XEON SYSTEM

[E-Buzz]

Is there any post or support to configure a xeon system for best results. I bought an intel server board SE7525GP2 and a single xeon processor( the board supports two). I am using DIGI 002 ver6.7 and 1 gig memory. I also put in a SATA drive for the operating system and use a external firewire drive for the music drive. I am having issues and was looking for a guide.
thanks

[Bossi]

Just configure your system as a normal P4 or Amd one. I'm running a dual xeon system here and it runs smooth, i don't think ya can have the 99% cpu advantage with only 1 cpu but this is posted on the forum so many times know, so just take a look.

For me i just set my virtual memory to 1.5x my amout of ram, and i did set the ide controller to standard instead of the one that came with my chipset.

What kind of issues you have ? Protools can have alots of issues ;-)

Cheers
Bossi

[mBoxLuvr]

I'm running a dual xeon system here and it runs smooth, i don't think ya can have the 99% cpu advantage with only 1 cpu

Bossi, do you notice any other CPU improvements with the Dual Xeon?
I have a Dell 670 with a single Xeon 3Ghz and noticed that during CD/DVD burning the computer almost becomes un-useable:P
At work I have a BOXX S5s with a Dual Xeon and I can run Maya, After Effects, Photoshop and still burn using Nero in the background. Home system has 2GB RAM, work has 4GB but that RAMs really not being utilized:P Need 64bit OS for that.
I guess in the end just dont dick with the system during CD/DVD burning:P

[E-Buzz]

Thanks for your reply. I have a couple of questions. First what are you using for you 1394 firewire card? and did you disable hyperthreading in the bios?. When i bring up the system usage in PT it seem higher than the AMD machine i was using before! This motherboard has a new chipset(E7525) and Intel extended memory 64 technology. I don't know if this will affect the PT program or not. It also has XP service pack 2 installed. I followed the guidelines for turning off uneeded stuff in xp and disabeled hyperthreading, but the system is slower than it should be. It's tough breakin the bank for this stuff to have it not go better than the old system.

[Bossi]

Bossi, do you notice any other CPU improvements with the Dual Xeon?
I have a Dell 670 with a single Xeon 3Ghz and noticed that during CD/DVD burning the computer almost becomes un-useable:P
At work I have a BOXX S5s with a Dual Xeon and I can run Maya, After Effects, Photoshop and still burn using Nero in the background. Home system has 2GB RAM, work has 4GB but that RAMs really not being utilized:P Need 64bit OS for that.
I guess in the end just dont dick with the system during CD/DVD burning:P

The biggest improvment i found out is that it can handle [bleep] of plugins ;-) and that has pretty mutch to do with that 99% cpu thinky. Just remember to disable Hypertrading because it just don't improves anything in my eyes and it's just one big marketing stunt ;-)
I notice the protools cpu meter's very picky and gives sooner the cpu outrun error then it should do.
If i set PT to 75% i do run out of cpu alots faster but if i look to the windows meters they arent even loaded 30%. If i set it to 99% i 'almoust' never run out and my windows metering shows my cpu's are loaded around 50% when giving the system some hard time. ( i just can't seem to get over the 50% héhé )
Protools itself doesn't really benifits from the dual cpu, maybe this could be improved in the future, that would be great ;-)

About the burning hmz, i all depends on what speed you are burning. If i burn a DVD at 2x my cpu gets only loaded 2% so i can do evrything i want when burning even capturing video or watching tv.
If i burn on 8x ( max. i can do for know with my 'old' plextor ) cpu gets loaded around 40%. It's tricky do do other stuff ;-) but don't seem to have a problem here ;-)
But hey this is a PT forum ;-p

Cheers
Bossi

[Bossi]

Thanks for your reply. I have a couple of questions. First what are you using for you 1394 firewire card? and did you disable hyperthreading in the bios?. When i bring up the system usage in PT it seem higher than the AMD machine i was using before! This motherboard has a new chipset(E7525) and Intel extended memory 64 technology. I don't know if this will affect the PT program or not. It also has XP service pack 2 installed. I followed the guidelines for turning off uneeded stuff in xp and disabeled hyperthreading, but the system is slower than it should be. It's tough breakin the bank for this stuff to have it not go better than the old system.

I use my onboard firewire card ( call me crazy but it works fine because it's a Texas inst. chip )
Altought i order some week ago an adaptec 4300 to get more fiwi ports ( i f*ckedup 1 onboard, ooeeeps ) so i'll be able to comparing it soon but i don't expect any improvment.

Hyperthreading disabled !!! Also in my post above, hypertrheading only works if software is made for using it. So i don't see any benified of truning it on. On the contrary it makes things even worser. It creates a extra virtual cpu but the amout of power ya can load your cpu with just get halved and dividet over the fysical and the virtual cpu.

About SP2 well, maybe try updating to 6.9. I had 6.7 installed on SP1 runned rock solid for months. I updated to 6.9 ( to get midi out) and it gave my alots of problems. Reformatted evrything and did clean install with 6.7 on SP2 but this gave my also some issues. So 1 week ago i upgraded to 6.9 ( on SP2, still following me ? héhé ). And for now it seem to be running smoothly and running 8-10 hours a day now. ( still have some little bootingup issue , sometimes it freezes when loading the Dae's but this i had on 6.7 to, i just end MMERefresh.exe and it seems gone ).

I also did this to SP2 ( 'cause it really ennoyed me evrytime ) :

http://www.ttcsweb.org/articles/WinS...curity-center/


What are your specs actually of your 2 systems ? what xeon system are you comparing with what amd system ? Just post some info on your specs please so we can get a better view on what you are comparing ;-)


Grtz
Bossi

[E-Buzz]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. This is the configuration of the xeon system.But i have discovered other news. The song i keep playing is causing a problem with autotune 3.25. It seems when i run this song it crashes the system. PTools just stops and it give me and illegal operation message and say i need to shut down Ptools. So I am trying to work through this issue. I will try to upgrade to 6.9 and see if that solves any issue and i also will upgrade to Autotune 4.0 as well.

Thank again


Processor
Model : 1x Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
Speed : 2.79GHz
Performance Rating : PR3072 (estimated)
Number of CPU Cores : 1 Unit(s)
CPUs per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Standard
L2 On-board Cache : 1MB ECC Synchronous, ATC, 8-way set, 64 byte line size, 2 lines per sector

Mainboard
Bus(es) : ISA PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
MP Support : 2 CPU(s)
MP APIC : Yes
System BIOS : Intel Corporation SE7525GP20.86B.P.05.00.0028.100720041028
System : Intel
Mainboard : Intel SE7525GP2
Total Memory : 1GB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered

Chipset 1
Model : Intel Corporation E752x Memory Controller Hub Control Registers
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 1GB ECC DDR-SDRAM Registered
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 166MHz (332MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Default Monitor
Adapter : ATI Technologies, Inc. RAGE XL PCI

Physical Storage Devices
Removable Drive : Floppy disk drive
Hard Disk : ST380013AS (75GB)
Hard Disk : Oxford Semiconductor Ltd. OXFORD IDE Device IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device
CD-ROM/DVD : SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-152C (CD 52X Rd)

Logical Storage Devices
1.44MB 3.5" (A:) : N/A
Hard Disk (C:) : 75GB (57GB, 77% Free Space) (NTFS)
CD-ROM/DVD (D:) : N/A
Hard Disk (F:) : 75GB (35GB, 47% Free Space) (NTFS)

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 2 COM / 0 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 6300ESB USB Universal Host Controller - 25A9
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 6300ESB USB Universal Host Controller - 25AA
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 6300ESB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 25AD
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Composite Device
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard : HID Keyboard Device
Mouse : HID-compliant mouse
Human Interface : HID-compliant consumer control device
Human Interface : HID-compliant device
Human Interface : HID-compliant consumer control device
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device


Power Management
AC Line Status : On-Line

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Professional (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

Network Services
Adapter : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection