KNNSpeed's Build: DZ77RE-75K - Core i7-2600k - XFX 5670

[KNNSpeed]

Yes... Bad news indeed. So i guess i'll have to spend my money on a PT10HD upgrade first. Looked on Ebay, I actually could find some between 650 and 750 USD (which is a lot better than the 1000+ Avid is asking for it). Consequently, this means also that i'll have to wait to build that dream Hackintosh using the Intel DZ77RE-75K.

But a few more questions regarding this, and thanks for your time btw, and for the precious advice you gave all along this thread !
So, if i decide to run it with Lion, will every feature work as good as it does with ML ? (But anyway i hope that by the time i'll have the funds to start this build, Avid will have an update of PT10HD that runs correctly on ML)
What if I decide to go without a graphic card ? Can I still get dual monitors to work correctly ? Read a bunch of reviews and H3000/4000 performance seem to be rather sufficient for what i plan to use this computer for.
Is Firewire working properly ? Is there a secondary FW port on this mobo that i could route to the front of the case ?
Got a little confused with the USB glitches you encountered, could you summarize what's ok and what's not ?

Thanks !

No problem; I love this stuff.

Honestly, I don't remember what worked best in Lion. It definitely wasn't as smooth as it is with Mountain Lion, because I had to pick apart BridgeHelper 5.0 and get only very specific kexts out of it for the board to work right. It should all be in the guide, though. Also, I can't speak on behalf of 10.7.5, since I skipped it. I can only speak for 10.7.4.

I remember testing it and the HD 3000 can indeed handle 2 monitors, but if you notice on this board there is only one HDMI port and one thunderbolt port. You'll have to use a MiniDisplayPort monitor/adapter at the end of your thunderbolt chain, then, to get 2 monitors from the Intel HD graphics.

Firewire is working as far as I'm aware, and there IS an onboard header for a front port. The Firewire port on the back is a FW 400 port, and the onboard header I think is a 400 as well (it probably is, since it's an IEEE 1394a header).

As for USB, basically if you use the back black or yellow USB 2.0 plugs, you can't use sleep, and shutting down/restarting has an odd, almost exactly 30-second delay between when the monitors shut off and when the computer actually turns off. Also, 2 of the USB 3.0 ports just don't work with anything USB 2.0, but they do work with USB 1.1 and 3.0 things. It's really weird, yeah, but it's entirely manageable.

(For some reason, though, I can leave my Wifi+Bluetooth dongle on an internal black USB 2.0 header and it works fine amid the confusion, so I'm wondering what's really going on there with Apple's EHCI controller.)

 

[XBassman]

I remember testing it and the HD 3000 can indeed handle 2 monitors, but if you notice on this board there is only one HDMI port and one thunderbolt port. You'll have to use a MiniDisplayPort monitor/adapter at the end of your thunderbolt chain, then, to get 2 monitors from the Intel HD graphics.

Firewire is working as far as I'm aware, and there IS an onboard header for a front port. The Firewire port on the back is a FW 400 port, and the onboard header I think is a 400 as well (it probably is, since it's an IEEE 1394a header).

As for USB, basically if you use the back black or yellow USB 2.0 plugs, you can't use sleep, and shutting down/restarting has an odd, almost exactly 30-second delay between when the monitors shut off and when the computer actually turns off. Also, 2 of the USB 3.0 ports just don't work with anything USB 2.0, but they do work with USB 1.1 and 3.0 things. It's really weird, yeah, but it's entirely manageable.

(For some reason, though, I can leave my Wifi+Bluetooth dongle on an internal black USB 2.0 header and it works fine amid the confusion, so I'm wondering what's really going on there with Apple's EHCI controller.)

Thanks for your response.

Well i think i'll be better off with a PCIe GPU then, because sharing the TB port between an audio device and a monitor isn't a good idea...

Browsing the forum, i've read that for audio applications the Ti FW chipset was a whole lot better than the VIA FW chipset, do you know which one is on this board ?

As for USB, the use ProTools implies that the sleep function must remain off in the system. That is mandatory when you use pro-audio devices. But this machine will be on for working, and off when i'm finished. No time to sleep when at work ! And anyway there's plenty of USB port on this board.

I'll do my ProTools upgrade first, then i'll buy all the stuff and build... Hope I won't get into too much trouble, i might bother you then . Thanks & Cheers.

 

[KNNSpeed]

It uses the Texas Instrument FireWire controller.

And if not using sleep's no issue, then you will have basically no problems with this board, unless you need to hotswap thunderbolt devices, which you can't do with any hackintosh currently.

 

[XBassman]

Cool !
TB hot-swap will not be an issue at all, because its purpose will only be to plug an audio interface, which will stay there all the time. But in that case, my only concern would be to know if whether the TB port has indeed the full performance it is supposed to have while using it on OSX. Do you have some trick to verify that ?

 

[KNNSpeed]

I can't tell you about thunderbolt's performance; I've not used anything other than the thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet adapter and the seagate goflex adapter (which didn't work on BIOS 0049, but it may work now)...

But since OS X doesn't detect the thunderbolt controller, and since it inherits the devices as though they are native PCI-e devices (because they show up in their device type-specific places in system profiler and NOT in the thundebolt section), I would assume that the BIOS is still in control over the device to an extent, and that performance isn't lost. Intel assured me that the chip on here does support the full bidirectional 10Gb/s, but, again, I have nothing to test with.

 

[XBassman]

Hhmm... Interesting point. But if TB isn't correctly recognized at the OS level, my guess is that it could well cause some issue (e.g "device not found" kind of stuff) when connecting devices that need a driver install, i.e specific kext to run (e.g a pro-audio interface). As opposed to devices that run through generic kext... May be i'm wrong, but i believe it makes sense.

 

[michaiel]

XBassman
I am a 20+ year PT user and building what I think you want . I have the parts here to build, but I want to wait until I have a successful build then I will post a link on here for the new build thread I start....

 

[KNNSpeed]

Hhmm... Interesting point. But if TB isn't correctly recognized at the OS level, my guess is that it could well cause some issue (e.g "device not found" kind of stuff) when connecting devices that need a driver install, i.e specific kext to run (e.g a pro-audio interface). As opposed to devices that run through generic kext... May be i'm wrong, but i believe it makes sense.

It shouldn't pose a problem. Remember, thunderbolt is basically PCI-Express, so any device needing a driver would be found as a PCI-E device (albeit as an internal device, but that shouldn't matter).

XBassman
I am a 20+ year PT user and building what I think you want . I have the parts here to build, but I want to wait until I have a successful build then I will post a link on here for the new build thread I start....

Sweet! Let us know how it goes and if it works properly or not!

 

[XBassman]

XBassman
I am a 20+ year PT user and building what I think you want . I have the parts here to build, but I want to wait until I have a successful build then I will post a link on here for the new build thread I start....

Now that's cool ! And you're going with the Intel Z77RE-75K board ? What version of OSX will you be running ? What version of PT do you use ? I read somewhere in this thread that you wanted to use an UAD Apollo, do you already have it ?
And hey ! 20+ years of PT ? Wow ! You must have seen the very 1st version ! I have a friend who worked on SoundTools for Mac prior to that for INA-GRM / IRCAM in Paris (he helped develop the GRM Tools). I've never seen the 1st version myself, but started using it (freelance) by the time 24mix system was launched which is *only* about 15 years ago (before that I was in love with a 24 tracks Studer ! I still am though... ).
Let us know how it goes and good luck !
Cheers.

 

[XBassman]

It shouldn't pose a problem. Remember, thunderbolt is basically PCI-Express, so any device needing a driver would be found as a PCI-E device (albeit as an internal device, but that shouldn't matter).

Yes true... That shouldn't be too much of a hassle then, and i should say, the only way to know is to give it a try...