i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[Shan]

Originally Posted by cruisemates

Just to follow up (sorry, the holidays are crazy at my house). The owner of the computer generously agreed to refund $200 to my PayPal, part of which I am using to get the computer checked out.

That's good news to read.

Here's the working Windows 7 Optimizations and Troubleshooting link. I'll report the broken one to mykhal c. Thanks. I usually print these from my browser and select "save as PDF", as I always reference to it for my own systems.

Shane

[endofall]

Hey guys I thought I would post this here as well, and see if I could get some help!

I built a new computer in September following several of the builds in this thread. It works and runs ok but last night I kept getting a pop up message asking me to reduce the plugins is the session. The session has about 16 tracks and I am running about 10 plugins in it and feel like I should not be getting this error.
The session is in 32bit and 96k.
Hardware buffer size is set to 512 samples but even when increased it does not seem to help much
I have 11 processors selected in the host processors.
CPU usage is set on 95%
Playback buffer is set to default level 2
Delay compensation is set to Long
This is being used with a lynx AES16 PCIe


Here is some info on the computer
OCZ Fatal1ty 750 power supply
I7 3930k sandy bridge 3.2 LGA 2011 six core
Asus saber tooth X79 LGA 2011 intel x79 Motherboard
Noctu NH D14 SE2011 140mm &120mm CPU cooler
G.skill Ripjawsz series 16gb (4x4gb) 240pin ddr3 1866
2 western digital 1tb black 1tb hard drives, 7200rpm 64mb
ASIs gt610 1gb 64bit ddr3 PCI express video card
Windows 7 professional 64bit

Any help on how to get the best performance from this set up would be awesome. Thanks

[drh1]

Endofall - although you don't specify which version of Pro Tools you are using I would guess that it is PT10. Your computer has a fair amount of horsepower, but if you are using PT10 you won't be able to access the 16 GB of RAM you have. If that is the case you might consider upgrading to PT11 so you can utilize all of your RAM.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by endofall

I have 11 processors selected in the host processors.
CPU usage is set on 95%
I7 3930k sandy bridge 3.2 LGA 2011 six core

Everything looks great, that's a nice build... 16 tracks with 10 inserts each amounts to 160 total instances, which can really eat your system alive if those plug-ins are especially hungry. Which plug-ins are you using?

One thing you can try is turning hyperthreading off ( and while you're in the BIOS, go to RAM settings and turn XMP off), then setting host processors to 4, and CPU usage limit to 85%

[endofall]

Thanks for the replies guys! Yes it is Pro Tools 10, I do have 11 but I am waiting for the rest of my Slate plugins to go AAX before I switch.
I am running a mixture of digi stock plugins, a couple of softube plugins and Valhalla room reverb. I will make those adjustments in my BIOS, and see if it helps! Again thank you and anymore advice would be great!

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by endofall

Thanks for the replies guys! Yes it is Pro Tools 10, I do have 11 but I am waiting for the rest of my Slate plugins to go AAX before I switch.
I am running a mixture of digi stock plugins, a couple of softube plugins and Valhalla room reverb. I will make those adjustments in my BIOS, and see if it helps! Again thank you and anymore advice would be great!

drh1 had the best advice so far... Use PT11 to take advantage of your 16 GB RAM. You might as well get 11 running smoothly now, all the Slate stuff (except FG-X) is due in about a month.

While you're in BIOS, make sure to turn off all C-States, CE1, SpeedStep, and other power-saving modes (Sleep and hibernation don't work well with most ASIO interfaces, and cause who knows how many other problems. Speedstep doesn't work well with PT, and I'm pretty sure using XMP can cause problems on systems with over 12GB)

Oh, and make sure you save a profile in your BIOS before any change. That makes it easy to roll back to the previous settings. If you're like me, you shouldn't count on yourself to remember exactly what you changed and by how much.

[The Weed]

New build, but interested to find out what everyone thinks of the DVerb2 score and if there is/should be a new DVerb test with 11.1.1. I realize the 002 Rack is not supported, but it seems to work fine. I only do voice work, so just a few tracks and plug-ins, but I do want the computer to run properly:

Case: Silverstone Fortress FT02B-USB3.0

Power Supply: Corsair RM Series RM850 ATX12 v2.31

Motherboard: ASUS Z87 PRO Socket 1150

CPU: i7 4770K Quad Core Socket 1150

RAM: G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CL: 7 Model F3-1600C7D-16GTX

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH NH-D14

Video Card: Asus GT640-DCSL-2GD3 GT 640 2 GB GDDR3 SDRAM - PCI-Express 3.0 x16 Fanless Video Card Model: GT640-DCSL-2GD3

Firewire Card: SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe (NN-E20012-S2)

OS and Audio Drives: 2 x 500 gb WD Caviar Black SATA 6 gb/s 7200 RPM 64 mb cache drives

Backup Drive: 1 x 1 tb WD Caviar Black SATA 6 g/s 7200 RPM 64 mb cache

Firewire Card: SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe (NN-E20012-S2)

Software: Pro Tools 11.1.1 on Windows 8.1 Pro

Interface: 002 Rack

All Avid Windows 8 optimizations done (except Network Card Enabled) and BIOS optimizations done too

DPC Latency Checker: 7 to 13 ups for the most part with a regular spike to 997. DPCLC states the computer should be able to handle real-time audio and video streams

LatencyMon: Svchost.exe causes hard page faults, but LM states the computer should be able to handle real-time audio and video streams

Core Parking OFF: All CPUs report 100% in Task Manager

DVerb2 Score: 65 Tracks/325 DVerbs with Both Dynamic Plug-in Processing and Delay Compensation On and my Network Card Enabled (didn’t make any difference if it was Enabled or Disabled); Hyperthreading is On

System Monitor: Memory at 12%; Disk Usage 23 to 30%; Total 90 to 99%; Cores 1 through 8 running 85% to over 90%


Third Party Plug-ins: Waves Diamond Bundle v9r14, Blue Cat Free Bundle, Melodyne Single Track - just realized the DVerb2 test is supposed to be done with the Stock plug-ins only. I'll try to get some time to do the test with the third party plug-ins in the Unused Plug-ins Folder


Backup Software: Acronis True Image Home 2014

Monitor: Dell 29” Ultrasharp


Thanks to all who have kept this thread up-to-date and the builds running smoothly.

[cruisemates]

endofall....

I can't imagine you are having problems with that system. I have much larger sessions going; 24 tracks, four instances of Melodyne, Sampletank (four instruments) EQ and Limiters on most channels, Blueverb, delay, etc.

I never get an error message. I am guessing it is a matter of you just optimizing your bios, or just one thing you may have overlooked.

Also, turn off turbo boost, make sure NOTHING is running in the background such auto indexing, auto updates, virus software, etc. Is your computer dedicated to ProTools?

[endofall]

Originally Posted by cruisemates

endofall....

I can't imagine you are having problems with that system. I have much larger sessions going; 24 tracks, four instances of Melodyne, Sampletank (four instruments) EQ and Limiters on most channels, Blueverb, delay, etc.

I never get an error message. I am guessing it is a matter of you just optimizing your bios, or just one thing you may have overlooked.

Also, turn off turbo boost, make sure NOTHING is running in the background such auto indexing, auto updates, virus software, etc. Is your computer dedicated to ProTools?

That was what I thought also. I believe that I do not have bios set up well, is there a good guide to explain what should be adjusted in BIOS that anyone would recommend?

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by endofall

Hey guys I thought I would post this here as well, and see if I could get some help!

I built a new computer in September following several of the builds in this thread. It works and runs ok but last night I kept getting a pop up message asking me to reduce the plugins is the session. The session has about 16 tracks and I am running about 10 plugins in it and feel like I should not be getting this error.
The session is in 32bit and 96k.
Hardware buffer size is set to 512 samples but even when increased it does not seem to help much
I have 11 processors selected in the host processors.
CPU usage is set on 95%
Playback buffer is set to default level 2
Delay compensation is set to Long
This is being used with a lynx AES16 PCIe


Here is some info on the computer
OCZ Fatal1ty 750 power supply
I7 3930k sandy bridge 3.2 LGA 2011 six core
Asus saber tooth X79 LGA 2011 intel x79 Motherboard
Noctu NH D14 SE2011 140mm &120mm CPU cooler
G.skill Ripjawsz series 16gb (4x4gb) 240pin ddr3 1866
2 western digital 1tb black 1tb hard drives, 7200rpm 64mb
ASIs gt610 1gb 64bit ddr3 PCI express video card
Windows 7 professional 64bit

Any help on how to get the best performance from this set up would be awesome. Thanks

96k is hard on a system, especially some plugins like reverbs.
You have to be at 1024 and you should be able to set your CPU usage to 99% w 11 processors.

The stock 3930k is 3.2 ghz. You can OC it to 3.5 without any issues unless your cooling sucks. Getting it to 3.8-4ghz is not difficult if you have proper cooling.

How many Valhalla do you have in the session?
Where is your CPU usage meter in PT?
Any other verbs?
Which Softube?
Do you have unnecessary startup programs shut off?
Auto updates? Antivirus? Etc