Allenstein OctaPC(8-core) and Quadzilla(4-core) *OS Update

[pasanta]

nono, I only had the CD-ROM drive, Keyboard (for setting up bios and navigating) and one hard drive hooked up. I guess the problem was my USB CD-ROM drive wasn't connected to the right USB port (back of computer) when it should have been connected to the front of my computer which I had already connected to the mb. Weird, but it worked.

I'm not at my quad right now to look, but aren't there options for USB ports that can be enabled/disabled and re-ordered further down the boot list in the BIOS?

Too, even though you're not to the PT stage yet, I think I recall reading in the PT optimizations part of the manual that USB peripherals should be kept to a minimum. So even though your onlu installing from it at this point, is a USB CD drive really a stable option? It's really just my "bad impression" of USB rather than any actual knowledge........... So I'm just wondering...........I'm sure there are others here much more informed that I am........


Hopefully once you get the OS drive going, it works good for you and I'm just mindlessly rambling about nothing....... (It's been a long day of quadding.... ) and time for bed.............

[applewormy]

I'm not at my quad right now to look, but aren't there options for USB ports that can be enabled/disabled and re-ordered further down the boot list in the BIOS?

Too, even though you're not to the PT stage yet, I think I recall reading in the PT optimizations part of the manual that USB peripherals should be kept to a minimum. So even though your onlu installing from it at this point, is a USB CD drive really a stable option? It's really just my "bad impression" of USB rather than any actual knowledge........... So I'm just wondering...........I'm sure there are others here much more informed that I am........


Hopefully once you get the OS drive going, it works good for you and I'm just mindlessly rambling about nothing....... (It's been a long day of quadding.... ) and time for bed.............

Yes, there are options in the BIOS that allow you to select USB CD-ROMs, firewire, and other things I never knew were possible. I'm installing Windows SP2 at the moment, but it took awhile because I reinstalled windows because my

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

was and still is showing 127gb instead of 320gbs....I'm not sure why, but I just want to get protools installed already!!

[Shan]

It's best to create a 15-20G partition for your C drive and use the rest for storage etc. Do this once XP is installed.

Shane

[schneemaa]

Well guys, it's time for me to build Quad number 2. I need another PT editing/workstation for the studio.

It looks like I will be the guinea pig for the registered/unregistered ram combo on the Tyan board. I'll let everyone know how this turns out. This could be a huge money saver for the Quads. I also think I'll make this a regular ATA 7200 based Quad. So far, my tests have shown that regular ATA 7200 drives are plenty for streaming audio.

Stay tuned.

Shane

What's about the new Opteron 2212 Socket F? Are you going to build a system with the new socket? Will there be a price drop on the old Opterons when the new socket f based cpus get released?

[pasanta]

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

was and still is showing 127gb instead of 320gbs....I'm not sure why, but I just want to get protools installed already!!

Sometimes there are jumpers located somewhere ( usually front or rear) of drives to fix them at a particular size. And sometimes the drive is labeled to show which jumpers those are. I've bought a few drives before that were refurbs. Several of those have been sent with these jumpers in place and I needed to slide them off to get back to full capacity. That was with IDE drives; I've not seen any on SATA............but then , I haven't needed to look for them either.

Also, you might find some info on Seagate's site. They keep a well-orginaized site with complete specs and details for all their drives.

[FlowDenny]

Sometimes there are jumpers located somewhere ( usually front or rear) of drives to fix them at a particular size. And sometimes the drive is labeled to show which jumpers those are. I've bought a few drives before that were refurbs. Several of those have been sent with these jumpers in place and I needed to slide them off to get back to full capacity. That was with IDE drives; I've not seen any on SATA............but then , I haven't needed to look for them either.

Also, you might find some info on Seagate's site. They keep a well-orginaized site with complete specs and details for all their drives.

Pasanta is correct. I also have (2) of the same perpendicular seagates. If you want the drive to function as SATAII/3.0 Gb/s you need to remove the small grey jumper on the back of the HD. if you're looking at the drive from the back it's on the right hand side. that should help you out some... I have yet to see if that will work in my system...waiting for a replacement PSU from OCZ. I never even got off the ground. LOL Patience you must have mmmMMMMmmm.....right master yoda?

[Shan]

What's about the new Opteron 2212 Socket F? Are you going to build a system with the new socket? Will there be a price drop on the old Opterons when the new socket f based cpus get released?

When the new 4 core CPUs get released by AMD I will probably build an 8 core system. That wont be for awhile. The old Opterons(the ones we use now) will probably drop in price way before then, because the new Xeons(Woodcrest) are out and have demonstrated a 25% increase over the current Opteron on the Nuendo forum.

But keep in mind, with just the smallest Quad Opteron rig, based on the 265, there is plenty of CPU head room that many will never use. Click on my link in a recent above post and you'll see a massive mix template all done in LE with 64 tracks and a ton of Aux returns and plug-ins with the CPU usage shown at less than 1/3rd. Not a problem. Music production can be done all native these days.

Another thing to note, if you do need more power down the road, just plop in the fastest Opteron you can get, which at this point is the 285. The 290 will be the last in the series, so they say.

Something to ask yourself is "Do I really need all the extra power that wont be used for what I do?"

An 8-16 core would probably be overkill until you see plug-in developers taking advantage of the extra power. That will be awhile. They will have very few sales of their new super plug-ins until most of us have these super computers. But with current plug-in algorithms, even if something like Reverb 1 and ReVibe were made RTAS, we would still have plenty of CPU head room to spare on a Quad 265 rig.

By Q2 of 2007, we will all have some amazing choices to pick and choose from at decent prices. Mac, PC, Intel, AMD, it doesnt matter. All will be very very powerful for native DAWs. What matters is your rig being 100% stable so you can get your work done. And for me, today, it's my Quad Opteron 265 rig.

Time to get back to work.

Quad on!

Shane

[applewormy]

D-verb test results are 134 just like Shan's!!! Thanks for the help everyone!! Now I just need to install plugins and such....

Just got one minor problem. My computer says I have 3 gigs of ram when I have 4....

I fixed the harddrive problem. I right clicked 'my computer', then selected 'manage', then disk management, then partitioned the rest of my hard drive which I didn't know you could do after installing windows xp. cool stuff!

[schneemaa]

Hey Shan, thank alot for your reply!

I've another question: Do you use two monitors at the moment?
Is it possible to use two monitors with two separate video cards or do you have to buy a dual monitor video card?

[gwattaloopy1]

applewormy: i had the same problem. 4G of ram showed up in my bios, but not windows.
a couple of pages back, i think bodie replied with a lengthy explanation of why this is,
but as long as you see it in your bios, you should be okay. try to find his post. ivan.