Any progress with Sandy?
I have been up and running with the GA-H55-USB3 for a couple of weeks and I could not be happier. W7 and OSX runs very well and PTHD9.0.3 (HD3) hasn't crashed, hiccuped,stuttered, or any of the other weird stuff since optimizing both sides.
i870 (stock fan) Ebay $198 shipped
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H55-USB3 Ebay $65 shipped
GSkill Ripjaw 1333 4x4GB sticks Newegg $120 for 16gigs on Shell Shocker
2x1GB F3 Samsung Spinpoints (fast/quiet) Newegg $54.99 Price Match
1x2GB WD Ears (storage/quiet) Newegg $79.99
Antec Case(replaced case fan and added 3 GELIDs) super quiet and rocks!! Newegg $89.99
Case Fans are
here and
here extra $30 for all 3 but so worth it. These things are super quiet and moves a ton of air.
Corsair 750tx Power Supply (quiet) Tiger Direct $99.99
Geforce Quadro 3500fx (loudest part but works great in OSX not needed for Windows) Pre-Owned
Total cost ~$800
This does not include the Price of GPU(if needed), DVD Burner, W7 Professional or Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Retail(if needed).
Samples load on Maschine as if it was a hardware synth. Super Fast!
I am a very happy man!