks for the insight. Very interesting to read about those PCI SSD's that you're using, is the reason that you are using them over regular SSD's is to save the SATA ports for your storage drives or is there a speed increase? Once I have a better backup system in place I could probably get away with less accessible files but with three-four projects going during a stretch at about 500GB-1TB per I need to figure out how to store everything.

Np!

For /user and /Applications, I prefer the fastest read speeds I can get, that's why I'm using the SSD RAID array, most importantly so I can remove the burden of the constantly changing /user director off the Samsung 840 Pro. Lastly, it's also partly because the boards indeed do save SATA connectors on the motherboard -- it's incredibly convenient having 4 SSD drives all on one board (times 2 lol), than to take up SATA ports and drive bays. I have HDDs installed in the Switch 810's drive bays, and use the motherboard's SATA 3Gbps ports for them. The Samsung 840 Pro takes up 1 of the SATA 6Gbps ports.

As a side note, another added benefit of moving the /user director is that I can wipe the OS drive and reinstall fresh, then redirect OS X to where my /user dir is and I have pretty much everything back to where it was.

I suppose for your situation it will depend on the following:

1/ Do you need ample storage?
2/ Do you need speedy storage?
3/ Both of the above?

1/ If just for #1, I'd go with some sort of external array like a Drobo, or some of the products from Synology (they make good NASes).
2/ Speedy is really, internal
3/ For both, I'd settle for either internal large capacity high speed HDDs, or the same high speed HDDs in a Thunderbolt enclosure -- and I suppose this would also solve #1 as well.

/ gx

 

[Dnk_Productions]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

Np!

For /user and /Applications, I prefer the fastest read speeds I can get, that's why I'm using the SSD RAID array, most importantly so I can remove the burden of the constantly changing /user director off the Samsung 840 Pro. Lastly, it's also partly because the boards indeed do save SATA connectors on the motherboard -- it's incredibly convenient having 4 SSD drives all on one board (times 2 lol), than to take up SATA ports and drive bays. I have HDDs installed in the Switch 810's drive bays, and use the motherboard's SATA 3Gbps ports for them. The Samsung 840 Pro takes up 1 of the SATA 6Gbps ports.

As a side note, another added benefit of moving the /user director is that I can wipe the OS drive and reinstall fresh, then redirect OS X to where my /user dir is and I have pretty much everything back to where it was.

I suppose for your situation it will depend on the following:

1/ Do you need ample storage?
2/ Do you need speedy storage?
3/ Both of the above?

1/ If just for #1, I'd go with some sort of external array like a Drobo, or some of the products from Synology (they make good NASes).
2/ Speedy is really, internal
3/ For both, I'd settle for either internal large capacity high speed HDDs, or the same high speed HDDs in a Thunderbolt enclosure -- and I suppose this would also solve #1 as well.

/ gx

Unfortunately I am looking for 3/. I have been battling about it all day and thought I had decided on the Drobo 5D but I am just not sold on the real world performance of the system (especially compared to an internal RAID setup). It would be the best solution if I was just going to stick with my MBPr but that is not the plan as I need a boost in performance. That brings me to my next question:

I don't have the funds to go all out with the SSD so would most likely be running an SSD startup disk and then RAID0 config for my working HDD.
1/ Do you know of a PCI RAID controllers that works obo and any ideas what type of speeds I can expect?
2/ An internal array would get much higher read/writes than the drobo right?
3/ Is there anyway to get redundancy and still maintain blazing R/W (without going with SSD's?)...maybe RAID10??

I think I just might have to make concessions: Build a slower computer with thunderbolt (media files on a RAID array), buy the drobo for backup, and a simple multi-bay RAID enclosure (setup with RAID1 mirroring) for archival purposes.


I have been dealing with storage bottlenecks since the beginning and would for once would like to be confident that any slowdown in the workflow is due to the actual computer and not my storage drives. Even with the top of the line solution for the MBPr (excluding SSD/Thunderbolt drive; size/price issue) I am only getting around 110 R/W when backing up my 4TB RAID0 OWC drives (sonnet pro adaptor thunderbolt adaptor, sonnet expresscard 6gb/s pro card). Just don't tell sonnet that because they talk to you like you're an idiot.

 

[gxsolace]

Core i7-3970X Monster SSD Build, Geekbench Score: 20313

Unfortunately I am looking for 3/. I have been battling about it all day and thought I had decided on the Drobo 5D but I am just not sold on the real world performance of the system (especially compared to an internal RAID setup). It would be the best solution if I was just going to stick with my MBPr but that is not the plan as I need a boost in performance. That brings me to my next question:

I don't have the funds to go all out with the SSD so would most likely be running an SSD startup disk and then RAID0 config for my working HDD.
1/ Do you know of a PCI RAID controllers that works obo and any ideas what type of speeds I can expect?
2/ An internal array would get much higher read/writes than the drobo right?
3/ Is there anyway to get redundancy and still maintain blazing R/W (without going with SSD's?)...maybe RAID10??

I think I just might have to make concessions: Build a slower computer with thunderbolt (media files on a RAID array), buy the drobo for backup, and a simple multi-bay RAID enclosure (setup with RAID1 mirroring) for archival purposes.


I have been dealing with storage bottlenecks since the beginning and would for once would like to be confident that any slowdown in the workflow is due to the actual computer and not my storage drives. Even with the top of the line solution for the MBPr (excluding SSD/Thunderbolt drive; size/price issue) I am only getting around 110 R/W when backing up my 4TB RAID0 OWC drives (sonnet pro adaptor thunderbolt adaptor, sonnet expresscard 6gb/s pro card). Just don't tell sonnet that because they talk to you like you're an idiot.

Heya Dnk -

1/ Some RAID controllers from HighPoint are compatible out of the box, but HighPoint doesn't make very high quality controllers. I haven't played much around with native RAID, so I'm not actually sure, outside of Apple's own cards. Your best bet is to create a software RAID, which honestly, will give you very similar performance with hardware RAID solutions if you're using RAID levels 1, 0, 10, or 0+1. If you're going with parity solutions, then that's the point where you should consider a hardware solution.

2/ Correct.

3/ You would technically never out perform a SSD RAID array with an HDD RAID array. But you can get some pretty impressive performance numbers if you use enough number of drives for an HDD RAID array. How many depends on you, budget, etc. A 4-drive HDD array with good performance drives will get you pretty nice performance numbers. I'd say 6 drives is a good mark. RAID 10 would be your most ideal. That'll give you performance and redundancy.

The Drobo is a RAID NAS. It's a not just a straight forward JBOD NAS. It also now supports Thunderbolt.
Check out this model: http://www.droboworks.com/Drobo-5D.asp

/ gx