Proposed ProTools HD Sandy Bridge Hack

[-JK-]

What do you mean about forgetting X-HD?

Are you running an e3-1270?

What mobo did you end up using?

Well, it just doesn't work, so I guess they willingly or unwillingly removed X-HD support. I'm running a Core i7-2600K on an ASUS P8B WS which I just got for testing and am gonna send back and replace with a Supermicro X9SCA because of it's 3 PCI slots. I'm gonna report back as soon as I got the new board, but I don't think that there will be any differences.

 

[lorudess]

OK, to all those get-a-Socket-1366-system-cause-this-is-the-only-one-that-will-ever-work guys: I have a vanilla Mac OS X 10.6.7 Sandy Bridge build with Pro Tools 9.0.3 up and running on a C206 board with a PCI Core Card and a Digidesign 96 I/O interface. Seems they "forgot" to add X-HD compatibility for Pro Tools HD 9. So, I'm glad to be the first to spread these amazing news. And now go ahead and build yourself a low budget HD system as well!

More walls on the way if that is true... Aurora 8 and Rosetta 800 with LT-HD and X-HD here...

To sum up, my options (HD2):

- GA-Q67 with i7 2600k
- Xeon C-202 with E3-1245

Mmmm...

 

[-JK-]

More walls on the way if that is true... Aurora 8 and Rosetta 800 with LT-HD and X-HD here...

To sum up, my options (HD2):

- GA-Q67 with i7 2600k
- Xeon C-202 with E3-1245 (CPU)

Mmmm...

There are way more options. First, all Xeon boards also support Core CPUs (but not the other way round). Second, you could just sell one of your add-on cards, get an I/O 96 and use your converters via ADAT.

 

[lorudess]

More walls on the way if that is true... Aurora 8 and Rosetta 800 with LT-HD and X-HD here...

To sum up, my options (HD2):

- GA-Q67 with i7 2600k
- Xeon C-202 with E3-1245 (CPU)

Mmmm...

There are way more options. First, all Xeon boards also support Core CPUs (but not the other way round). Second, you could just sell one of your add-on cards, get an I/O 96 and use your converters via ADAT.

I know....the world is full of different colors, shapes...
I meant, to sum up on my specific case (pricewise/perfomance, HD2...). Look:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
The last thing I am thinking is buying an i/O 96.... lots of variables before.

Thx anyway

 

[dfirst]

Here is another Q67 motherboard and it has 4 PCI slots : http://www.portwell.com/products/detail ... -D712VG2AR

 

[FrakkingMac]

Here is another Q67 motherboard and it has 4 PCI slots : http://www.portwell.com/products/detail ... -D712VG2AR

All the SATA ports would be covered except the 2 6GB.

 

[FrakkingMac]

OK, to all those get-a-Socket-1366-system-cause-this-is-the-only-one-that-will-ever-work guys: I have a vanilla Mac OS X 10.6.7 Sandy Bridge build with Pro Tools 9.0.3 up and running on a C206 board with a PCI Core Card and a Digidesign 96 I/O interface. Seems they "forgot" to add X-HD compatibility for Pro Tools HD 9. So, I'm glad to be the first to spread these amazing news. And now go ahead and build yourself a low budget HD system as well!

More walls on the way if that is true... Aurora 8 and Rosetta 800 with LT-HD and X-HD here...

To sum up, my options (HD2):

- GA-Q67 with i7 2600k
- Xeon C-202 with E3-1245

Mmmm...

That Q67's chipset heatsink will block the HD cards.

LT-HD works properly with PT9 - just connect the Rosetta to the AES/EBU. That's how one of mine are setup.

Oh, and go with the E3-1270 - same performance as the 2600 (maybe not for gaming, but definitely for audio).

 

[VooD]

I'm researching in the same field, building a 1155 pci based Protools HD2 rig, this is the cheapest and safest solution I've found so far:

GA-Q67M-D2H-B3

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=3824#ov

The only other motherboard I found with native PCI (B65, Q67 and Q65) is the GA-P65A-UD3 (which is in fact more suitable for this project), but it does have the buggy intel chipset. Gigabyte hasn't released a B3 version bugfree of this board.

The problem with the GA-Q67M-D2H-B3 is the small form factor and the fact PCI-X cards wont fit due to the heatsink and sata connectors. So we would have to use something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCI-Riser-Card-Fl ... 43a3ead4a8

In this way: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/82 ... 1be9b.jpg/

For that you would need a big case with enough free pci docks so the Protools cards would stay under the short mobo.

Also this motherboard seems to work with MacOS X. Both onboard audio and ethernet are supported with 3rd party drivers.

There is other problem though, the mobo has no firewire, so if you need it, you will have to buy a pcie card which would make you to keep the risers cables over it, and I'm not sure if they would be long enough for that.

Anyone brave enough for being the first in testing this setup?

Btw can an HD2 be installed in a P8B WS (taking in mind the pci slots are not consecutive). What about its UEFI bios? Makes harder to get Os X working, or does limit Os X functionalities in any form?

 

[mikonmac]

The problem with the GA-Q67M-D2H-B3 is the small form factor and the fact PCI-X cards wont fit due to the heatsink and sata connectors.

I have the board and I can put and make to work into PCI slot a PCI-X 400/800 firewire card. The firewire card has the same design of HD PCI-X cards.
The problem I have is with Mac OS X. No success for now.

 

[VooD]

The problem with the GA-Q67M-D2H-B3 is the small form factor and the fact PCI-X cards wont fit due to the heatsink and sata connectors.

I have the board and I can put and make to work into PCI slot a PCI-X 400/800 firewire card. The firewire card has the same design of HD PCI-X cards.
The problem I have is with Mac OS X. No success for now.

I hope you manage to get it working all my hopes are in this mobo.
What's the problem with osx?