Anyone try the Dell T7400? Three 64 bit PCI-X slots in a row

[KentH]

Hey yambike, how quiet is the computer?

[tonygoodall]

I went for T7400. Now with 2 x5482, so that's 8 cores at 3.2GHz. Little point getting more than 4GB until PT goes 64bit, so I have tried Windows 7 RC, works quite well, but too flakey and can't get past 50% CPU util

Have now nearly completed move back to XP, can get amazing plugin counts of even Eleven LE

[yambike]

Hey, sorry I missed these questions. I only have 2GB of ram. No need for more than that for what I do. I've only run XP and PT 7.3 so far. It's still doing fine.

As far as noise ... It's a little louder than a G5 but quieter than the Alesis HD24. Those are the only reference points I can give. It's no problem for me. Might be if you wanted to record AC gtr near it.

[yambike]

Actually, my memory was off. I made a conscious comparison the other day and it's quieter than a G5. Sorry for the confusion.

[Sound is Alive]

Hi Yambike,
Have you or will you upgrade to Win 7 Pro 64bit using the Dell T7400 for your HD3 system?? I'll be interested on any thoughts you have.

Thank you very much

[tonygoodall]

I may well update mine to 64bit win 7 next week (HD2)

T

[Sound is Alive]

Hi Tony,
That sounds really great - If you wouldn't mind I'd be very interested to see how you get on with your upgrade.

Thank you very much

[tonygoodall]

I initially bought w7 64bit home premium yesterday. Doh. It only supports one CPU chip (i.e. 4 cores). Got w7 64b ultimate today. Seems fine with my test sessions. Have so far installed IK stuff and arturia, work OK.

Next the NI stuff

Could not run PT with comodo installed with default settings, had to uninstall it. Will try again with manual exceptions defined later

8GB is en route to add to my 4GB

Cheers
Tony

[Sound is Alive]

Thank you for sharing your experiences Tony. As soon as I'm able to, I will also upgrade my T7400 HD2 system to Win7 Pro 64bit.

Good luck with comodo and I look forward to reading your next posting.

[tonygoodall]

couldn't get comodo to work with PT8.x
eventually installed Avira and PC Tools firewall
I get macafee free next week with my new ISP

Now every plugin I have installed (quite a few) seems to work OK. But PT8 is just as flakey as it was for me on XP though, any problem and it hangs and trying to relaunch it gives BSOD.

I still had to uninstall IE8 to run the big AIR VIs like Velvet

It is not good to see PT8 still whine about RTAS and CPU overload on a 12-track session with no RTAS used (just 6 TDM plugins) and a 512 buffer, given that I have 8 3.2GHz cores, maxing below 10% util for that session.
This is with a SAS drive on a separate controller for the OS and Apps, and the SATA for the audio
Still it does usually work OK most of the time for my typical 25-40 track sessions.

I have been through about 15 old sessions, it plays them all fine.
I have done a basic function test on every add-on plugin I have, all fine.
(e.g. IK, NI, Arturia, Waves, Digi stuff, Korg, TL, TC, )
Autotune 5 complained during install, but works OK so far

I still can't run many NI plugins standalone using the Digi IO. This started last autumn with the NI updates. e.g. Kontakt 4, GR4

I'm now waiting to get my extra 8GB RAM before my next tests.

Conclusion so far: no worse than XP for PT8. Hopefully with 12GB RAM, I should be able to run more VIs before I provoke PT8 to self-destruct

Cheers
Tone