Best Systems and Components for Win HD/TDM

[pm mastering studio]

dawkab :

I just ordere the P7P55D
Looking forward to have my HD3 moved to i7 920 and Windows 7

anyone has experience with this board

[Phil O'Keefe]

Originally Posted by pm mastering studio

dawkab :

I just ordere the P7P55D
Looking forward to have my HD3 moved to i7 920 and Windows 7

anyone has experience with this board

I don't, but I'm interested to hear how it works out for you, and from anyone else who is using this for HD.

Good luck, and please keep us posted.

[Third Eye Studios]

Just finished a new build for PTHD but with pci cards. It's based on a Supermicro X8SAX, Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield, and Windows 7 64 bit. We've got an HD2 in it, but the board can do an HD3. Works great so far!!

[undergroundcubby]

I Have a HD 3 PCI (I have another Accel as well so could have a HD 4 if there was a board to handle it) and would love to move to the new i7 processors, can anyone double confirm the Supermicro board that was mentioned in the last post?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[kirkgale]

I can sort-of double confirm the prior post as I’ve had HD3 PCI-x Accel installed with an i7 in that Board for many months (first with XP and since 4 weeks ago with Win 7(x64).

But I can’t confirm that it works great….(e.g., midi in/out is dodgy prolly ‘cause my midiman driver is not Win7 compatible and loading Omnisphere etc. is not fully useable). But playback of 48 plus tracks is no problem. Haven’t tested running tons of non-VI plugs yet ‘cause I hesitate to install them if Digi is eventually going to give up on this compatibility project.

I’d be real curious for examples of what Third Eye means by “works great so far”…?

[Third Eye Studios]

I’d be real curious for examples of what Third Eye means by “works great so far”…?

I decided on this MB after reading your posts. I figured even if I had to go back to XP, at least this MB can do a HD3.

After installing Windows 7 64 bit, I updated the new computer online on Windows update, making sure I had all the most current drivers.

Really the only example I have of the system working great is very smooth playback of previously mixed large sessions. There were no issues and the system was way more responsive than my previous set-up. I have not used it for heavy tracking yet, but I was able to record 40 or so tracks for 10 minutes with no issues/pops/clicks. Haven't done any heavy editing yet.

No problems with midi here so far, but I don't do a whole lot of midi, mostly audio. My m-audio uno and edirol keyboard were both plug and play drivers with Windows 7 64 bit with no issues and worked out of the gate. My midi use is limited as I really only use midi for my Pro Tools controller (HUI working great) and I'll occasionaly record midi keyboards. I don't use Omnisphere.

The only real issues I've had was with a few plug-in installers and then plug-ins hanging during PT loading. This might be a IE8 issue, since it was already on the Windows 7 64 bit disk. I was able to get everything going and all plug-ins seem to be working.

[kirkgale]

Great news Third Eye...

just to be sure, is the core card in the regular PCI slot (i.e., the one closest to the circumfrance edge of the main board)..?

[Third Eye Studios]

We have the core card in the bottom PCIx slot, and a process card in the pcix slot above it. The PCI is empty right now. Three tracking sessions later and we've had absolutely no issues. The system was flawless.

[kirkgale]

Hi 3rd Eye...

w/ the same system as you, I'm not stable (although you have not yet installed the 2nd Accel card into your reg 'ole PCI slot have you?)...and would ask for your time on the following:

1. wadda mean upper/lower slot?...is your Core card in the PCI-x slot closest to the CPU or to the edge of the mainboard...?

2. in the bios, on what setting is your PCI Latency Timer (mine is 64)...

but no joy yet (after removing the 2nd Accel card and also trying every slot order for the Core/Accel combo, to try to solve the "PT not responding" problem, I've now got tons of 1122's, 1115's etc.

[Third Eye Studios]

1. wadda mean upper/lower slot?...is your Core card in the PCI-x slot closest to the CPU or to the edge of the mainboard...?

In the MB manual it is labeled as slot 1, the one closest to the edge of the MB.

2. in the bios, on what setting is your PCI Latency Timer (mine is 64)...

I'm not at the studio right now, so I will definately check that later and get back to you. I did not tweek any bios settings at all besides the boot drive order.

We only have a HD 2, so I'm only using the PCIx slots. Slot 1 for the core card, slot 2 for the Process card.

Also, I did all the Windows 7 64bit updates and system driver updates before I installed Pro Tools. Also installed all the most recent plug-in updates. I also turned off all user account BS in Windows 7. I hope we can get it going stable for you.