i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by Herkimer

Are you guys running the 'Intel Application Accelerator' indicated in the XP troubleshooting guide on your i7's?

Thats a HUGE typo that needs to be fixed! The 'Intel Application Accelerator' is actually the Intel RAID driver.

No dont run it.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by Reloaded904

Another copy cat here!!! Hey guitardom, just built the same system. Could you share some of your bios tweaks? Im running on the stock i7 fan so whatever you can suggest that wont be getting too hot would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

hey guys. i am out for a couple days working on other stuff around the studio. i need to work on a list, but this list of bios tweaks will still vary with even a different ram so hard to pinpoint a setup. i re oc'd my machine to 3.4 ghz the other day and doing some testing. having no issues so far but thinking it might be best to post a 3.2ghz oc list to be safe. if you have skype shoot me on there sometime, easier for me to respond to immediate attention. but will try to get some stuff together soon. also need to get with mykhal and get some first page updates going.

[Reloaded904]

Sweet. will be checking for updates!

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by gvees

So, I've been lurking around for a while waiting for €€'s to come in to order my own i7..!

I've finally got it up & running and all works pretty smooth now. Let me first post my config and then ask you some questions..

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (thank you guitardom!)
Intel i7 920
OCZ Triple Channel 6Gb (3x2kit) 1600mHz
Seagate Barracude 1Tb HD (3 partitions)
Asus HD4350 512MB DDR2 graphics card
Pt LE 8.0 w/ Mbox 2

I'm now running on Win Vista 64bit which immediately brings me to my first question..
Should I go back to Win XP pro 32 bit for increased performance? I haven't read that much yet about vista 64bit... It all runs okay but I still have some stabillity issues as well as performance issues, which I will clarify, of which I think it might OS related or maybe hardware related...

Concerning stabillity I've noticed that sometimes (seems random) my system hangs and comes to a halt. It doesn't respond and I have to reset. This doesn't happen to often and it seems it has been solved after installing all possible updates (chipset, vga, bios, etc). It might have to do with my power supply which is quite minimal in the end (Zalman 480W PSU)

Performance wise I mainly have problems with Structure (free), are there big differences (performance wise) between Structure Free, LE and Complete? Or are all differences more option related?

Also I've now disabled all energy saving features as well as hyper- or multithreading and intel's energy boost because Pro Tools wouldn't play audio with them enabled!! Any ideas regarding that?

I hope notto have to go bakc to win XP (32bit) since than I wouldn't have the advantage of the 6Gb of internal memory, but if it would be much better performance wise I would install it...

Any help greatly appreciated..!

Thank you all so far for helping me on a lot of earlier questions by just posting all your info..!

will randomly go through your post.

you only have one hard drive with partitions. that does not qualify as an audio drive and will give reduced performance. get a second hard drive to record to. does not need to be huge. i prefer smaller hard drives for myself for maitenance reason. my os drive is like 120 gb or so partitioned down to about 35gb for os, my audio drive is 320 partition in half. then a couple other drives for samples and quick backups and different things.

with you running on 64 bit we can not give you help. a few of us are doing stuff and experimenting with it but most refuse to use it for actual work. very infant stage and is in no way supported. my thought is to go back to xp home 32 sp3. you will be better off.

pro tools is playing nicer with hyper (multi in gigabyte) threading turned on, speed stepping enabled and all the performance enhance options. if pt is not working with it on, it is due to the 64 bit os you are running.

you can alter you boot ini line to gain more ram usage in xp. add " /3gb" at the end of it w/o the " and you will gain quite a bit more. i have to admit seeing my machine using over 4 gb of ram in a pt session is pretty darn cool in 64bit. but not worth the extra sacrafices right now.

make sure when you are downloading your drivers and such you are getting the correct ones for you os and 32 or 64 bit. there is also a line in the bios in the gigabyte to turn on for proper 64 bit vista support. i cannot tell you exactly where it is at or what it says. i would have to go find it. but check out the manual. but confident that wont solve your problems.

[guitardom]

just wanted to post i just ordered some ddr 1600 ram that is supposed to be able to oc at 1800 at 1.65 volts which means it is completely in spec and the timings are completely normal as well. figure it should arrive next week. it was a killer price as well so as soon as that is tested i will be able to post results with it.

[gvees]

Originally Posted by guitardom

will randomly go through your post.
(...)

Thanks a lot.. I know I need another hard drive but that shouldn't be causing the trouble I was in. I've now installed XP 32bit and am just up to booting PT for the first time.. I've noticed that the Gigabyte motherboard doesn't want it's memory in slots 1,2 and 3 but in 1,2 and 4.. Very logical.. Also I've now changed the Memory frequency to the right one (1600) and it looks like it all has gotten more stable..

Thanks again! I will post later on my findings with XP..

[Shan]

Originally Posted by guitardom

just wanted to post i just ordered some ddr 1600 ram that is supposed to be able to oc at 1800 at 1.65 volts which means it is completely in spec and the timings are completely normal as well. figure it should arrive next week. it was a killer price as well so as soon as that is tested i will be able to post results with it.

Shane

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by gvees

Thanks a lot.. I know I need another hard drive but that shouldn't be causing the trouble I was in. I've now installed XP 32bit and am just up to booting PT for the first time.. I've noticed that the Gigabyte motherboard doesn't want it's memory in slots 1,2 and 3 but in 1,2 and 4.. Very logical.. Also I've now changed the Memory frequency to the right one (1600) and it looks like it all has gotten more stable..

Thanks again! I will post later on my findings with XP..

the board defaults its ram to 1066 for some reason, i guess to be safe so it typically has to be adjusted. for triple channel it needs its ram on 1-2-4 but if a ram stick is 2 it runs it as dual channel and actually works just fine, but of course lose some of the ram power.

[arctur]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

Thats a HUGE typo that needs to be fixed! The 'Intel Application Accelerator' is actually the Intel RAID driver.

No dont run it.

Hey Guys. Sorry, where's the typo - on the digidesign website, on the intel website, in the post?
I have a fresh built i7 system and poor performance results.
Have major Problems with my Waves SSL Bundle V6.08 and "poor" 215 D-Verbs with PT8cs2. Sessions that were created on a AMD X2 5000+ System with SSL-Plugins in it won't run for some reason on this new System. And yes, I did the "European Windows Waves Regional Options Fix". Not for the first time, since I owned these Plugins before.
If I change HW-Buffer on a "medium Session" with CPU-Usage at 25% from 1024 to 512, CPU pops up to about 98%.
This is the fourth Machine I am building for Pro Tools and nearly the most disappointing one. The Setup is a bundle with i7 920, Intel dx58so, and 6Gb of 1600 DDR3 (Exelram), 1TB Samsung HD for Sessions, 350 GB Maxtor HD for Samples and one extra Maxtor 350 with two partitions for OS and misc Data. No RAID, No Hyperthreading. No cards except an Matrox QUID E128LPAF GraCa. In my opinion there should not be any performance issues regarding the HDs or the other System componets. I don't know what else to do and think about trying the Intel Application Accelerator and hopig for a wonder, although it is from 2002.
After the third complete system reinstall I'm quite desperate.
Ideas anyone?
Regards
arctur

[arctur]

Sorry, I forgot it's Windows XP Pro SP3.
arctur