New Hackintosh / PT7 monster HD PCI Rig

[aaquilato]

The chipset has native support for PCI.
It's outlined in the user manual and I called Gigabyte tech support to confirm that as well.
There should be no reason the Digidesign cards would not work.
They are PCI based, not PCIx as we all know.
The problem I see is that only 2 cards will fit on the MB.
Slots 3 & 4 are in direct line with the MB beat sink so some modification will be needed to run HD3 or HD4.
I'm going to wait a month or so before I start this new build.
Hopefully by then there will be support on the tonyMac site for this MB.
I think going from HD3 to HD4 with an extra 16Gb of ram is worth the effort here. As PT is now basically ram based, this will help with large sessions and the extra DSP will help with the TDM plugins which I like to use.
By the fall there may even be a faster CPU available.

[aaquilato]

The CPU would be Ivybridge and that shouldn't be an issue.
It's all about native support of the PCI bus on the MB.
From everything I've read this MB should work fine with the Mac OS & PT.

[Bill Rigby]

Uh oh......

The problem I see is that only 2 cards will fit on the MB.
Slots 3 & 4 are in direct line with the MB beat sink so some modification will be needed to run HD3 or HD4.

Physically modifying the motherboard makes me nervous as I have no experience this and I may trash it...... any tips or should I try for the Jetaway option.......

[aaquilato]

Bill, if you are PC savy and can follow the build notes docmented somewhere in this thread than try the Jetway MB. You will get an HD3 system.
HD4 is unproven as of yet. I have no PC skills and cannot follow the instructions.
That's why I'm waiting for Multibeast kext support on the tonyMac site.

As for modifying the Gigabyte MB, well I've read it has been done successfully.
You first mark where cuts need to be made in the heat sink to accomodate the length on the longer PCIx boards.
Then you remove the heats ink, modify with a dremel and reattach with thermal compound. That procedure is the same as attaching a CPU.
After all it's just a heat sink.
This is done as a primer step before anything else.

The other mod option is to remove the extra teeth at the end of Digi PCI card.
The ones that do not go into the MB socket. They are not used so you just carefully saw them off with a dremel.
Again I've read this has been done successfully here in this thread or another.
Now the cost of the MB is about $100US.
The cost of an Acell card is around $500US + or - on eBay.
I am going to modify the MB. It's the lesser of two evils.

Good luck and post what you do and your success when completed.

[fatcode]

Ok, so I'm reporting here success with the Gigabyte GA-H55-USB3 Motherboard for a HD3 system running Mountain Lion. Big thanks to aaquilato for helping out and suggesting this MOBO.

I was getting error -9162 so I had to move the core card around in different slots but got there in the end. The 192 is now connected via an Accell card. I had a few editing/mixing sessions in the past days and all was well.

The only thing not working is the USB 3. Apparently to get the two USB 3 ports to work the NEC controller on the MOBO need updating to the latest version.

You can get a HD3 on the Jetway, as I reported it works with 10.6.8, very stable; I didn't manage to get it to work with Lion or Mountain Lion as reported elsewhere but I'm not sure if there is much interest in this forum to go to 10.7 or 10.8.

Between the two, unless you're after 32GB of memory, a slightly faster CPU and want to give it a shot with HD4, I would go for the Gigabyte boards as the edited DSDTs make life a lot easier.

[digidesigner]

Originally Posted by fatcode

The 192 is now connected via an Accell card.

Strange, I always thought you absolutely needed to have your interface connected to the core card

[aaquilato]

Yes, I'd have to agree. The core card is always the FIRST connection according to Avid's documentation.
But hey.... if it's not broke don't fix it.
;-)

Happy to hear the good news.

[fatcode]

Anyone (Europe based) looking for a Hack that runs HD 2 ?

It's pretty much the price of the components + the Mod G5 case...I'm willing to take offers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1408688249...84.m1555.l2649

[digidesigner]

Originally Posted by fatcode

Anyone (Europe based) looking for a Hack that runs HD 2 ?

It's pretty much the price of the components + the Mod G5 case...I'm willing to take offers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1408688249...84.m1555.l2649

Pretty cool that you have it in a G5 chassis, where did you get the idea? Did you do it yourself?

[fatcode]

There is a section on tonymacx86 with G5 Mods. The g5 case is great...plenty of space. I couldn't stand those PC gamer cases with lights etc... I've made two and I'm selling this one with the Pro Tools hack.