Please critique my Protools HD build

[yaren]

OOPSS!!! I typed that "N" by a mistake... it's actually just the normal GA-H55-USB3, better go back and edit that response. Sorry about that.

Here's a link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128437

It has the 3 pci slots you need back to back, perfect for a ProTools HD3 pcix system, as the ribbon cables will easily cross between each pci slot. You still have to make sure you get a chasis that can deal with the length of the Protools cards. Honestly, this is "THE BOARD" to get for a ProTools HD rig, it's cheap and smooth as can be, can't say enough good things about it.... I've been running my main tracking room on it for professional work 24-7 and not one problem beyond initial setup and installation.

In reference to overclocking....I'm not the best at overclocking, but I did have my main system with an 875K bumped up to around 3.8ghz for a few months and it really had very little gains for audio from what I could tell. I don't think it's worth the trouble unless you like to have fun. Especially if you are using ProTools HD, combined with all this native power... you will have a very hard time maxing out your system. It's a great time for recording music, no more worries for us studio folks.

Would you recommend this board for any recording and production desktop??
I use mostly Logic and Ableton with motu firewire audio and loads of plugs and was considering building mine based off of the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R board. Would you recommend the GA-H55-USB3 instead? Any reasons why? I also might like to run a UAD-1 card in the future. Thanks for any advice!

for the type of stuff you are doing, you only need a basic computer... this stuff is far too superior for what you would be needing man... just build one of the tonymacs i7's you will be set for many many years to come... and yes you will also be able to put in UAD-1 card let me know what you decide to build and how its going, im interested

 

[yaren]

Yaren, I'm building a PT HD3 Hack based upon the older PCIX cards.
I started out with the Intel DH55HC as it was the only MB I could find with 3 PCI slots in a row. On the advice of Leftbrain I'm going to switch to a Gigabyte H55-USB3. It also has 3 PCI slots. I had originally planned to build this Hack with a SuperMicro server MB with 3 true PCIX slots and dual Zeon processors. A much costlier build but it would have been incredibly powerful. 12 core. More Ram then you could ever use, etc....

The question is are your Digi cards PCIX or PCIE? Or are you going to build a new NATIVE system that only needs one PCIE slot?

BillieJo

What do you mean by the older PCIX cards???

1 Accel Core card and 2 HD Accel cards (PCIe) - thats going to be my setup...

I am exactly in your boat... I want to build a system as close to a mac pro setup as possible.. I have been looking into some dual cpu slot mboards but no real info on what I am after... Why did you not chose to go with the zeon build? What are some of the boards you had been looking at?... If you want a super build that is going to be rock solid int he studio for many years to come, I would personally go with the better build, spending enough to get what would alround be super...
Studio that im working in now only is using a g3 mac, 2 gig of ram, 3.2ghz... works perfect for pro tools basics, but thats not what im after, im needing to run NI komplete, track alot of tracks, 3 uad cards, waves plugins etc all working seamlessly.
I have also seen afew gigabyte boards with 3 pci slots in a row... not just the one mentioned by leftbrain... My build will be costly whatever way I go, but it will def be a huge % off buying a macpro straight up....
very interested in your answers and ongoing feedback

 

[BillieJo]

Yaren, I am not building a PCIe based machine. I have the original PCIx card format that Digi used in the G4 Macs, and the G3s for that fact.
That changed to PCIe based cards with the G5 and Mac Pro models.

I hate to be argumentative but there's NO way a G3 with 2 gig of ram can run PT with any speed. Not possible.

My G4 is running PT 7, very stable but it chokes and slows down as I start to add plug ins. I have many $$$ invested in TDM plug ins so I did not want to move to the new Native Digi PT9 system. Now I'll have the option to run all plug in types with plenty of processing power. I have NI 7 and large sample library as well as a UAD Quad PCIe card.
This Gigabyte MB will support that and as Leftbrain has pointed out the Kext have already been sorted and the MB has proved to be stable. I was in uncharted waters with the Intel MB. I see that Gigabyte now has an 1155 based MB with 3 PCI slots also.

I'm not sure what your budget is but (with no disrespect to this forum) if I have the $$ for a Mac Pro similar in power to the Hack I just built I wouldn't be going down this path.

If what you have outlined (6x PCIe slots) is what you want, then google search for a MB with 6 PCIe slots. I think Asus makes one. That's not what I needed.

You of course need 3 in a row as the Digi cards have to be linked together.
That's the most important factor unless you go Native. Then you can populate the rest of the MB with your UAD cards. Are they PCI, PCIe or both?

To answer your question as to why I changed designs...
The server MB w/dual processors fully loaded was getting close to $6K to build.
Although I do want a monster fast Hack, my current build has only cost me around $1500.

The fastest Quad core w/16Gb of ram. For the mixing and tracking I do in my studio this will be just fine.

BillieJo

 

[Arron]

OOPSS!!! I typed that "N" by a mistake... it's actually just the normal GA-H55-USB3, better go back and edit that response. Sorry about that.

Here's a link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128437

It has the 3 pci slots you need back to back, perfect for a ProTools HD3 pcix system, as the ribbon cables will easily cross between each pci slot. You still have to make sure you get a chasis that can deal with the length of the Protools cards. Honestly, this is "THE BOARD" to get for a ProTools HD rig, it's cheap and smooth as can be, can't say enough good things about it.... I've been running my main tracking room on it for professional work 24-7 and not one problem beyond initial setup and installation.

In reference to overclocking....I'm not the best at overclocking, but I did have my main system with an 875K bumped up to around 3.8ghz for a few months and it really had very little gains for audio from what I could tell. I don't think it's worth the trouble unless you like to have fun. Especially if you are using ProTools HD, combined with all this native power... you will have a very hard time maxing out your system. It's a great time for recording music, no more worries for us studio folks.

Would you recommend this board for any recording and production desktop??
I use mostly Logic and Ableton with motu firewire audio and loads of plugs and was considering building mine based off of the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R board. Would you recommend the GA-H55-USB3 instead? Any reasons why? I also might like to run a UAD-1 card in the future. Thanks for any advice!

for the type of stuff you are doing, you only need a basic computer... this stuff is far too superior for what you would be needing man... just build one of the tonymacs i7's you will be set for many many years to come... and yes you will also be able to put in UAD-1 card let me know what you decide to build and how its going, im interested

OK great, thanks!

 

[tonzone]

Hi,

IMHO one of the best (budget-) mainboards for HD3 PCI/PCI-X is the MSI P55A-G55 (and yes, there is a DSDT for this one). No problems with coolers or S-ATA connectors. I have build 8 systems (HD2 and HD3, Pro Tools 9.x) with this board, with 860 and 875K. Rock solid. Only downside is the lack of FW, but there is no problem with a FW PCIe card.

Also there exists a Sandybridge-board with almost the same layout, but I have not tested this until now:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-C45--B3-.html

Cheers
Zig
3_PCI_PA.jpg

 

[yaren]

hey what about non budget mboards??? whats what im really interested in guys... non budget mboards for pro tools 9 rigs... thanks...

 

[BillieJo]

Yaren, here's the link to the SuperMicro MB I was originally going to base my Hack around.
The X8DAE. That and the SuperMicro silent tower which is also sourced from the link below.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/moth ... .cfm?SAS=N

Dual Zeon 5600 Westmere processors. Supports 48Gb of ram. Oh yeah!

This is not a low budget MB or build. It is not for the faint of heart either.

Let me know how you make out. I'm very curious as it could have been the machine of my dreams.
It was getting close to $15K to build with all the fans, coolers, HDs, etc...

No one on this forum could tell me if this board would work with PT or if there are any DSDTs for it.
Although someone on another forum suggested that the increased bus speed would work, no one could (not even Avid) confirm the cards would run at 64bit/66MHz.
They are 32bit DSP chips and if the bus allows for 66MHz thru put you might get it.

BillieJo.

 

[izaltinojr]

Here i have a p7h55, Pro tools hd2 process, work in pt 8.1 cs2 (dont need update yet) and 10.6.6.
Everything its alright, no problem. working in process like a accel...
I did a test with a pt9, works fine... but the crack version have some bugs.. waiting to buy a full version soon...

 

[yaren]

Yaren, here's the link to the SuperMicro MB I was originally going to base my Hack around.
The X8DAE. That and the SuperMicro silent tower which is also sourced from the link below.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/moth ... .cfm?SAS=N

Dual Zeon 5600 Westmere processors. Supports 48Gb of ram. Oh yeah!

This is not a low budget MB or build. It is not for the faint of heart either.

Let me know how you make out. I'm very curious as it could have been the machine of my dreams.
It was getting close to $15K to build with all the fans, coolers, HDs, etc...

No one on this forum could tell me if this board would work with PT or if there are any DSDTs for it.
Although someone on another forum suggested that the increased bus speed would work, no one could (not even Avid) confirm the cards would run at 64bit/66MHz.
They are 32bit DSP chips and if the bus allows for 66MHz thru put you might get it.

BillieJo.

hey man, thanks heaps for that reply. thats what i was after...
I will prob start a new thread asking about supported dual cpu boards. I made one and no answers... I saw an acer and asus board that was dual that seemed great, but no replies or support found... I think there are def ppl who have built successful hackintosh's for what we are aiming at....

man 15k for the build, that is really expensive... what sorta rundown on the parts cases etc did u have in mind for that.. at 15k for a hackintosh id rather just buy myself a custom mac pro from the shop...

im hoping to build my dream dual cpu hackpro for a fraction of 15k... nowhere near it...

 

[BillieJo]

Yaren, when I say $15K I'm talking full on, ultimate system, spare no expense, mother of all Hacks. A very powerful PT DAW ready for anything.

The SuperMicro MB which is no longer available was around $500.
The SuperMicro chassis (SC747TG-R1400B-SQ) is $900 with redundant 1400W PS.
The memory fully loaded (18 x8GB) @ $200 per chip is $3600.
2x fastest 3.33GHz 6 core Xeon processors $3500
10K Velociraptor drives or SSDs for system, audio and storage x6 = $2000+
Video card... $500 > $1000
2x 28" HD monitors $500 > $700

So I'm close to $12K now without shipping and there are still various other things like CPU coolers, cables, fans, FW800 card, eSata card, etc... which won't add up to $3K but I could see this Hack getting very expensive and no clue whatsoever if it would work.

What would a comparable Mac Pro cost?

But that would be PCI-e and that won't work for me. I need PCI or PCI-X.

It seems everyone is running these DIGI PCI cards on PCI slots with no complaints but I did get a note early on about increased bus speed using a true PCI-X bus. As I said, no one could confirm this. Although Magma gets the extra speed out of these cards by using the faster dedicated 64bit/66MHz bus but most people say it's not needed for audio.
33MHz is fast enough. And the cards are 32bit DSP.
They do have the extra fingers and can be read in a PCI-X slot like they are in a Magma chassis to perform at a higher speed...I can go on but why.

My new Hack is stable. Everything works. Even sleep. Streaming HD video around the clock. Confirming Quantum Physics. Making Mocha Lattes.

Here's an interesting fact. The Intel MB booted OSX faster than the Gigabyte MB. Indeed it did. By at least 10 seconds. That may not be much but it does say something.
And with the Intel board and the DSDT that was made using Auto Patcher by MaLd0n there was no PC startup screen. It booted straight into the SL OSX screen.

That's all I got. I went from a $$$$ 12 core Hack to a $ 4 core Hack which will hopefully give me the benefits of TDM via the HD3 PCI cards and plenty of AU and RTAS via the 4 core i7 processor. I'll keep you posted. Got to finish what I started.

BillieJo.