Modern motherboard for original PCI HD Core and Process cards

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by VooD

If you want a modern motherboard (1155 socket) for PCI Protools you need they to include Q67, Q65, B65 or C20x chipsets. They are the only one with REAL pci support, all others have pcie to pci bridges which makes Protools cards not to work.

So far these are the only motherboards suitables for such task:

Possible Protools HD PCI candidates:

Gigabyte GA-Q67M-D2H-B3: 2 pci slots, Core i7 CPU's: $150
Asus P8Q67-M DO REV 3.0: 2 pci slots, Core i7 CPU's: $150
Supermicro X9SCA: 3 pci slots, Xeon CPU's (might work with normal i7) : $195
ASUS P8B-C/4L: 5 pci slots, Xeon CPU's (might work with normal i7): $200

All of them have native pci support, but it's not clear wether the Supermicro X9SCA and ASUS P8B-C/4L are using B3 revisions (bugfree) chipsets. On the other hand Gigabyte is known for it's almost out of the box OS X compability. So for a HD2 system, it may be the best option.

My understanding that all of the earlier chipsets were recalled. Remember they caught that about a week after the first ship dates. So I doubt that the stepping is a concern.

[Media Man]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

My understanding that all of the earlier chipsets were recalled. Remember they caught that about a week after the first ship dates. So I doubt that the stepping is a concern.

The recall you are referring to is a separate issue having to do with the SATA 3G ports.

The issue VooD is referring to is native PCI support on the hybrid PCIe/PCI motherboards. The suggestion is that motherboards without native PCI support cause the HD and Accel cards to not be recognized, or worse, cause boot up problems.

Unfortunately, so few people have tried the other chipsets, and virtually no one has confirmed motherboards with the B65 or Q67 chipsets work any better.

It's seems to be all speculation at this point. I await confirmation.

Another motherboard with the B65 chipset and 3 PCI slots is available, but has not been upgraded by Gigabyte to correct the SATA port issue. At least it is not indicated in the model number with the B3 designation.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3686#sp

Media Man

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by Media Man

The recall you are referring to is a separate issue having to do with the SATA 3G ports.

The issue VooD is referring to is native PCI support on the hybrid PCIe/PCI motherboards. The suggestion is that motherboards without native PCI support cause the HD and Accel cards to not be recognized, or worse, cause boot up problems.

Unfortunately, so few people have tried the other chipsets, and virtually no one has confirmed motherboards with the B65 or Q67 chipsets work any better.

It's seems to be all speculation at this point. I await confirmation.

Another motherboard with the B65 chipset and 3 PCI slots is available, but has not been upgraded by Gigabyte to correct the SATA port issue. At least it is not indicated in the model number with the B3 designation.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3686#sp

Media Man

Well he specifically refers to the B3 stepping and whether or not the board has the updated chipsets. My understanding is that Intel recalled all of the product in the channel and any unsold inventories. It was up to each manufacturer to decide how they wanted to handle boards already out in the field. Anything for sale at this point should have the revised chipsets. If you have any doubt I would write the manufacturer and inquire as to the stepping. They will repeat what I just told you.

[VooD]

Originally Posted by Media Man

Another motherboard with the B65 chipset and 3 PCI slots is available, but has not been upgraded by Gigabyte to correct the SATA port issue. At least it is not indicated in the model number with the B3 designation.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3686#sp

Media Man

I asked Gigabyte about. They told me there was no B3 version for this motherboard, so if you ever manage to pick one it will have the buggy satas

[Media Man]

Originally Posted by VooD

I asked Gigabyte about. They told me there was no B3 version for this motherboard, so if you ever manage to pick one it will have the buggy satas

That's interesting.

I have just been advised that the B65 is relatively NEW along with the Z68, hence it's unavailability ... and there should be a plethora of B65 choices coming out soon ... and they ARE the updated motherboards.

A deeper Google search found several of that same B65 Gigabyte motherboard model number with the B-3 extension, and 3 PCI slots ...just not from the obvious sellers in the U.S.

http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a616626.html

http://hwbot.org/hardware/motherboard/ga_p65a_ud3_b3

What to do ... what to do?

Media Man

[RonTalley]

Originally Posted by Silverglade

GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3L

This looks like a good option. can anyone confirm that my Core/Process cards will work in these slots??

Stuck on a turnkey xw8400 but looking to move forward.

Yeah, that board works well with a PTHD4 system and is also OSX 10.6.7 compatible.

I tried two 1155 motherboards and they both would not work with my PTHD3 PCI cards. One with H67 chipset and the other with the P67 chipset. Both boards would not post with 2 or more cards in it.

I ended up buying a GA-H55-USB3 board that I know is 100% compatible with W7 and OSX and HD3 PT9. Got a i7 870 processor as well but have not had the time or energy to put it together.

I updated my xw8400 to two xeon 5365 a year or so ago and I am running OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.7 on it. You can do this easily with a retail copy of Snow Leopard. email me if you are interested in my method of doing so. [email protected]

xw8400 has been the perfect solution for me but it is time for an upgrade becuase I want to see about going Native and not have to worry about CPU spikes.

[RonTalley]

Originally Posted by Media Man

That's interesting.

I have just been advised that the B65 is relatively NEW along with the Z68, hence it's unavailability ... and there should be a plethora of B65 choices coming out soon ... and they ARE the updated motherboards.

A deeper Google search found several of that same B65 Gigabyte motherboard model number with the B-3 extension, and 3 PCI slots ...just not from the obvious sellers in the U.S.

http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a616626.html

http://hwbot.org/hardware/motherboard/ga_p65a_ud3_b3

What to do ... what to do?

Media Man

This board does not exist. It is a ghost board that no one can buy and althouh it is listed on websites and even on gigabytes' site, you will not be able to purchase it. Many have tried and many have gotten the wrong board upon reciept.

[NAWAR]

ok . so after my very annoying experience as on page 3 of this past.
i finally got the Asus P8H61-PROV3 v3 Intel Mainboard (B3 Stepping) - 2x DDR3, 6x Sata, Gigabit Lan, L1155 - Intel® H61(B3) Express Chipset

and the main reason for choosing this board as a quick back up was the 3 PCI slots.

Now from the get going, it installed ok, i3 3.1gig with the 4 gig of DDR3 1333, even though i'm running a 32bit windows7. "this is an emergency operation lol".

i hooked up the AGP and the Host card for the Magma chases.

and as per advise by many pro tools gurus i installed the host card on the last PCI slot away from the AGP.

and then i installed Protools 8.1, then got the dreaded 6031 error , CPU overload, over and over, i re arranged the cards in the chases and tried again, but without any luck, same error, mind you if i start a fresh session it worked ok "sort of", but excising sessions stall right away.

So . how do we fix this ???

i found out that the IRQ address for the AGP is identical to one of the the Accell cards in my HD3. and Windows suggests that it is a normal thing as the IRQ is a need to use bases, and as a shared IRQ , ideally it will receive a request and it will detect the correct hardware to use and pass through to is "or something along these line" .
non the less, this causes issues at times between the AGP and Audio hardware "as it seems that the AGP is always sharing an IRQ with an audio hardware".

Now there is no actual way to jumper the IRQ setting on the HD cards, and not even on the Nvidia. and i don't suggest doing so anyway.
but then logacly trying a different PCI slot should reposition the IRQ allocation to another piece of hardware ...

so what i did was :
I uninstalled Protools "and audio drivers only"
Disabled the parallel and serial ports on the BIOS.
and place the Host card in the FIRST PCI slot from the AGP.

rebooted, and reinstalled Pro tools 8 "not 8.1".

then checked the IRQ setting, and found out that it was sharing it this time with the HD core card.

started a session and checked system usage, all ok .
new session with added plugins in TDM and RTAS worked fine, no errors.
i then opened a much more complex and busy session, and no errors, worked just the way it should .

ok .... so it seems like having a 2 or 3 PCI slot motherboard gives you a chance to rearrange the cards to manipulate the IRQ location shared with the cards. something i didn't have with the Gygabite board i also bough the other day that only had 1 PCI slot , so the IRQ remained shared with the Accell card and couldn't be changed.

the only downside to that board that i should mention is that if you need to install 3 cards, then you will encounter a problem on the 3rd PCI slot further from the AGP where the heatsink on the motherboard will come in contact with the card, and it's not easy to bend this one if you wanted. so maybe in this board a HD2 will be ok unless you will be using a Chases like i did .

Anyhow , i hope this does help anyone who had this type of issue. and yes , this is a cheap fix for now, but worth mentioning .

cheers.

[RyanC]

Try disabling the onboard LAN. Also do you have Nvidia or ATI video (PCIe right? not AGP?), uninstall that and install one of the driver only packages.

Also USB devices can cause this too.

I'm on P55-UD3L on OSX now and loving it! It should be mentioned that you do need to dremel the heatsync on the southbridge on this board.

Personally I'm going to ride it out with this rig and then go native...HD is barely worth it now, let alone in the future. One big advantage to OSX is Kontakt and Omnisphere memory servers for composers/producers. W7 doesn't have those.

[RonTalley]

Any progress with Sandy?

I have been up and running with the GA-H55-USB3 for a couple of weeks and I could not be happier. W7 and OSX runs very well and PTHD9.0.3 (HD3) hasn't crashed, hiccuped,stuttered, or any of the other weird stuff since optimizing both sides.

i870 (stock fan) Ebay $198 shipped
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H55-USB3 Ebay $65 shipped
GSkill Ripjaw 1333 4x4GB sticks Newegg $120 for 16gigs on Shell Shocker
2x1GB F3 Samsung Spinpoints (fast/quiet) Newegg $54.99 Price Match
1x2GB WD Ears (storage/quiet) Newegg $79.99
Antec Case(replaced case fan and added 3 GELIDs) super quiet and rocks!! Newegg $89.99
Case Fans are here and here extra $30 for all 3 but so worth it. These things are super quiet and moves a ton of air.
Corsair 750tx Power Supply (quiet) Tiger Direct $99.99
Geforce Quadro 3500fx (loudest part but works great in OSX not needed for Windows) Pre-Owned

Total cost ~$800

This does not include the Price of GPU(if needed), DVD Burner, W7 Professional or Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Retail(if needed).

Samples load on Maschine as if it was a hardware synth. Super Fast!

I am a very happy man!