Hackintosh and Pro Tools

[BoomR]

A lot of what's on your list is working fine for me & PT10. See link to my system in my sig. My mobo is now disc, but yours should work just fine. I chose mine back then because on-board FW is TI chipset

Good Luck!! I'm ESP interested in how you mod the G5 case. I'm currently shopping for the same case myself

 

[citydog]

BoomR,

Thanks for your response. I have studied your build many times. I got real lucky with the case. I bought it off of Craigslist from some kid who was selling the case from a Hackintosh project he never completed. I got the case already modified. It also came with the motherboard, power supply, optical drive, 4 case fans, a fan controller, and the wiring harness/adapter that allows use of the front panel inputs and controls plus a chime that sounds the same a Macs. All for $325.00. Now I have a few extra parts that I had already bought that I need to sell. Mainly a GA-Z68XP-U3 motherboard. I was wondering why you bought the Syba firewire card if you already have the on-board port with the TI chip. If you don't mind I may have a lot of questions for you I hope you don't mind answering. Believe it our not, I can't find all that many posts for a Hackintosh that is used primarily for Pro Tools. I want to be sure that I am buying components that are not only compatible for building a Hackintosh but are also compatible with Pro Tools. One does not necessarily equal the other. I could also use help with setting up the BIOS and configuring Multibeast best for use with Pro Tools. This weekend I'm going to put it together and start installation. I am installing Mountain Lion 10.8. Any tips before I start?

Thanks,
Todd

 

[BoomR]

I was wondering why you bought the Syba firewire card if you already have the on-board port with the TI chip. If you don't mind I may have a lot of questions for you I hope you don't mind answering.

I'm **HAPPY** to answer that question. FWIW, I've been doing the DAW thing for a VERY long time, all the way back to using an Atari STacy "portable" computer with a 20MB hard drive. Way back then, Atari was suppose to be THE musician's platform because Atari computers had a built-in MIDI interface. At any rate, I was running eMagic's "Notator Logic" (which was the original app that became eMagic's Logic Platinum & that, in turn was bought by Apple & is now Logic Studio). When I sold that Atari rig, I bought an Apple Mac IIci and the very first ProTools rig with the NuBus card & 442 I/O back in 1993. This was all probably WAY before you were even born LOL !! (I'm an old fart)

At any rate, the general consensus for those of us who are long-time users of Macs for ProTools & other DAW apps is that you try & keep bandwidth-intensive devices on separate FW busses to minimize risk & problems. For example, you don't want to daisy-chain your FW audio interface and a FW external HD that holds all your digital audio files - you would want each device on their own FW bus.

In my setup, I actually have 2 FW interfaces that I use for "overflow" I/O if & when I max out the 8 inputs of my Symphony I/O. I have a Mackie Onyx 1220i Firewire Mixer - this device is attached to the Gigabyte FW bus & gets used more often than my other FW devices: a Mackie Onyx Blackbird Firewire Audio Interface, and an HP Multi-format optical drive (BluRay reader) in an OWC Mercury Pro 5.25" external housing with FW800 interface. I have this external optical drive sitting next to my Cinema display - that keeps me from having to run downstairs where my CustoMac is when I need access to the optical drive.

If I were to put both audio interfaces on the same FW bus, and use all 12 channels of I/O, I risk drop-outs, snaps/crackles/pops, or even worse, big-time latency issues. By keeping the audio interfaces on 2 different FW busses, I get much better performance & way fewer latency issues.

If you only have 1 firewire device, then you should be just fine with the single Syba card. Hope this helps!!
--B

 

[qwerty123]

If you only have 1 firewire device, then you should be just fine with the single Syba card. Hope this helps!!
--B

Say BoomR, so the Syba card only provides one firewire bus for all three of its firewire connections?

One reason I'm moving to hackintosh is because my Mbox pro and firewire harddisks are battling each other on the single firewire bus on my iMac!

 

[BoomR]

Say BoomR, so the Syba card only provides one firewire bus for all three of its firewire connections?

One reason I'm moving to hackintosh is because my Mbox pro and firewire harddisks are battling each other on the single firewire bus on my iMac!

I'm pretty sure the answer to that question is "YES" - as the Syba FW card is plugged into a single PCIe slot - the PCIe slot is the "bus." So in my case, the on-board FW is on 1 bus; the Syba card is on another bus. You might consider finding an inexpensive eSATA housing & take the physical HD out of your FW enclosure & put it into an eSATA enclosure (provided, of course that the drive inside your FW HD enclosure is SATA & not the older IDE technology). Otherwise, you may need to consider a 2nd Syba card. OR - since your MB already has FW on it (albeit the VIA chipset), you may want to try plugging in your FW HD into that. There are some folks on here who are reporting that they have zero issues with the VIA FW ports. If you still have problems using the Syba for your MBox & the on-board FW for your HD, then as I said, you may need to think about either a) another Syba card, or b) figuring out how to put your HD on a different bus (busting open the FW HD case & removing the drive, then getting a different enclosure - eSATA, USB).

So it appears you know first-hand the issue with combining bandwidth-hungry FW devices on the same bus

Good luck!
--BoomR

 

[citydog]

So I am about to do my install. Any advice like which bios version is best and which OS version is best. I already have Unibeast set up with the latest Mountain Lion OS. I notice many people install an older OS first and then update. Why would one do that? Any tips would be welcome.
Also since I have a 6850 Graphics card and a TI firewire card is it recommended to disable the built in Graphics and firewire on the motherboard. For my board a GA Z68XP-UD3-B3 who has the best installation guide to follow. Are there any special considerations for Pro Tools. I have PT 9 with a Digidesign 003 rack plus interface.

 

[audioborg]

I just finished building my first Hack to hopefully use with Pro Tools. The initial install went great and most everything on the board (GA-Z77X-UP TH) worked instantly. However, my main glitch now is just trying to get Pro Tools to install. The installer keeps hanging at "running package scripts", then it will eventually freeze. I've tried installing to SSD and HDD, to no avail. Completely stumped.

The other annoying problem is how long this thing takes to boot up. Even with the SSD boot drive, it takes a good 50secs to get up to the desktop. The processor is 3770K i7, so I guess I expected faster performance.

 

[BoomR]

I was just re-reading the thread & noticed that you said you were going to install Mountain Lion. I don't think AVID has PT 10 working fully with ML... And CERTAINLY there's no way, then that PT 9 will work under ML. You may need to consider going back to 10.7.4/10.7.5 for best success...

 

[citydog]

This is good info. I keep asking what OS version is best and what bios version is best for Pro Tools and this is the first real answer I've had in months. When I downloaded ML it just automatically gave me the latest version. Since I have a Mac and I can use the "app store method", how do I find older versions to download then?

 

[BoomR]

As for the BIOS version for your motherboard, my experience has been that it's a non-issue. I just run whatever the latest BIOS is posted on the Gigabyte Web site AND for which there is a DSDT file in the DSDT database. But if you're going with the new 7-series motherboards with the UEFI (and not a "traditional" BIOS), then there probably is no DSDT. Then again, those mobos really don't need a DSDT any more anyway, right?

NOW as far as what OS goes with which version of Pro Tools, THAT, my friend is a COMPLETELY different story...and one that is WAY more significant to take into account. BTW, on a similar subject, I just posted this last night: Pro Tools & Apple Qualified Hardware

According to this Avid KB article, ProTools 10 is supported under Snow Leopard 10.6.7 (note that it's not 10.6.8 which is the newest SL), and Lion 10.7.4 (not 10.7.5 which is the newest Lion). As for PT 9, do a search of the Avid KB for the corresponding article. THAT may answer your question as to why you are having so many problems getting PT9 to install.

Older versions of OSX
When you purchase Lion from the App Store, you'll get 10.7.4 (that's a good thing). Now that Apple has gone to this App Store delivery mechanism, it's a LOT harder to find the older builds of the OS. You might want to start doing what I do: Make a ZIP archive of whatever the current version of your OSX installer is (ex. I bought ML when it was 10.8.0), then make a backup copy of the ZIP (burn a DVD, buy a USB flash drive...whatever). Then when you see announcements about a new version of OSX released (for example 10.8.2), go to the App Store. You'll notice that in the "Updates" page, it will say that your ML installer (the original 10.8.0) needs an update.

Let the App Store update your installer to 10.8.2, then like before, make a ZIP of the new 10.8.2 installer & archive it somewhere. The next time Apple makes an update to ML (I think we're waiting on 10.8.3), just repeat the process: use the App Store to update your installer, then ZIP the new file & archive.

You end up with all the incremental versions as well as the most current version. If you need to re-build your UniBeast installer with one of the older versions of Lion or ML, you've got those incremental versions - just unzip one of the older versions & replace the current Lion or ML installer in the Applications folder. Then run UniBeast to re-build your install key.