i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[mykhal c]

Originally Posted by pearl_drummer

so whats wrong with having 8 gigs of RAM running altogether? is triple channel better?

lotsa informative links on page 1 Understanding Nehalem's Memory Architecture dated but good info regardless. PTLE does benefit from the extra channel.

[Bodie]

Originally Posted by filosofem

VX351 and 352? RME? Or did you mean CP-251? How are you liking MP-201? It's at the top of my must get list as I also would like MIDI to CV for my VOS.

Good catch, but it's actually the VX-351 http://www.moogmusic.com/voyager/?se...&product_id=48 and the CP-251 http://www.moogmusic.com/controllers...oduct_id=21291.

The MP-201 is interesting, i'm still messing with it a bit on my Model D as well as my Phatty, I'm finding some interesting pre-built patches, the fun part will be dragging the MF- into the mix and that I've just not had time to play with.

[filosofem]

Originally Posted by Bodie

The MP-201 is interesting, i'm still messing with it a bit on my Model D as well as my Phatty, I'm finding some interesting pre-built patches, the fun part will be dragging the MF- into the mix and that I've just not had time to play with.

I've heard great things about how well the MP-201 works with the new and old. Is your LP Stage II? I saw a clip of Amos using Theremin CV Out to LP CV Filter Cutoff and USB to Ableton. Very impressive sequence using the Theremin as an expression Filter Cutoff. OTT but great vision.

[markus44uk]

Hi, before upgrading to Win 7 and PT8.0.4 I've been having recurring errors (pretty much since I did this i7 build. Typical problems are when I try to close PT after doing an MP3 bounce, and when it asks if I want to save the session before closing, if I click yes, I get an error message and then can't get out of PT without killing the program from Task Manager. If I select don't save, I get the same error.

These problems only seem to happen when I'm working on older sessions that I had first created in my Quadzilla HD3 build (which was rock solid). Almost never seems to happen with new sessions from scratch but occasionally it does. Last night while working on one of these older sessions, about ten minutes into it, I got an error message saying PT couldn't perform the autosave function. I saved as a new name and continued on...a little later, system locked up and when I killed PT from Task Manager and restarted PT, the newly named session wasn't there, but I was easily able to load the old session and save it and didn't get the error again....this intermittant occurrance is driving me nuts. I just can't purposely cause these errors to happen. Sometimes I work for hours with no problems and sometimes I can't reopen sessions that opened fine before, and sometimes a reboot and delete prefs and then it loads ok.

I never had these issues when I was running my Quadzilla HD3 rig on PT HD 7.3, first time these errors occurred was when I upgraded my HD3 Quad to PT 7.4 HD. When I built my i7 LE rig, these errors continued but only on those sessions from the HD days. Its almost like the sessions might be corrupt. One thing that might be causing resource problems is the fact that the session is a 65 minute long live session that I have been editing song by song and saving the entire audio session as a new PT session after doing all the automation on a song by song basis....if that is clear.

I'm hearing that this is probably a memory or resource issue. Are my memory timings and other BIOS settings possibly off?

My bad never copying down the error code or message...must do that from now on. In the meantime, here's my Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra
Computer
Model : Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Workgroup : WORKGROUP
Host Name : quad-716b92a86f
User : Markus
Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Speed : 2.67GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 4x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 8 threads sharing
Computer
Mainboard : Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
BIOS : Award (Phoenix) FD4 09/01/2009
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 3.5GB DIMM DDR3
Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte X58 I/O Hub
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)
Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)
Total Memory : 6GB DIMM DDR3
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 532MHz (1GHz)
Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : OCZ OCZ3X1600LV2G 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-14400U DDR3-1800 (7-7-7-16 4-26-8-4)
Memory Module : OCZ OCZ3X1600LV2G 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-14400U DDR3-1800 (7-7-7-16 4-26-8-4)
Memory Module : OCZ OCZ3X1600LV2G 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-14400U DDR3-1800 (7-7-7-16 4-26-8-4)
Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4350 (PS3.0, VS3.0 600MHz, 256MB DDR3 2x400MHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)
Graphics Processor
Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4350 ()
Storage Devices
WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 596GB (C:) (E:)
WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 596GB (F:)
Generic Flash HS-CF (USB) : N/A (G:)
Generic Flash HS-COMBO (USB) : N/A (H:)
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22LP20 (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : 25MB (D:)
Logical Storage Devices
SYSTEM (C:) : 146GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache)
BACKUP (E:) : 450GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache)
PT AUDIO (F:) : 596GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache)
Aug 05 2010 (D:) : 703MB (UDF) @ HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22LP20 (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
3.5" 1.44MB (A:) : N/A
Removable Drive (G:) : N/A @ Generic Flash HS-CF (USB)
Removable Drive (H:) : N/A @ Generic Flash HS-COMBO (USB)
Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Giga-Byte LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8720F
Audio Device : Hightech Information System RV730XT Audio device [Radeon HD 4670]
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte 4 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte 2 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 4 : Giga-Byte USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 6 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 7 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 8 : Giga-Byte USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Giga-Byte TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus
Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Network Adapter : Belkin N+ Wireless USB Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line
Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3)
Platform Compliance : x86

[mykhal c]

1st question...how is your playback engine setup?

[markus44uk]

Playback = 1024, 8, 90%, Level 1. Got some help from Stevo and we narrowed it down to memory issues. I am using 2.83gigs of memory and its choking the system....gotta go to Win7 64 I guess. Not using that many plugins though...

SSL Channel - 14 instances, PSP Vintage Warmer - 2x, Tapehead - 2x, Trim-2x, Maxxbass-2x, IRL full-2x, TL Space-1x, PA77-1x, RenDe-esser-1x,Fairchild 660-1x, Waves L2 - 1x, Ren EQ4-1x, DigiSlap Dly 2-1x,Waves L3 Ultramaximiser-1x

About 20 tracks and 65 minutes of audio, 2 busses (1 reverb bus with about 6 sends and a delay buss with three sends)

Changed my memory timings to 8-8-8-20 from what the AUTO bios settings had (7-7-7-16 4-26-8-4) to Expert in DRAM Speed Timings. Didn't change the 4-26-8-4 timings though...should I have?)

Also someone needs to tell Digi that their Delete Prefs utility doesn't work with PT 8.03 and above (but thats a different issue)

Big thanks to guitardom for the extended skype session and advice. He really helped me find the problem

[mykhal c]

well you were in excellent hands then!! i'd also suggest to you change your RTAS procs to 7 or even 6. give the system a free cpu or 2 for its' own processin' any particular reason you runnin' at 1024?

[markus44uk]

Originally Posted by mykhal c

well you were in excellent hands then!! i'd also suggest to you change your RTAS procs to 7 or even 6. give the system a free cpu or 2 for its' own processin' any particular reason you runnin' at 1024?

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie as far as guitardom's help is concerned. What a BIG help he was.

Had considered dropping the RTAS procs down a notch as possible workaround. No reason why I'm runnin at 1024 other than I'm mixing so don't need the low latency from lower settings. Should I be running lower?

ACK! 2am now...need to get sleep...can't listen to another minute of London Big Brother on tv...

[mykhal c]

Originally Posted by markus44uk

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie as far as guitardom's help is concerned. What a BIG help he was.

Had considered dropping the RTAS procs down a notch as possible workaround. No reason why I'm runnin at 1024 other than I'm mixing so don't need the low latency from lower settings. Should I be running lower?

ACK! 2am now...need to get sleep...can't listen to another minute of London Big Brother on tv...

definitely free up 1 proc. unless you are runnin' heavy VIs and a ton of trax you 'should' be able to sit on 64 sample buffer 95% of the time with your i7...once you get it dialed in and workin' smoothly. but the RTAS proc change will matter...help stabilize things.

[markus44uk]

Running XP Pro currently....

Dropped Procs to 6 and got no improvement in memory usage. When I tried to close the session without saving got the usual error

Could not complete close session because access violation occurred. Unable to read location at address xxxxxxxx in module protools.dll

When I hit ok or cancel, I keep getting same error and have to close from Task Manager (kill the application)

This is the same error I get most of the time with this session