i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[mykhal c]

This thread started off with builds designed to support PTLE 8.x and was patterned after sunburst's BEST CORE 2 thread. Now this thread is mainly geared toward builds supportin' PT9, PT10, and PT11. In fact DUCers like guitardom, Kris75, Key, Albee, and others who had their builds for PT8 have now upgraded to PT9. So as you look at the older builds in the 2nd post you can be reassured that those builds work with PT9 (even tho the parts are probably outdated at this point). I will be modifyin' the thread soon and changin' the DVERB test instructions to now reflect PT9 as opposed to the 7.4 (which was our reference point at one time). I will also send a request to DTS that a sticky in the PT9 Windows forum be placed there to link to this thread. Hopefully this will keep users informed to what the DUCers are havin' success with regardin' the cuttin'/bleedin' edge builds and their success with PT9. Good luck with your builds!!

Thanks to Kris75 and guitardom for bein' the first of the pioneers!!!:D 3years ago!!!:eek::D...NOW it's 5 yrs and countin'!!!!

DTS...thanks for the link in the W7 forum:cool:

much needed disclaimer!!!...this thread was created for 'one-stop shopping' for DUC'ers regarding i7 builds!!!! use it as your meeting place. i'll keep it updated as much as possible...as possible;)

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The i7 Dverb results (please see the 2nd post for the earlier builds. listed below are the more recent ones.)

Intel® High End Desktop Processors (http://ark.intel.com/products/family/79318/Intel-High-End-Desktop-Processors/desktop)

6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors (http://ark.intel.com/products/family/88392/6th-Generation-Intel-Core-i7-Processors#@All)

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Intel's Newsroom Post (http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2011/01/31/intel-identifies-chipset-design-error-implementing-solution?cid=rss-258152-c1-264102)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4142/i...-begins-recall (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4142/intel-discovers-bug-in-6series-chipset-begins-recall)

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/cougar-point-sandy-bridge-sata-error,12108.html

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/intel-hit-with-chipset-design-flaw-in-sandy-bridge-rollout/44257?tag=nl.e539 (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/intel-hit-with-chipset-design-flaw-in-sandy-bridge-rollout/44257?tag=nl.e539)

http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Finds...ticle20789.htm (http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Finds+Design+Flaw+in+New+Sandy+Bridge+Chipse t/article20789.htm)

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new...tops_shipments (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/intel_finds_flaw_6-series_chipsets_stops_shipments)

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**** builds are listed from the most recent to the earlier ones *****


Brandonx1 - i7 5960X, ASUS X99-E WS, 32gig DDR44 2666, Samsung flash memory hd in PCIEx4, currently clocked at 4.5ghz, W8.1 Ultimate, PT11.2.2. geekbenchs over 31,000 (free version), DVERBs over 1100. (I will add more components as Brandon provides 'em...but Brandon requires a horse due to his work and i'd say he's got it!!!) SWEET!!!

The Weed - i7 4770K, ASUS Z87 PRO Socket 1150, Silverstone Fortress FT02B-USB3.0, G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CL: 7 Model F3-1600C7D-16GTX, Corsair RM Series RM850 ATX12 v2.31, Noctua NH NH-D14, Asus GT640-DCSL-2GD3 GT 640 2 GB GDDR3 SDRAM - PCI-Express 3.0 x16 Fanless, GT640-DCSL-2GD3, SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe (NN-E20012-S2), Pro Tools 11.1.1 on Windows 8.1 Pro, 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, Core Parking OFF, DVerb2 Score: 65 Tracks/325 DVerbs, Hyperthreading On

dave911 - i7-4770K, Cooler Master V8, Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Z87 LGA 1150 2-Way SLI Dual LAN ATX Motherboard, Kingston HyperX Beast 16 GB Kit (2x8 GB) 2400MHz DDR3 PC3-19200 Non-ECC CL11 DIMM XMP Desktop Memory KHX24C11T3K2/16X, Rosewill SilentNight Series 500W 80 Plus Platinum Certified Modular Design ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply SilentNight-500, Runs tracking at a 32 buffer with a LS56 and large (50+) plugin/track counts at 512-1024. Overclocked to 4 Ghz static. PT 10.3.7 an 11.02 running with no crashes or lockups. DVERB test results to come...

mykhal c -LIAN LI PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112389) , ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131801) , Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492)
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL11Q-16GBZL (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231501)
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443) , ZALMAN CNPS9900MAX-B 135mm Long life bearing CPU Cooler Blue LED (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118074)
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992) , used HDDs (from Q6600 build) and spare video card used to complete system
config'd to 4.0GHz...results...600 dverbs ((1024 buffer, 11 procs, 99%, 24/48 session) testing @12 procs 85% produced lower score)

guitardom - Gigabyte x79-UD5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128531) , Intel 3930k (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492) , Evga Nvidia 520 vid card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130680) , Noctua cpu cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608024) , Gskill Ripjaws X ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428) 16gb , OCZ Fatality 750w psu (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341041) , Rosewill 4 space server rackmount case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147154), all WD Black 32/64 mb cache drives

Sawllkwa - 1st posted i7 2011 socket build (http://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=1897811&postcount=4648) - Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz, ASUS P9X79 WS, Corsair Hydro H80, Corsair XMS3 Vengeance 16GB DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz ((4x4GB), 32 GB total), Intel Intern SSD 120GB 320 Series Intern SATA 2.5" (for OS), Cooler Master HAF tower, 2x 200 GB SATA drives: WDC WD 2000JD-22HBB0 (for PT), 500 GD SATA drive WDC WD 5000AAKS-65YGA0 (programs), Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS, DVD w/lightscribe, 700W Rocketfish PSU, Dverb 1024 (w/ optimizations) = 621 with CPU(RTAS) at 89%, Dverb 64 (w/optimizations) = 473 with CPU(RTAS) at 86%, W7 x64, PT8.0.5 on a 002R

Zarabozo - 1st posted/workin' dual socket Xeon DIY build (http://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=1794031&postcount=4319) - even tho this thread is dedicated to the i7 i thought it was worth the post since it's the first that i can recall after my 9+ yrs on the DUC....Motherboard: Supermicro X8DA6, Processors: 2 x Intel X5650 (12 cores 24 threads total), RAM: 24 GB (6 modules of 4GB Kingston 1333 ECC Registered Gold), Video: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series 1GB GDDR5, OS Disk: Kingston SSD Now V+ 60GB, Media Disk: WD Velociraptor Sata3 (6GB/s via SAS) 10,000 RPM 600GB, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit SP1, ProTools 9.0.2 with CPTK2, Eleven Rack, Dverb test: 464 dverbs @1024.

ryanwilsonfive - PTLE 8.0.3cs2, Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211)GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423), CORSAIR XMS 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145298), COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057),CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005), ASUS EN8400GS Silent/P/512M GeForce 8400 GS 512MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121360), ASUS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204), Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320), Glyph GT 050Q 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache (http://www.glyphtech.com/products/gt050q/#/images/products/050Q-gallery-front.jpg), Windows XP Home Edition SP2, 251 D-Verbs @ 1024 samples / 239 D-Verbs @ 64 samples

mano - PTLE 8.0.4cs2, i7 2600K @ 4.2 Ghz, Intel DP67BG motherboard, G- Skill 8GB DDR3 1600, Crucial C300 SATA3 SSD - system drive, Samsung F3 1TB - audio drive, Nvidia Geforce 8500, Termalright Ultra Extreme 120, Antec P-150 case, Seasonic S12II 520 PSU, 003R, @1024=448 Dverbs, @64=310 Dverbs.
(mano gives us the 1st workin'/posted build with the i7 2600/1155 socket/P67 chipset!!! (http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=61425&p=532229#p532229)) way to continue blazin' the trail mano!!!


###### new link for Avid 'approved' W7 systems for PT9 ###### (nice work Avid;))

Avid's PT9 W7 approved systems (http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=380551)

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W7 users!!!! You may wanna check out this IEEE 1394 Hotfix!!!!!

this hotfix addresses issues that some may have with their F/W connections. Please check out the MS disclaimers!!!

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B981613&x=10&y=14

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981613

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975500

Quote:
Originally Posted by cwsand http://duc.digidesign.com/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?p=1631194#post1631194)
Yes though I've mostly used the OHCI Compliant Host Controller driver and the Legacy one. It would be random as to whether or not LE would communicate with the 003 following a freeze or restart of LE. If not, I would spend literally hours uninstalling/reinstalling the 64bit drivers and switching 1394 drivers and rebooting the pc before some magic combination would let me back in Pro Tools connected to the 003. So far with the hotfix using the TI driver ProTools loads perfectly every time. Just tested it successfully again before I posted this.

ALSO...with 8.0.4 havin' totally new drivers i would recommend that anyone havin' issues start with cyclin' thru all the possible F/W controllers that are installed on one's rig. there's a HUGE chance that you will find one that is absolutely more stable than the others and maybe even eliminate the issues/errors. hope that helps...

MORE...AVID's Windows Guide - Windows 7 Optimizations and Troubleshooting (http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/troubleshooting/en349411?popup=true&NewLang=en&DocType=1078&q=windows+7+optimizations)


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IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!!!

i7 and ram freq/settings/timings...


'AUTO' settings with ram will 'almost always' cause issues...9xxx errors to be specific!!! you should 'always' set your ram to its' correct settings...OC or not. right now if you are runnin' your ram timings outta sync with the ram freq you will probably encounter the 9xxx errors. make sure your ram dimms are in the same colored slots (triple channel mode). read up on how to set your ram freq and timings when usin' triple channel mode. use either the 'MANUAL' or 'PROFILE' settings to select the proper frequency and timings for your installed ram.;)

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This is a quick benchmark stress test that can be done in a few minutes.

EDIT: IT's New, It's Exciting! It's Dverb 2.0!

Always do a Dverb test after a fresh start up of the computer with a newly created session on your audio drive. Since the 5.X days, PT always seems to keep something in some type of cache that doesnt always clear. Hard to explain, but you'll notice it. Also, only do this with the stock Digi plug-ins in the plug-in folder. Do not have any other plug-ins installed or your test will vary. If you have already installed a load of plug-ins then move them to another folder except Dverb and the stock Digi plug-ins, and then do the test.

The Dverb 2.0 Test

Please make sure that RTAS Engine Ignore Errors During Playback/Record box is unchecked

Start the computer. Create a brand new 24bit/48k Session on your audio drive for the Dverb test. Open up the system usage window in PT. Then, go to Setup > Playback Engine... > and make sure the RTAS engine: Ignore Errors During Playback/Record(may cause clicks and pops) is NOT checked. Also, Go to your buffer setting and select 1024(CPU usage must be 95% or highest possible). Set up your time line ruler for Min:Secs. You want to be in grid mode and set up your grid for Min:Secs and 1 second. Create one mono audio track. Take the selector tool, put it on the 5 minute mark in your audio track and drag this to the start of your session. You will now have 5 minutes selected in this track. Go to AudioSuite > Other > Signal Generator and click on the "process" but. You should now see a 5 minute test tone. Create another audio track and insert 5 Dverbs in all the inserts. Record arm the Dverb track. Click on the track name so it is high lighted white, and hit shift+alt+D then hit enter. Record arm the new track and continue this pattern. You want to be able to record WITHOUT THE TEST TONE BREAKING UP!! Keep adding Dverbs and recording. If the test tone starts to breakup, then delete some Dverbs until you can hear a SOLID TEST TONE for 5 MINUTES. This is VERY VERY important. The test tone has to be 100% solid!!!

****IMPORTANT NOTE ON DVERB TESTING******

the PTLE 8.0 DVERB has a chorus effect added that was not present in prior LE versions. here is a scale comparison that was posted by Shane. pls take this into account as you test your new builds!!!;)

Shane's current stats/results from the following system:

- Asus P5K MB
- Intel Q6600 Quad-Core CPU
- SATAII System Drive and Audio Drives
- NVIDIA 8400 GS Graphics card
- 4G G.Skill DDR2-1066 RAM

PTLE 7.3.1cs6 - 278 RTAS Dverbs(The old Dverb without chorus)

PTLE 7.4cs5 - 255 RTAS Dverbs(The old Dverb without chorus)

PTLE 8.0 - 159 RTAS Dverbs(The new Dverb with chorus)

PTLE 8.0 - 278 RTAS Dverbs(The old Dverb without chorus) <=== Shane replaced the 8.0 DVERB with the 7.4 one in his plugin folder to test)

actual link to post;) (http://duc.digidesign.com/showpost.php?p=1317682&postcount=1)


*************** i7/X58 hot links and good reads *****************

HotHardware i7 overclocking article (http://hothardware.com/Articles/Overclocking-Intels-Core-i7-920-Processor/)

Understanding Nehalem's Memory Architecture (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3448&p=5)

QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) Hardware Secrets (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/610)

Ultimate Core i7 Overclocking Guide (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/ultimate_core_i7_overclocking_guide_we_push_nehale m_its_limits?page=0%2C0) (also a great tutorial for grasping i7 BIOS concepts/settings)

SOS i7 DAW build (http://3xs.scan.co.uk/images/awards/PowerDAW_SoundOnSound.pdf)

AnandTech i7 920 D0 stepping preview (http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=584) look for this stepping when purchasing IMHO

Real-time (sample) vs block processing (http://books.google.com/books?id=1TM9jBBU2KwC&pg=PA250&lpg=PA250&dq=audio+offline+processing&source=bl&ots=fJjTN1C7dg&sig=3tg54JUth03iVdpx6GHpFzLs114&hl=en&ei=2fGFSoyeKYnatgPtz8ySBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=audio%20offline%20processing&f=false) good read

************************ Tuning Tools *************************************

W7 x64 Optimizations...screencasts of my tweaks (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=277438)

DPC Latency Checker (http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml)

RATTV3 (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/tools/RATT.mspx)

Windows 7 Tools (XPERF included) (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c17ba869-9671-4330-a63e-1fd44e0e2505&displaylang=en)

MEMSET (http://www.tweakers.fr/memset.html)

LAVALYS EVEREST (http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?ps=UE&lang=en&page=1)

CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php)

CORETEMP (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/)

TMONITOR (http://www.cpuid.com/tmonitor.php)

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[mykhal c]

here are the initial builds for the i7's. most of the components have since been discontined, updated, and/or replaced.



donrey - PTLE 8.0.4, i7 950 @ 4.2, Asus P6X58D Premium, Noctua NH-D14, Kingston Hyper X 6GB @ 1600, PNY Quadro FX580, Lite On iHAS524, SeaGate Barracudas @ 7200, Silverstone FT02 Case, ADS Pyro PCI 64R2 firewire card, Mbox 2 Pro, Windows 7 64 Pro and Windows XP 32 Pro (both tested)
donrey's OC'd bios settings (http://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=1760938&postcount=4121)

harryk - PT9, i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950, GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, GA-X58A-UD3R Rev.2 BIOS FE, VGA PNYlVCQFX380-PCIE-PB FX380 RT, CORSAIR DOMINATOR 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800), Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" - system, Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, sessions, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, Mbox2

filosofem -PT9HD Native, Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz Bloomfield D0 1366 VGA, Gigabyte X58A-UD3R (FA) Revision 1, DDR3-SDRAM DDR3-1333 Corsair 6144 MB Single Bank 2048, ATi Radeon HD 5400 Series 512 MB PCIe, Enermax Liberty ECO II 620w PSU Modular, WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2, Windows 7 Professional 6.01.7600 (x64)

rickthestick - Windows 7 64 Ultimate, Intel i7 980X, Noctua NH-D14, Asus P6X58D Premium, Kingston HyperX 12 GB DDR 1600, GeForce 9800GT 1GB Silent, Intel X25-M 160GB SSD, 3) WD 1TB Black, Plextor PX-880SA, Seasonic X-750, Digi 003 w/ version 8.03cs2 DVERB test: at 64 samples, 58 to 60% CPU usage, 348 dverbs, 487 @1024 buffer...using all 12 cores!!!

spkguitar - PT9, Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R, Intel i7 920, 6GB Patriot DDR3. ASUS EN7600GT, LG GGW-H20L BD-RE, Sony CRX195E1 CD-RW, 2x ICY DOCK MB671SK-B (trayless hotswap), 2x WD Caviar black 640GB (os swap), 1x WD caviar 320GB (sessions), 1x Maxtor 120GB (sessions), 1x Seagate 1TB (samples/loops), DIGI002, Command8, XP(SP3) = 243 Dverb2.0 OSX = 318 Dverb2.0

***** Mike Bordello - FIRST i7 BUILD/POST - 415 Dverbs on a Intel i7 920, Asus P6t Deluxe, 6 gb OCZ Platinum ram (XP only sees 3), Seagate 500gb 32mb cache SATA 7200rpm Audio, Hitachi Deskstar 120gb 7200 IDE OS, Diamond Radeon HD 3650 video card, MBOX 2, PT 7.4 (his build discussion on page 181 of the BEST CORE 2 thread)


ranallicj- 415 Dverbs on i7 965, Intel Smackover Motherboard, 6gb of corsair dominator ddr3 1600, running 2 500gb hds and 2 400gbs(all 7200rpm unfortunately), NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX (Prerelease - WDDM 1.1), DVD-Rom Drive : HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NS30 ATA Device, Dell Computer DELL 2405FPW - 24 inches, Samsung SyncMaster - 22 inches, XP PRO SP3, PTLE 8.0
***** please note that these dverb scores were achieved with PTLE 8.0 and the NEW DVERB (with chorus):eek::cool: (see the Windows 7 thread for details)

pianosound - 225 DVERBS (PTLE 8) on Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66Ghz LGA 1366 130 W Quad Core, Asus P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel x58 MOBO, OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240 pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800), Asus EAH4350 Silent Radeon 512MB 64-bit PCI Express 2.0 x 16 Video Card, Corsair 750W Power Supply, Lian LI Lancool ATX Mid Tower Case, Western Digital Caviar Black, HD's,,, 1 750 GB,, and 2 500GB,,, SATA 3.0Gb/s, XP Home SP3, (Also got DVD/CD,, and 24 inch monitor)
***please note that pianosound's dverb tests were done with quite a few backgrd processes running and with speedstep enabled. so he did take a performance hit because of this. also he ran the test using PTLE 8 with the new dverb which causes a performance hit also. but i did want to post his build specs regardless so others could view his component list.

guitardom - 488 DVERBS on Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66Ghz, GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375), COOLER MASTER RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057) , HIS Hightech H465P512P Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161253), OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227366) , CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002)
PTLE 8, XP SP3, everything else i had already but here is the psu
***388 Dverbs @64 buffer:eek::eek: redoing dverb tests with dverb from pt 7.4 (so w/o chorus) with 48 audio tracks, rest aux's, using ONLY first 5 inserts (A-E) recording 5 minutes, 48k - 24 bit session, processors set to max (4), cpu usage maxed, stock dae settings, multicore (hyper) threading OFF. ((ALSO the bios of my motherboard is F3 FYI))
steve full test results w/OC @3.6 (stock 2.66) dram 1440 (stock 1333...no extra voltage was req'd)...New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF 64 HW Buffer / 238... 1024 HW Buffer / 312-------New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON 64 HW Buffer / 344..........:eek: 1024 HW Buffer / 409 -------- Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF 64 HW Buffer / 429...1024 HW Buffer / 543 NOW FOR THE KICKER.......Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON
64 HW Buffer / 543...1024 HW Buffer / 628 :eek::eek::eek: well i'm speechless!!!:eek:


kris75 - 311 (@64 buffer) Dverbs Intel I7 920 cpu, Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Motherboard, 3 x 1 gig stix of kingston value ram ddr3 1333, 250 gig system drive, Antec Sonota III w/500 watt power supply, Asus 3450 256mb video card, LG 22x DVD writer, PTLE 8.0 (used the 7.4 dverb intestin' tho)


CrAkD - i7 920, Gigabye ud4p, 6gb OCZ Platinum ddr3 1600, 2x 640gb WD Caviar Black, OLD Dverb 1024 - 520 Dverbs 64 - 433 Dverbs, NEW Dverb 1024 - 283 64 - 235

Herkimer - i7 920, Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard, 3x2GB ram Kingston 9905403-011A01LF 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-24 4-33-10-5), Video: ASUS Extreme AX300SE/T (128MB, PCIe 1.00 x16, PS2.0, VS2.0), Hard drive: WDC WD3200AAKS-00L9A0 320GB (SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 298GB (C:) (F:) Hard drive: WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0 250GB (SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 233GB (G:)
LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S (RAID, DVD+-RW, CD-RW) : N/A (D:) LITE-ON COMBO SOHC-5236V (RAID, DVD+-R, CD-RW) : N/A (E:)
Audio Device : Giga-Byte HD Audio Controller, FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Giga-Byte TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168D(P)/8111D(P) PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3), PT8, Mbox2


bblue - Intel i7-920 OC'd to 3.2GHz, Asus P6T DLX, 6GB DDR3-1600 (triple), Win XP Pro SP3, PTLE 8cs2, MPTK2, Black Lion 003R


albee1952 - GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375) , Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202) , OCZ 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227375), OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010)


Keybeeetsss - CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202), MOBO (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128374), SYSTEM DRIVE (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319), RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227388), PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171023), TOWER (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068), CPU FAN/HS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055)


philip888 - Gigabyte EX58-UD3R, Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 4.0Ghz, OCZ DDR3 1333Mhz PC3-10666 Platinum Edition @ 1600Mhz, ATI Radeon HD 4350, Delta 1010LT, M-Powered 8.0cs3, Windows XP Pro SP3, Dverb 2.0 Test= 420

***philip888 has one of the most impressive OC's IMHO. here is a link to his settings. you BETTER have the absolute proper cooling and voltage settings to try to pull this off. you are on your own but i thought it was well worth the note. philip888 OC settings (http://duc.digidesign.com/showpost.php?p=1430572&postcount=1526)




thanks to jlearman for the recap!!! hope it helps brings the info in this thread in a bit more concise read. thanks again!! you can find his post on page 136 of this thread .... http://duc.digidesign.com/showpost.php?p=1422272&postcount=1356

Hey Mike & anyone else who's interested... I've read through this whole thread twice. On the second run, I took notes of everything I thought I'd need. It by no means captures the wealth of knowledge in this thread, but I thought it would make a good checklist for anyone building a new system & would hopefully keep the big dogs from answering the same questions a hundred times. I knew off the bat that I was copying Guitardom's rig, so I started with his parts list.

Read Mykhal's c's links on the first page. He's the man... read everything he posts twice. Also, he has a great link up there for getting a D0 stepping i7 for an awesome price.

Hardware
Motherboard - Gigabyte ex58 boards or ASUS P6T have been tested & are working. Guitardom's GA-EX58-UD3R still has the best results, but probably mostly due to his settings than the hardware itself.
Drives - MUST BE 32mb cache. WD black is best.

Tweaks
http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=133039 (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=133039)

Windows x64
http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread...08#post1359108 (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?p=1359108#post1359108)

DPC Latency Checker
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml (http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml)

RAM Disk Supervolume
http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supervolume.php (http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supervolume.php)
Shan has used to make use of the extra ram not recognized by windows.

overlocking tools:
prime95 - http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103 (http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103)
coretemp - http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/)
cpuz - http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php)


3G SWITCH
3gb switch (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=212853&highlight=large+address) is what you are looking for. you do step 1 only for pt 8.

Do Not Install Easy Tune 6 (gigabyte's windows-based overclocking-for-dummies software)

Set "Open Ended Record Allocation" to limit to 10 minutes

Do's & Do nots
Do a base install with minimal drivers.
Do make Images.
Do load only drivers if at all possable.
Do update and patch the system.
Do follow the guidelines in the general truobleshooting thread and getting started guide for your initial set up.
Do install just PT and the latest stable Cs update if needed to solve any problems. The latest update is not always the stablest update. Check first.
Do make more drive images along the way

Dont install stuff from the driver disk until you know your system is stable.
Dont add a bunch of 3rd part apps until you know the system is stable and working.
Dont change more than one thing in Bios at a time.

BIOS Version
ALSO FOR ALL THE GIGABYTE OWNERS:::: please check and update your bios first thing. albee's new board was about 2 revisions back on bios updates and is the culprit to his early problems.

at the moment the current revision to use is F4. the easiest way to see it is to first disable the "show full screen logo" in the bios. then restart your computer and the first window you will see will show GIGABYTE EX58-UD3R F?" in the upper right of the screen.

you need just a flash drive and have the newest update downloaded and extracted and put on the flash drive. have it in the machine, reboot, go into qflash (hold end on boot) and follow the instructions to update the bios. also read the section in the manual if you have never done it.


Autoruns
Another very good app. - if a little scary, to begin with - is Autoruns (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx). This has made a huge difference to my stability, and boot times.

By the way, as you (guitardom) mentioned with the DAE buffer to level 1 is much better..!

THEME STUFF:
Install and run Royale Noir (http://www.istartedsomething.com/20061029/royale-noir/). Created by MS about 5 or so years ago and much better than the Fisher Price look or Classic XP look. :D A history lesson of Royale Noir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Blue). It looks great with these new darker themed UI's we're seeing in our DAW's these days. Also add a drop shadow utility like the classic free Y'z Shadow 1.9 (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Yz-Shadow.shtml)(includes a wee bit of tasteful transparency)and PT 8 looks like a brand new PT 9(still without ADC). :D :D

Ooooh this is really nice Shane but I prefer the Zune Theme for XP. It matches with Pro Tools 8 even better. It doesn't take up more memory or anything its jsut a darker theme for XP. You can download it from here (http://microsoft-zune-theme.en.softonic.com/):D. If you switch on the track colouring in PT 8 it matches perfectly with Instrument tracks :rolleyes:

DUAL BOOTING:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_v...step_guide.htm (http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed _first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm)

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vi...creenshots.htm (http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_xp__stepbystep_guide_wi th_screenshots.htm)


XMP / BIOS settings:
First if your OCZ memory supports X.M.P. (check manual or their website) then on the "AI Tweaker" window switch to X.M.P. that will just set all your RAM timing to match with the CPU and all the other things. It will adjust voltages and everything.... Second: Disable Speedstepping (C1E, C3/C6/C7) on Gigayte boards. This feautre should be above the Turbo Mode or somewhere in the CPU Settings. Note that that will also disalble TURBO MODE. Anyway u got to do that because Speedsteppin is causing some errors with Pro Tools... Third make sure that Hyper Threading (HT) is ON! That will improve performance in Pro Tools ;). Also in the "Boot" tab under "Boot device priority" only check ur hard drive! Disable all the other drive whatever (Tip USE ENTER for that :P). Well thats all I think... Ohh no it isn't! :O Ooops!:D You gotta disable all the onboard stuff that u don't use. If u use PCI firewirecard (which I suggest BTW, something that has TI Chipset on) then u should disable the onboard Firewire (1394) so the two but interfere with each other. Same applies for Audio and LAN. If u use Wireless Internet disable LAN.


and since a LOT of the builders are usin' GIGA mobos, i'm postin' these changes that need to made to the BIOS. this is from the GIGA manual but ASUS builders should also make the same changes...tho the features 'might' have different wording...

from the GIGA mobo manual...

CMOS Setup Utility-Copyright (C) 1984-2008 Award Software
Advanced CPU Features
: Move Enter: Select +/-/PU/PD: Value F10: Save ESC: Exit F1: General Help
F5: Previous Values F6: Fail-Safe Defaults F7: Optimized Defaults
CPU Clock Ratio (Note) [22X]
CPU Frequency 2.93GHz(133x22)
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech. [Enabled] <= Standard (i think is the available choice...check this one tho)***
CPU Cores Enabled (Note) [All]
CPU Multi-Threading (Note) [Enabled] (this is hyperthreading)
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) (Note) [Enabled] <= DISABLE
C3/C6/C7 State Support (Note) [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2) (Note) [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function (Note) [Enabled] <= DISABLE
Virtualization Technology (Note) [Enabled] <= DISABLE
Bi-Directional PROCHOT (Note) [Enabled]
Item Help
Menu Level

*** if you are overclockin' TURBO mode should NOT be enabled


CASPER XP CLONING:
worth a look too... CASPER XP (http://www.fssdev.com/)cloning while you're booted up in XP/Vista. it does not do 'image' files like Acronis tho. but if you're lookin' for a clone drive that can go str8 to SATA port 1 from a bkup case/port then it really does not get any easier than the way CXP does it. like i said, worth a look...no doubt;)



AHCI - how to set hard drives to AHCI without slipstream
http://expertester.wordpress.com/200...ci-windows-xp/ (http://expertester.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/how-to-enable-ahci-windows-xp/)


DO NOT INSTALL THE UTILITIES FROM THE MOBO CDs!!!! THEY WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH PTLE's PERFORMANCE!!!! (mykhal 9/15/09)

[Kris75]

Pro Tools is now installing.....:D

[guitardom]

Pro Tools is now installing.....:D

very cool, i am installing windows so a bit behind you. will be interesting to trade notes and different issues on our builds......tonight.....!!!!!!!!!:D:eek::D

my biggies are the sata ports on the board are a bit difficult to get to once you got everything in and setup. the cpu heatsink/fan is VERY nice but had to mount a plate on the back of the board, after i already had it in

[Kris75]

Just finished the dverb test.

498 with 32 tracks in reocord using the Old Dverb:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Not smooth yet though. Almost there

[guitardom]

Just finished the dverb test.

498 with 32 tracks in reocord using the Old Dverb:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

WOW!! that is killer, still getting stuff setup and installed, just flashed the bios and got basic tweaking done in there. getting closer!!!

[mykhal c]

Just finished the dverb test.

498 with 32 tracks in reocord using the Old Dverb:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Not smooth yet though. Almost there

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: yeah man!!!!!

[mykhal c]

WOW!! that is killer, still getting stuff setup and installed, just flashed the bios and got basic tweaking done in there. getting closer!!!

step on the gas man!!!:eek::eek::D

[Shan]

kris75 had to leave the studio for the night but he'll run more tests tomorrow. Steve, you might have to turn off hyper threading. kris75 had the grayed out RTAS CPU issue when hyper threading was turned on trying to see 8 cores. :eek: :D :D

I'll make an attempt of getting an i7 OC'd up to 4Ghz. :eek: :D

Shane

[Kris75]

I had to leave the studio to see my wife, but I think Hyper threading caused some issues.

My gut tells me that you will see a performance hit after disabling Hyper Threading. I can't check until tomorrow but so far HOLY SH**T!!!!

Installing windows up till service pack 3 took me 19 mins.

Also, this computer is dead quiet. You almost have to strain to hear it. AMAZING! Now to get it stable. I have no doubt that it will be though. :D

[mykhal c]

kris75 had to leave the studio for the night but he'll run more tests tomorrow. Steve, you might have to turn off hyper threading. kris75 had the grayed out RTAS CPU issue when hyper threading was turned on trying to see 8 cores. :eek: :D :D

I'll make an attempt of getting an i7 OC'd up to 4Ghz. :eek: :D

Shane

shane, don't forget to use the CPU OC article i sent you. it actually OC the 920 to 3.9 with a great how-to. lemme know if you need my online access to CPU mag to view the bios graphic layout as opposed to the htm attachment i sent you.

[Shan]

shane, don't forget to use the CPU OC article i sent you. it actually OC the 920 to 3.9 with a great how-to. lemme know if you need my online access to CPU mag to view the bios graphic layout as opposed to the htm attachment i sent you.

It will be a few months before I get an i7 rig going but I definitely got the OC article you sent. 3.9 isnt good enough...it needs to be 4.0! :eek: :D :D

All drives will be eSATA and external from the computer. That will keep the temps down quite a bit. :cool:

HDK Quadzilla...in the making. :D

Shane

[guitardom]

there is a for sure issue right now. i cannot select anything other than 8 processors. i am running a dverb 1 test with dverb 2, and have 281 going now and recording away. cpu is at 89%. just set up 48 audio tracks and going this way. set at 1024 buffer, 90% cpu. will do this to spec soon, just checking stuff out. have not changed the boot ini for the 3 gb switch yet either. just basic tweaks, not disabling dvd drives and such...
i will disable hyper threading after running same test with dverb 1, and see what happens

[mykhal c]

It will be a few months before I get an i7 rig going but I definitely got the OC article you sent. 3.9 isnt good enough...it needs to be 4.0! :eek: :D :D

All drives will be eSATA and external from the computer. That will keep the temps down quite a bit. :cool:

HDK Quadzilla...in the making. :D

Shane

yeah i thought you might be seein' kris. that's why i suggested it. but i think the last email i sent paints a clear pic ;)

you and the HDK mission!!!!:eek::eek::o:D but i feel ya!!!:D

[Shan]

you and the HDK mission!!!!:eek::eek::o:D but i feel ya!!!:D

11 more months and it will be 2010. We might not have flying cars, but some things just gotta go cuz it's had it's day. Time to move forward and advance. The old school stuff is slowing down progress and it's time to let go of it. ;)

Shane

[guitardom]

11 more months and it will be 2010. We might not have flying cars, but some things just gotta go cuz it's had it's day. Time to move forward and advance. The old school stuff is slowing down progress and it's time to let go of it. ;)

Shane

WHAT!! your car dont fly!!!!??????:D my truck may not, but my computer sure is!!!!!

hardly any tweaking, no oc'ing or anything,

we got more specs we HAVE to incorporate for our i7 dverb test. with multicore threading on and off. this is making a difference in response and handling;)

with it off we have 4 processors in pro tools to choose from. the machine is more solid and MUCH harder to crash. initial testing and it is proving more hearty than the opteron even was, i wont commit to this till i really get using it, but impressive so far. my cpu is at 94% right now and it is still chugging along....slowly....but still going.

with mulitcore on, the machine is snappier for sure, but in pro tools WE CANNOT SELECT BETWEEN PROCESSOR AMOUNTS. 8 IS OUR ONLY OPTION. hilighted that cause it will come up again...... the cpu is not as tough and durable at this setting. at higher cpu usage the machine starts to lag more and cannot hold up. at about 89-90% it is about maxed out.

i am testing dverb 1 style, with OLD dverb (w/o chorus, from 7.4) max cpu's available, max cpu setting available, (95% w/o threading-90% with) and 1024 buffer setting and 24 bit-44.1k

multicore threading- 483 and still record 5 min.
w/o multicore threading-420 tough to call it here cause it does keep going, cpu at 94%, is lagging and sluggish, but wont stop!

more tweaking to come and will post parts in the next day or so. i have to have this ready for a session tomorrow and have a lot to do and little time to do it.

but so far so good!!

[mykhal c]

WHAT!! your car dont fly!!!!??????:D my truck may not, but my computer sure is!!!!!

hardly any tweaking, no oc'ing or anything,

we got more specs we HAVE to incorporate for our i7 dverb test. with multicore threading on and off. this is making a difference in response and handling;)

with it off we have 4 processors in pro tools to choose from. the machine is more solid and MUCH harder to crash. initial testing and it is proving more hearty than the opteron even was, i wont commit to this till i really get using it, but impressive so far. my cpu is at 94% right now and it is still chugging along....slowly....but still going.

with mulitcore on, the machine is snappier for sure, but in pro tools WE CANNOT SELECT BETWEEN PROCESSOR AMOUNTS. 8 IS OUR ONLY OPTION. hilighted that cause it will come up again...... the cpu is not as tough and durable at this setting. at higher cpu usage the machine starts to lag more and cannot hold up. at about 89-90% it is about maxed out.

i am testing dverb 1 style, with OLD dverb (w/o chorus, from 7.4) max cpu's available, max cpu setting available, (95% w/o threading-90% with) and 1024 buffer setting and 24 bit-44.1k

multicore threading- 483 and still record 5 min.
w/o multicore threading-420 tough to call it here cause it does keep going, cpu at 94%, is lagging and sluggish, but wont stop!

more tweaking to come and will post parts in the next day or so. i have to have this ready for a session tomorrow and have a lot to do and little time to do it.

but so far so good!!

i'm jealous!!!!:p:D

[markblasco]

So, with the testing going on, if you turn off the hyper threading, are you able to get a lower buffer rate than 1024? I am a bit confused on this. We seem to be getting confirmation that it is working, but I haven't yet seen a post from someone who has done a whole tracking session yet, just posts with people testing the D-verb counts.

Also, to keep the computer quiet, what cooling systems for the chip are you using? Just the stock heat sync, or something else?

[guitardom]

with multicore threading off everything is perfect and normal and can select 4 cpu's in the playback engine. runs great.

it is the processor selection that is the problem. can only select 8 (logical of course, not physical) with multicore enabled,1-7 are greyed out. it is working and an amazing dverb count, but problem if like me you drop a processor out for other tasks, like vi's rewire programs, etc. of course with this much headroom it might not be a problem, but dont know yet. everything else seems ok at this setting. sounds like a problem more than a few of us had a while back on amd ehhh?

i am doing a tracking session tonight with it so will be able to post some more thoughts.

i will also post my parts and things like that later as well. i really have to get to setting it up for tonight. will do tweaking (no oc'ing yet....i know what your thinking mykhal!!!!)

[mykhal c]

i will also post my parts and things like that later as well. i really have to get to setting it up for tonight. will do tweaking (no oc'ing yet....i know what your thinking mykhal!!!!)

:eek::eek::D crank that rig up!!!:p:D be bold!!!!:D:D good luck with the session tonite. can't wait to hear your results;)

[Shan]

...will do tweaking (no oc'ing yet....i know what your thinking mykhal!!!!)

4Ghz.

Shane

[guitardom]

ALL THE PRESSURE....................:p:D

[Shan]

ALL THE PRESSURE....................:p:D

4Ghz...buffer of 64 with the new Dverb.

You will definitely be making history and be the first running an HDK Quadzilla. :eek:

Shane

[albee1952]

Wh at do the experts think of this mobo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375&Tpk=Gigabyte%20GA-EX58-UD3R
Its nearly 100 bucks less than the Asus and has a TI firewire with 3 ports(2 on a backplane).

[Kris75]

Well, My DVERB results are in.
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :eek::eek:

Windows XP SP3
i7 920
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
3 1 gig sticks of 1333 ram
Hyper Threading off

Session was at 24 bit 48k Clocked to a Tango 24

Buffer 1024 376 Dverbs
Buffer 64 295 Dverbs:eek::eek::eek:

So far the system feels quite stable but only real session work will make sure.

I am Fu**n floored right now.

How many Dverbs does an Accel card get again?:-)

[Shan]

How many Dverbs does an Accel card get again?:-)

You'll only get a pathetic 38 per Accel card (http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9815/accelcard38dverbspi5.jpg) for $4995.00. :D

...and for that price, you can build 5 Quad computers built off the Intel i7.

Come on Digidesign, please see the light and start moving PT Native forward. What are you going to do in March when Apple releases it's i7 Xeon 8-16 core computers with 32 logical cores? If a current HD owner wants more power, they'll just need to upgrade their computer which will be cheaper than 1 Accel card, and give one over 10+ times the DSP power. :eek: The music industry has changed, the economy has changed and we're 9+ years into a new century. Time to wake up. ;)

PT Native is no longer the bastardized step child. We're the native youth gone wild and HD is now the old man. :D :D :D

Shane

[Shan]

Buffer 64 295 Dverbs:eek::eek::eek:

...and that's without HT turned on and no over clocking at a buffer of 64. :eek:

Amazing...just absolutely amazing.

Shane

[Kris75]

...and that's without HT turned on and no over clocking at a buffer of 64. :eek:

Amazing...just absolutely amazing.

Yes it is.

I think its time to change the dverb test. It's just getting ridiculos. Lets make it an Eleven free test.:-) Just jokes.

[mykhal c]

Well, My DVERB results are in.
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :eek::eek:

Windows XP SP3
i7 920
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
3 1 gig sticks of 1333 ram
Hyper Threading off

Session was at 24 bit 48k Clocked to a Tango 24

Buffer 1024 376 Dverbs
Buffer 64 295 Dverbs:eek::eek::eek:

So far the system feels quite stable but only real session work will make sure.

I am Fu**n floored right now.

How many Dverbs does an Accel card get again?:-)

SMOKIN'!!! just askin'...but did you check your bios to make sure your ram was set at 1333? guitardom's bios defaulted to 1066 with his 1333 ram and i know u cats are usin' the same mobo. just askin'...;)

[Kris75]

:o
My ram is at 1066.

I can't figure out how to change it though. Any tips?

[mykhal c]

:o
My ram is at 1066.

I can't figure out how to change it though. Any tips?

gimme a sec and i'll post back;)

[mykhal c]

:o
My ram is at 1066.

I can't figure out how to change it though. Any tips?

check your email;)

[guitardom]

Wh at do the experts think of this mobo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375&Tpk=Gigabyte%20GA-EX58-UD3R
Its nearly 100 bucks less than the Asus and has a TI firewire with 3 ports(2 on a backplane).



that is the exact board kris and i are using!! go for it!

[mykhal c]

Wh at do the experts think of this mobo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375&Tpk=Gigabyte%20GA-EX58-UD3R
Its nearly 100 bucks less than the Asus and has a TI firewire with 3 ports(2 on a backplane).


sunburst and i had a looooooooooong conversation today regardin' triple channel memory. bottom line...if you are planning to be prepared to use W7 64bit (one day:rolleyes:) then we'd go with a 6 slot mobo for ram. that way if you go with a single triple-pack of ram or 2 packs of a triple pack you will always be in triple channel mode when you use either 3 slots or 6 slots. using an odd number of slots 'does' change the thru-put. but this mobo has both kris75 and guitardom happy!!;) a good choice!!

EDIT: i actually have a memory link in my first post that is a good read for the i7.

[Kris75]

:eek:

By changing my ram speed, I now get 311 Dverbs at a buffer of 64 @ 48k:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::e ek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::e ek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::e ek::eek::eek::eek:

Mykhal. I think I love you.:p

[Kris75]

WARNING

DO NOT USE INSERTS 6-10. YOUR DVERB COUNT WILL DROP BY ABOUT 15-20:rolleyes: NOT SURE WHY, BUT AVOID AT ALL COSTS

[mykhal c]

:eek:

By changing my ram speed, I now get 311 Dverbs at a buffer of 64 @ 48k:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::e ek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::e ek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::e ek::eek::eek::eek:

Mykhal. I think I love you.:p

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::D:D:D SMOKIN'!!!!! man i'd luv to tune you and guitardom's rig!!!!!! and dude...your rig is in trot mode!!!! it ain't even workin' yet!!! it's smokin' a blunt and talkin' about you behind your back!!!! these systems will provide soooooooo much headroom with stability that you've only begun to touch the surface!!! BIG CONGRATS!!! 311 @64 f'n ridiculous!!!! once the QPI is opened up...OMG!!!! i'm jealous!!!!:p

[Kris75]

We're the native youth gone wild and HD is now the old man. :D :D :D

Roll it.

DA DA......DA DA DA.

Gota love skid row! LOL

[Kris75]

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::D:D:D SMOKIN'!!!!! man i'd luv to tune you and guitardom's rig!!!!!! and dude...your rig is in trot mode!!!! it ain't even workin' yet!!! it's smokin' a blunt and talkin' about you behind your back!!!! these systems will provide soooooooo much headroom with stability that you've only begun to touch the surface!!! BIG CONGRATS!!! 311 @64 f'n ridiculous!!!! once the QPI is opened up...OMG!!!! i'm jealous!!!!:p

I'm so happy right now I am almost crying. The one thing I've noticed tonight so far is that PT is super fast at responding. I have had no crashes since disabling Hyper Threading and at a buffer of 64 I am running mixes that my old tyan quad could barely handle, with a CPU usage rate of %26. They must have made some changes to how PT handles loads at a buffer of 64, that or this CPU is freakin crazy:eek::eek::eek:
I think intel should be given the Nobel peace prize right now. They are saving marriages, bands, and engineer/producer relationships by the miniute!

[sunburst79]

Great results guys. The huge Dverb scores are kinda academic at 1024 any more but Damn! 311 at 64 is really impressive. Thats real world horsepower.


Just a note to the early adopters. Microcenter is running a special in the I7 920 boxed processer for 229.00. It's in store only but thats 50 bucks cheaper than Newegg and frankly that doesn't happen all that often.

[guitardom]

WARNING

DO NOT USE INSERTS 6-10. YOUR DVERB COUNT WILL DROP BY ABOUT 15-20:rolleyes: NOT SURE WHY, BUT AVOID AT ALL COSTS


interesting.....

[Kris75]

One more thing. Scrolling is back without scripts:D

[mykhal c]

check back in on the fun very shortly!!! did i say i was jealous!!!???:p:D

[Kris75]

Eleven at a buffer of 64 is broken. I appears that for eleven to function it needs audio fed into it. At first I thought this was denormaliztion....remember those days?

Anyways, Dither will not fix the problem. Can you reproduce this Guitardom? Run Eleven at a buffer of 64 with not audio file on the track. Watch your CPU meter. Then put an audio file on that track and watch your meter. Perhaps I am trippin but it seems very strange.

Oh, did I forget to mention that at a buffer of 1024 I am running a mix

50 audio tracks
EQ and Comp on almost all

3 aux tracks. Verb, Delay and Modulation

11 guitar tracks running 11 all at the same time

CPU meter

%53

If eleven worked at a buffer of 64 I could run this session there....:-)

[albee1952]

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on this setup! So how about a checklist for proper setup(including BIOS) for this madness...errr...magnificence? BTW, how much performance difference would you expect between 3x1gig vs. 3x2 gig of RAM(assuming XP only "seeing" 3.2GHZ or so). Trying to decide if its worth the extra $70-100 to go 6 gig over 3 gig. With this kind of performance, who needs 64bit?

[Kris75]

I am done for the night, but the system did not crash once tonight. More responsive than the tyan and WAY faster. Not one problem, even though the ram was set to the wrong speed at first (thanks Mykhal!)

The only issue I had was Eleven at a buffer of 64 and the use of inserts 6-10 which to me are Pro Tools bugs, not the computers......:cool:

[guitardom]

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on this setup! So how about a checklist for proper setup(including BIOS) for this madness...errr...magnificence? BTW, how much performance difference would you expect between 3x1gig vs. 3x2 gig of RAM(assuming XP only "seeing" 3.2GHZ or so). Trying to decide if its worth the extra $70-100 to go 6 gig over 3 gig. With this kind of performance, who needs 64bit?

hey albee, i am in the middle of testing right now, matching kris's specs. my numbers are through the roof compared to his and the only real difference is ram and video card, so i would say yes on the ram!! i will be posting numbers here soon

the bios setting will vary with computer, so there is a variable, but if you go our route, i will be glad to help. i only had to change a couple things. will run it a bit longer before the oc'ing starts, but why????? do i really need that much more power??????

[Shan]

BTW, how much performance difference would you expect between 3x1gig vs. 3x2 gig of RAM(assuming XP only "seeing" 3.2GHZ or so). Trying to decide if its worth the extra $70-100 to go 6 gig over 3 gig. With this kind of performance, who needs 64bit?

About 77 or so Dverbs between the 3G and the 6G of ram. kris75 and guitardom are using DDR 3 1333 ram. I myself will be getting DDR 3 1600 so you'll see even more overhead.

The Dverb test guitardom just shared with me at a buffer of 64 is jaw dropping. He'll post soon.

Shane

[Shan]

...will run it a bit longer before the oc'ing starts, but why????? do i really need that much more power??????

Yes. :D OC to 4Ghz and run the new Dverb at 64. Apples to Apples comparison to that old overpriced technology. :D :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

Yes. :D OC to 4Ghz and run the new Dverb at 64. Apples to Apples comparison to that old overpriced technology. :D :D

Shane

i keep hearin'...who needs that much power??? I DO!!! just because we can!!!:eek::eek::D

[Shan]

i keep hearin'...who needs that much power??? I DO!!! just because we can!!!:eek::eek::D

Same. Now OC those bad boys!! :D

Shane

[markblasco]

For those of us who are still using an older computer and thinking about getting ready to upgrade, do you remember how many d-verbs were the norm for a P4 2.5/Athalon XP 2500 computer? I am curious about what type of improvement we will see with such an upgrade.

[sunburst79]

For those of us who are still using an older computer and thinking about getting ready to upgrade, do you remember how many d-verbs were the norm for a P4 2.5/Athalon XP 2500 computer? I am curious about what type of improvement we will see with such an upgrade.

How about 30 ballpark, probably damn near none at 64

[markblasco]

How about 30 ballpark, probably damn near none at 64

I think I just peed myself a little....

Just the thought that the sessions which currently are almost unplayable on my computer because of too many plugins would use up less than 10% of the power of one of these new computers....

It is really hard not to just buy all of the parts right this instant! I can't wait until the tax return comes in :)

[Shan]

For those of us who are still using an older computer and thinking about getting ready to upgrade, do you remember how many d-verbs were the norm for a P4 2.5/Athalon XP 2500 computer? I am curious about what type of improvement we will see with such an upgrade.

There was a time I got about 18 on my PIII...and we only had 24 tracks. :eek:

A buffer of 64 wasnt even a thought back then.

Shane

[guitardom]

redoing dverb tests with dverb from pt 7.4 (so w/o chorus) with 48 audio tracks, rest aux's, using ONLY first 5 inserts (A-E) recording 5 minutes, 48k - 24 bit session, processors set to max (4), cpu usage maxed, stock dae settings, multicore (hyper) threading OFF. ((ALSO the bios of my motherboard is F3 FYI)) no bios tweaks xcept setting my ram to run at the speed it is supposed to 1333.

388 at 64 HW buffer setting
488 at 1024 buffer setting

mykhal will compile this info soon, (thanx man)


then to parts

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375)

COOLER MASTER RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057)

HIS Hightech H465P512P Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161253)

OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227366)

everything else i had already but here is the psu

CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002)


thats all i got to say about that....goodnight....


:eek:

[Shan]

388 at 64 HW buffer setting
488 at 1024 buffer setting

Absolutely amazing for stock settings. :eek:

Shane

[Transputer]

Impressive work guys, fantastic. How native has grown and grown - incredible :D

Hands up for a 16/24 I/O interface on PCIe and leave the firewire for those who want a lesser interface ? come on Digi we know you've got it in you :D

[MrJoshua]

Impressive work guys, fantastic. How native has grown and grown - incredible :D

Hands up for a 16/24 I/O interface on PCIe and leave the firewire for those who want a lesser interface ? come on Digi we know you've got it in you :D


What I'd really like to see is a ProTools "Native" interface that just plugs into PCIe and has two HD ports on it. No onboard processing, just up to 32 channels of I/O using HD interfaces (or HD-compatible interfaces like an Apogee Rosetta with HD card), or let us add a second card for up to 64 total channels of I/O with appropriate interfaces.

Minimal engineering involved since the HD interfaces already exist and they MUST have all the specs on the existing HD cards. :) Sell the card for about a grand (since we'd have to buy additional interfaces to actually use it) and I think it would be an instant best-seller. I'd buy one. I'm fine with the track count on LE, but I really would love to have more I/O.

[CrAkD]

This is the thread I was waiting for I got the tax return sitting in the savings waiting to turn into an i7 does that gigabyte board support ddr3 1600? Cause that would be the only change I'd make

[guitardom]

This is the thread I was waiting for I got the tax return sitting in the savings waiting to turn into an i7 does that gigabyte board support ddr3 1600? Cause that would be the only change I'd make

i believe so, you can go to the link i posted and check it out.

[CrAkD]

Ah I will when I get home I'm at work on my phone and newegg mobile only shows a pic of it

[markblasco]

OK, here is my updated list of components for a build. Does everything here look good?

ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD625AWT 625W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194027)

OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1333LV6GK - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227366)

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202)

COOLER MASTER RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057)

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375)

HIS Hightech H465P512P Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161253)

Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129018)

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320) (3 of them)

Total cost for the above config listed on newegg is $1,284.90. This doesn't include shipping, but also doesn't include the rebates (which add up to $125), so even without the rebates we are talking about $1300.

Is there anything missing in the above list? Will that power supply work with that motherboard, or do you need a special power supply for the i7 chips? Is that cooling fan a good choice for someone with very little computer building experience?

[mykhal c]

OK, here is my updated list of components for a build. Does everything here look good?

ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD625AWT 625W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194027)

OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1333LV6GK - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227366)

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202)

COOLER MASTER RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057)

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375)

HIS Hightech H465P512P Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161253)

Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129018)

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320) (3 of them)

Total cost for the above config listed on newegg is $1,284.90. This doesn't include shipping, but also doesn't include the rebates (which add up to $125), so even without the rebates we are talking about $1300.

Is there anything missing in the above list? Will that power supply work with that motherboard, or do you need a special power supply for the i7 chips? Is that cooling fan a good choice for someone with very little computer building experience?

need to make sure your heatsink/cooler is i7 compatible. i7 has a different socket. i did not see it as bein' i7 compatible when i took a quick look at the specs

[propower]

Has anyone tried one of these with an HD rig? I am currently on a Mac G5 with an HD2 Accel. The upgrade/crossgrade prices have me seriously looking at trying out a windows machine for my PCI-x cards. It doesn't look like they will fit on the Gigabyte mobo but the P6t looks promising.

Thanks,
-Lee

[mykhal c]

Has anyone tried one of these with an HD rig? I am currently on a Mac G5 with an HD2 Accel. The upgrade/crossgrade prices have me seriously looking at trying out a windows machine for my PCI-x cards. It doesn't look like they will fit on the Gigabyte mobo but the P6t looks promising.

Thanks,
-Lee

pricey but... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131358 couple of us were talkin' about this as a possible fit for HD. worth a look;)

[sunburst79]

Has anyone tried one of these with an HD rig? I am currently on a Mac G5 with an HD2 Accel. The upgrade/crossgrade prices have me seriously looking at trying out a windows machine for my PCI-x cards. It doesn't look like they will fit on the Gigabyte mobo but the P6t looks promising.

Thanks,
-Lee

Try This (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131358)

[mykhal c]

Try This (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131358)

beat ya to it!!!:D

[markblasco]

need to make sure your heatsink/cooler is i7 compatible. i7 has a different socket. i did not see it as bein' i7 compatible when i took a quick look at the specs

I pulled this off of one of the listed completed i7 builds. I have no idea if it will actually work or not.

[propower]

Hey thanks for the quick reply but.....

HD2 Accel pci-X.... I need at least 2 PCIx slots.

Thanks,
-Lee

[mykhal c]

I pulled this off of one of the listed completed i7 builds. I have no idea if it will actually work or not.

make sure you don't need an adapter of some sort too. i have not researched heatsinks at all for the i7. just wanted to make sure you were aware that the socket is bigger and some (most i'd say) of the Qxxxx heatsinks will not be a fit for the i7.;)

[guitardom]

I pulled this off of one of the listed completed i7 builds. I have no idea if it will actually work or not.

you didnt pull it off of one of the builds, you pulled it off of THE build:D

works fine, but word of advice:::::::::: you have to install a plate on the back of the MB, so pull your MB out, put in the cpu, install the heatsink, then mount it in the case. it is actually pretty quick and easy.

[markblasco]

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055)

This one says that it works for the i7, so I will probably go with this one instead. The only worry I have is that it may not fit inside the case...

[markblasco]

you didnt pull it off of one of the builds, you pulled it off of THE build:D

works fine, but word of advice:::::::::: you have to install a plate on the back of the MB, so pull your MB out, put in the cpu, install the heatsink, then mount it in the case. it is actually pretty quick and easy.

This will be a completely from scratch build, so I will make sure to put it together before putting the MB in the case.

[guitardom]

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055)

This one says that it works for the i7, so I will probably go with this one instead. The only worry I have is that it may not fit inside the case...



i have a rackmount computer case, so that was a huge concern for me. the cooler i posted, the one you originally had selected DOES fit in a case this size. just barely but it does clear everything.

[guitardom]

also out of curiosity i am gonna pop my nvidia en7300 gt silent 256mb vid card. my curiosity is the ram. my current card is a 512mb, so might gain a bit more ram to use. the nvidia is from my q6600 build about 6 months ago or so.

also to everybody building. i download ALL my drivers, use the discs the hardware comes with for cup coasters. but it seems almost every driver i am downloading is had an update in the last week or so. pay attention to this. outdated drivers on new hardware is not good!!!!

[mykhal c]

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055)

This one says that it works for the i7, so I will probably go with this one instead. The only worry I have is that it may not fit inside the case...



actually the one from guitardom's specs is i7 ready!!! newegg doesn't list it in the specs but when you go to view the pics it has a big i7 label on it. probably has adapters included. the good thing is you know it works 'cause someone is already usin' it;). it's bein' used in THE BUILD!!!:eek::D

[mano111]

I too suspect that V8 will not fit in an Antec Solo or Sonata style cases.

BTW great work guys.

i7=the HD killer? :)

[Shan]

This is the thread I was waiting for I got the tax return sitting in the savings waiting to turn into an i7 does that gigabyte board support ddr3 1600? Cause that would be the only change I'd make

Yes...and anything lower in the i7 builds should be outlawed. Why cripple the system and make it a Quad LE? :D :D :D

The Gigabyte board actually supports DDR 3 2000. ;)

Shane

[Shan]

i7=the HD killer? :)

Hence the acronym that has been floating around the DUC for the past year or so:

HDK Quadzilla :eek: :D :D


Shane

[guitardom]

Hence the acronym that has been floating around the DUC for the past year or so:

HDK Quadzilla :eek: :D :D


Shane


all in all performance wise, hd is DONE. no if ands or buts. but until the i/o limitations, software limitations and hardware limitations are lifted or drastically altered for le (or native) we are still kinda s.o.l. i dont like saying it, but our hands are tied, or we move on, or combo up on different software and hardware.

i saw stuff on computer monitors i never thought i would see like this and it is crazy to think about being restricted like hd users are at the moment!! then think about the users with pci cards and not pci-e, they are in an even tougher spot. now they gotta trade up (EXPENSIVE) or go expansion chassis route (not exactly cheap either) or stay on their current sytem.

thats another area we gotta think about when asking digi for a new pci based system. 001 was discontinued because mac changed their pci spec...........what will that mean for us with a pci based system when in 2 years a revolution happens in pci base systems and we are jacked, cant upgrade computer and stuck with legacy hardware.....very tough dilema.

just some thoughts...

[Shan]

all in all performance wise, hd is DONE. no if ands or buts.

For those of us who use both HD and LE like yourself...this is quite a true statement. :eek: Once the i7 Xeon Macs arrive in March which will be 8-16(32 logical cores) core rigs, that statement will carry even more weight and the Mac platform will finally see what we've been experiencing on the PC for the past 3 years.

but until the i/o limitations, software limitations and hardware limitations are lifted or drastically altered for le (or native) we are still kinda s.o.l. i dont like saying it, but our hands are tied, or we move on, or combo up on different software and hardware.Unfortunately we are forced to use a combo of software and hardware. Reaper is my second tool of choice in the studio and I'll soon add the front end that PT Native should've had 3 years ago (http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_raydat.php). Now if Digidesign had this hardware then my dollars would definitely go to them but, we are forced to purchase our solutions from other companies. They might want to have a good hard look at that trend in these questionable economic times. :eek: The other sad thing is that since I use both PT LE and Reaper, there is stuff in Reaper now I no longer can live without that LE(and even HD) wont have for 5+ years. :eek:

i saw stuff on computer monitors i never thought i would see like this and it is crazy to think about being restricted like hd users are at the moment!! Quite true. All good things come and go as technology advances. Tape is gone, Vinyl is gone, ADAT is gone, large format consoles are shrinking in size and DSP Cards definitely had their day. I guess it comes down to shrinking sales before people act instead of observing the obvious. :confused:

then think about the users with pci cards and not pci-e, they are in an even tougher spot. now they gotta trade up (EXPENSIVE) or go expansion chassis route (not exactly cheap either) or stay on their current sytem. The best solution in those cases is to upgrade the computer for more power in my opinion. It would be the cheaper route.

just some thoughts... Just some more thought to your thoughts. :D :D

Back to the i7 builds... :D

Shane

[CrAkD]

shane what would be a good ram timing for ddr3 1600? im piecing my system together now

[CrAkD]

Great results guys. The huge Dverb scores are kinda academic at 1024 any more but Damn! 311 at 64 is really impressive. Thats real world horsepower.


Just a note to the early adopters. Microcenter is running a special in the I7 920 boxed processer for 229.00. It's in store only but thats 50 bucks cheaper than Newegg and frankly that doesn't happen all that often.

your the man i just ordered my processor for 229 going to pick it up in a little while.

[Shan]

Great results guys. The huge Dverb scores are kinda academic at 1024 any more but Damn! 311 at 64 is really impressive. Thats real world horsepower.

I second that statement. 300+ Dverbs at a buffer of 64 is damn amazing considering the old man dated hardware will only do 256 Dverbs (http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9815/accelcard38dverbspi5.jpg) and set you back over $20,000. :eek: Times have sure changed. :D

Shane

[Kris75]

Just thought I would post some real world results.:-)

9 hybrid synths
3 extra long dly's
2 structure le
8 versions of Eleven:eek:

46 audio tracks (All with eq, most with compression)
6 Aux tracks
11 Instrument

Buffer of 64
CPU usage @ %70-%75

This system has been running problem free for 20 hours now. Not one crash. Not one hang. The only problems I experience are Pro Tools related (Adding plug ins during playback)

[mykhal c]

Just thought I would post some real world results.:-)

9 hybrid synths
3 extra long dly's
2 structure le
8 versions of Eleven:eek:

46 audio tracks (All with eq, most with compression)
6 Aux tracks
11 Instrument

Buffer of 64
CPU usage @ %70-%75

This system has been running problem free for 20 hours now. Not one crash. Not one hang. The only problems I experience are Pro Tools related (Adding plug ins during playback)

nice goin' man and congrats!!:D did you post all your parts yet?? if not, would you do so pls?? thanks:cool:

[RoMi]

... Reaper is my second tool of choice in the studio and I'll soon add the front end that PT Native should've had 3 years ago (http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_raydat.php). ... The other sad thing is that since I use both PT LE and Reaper, there is stuff in Reaper now I no longer can live without that LE(and even HD) wont have for 5+ years...

Shane[/quote]
= = =

Shane, I know I am going here off the main topic, but could you share what do you mostly use Reaper for... What is that "stuff" in Reaper that you "can no longer live without". I started to use Reaper myself...
If would not like to place it in this thread, please email me some short thoughts (I know you are very busy in DUC, though... :-))
[email protected]
Robert

[Shan]

Shane, I know I am going here off the main topic, but could you share what do you mostly use Reaper for... What is that "stuff" in Reaper that you "can no longer live without". I started to use Reaper myself...
If would not like to place it in this thread, please email me some short thoughts (I know you are very busy in DUC, though... :-))
[email protected]
Robert

This is probably best for a whole new thread but in brief and off the top of my head.


Zero Crossing editing
Offline bounce
Midi to Audio rendering
ADC
User definable shortcuts and macros that I set up to imitate PT
An Undo History that every DAW should have
Drag and Drop into PT
Adding track count to PT by routing Reaper into PT Aux tracks via ReWire
More than 18 I/O with no proprietary hardware for a front end
Work directly with other audio formats such as FLAC. Killer for 96k sessions which saves on hard disk space
Expanded Editing and functions for PT using Reaper as a ReWire plug-in
I can code and develop features for Reaper with the SDK that I need
I can code my own plug-ins with a simple Reaper scripting language
I can work with the developer to get features added
The list goes on.

Reaper is a great ReWire tool that enhances PT. There's nothing wrong with using more than one tool for the job. The artificial limits in Pro Tools Native will force an audio engineer into coming up with other solutions of which there are many. Unfortunately, many of these solutions cost money which gets invested into other companies hardware and software and not Digidesign. I would rather invest in Digidesign products but I'm forced to look elsewhere for solutions which is kind of sad, and that solution is not climbing the inflated and dated Digidesign hierarchy. The overpriced and under powered Pro Tools hierarchy is impossible to climb and quite simply not needed for alot of today's productions. It is also no longer realistic in this modern era in which the music business model has drastically changed and we now have a non spending economy that wont be changing for years to come.

It's kind of sad that we got these i7 Quads out doing HD now yet we cant use the full potential of our computers because of these artificial limitations. The other sad thing is the obvious limitations of HD which holds back Pro Tools Native development. I guess it will have to take a steep decline in HD sales instead of observing the obvious in order for this to change. These i7 PC's and the new upcoming i7 Xeon Macs will probably do exactly that. I just hope it's not too late. By the time Alesis, who dominated the 90's with ADAT, jumped into hard disk recording...it was too late.

I now need to expand my studio and I'm forced to purchase non Digidesign hardware to record using Reaper for the front end. I'll then edit and mix in Pro Tools. A few grand invested that I would be more than happy to give to Digidesign but they just don't offer me anything for native expansion. Why I have to do this in 2009 is beyond me. HD with it's limitations and inflated prices is not a wise investment for me in 2009 and will never ever happen. That would be a very bad business move for me that I just cant justify no matter how much of a Digidesign fan boy I am.

Back to these killer i7 rigs. Keep buildin' boys!! :D :D

Shane

[Kris75]

I'll post my parts list later today when I get to the studio. Sorry about the delay, but I wanted to make sure this thing was stable. So far, AMAZINGLY stable.:-)

[mykhal c]

I'll post my parts list later today when I get to the studio. Sorry about the delay, but I wanted to make sure this thing was stable. So far, AMAZINGLY stable.:-)

no worries. glad to hear the system is showin' signs of bein' rock solid and AMAZING!! ;):cool::D

[Shan]

I'll post my parts list later today when I get to the studio. Sorry about the delay, but I wanted to make sure this thing was stable. So far, AMAZINGLY stable.:-)

Did you get the SATA drivers sorted out? ;)

Shane

[mykhal c]

fyi...the 7200.12 gen of SEAGATE drives have sustained transfer rates that exceed the old PATA/IDE/EIDE rates. so new builders should, IMHO, install the SATA/AHCI controller/drivers when installin' the OS. otherwise, as you add the 'new' drives to your i7 systems you'll find your hdd's as your bottleneck(s). and for those that are lookin' toward SSD, like Shane and myself, then you'll definitely need access to the SATA thru-put. so do it to start with or else you'll find yourself jumpin' thru hoops tryin' to get 'em installed later;)

[guitardom]

also mykhal, i had kris check and he is running an older bios. actually been a couple revisions since his, so once he updates that it will be interesting to see if there will be any performance change. i need to test with my changed vid card now, but have not had time.

[Shan]

Now that we have access to very cheap RAM and we have motherboards that support Gigs of it, I decided to do a few bleeding edge experiments. All I can say is...I'm speechless!!!!! :eek:

Stay tuned for some performance tweaks that will drop your jaw a few feet. :eek: :D :D

I cant believe what I just did in PT. :eek:

Shane

[Shan]

So what do we do with the extra RAM (http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7189/71441900en1.png) in these systems? I mean, it's so cheap these days and these MB's can hold Gigs of it...it's hard not to splurge and indulge oneself. :D

Well, we give ourselves quite a performance boost in a few areas, (http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/299/42821926qp8.png) and that's just one of many. :eek:

Stay tuned. :D :D

Shane

[Sofine]

About to do an i7 build for PTLE8. Following this thread with interest. Not a tech by any means but I did manage to custom build my last Dual core

Looking forward to your discovery Shane.

Looking for one piece of advice (for the mo!). I built a RIAD stripe into my current DAW - 2 sample / VI drives both striped for speed. I'm thinking its overkill, I havent really seen a major improvement, though this is prob due to limitations of my CPU (AMD x3200 dual core) / RAM (2gb). Anyone doing this out there?

[Shan]

Looking forward to your discovery Shane.

Part of it was hinted at in the post above you. :D

Though a handful have gotten RAID going, it isnt supported by Digidesign so I stay clear of it myself. Others will probably chime in.

Good luck with the new build. The i7 Quad is a killer system.

Shane

[Sofine]

Part of it was hinted at in the post above you. :D


I think I know where you are going with it, but like NAMM announcments, I'll wait rather than start the guessng game:D

[guitardom]

About to do an i7 build for PTLE8. Following this thread with interest. Not a tech by any means but I did manage to custom build my last Dual core

Looking forward to your discovery Shane.

Looking for one piece of advice (for the mo!). I built a RIAD stripe into my current DAW - 2 sample / VI drives both striped for speed. I'm thinking its overkill, I havent really seen a major improvement, though this is prob due to limitations of my CPU (AMD x3200 dual core) / RAM (2gb). Anyone doing this out there?


i have also always avoided raid systems. though you should be fine wiht sata II 7200 rpm drives minimum. this machine is handling anything we are throwing at it so that should not be a issue. until we are given more i/o so we can record more tracks could that become an issue, though it would have to be a lot of inputs.

our limitation is ram right now, though i can see where you are going shane, recording to ramdisk which in essence is way faster than a physical hard drive. just curious cause it would have to be temporary storage, and seems you would have to mess with your disk allocation a lot changing between drives. has potential but seems to also have the potential for mistakes and maybe lost audio with a mistake made. but for disk streaming vi's it could be killer, but some of those vi's have HUGE sample banks!!:eek:

another thought on this subject is gonna be ss drives. i do not know much about the good and bads as related to our work, they are coming down in price right....

[RoMi]

Shane, I just would like to throw into this exciting i7 thread a short THANK YOU for your great post about Reaper.
I totally agree - as many of us, I think - with your general thoughts regarding artificial limitations of PT Native, limitations deriving from the dark ages of the previous century :-) :confused: :( :eek:

[Kris75]

Here is my parts list

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Motherboard
Intel I7 920 cpu
3 x 1 gig stix of kingston value ram ddr3 1333
250 gig system drive
Antec Sonota III w/500 watt power supply
Asus 3450 256mb video card
LG 22x DVD writer

[mykhal c]

thanks kris. you still runnin' rock solid and amazin'??!!!:D

[Kris75]

The computer has been rock solid except for 1 issue. After installing Strike I started getting strange behavior. That plug has always been buggy as hell so I took it as a plug in problem.

After installing Strike I had Play/Pause like crazy. I looked in my prefetch folder and found 3 files all related to Strike Install? I deleted them and the play pause left for the rest of the night. HOWEVER, after removing them Structure LE started playing off time? I reverted to an image of PT before Strike and all is well again.
I new strike was buggy, but my god man. How can this plug in be released? It wreaked havoc on my tyan and I thought it was a ram issue, but now I know that it just kills any system it touches. I'll stay away. Waste of $100 I could have used to buy more ram for this bad boy:D


Other than strike, this computer has been CRAZY rock solid. I could not be happier.

[guitardom]

hey kris just to let you know, i am running bfd 2.1 (newest version) and is running like a champ. a bit harder on ram, but having no issues at all. i owned both bfd and strike for awhile and was just happier with bfd.

have you got your bios updated yet??

[TOM@METRO]

hey kris just to let you know, i am running bfd 2.1 (newest version) and is running like a champ. a bit harder on ram, but having no issues at all. i owned both bfd and strike for awhile and was just happier with bfd.

have you got your bios updated yet??

In BFD 2.1...Try "load on demand" if you haven't already.;):D

[mykhal c]

excellent kris. what were your final dverb test results?

[Shan]

The computer has been rock solid...this computer has been CRAZY rock solid. I could not be happier.

BIOS vers and SATA drvr up and going now?

...and turn off indexing on your Drives...especially the Audio Drive. ;)

Shane

[CrAkD]

ok couple questions I already got my i7 processor from microcenter about to pull the trigger on the rest. couple questons my buddy that uses my studio as much as I do is going to buy the ram. I found the same brand ram some of you guys are using but faster (3x 2gb 1866mhz ocz platinum) was wondering if this would work fine with a timing of 9-9-9-28.

Also im inbetween mobos. I was going to get the same gigabyte mobo but I kind of want the 6 ram slots for when Windows 7 is available since I probably wont be upgrading again for a long time. Shoud I get the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P


for like $60 more to get the extra ram slots or just get the

ASUS P6T


for only like $35 more. also as far as power supplies go whats the smallest I could go with i7? Im going to get a very small video card its going to only be a PT system. I do have a usb hub thats packed full of stuff like midi interfaces midi controllers printer etc but the hub is powered. do I need a specific type of power supply? the guy at microcenter said only some of them are i7 compatible but I wasnt sure. Thanks in advance for any replys guys I cant wait to get this going.

[guitardom]

In BFD 2.1...Try "load on demand" if you haven't already.;):D

i was tracking with it the other night. honestly did not notice a lot of difference though my ram usage fluctuated more. i think this will be more of an impact on slower systems with less ram or not proper hard drive configs. i was using it though with the AFJ expansion wich is like 256 vel layers!!

[mykhal c]

ok couple questions I already got my i7 processor from microcenter about to pull the trigger on the rest. couple questons my buddy that uses my studio as much as I do is going to buy the ram. I found the same brand ram some of you guys are using but faster (3x 2gb 1866mhz ocz platinum) was wondering if this would work fine with a timing of 9-9-9-28.

Also im inbetween mobos. I was going to get the same gigabyte mobo but I kind of want the 6 ram slots for when Windows 7 is available since I probably wont be upgrading again for a long time. Shoud I get the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P


for like $60 more to get the extra ram slots or just get the

ASUS P6T


for only like $35 more. also as far as power supplies go whats the smallest I could go with i7? Im going to get a very small video card its going to only be a PT system. I do have a usb hub thats packed full of stuff like midi interfaces midi controllers printer etc but the hub is powered. do I need a specific type of power supply? the guy at microcenter said only some of them are i7 compatible but I wasnt sure. Thanks in advance for any replys guys I cant wait to get this going.


my 2cents...faster ram looser/slower timings or slower ram with tighter/faster timings. hard one to call at this point IMHO because the QPI technology is so new. i would probably look for the fastest ram with the tighest timings. i saw some OCZ ram that looked good and had great reviews from users.. also check out the nehalem ram link i've got in my 1st post. it could shed some light on things for ya;)

also, i'd go with the mobo that offers the most in dimm slots. Shane is in the lab and will have some impressive things to share. so for those that run big sessions, you'll want to hear what he has to say;):D between the 2 mobo's you listed, go with the one that has absolutely everythin' you need on the southbridge. personally, i'm an ASUS cat. but guitardom and kris are realtime users with GIGAs and ain't complainin' one bit!!!;)

[guitardom]

ok couple questions I already got my i7 processor from microcenter about to pull the trigger on the rest. couple questons my buddy that uses my studio as much as I do is going to buy the ram. I found the same brand ram some of you guys are using but faster (3x 2gb 1866mhz ocz platinum) was wondering if this would work fine with a timing of 9-9-9-28.

Also im inbetween mobos. I was going to get the same gigabyte mobo but I kind of want the 6 ram slots for when Windows 7 is available since I probably wont be upgrading again for a long time. Shoud I get the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P


for like $60 more to get the extra ram slots or just get the

ASUS P6T


for only like $35 more. also as far as power supplies go whats the smallest I could go with i7? Im going to get a very small video card its going to only be a PT system. I do have a usb hub thats packed full of stuff like midi interfaces midi controllers printer etc but the hub is powered. do I need a specific type of power supply? the guy at microcenter said only some of them are i7 compatible but I wasnt sure. Thanks in advance for any replys guys I cant wait to get this going.



as far as motherboards, do what will make you feel more secure. if you want more ram slots, then go for it. this is my second machine with a gigabyte board, been very happy with them, but my previous 2, including the most stable computer i ever built were asus boards, i dont have issues with either. you can also keep in mind that 4 gb sticks of ram are available and even this lower end gigabyte board can hold 4 of these to support 16gb of ram. i would also be careful about buying some ram now and some down the road. ultimately you want exact matching sticks of ram if possible and these companies are always discontinuing stuff and revamping it.

as far as power supplies, i would choose wisely, you dont want an underpowered system! ram will take around 2v or more a stick, amount of fans, hard drives, dvd drives, the processor, video card, pci cards, power for usb, this stuff can add up fast. i would think anything below 500 would be pushing it. plus higher quality power supplies will give more stable and consistent power, to keep you at the advertised voltage and not actually be fluctuating around that amount.

most power supplies will be compatible, but you will have to make sure you have a 8 pin or 2x4 12v connector on it. this will be the one factor not all will have.

[sunburst79]

I'll be using the P6T, a 920 and 3GB of the OCZ 7-7-7-20 memory

I like the P6T because

A) I can reuse my Socket 775 CPU cooler (why aren't all the mobos offering dual CPU cooler mounting patterns like this)

B) I suspect 6 slots are ultimately going to offer more bandwidth in the future than 4.

Sunburst79 Tip of the day....If you bought a noisy ol Zalman CNPS 9700 or 9700N (like I did) you might be interested in this here adaptor thang (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118045&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-). If Zalman would actually use a quiet fans and a PWM plug on all the stuff it would be great.

[mykhal c]

yep, what guitardom said!!;) also, look at how many rails the PSU has. it makes a difference as to how the power is delivered

[guitardom]

hey mykhal, could you give a quick explanation on the ram timings when shopping for it. ;)

you might see ddr3 1600 or ddr3 2000 and then see numbers like 7-7-7-20 or 5-5-5-24. then variances in voltage like 1.8v or 2.4v

thanx

[CrAkD]

hey mykhal, could you give a quick explanation on the ram timings when shopping for it. ;)

you might see ddr3 1600 or ddr3 2000 and then see numbers like 7-7-7-20 or 5-5-5-24. then variances in voltage like 1.8v or 2.4v

thanx

yeah I dont really know what tight timings are.

[mykhal c]

hey mykhal, could you give a quick explanation on the ram timings when shopping for it. ;)

you might see ddr3 1600 or ddr3 2000 and then see numbers like 7-7-7-20 or 5-5-5-24. then variances in voltage like 1.8v or 2.4v

thanx

no problem...will do my best;)

for example if you have a triple set of ram DDR3 1600 with timings of 7-7-7-24 and another set of DDR3 1600 at 8-8-8-28 the 7-7-7-24 timings have less latency which is what you want. the problem is, as you choose faster ram, the timings (typically) are loosen so now there is more latency introduced, to allow the ram at a faster speed. make sense??? that's why it's always important to look at the timings at the same time you are lookin' at ram speed. and for the real tweakers out there, the bios in these mobo's allows one to really tweak the timings manually. but that's a whole other topic!!;) and always look at the voltage too. you want the fastest ram, with the tighest timings that will run at the lowest voltage for its' specs. that way your mobo runs cooler/lower temps. hope that helps

[CrAkD]

no problem...will do my best;)

for example if you have a triple set of ram DDR3 1600 with timings of 7-7-7-24 and another set of DDR3 at 8-8-8-28 the 7-7-7-24 timings have less latency which is what you want. the problem is, as you choose faster ram, the timings (typically) are loosen so now there is more latency introduced, to allow the ram at a faster speed. make sense??? that's why it's always important to look at the timings at the same time you are lookin' at ram speed. and for the real tweakers out there, the bios in these mobo's allows one to really tweak the timings manually. but that's a whole other topic!!;) and always look at the voltage too. you want the fastest ram, with the tighest timings that will run at the lowest voltage for its' specs. that way your mobo runs cooler/lower temps. hope that helps

Yeah I did some research before you replied and realized that most likely ddr3 1600 with timings of 7-7-7-24 will be faster then ddr3 1866 with timings of 9-9-9-28 the lowest timings I can find for 1866 is 9-9-9-24. so maybe ill just go with the 1600 memory.

[guitardom]

after some poking and proding by a couple duc residents, i have started the over clocking process. bumped up from 2.66 to 3.6 ghz and the results are amazing. still in the middle of testing, will post when all are revealed, lets just say breaking 500 dverbs......its possible.......

[Shan]

And wait until guitardom posts his results. :eek: :eek: :eek:

I'm floored. :eek:

Shane

[Shan]

Up on Skype with popcorn as I see the results coming in....:D :D

This one is a piece of history for Pro Tools Native. :eek:

Shane

[guitardom]

Up on Skype with popcorn as I see the results coming in....:D :D

This one is a piece of history for Pro Tools Native. :eek:

Shane

:D:D:D:D

NICE!!!

almost done, the amount of testing being done and the hours it is taking doing it is crazy!! i am gonna have to get back to work sometime;) actually found some even more interesting things......

[Shan]

Since I already know all of Steve's numbers he'll be posting, I can definitely state this is quite the breakthrough and milestone for Pro Tools Native. :eek: :D :D

Shane

[guitardom]

K everybody here is the results from my first overclocking session last night. the tweaking is all under spec, nothing outlandish and honestly i still have more headroom, but feel comfortable between voltages and temperature. simply stated.....i for the next few days am the Dverb champ!!!!:D regardless we can see the power of these machines now and the potential they give us...

24 bit 48k / cpu usage max available / DAE settings stock / RTAS Erors UNCHECKED / start with 48 tracks, all record enabled, then aux's using only first 5 insert points A-E / recording 5 min min. / all tests have been performed multiple times to check for consistency. / pro tools 8.0 / xp sp3

New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF

64 HW Buffer / 238
1024 HW Buffer / 312
-------------------------------
New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 344..........:eek:
1024 HW Buffer / 409
-------------------------------

now for a comparison of our past machines

Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF

64 HW Buffer / 429
1024 HW Buffer / 543

NOW FOR THE KICKER...................................

Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 543
1024 HW Buffer / 628
------------------------------------

tried a couple at 44.1k and could get WAY more than this!!

we have added a second bottle neck to our list though.....hard drives...UGGHHH

after oc'ing multi threading seems more stable for some reason. noticably punchier and faster response time. though all but the 8 core selection is greyed out.

it was a long night last night, the results are amazing though ehh??:D:D

[TCM]

:eek:
...and the golden ilok goes to.......guitardom!!!:D

Great prospects!

[albee1952]

The King is dead, long live the KING! Don't forget the little details for us technically challenged types.

[JustinTapp]

hi guys, New to the group. I just built a core i7 machine . . .

core i7 920
PT6 Deluxe
6 GB DDR3 1600 (Corsair Dominator)
GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express
(2) 150GB WD 10,000 rpm Velociraptor HD
(1) 600GB WD 7200 rpm HD

I tried the DVERB test at 64 buffer last night at 44.1 and was able to only get 210 dverbs (with DVERB2) . . . from some of the things I am reading on here, I should be able to get many more. I am running a fresh instal of PT 8 (though I had installed BFD and Mtron before I tried the DVerb test) and WinXp Service Pack 3 . . . is there something I am not doing to optimize my setup?

Thanks,

Justin

[markblasco]

hi guys, New to the group. I just built a core i7 machine . . .

core i7 920
PT6 Deluxe
6 GB DDR3 1600 (Corsair Dominator)
GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express
(2) 150GB WD 10,000 rpm Velociraptor HD
(1) 600GB WD 7200 rpm HD

I tried the DVERB test at 64 buffer last night at 44.1 and was able to only get 210 dverbs (with DVERB2) . . . from some of the things I am reading on here, I should be able to get many more. I am running a fresh instal of PT 8 (though I had installed BFD and Mtron before I tried the DVerb test) and WinXp Service Pack 3 . . . is there something I am not doing to optimize my setup?

Thanks,

Justin

From what I gather, if you are getting 210 Dverbs at a 64 buffer using the new Dverb, that is pretty darn good! What were you getting at a 1024 buffer?

[guitardom]

:eek:
...and the golden ilok goes to.......guitardom!!!:D

Great prospects!


at this point i would be happy with an ilok that is not full of junk licenses!! at this point i actually need to buy a second ilok, transfer all the good licenses to it and have an ilok for junk.....pretty sad.

this is actually my 2nd time for having the dverb record:eek: i had it a few years back on the opteron systems for quite a while:D (with a lowly 140 something)

actually that is not the concern, the issue is knowing what the most powerful and more importantly stable machines on the market that we can afford to assemble. a lot of the part decision in my i7 was finding the cheapest parts available of quality. i figured out last night that i have just over 700$ into my i7 when reusing most of the parts from my q6600!! with time this will only drop.

[guitardom]

The King is dead, long live the KING! Don't forget the little details for us technically challenged types.

hey albee i would be glad to help you with anything you need and willing to spend a couple hours on the phone or whatever we need to get you going. you are a great asset around here and anything you need should be taken care of.

but 1 issue now is the variable between systems. most of us are going after the same processor, but the ram and motherboard are the 2 biggest variables in the system. the bios in each board will also be laid out differently as well for tweaking in and making sure settings such as voltages and timings are correct. honestly sticking with parts that are tested and people have working and are giving help with i think is the best way to go. let the pioneers like me, sunburst, mykhal, shane, and others waste our time and money on finding parts;) (and OHHHH the time....) we can offer better support that way!

[guitardom]

hi guys, New to the group. I just built a core i7 machine . . .

core i7 920
PT6 Deluxe
6 GB DDR3 1600 (Corsair Dominator)
GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express
(2) 150GB WD 10,000 rpm Velociraptor HD
(1) 600GB WD 7200 rpm HD

I tried the DVERB test at 64 buffer last night at 44.1 and was able to only get 210 dverbs (with DVERB2) . . . from some of the things I am reading on here, I should be able to get many more. I am running a fresh instal of PT 8 (though I had installed BFD and Mtron before I tried the DVerb test) and WinXp Service Pack 3 . . . is there something I am not doing to optimize my setup?

Thanks,

Justin

hey man, yes that is a bit low, but not to far out. if you are concerned about it, pull the other plugs out of you plugs folder and put them in the unused plugs folder for the time of testing.

another perspective, my last q6600 with pt 7.4 could get 242 at 1024 buffer setting!!! your stats are still killer.

plus your testing at 44.1k will be a bit askew from mine and what we are trying to do for benchmarks. we are asking for 48k 24 bit on the dverb test. i was amazed last night at the difference i could get from 44.1k to 48k, we are talking around 30-40 dverb difference.

if you go to the first page or click here (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=238426) you can see some comparable results. the first few tests there is some missing info like sample rate or things that will vary the test or operating system. vista users will never get the power xp gets. also on mine i have the old dverb out of 7.4 just to have comparison to our previous systems. so lots of variables here for sure. but if you have any older version installed somewhere or know someone who does, just grab the old .dpm and .rsr file and pull the new one off to the side, you can easily compare you new system to older. plus consider pt 8 is harder on your system than previous versions.....wonder if i got board and installed 7.3 for a bit..............................

also fyi, on the gigabyte board in the bios the ram speed timings, voltage and stuff is factory set, so it was not setup at all for the ram i put in it. i had to adjust the frequency multiplier and voltage just to have the ram running correctly. things like that you should check. also the multi threading (or hyper) are in the bios if you want to shut that off which i would probably recomend for you. i havent seen the bios for the asus so not 100% on how it is setup and laid out. also just basic os tweaks of course are gonna help. tons of info around here on that kind of stuff.

but as more machines are built, tests are done, and specs are posted we will have more info and more just people who have built that can help.

[mykhal c]

K everybody here is the results from my first overclocking session last night. the tweaking is all under spec, nothing outlandish and honestly i still have more headroom, but feel comfortable between voltages and temperature. simply stated.....i for the next few days am the Dverb champ!!!!:D regardless we can see the power of these machines now and the potential they give us...

24 bit 48k / cpu usage max available / DAE settings stock / RTAS Erors UNCHECKED / start with 48 tracks, all record enabled, then aux's using only first 5 insert points A-E / recording 5 min min. / all tests have been performed multiple times to check for consistency. / pro tools 8.0 / xp sp3

New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF

64 HW Buffer / 238
1024 HW Buffer / 312
-------------------------------
New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 344..........:eek:
1024 HW Buffer / 409
-------------------------------

now for a comparison of our past machines

Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF

64 HW Buffer / 429
1024 HW Buffer / 543

NOW FOR THE KICKER...................................

Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 543
1024 HW Buffer / 628
------------------------------------

tried a couple at 44.1k and could get WAY more than this!!

we have added a second bottle neck to our list though.....hard drives...UGGHHH

after oc'ing multi threading seems more stable for some reason. noticably punchier and faster response time. though all but the 8 core selection is greyed out.

it was a long night last night, the results are amazing though ehh??:D:D

soooooo much for takin' the weekend off bro!!!:p:D great testin' and results steve!!! thanks for takin' the time to do the grind work. i think i can say, all DUC'ers appreciate it and will benefit!!!

so we can say that you and ranallicj are postin' the BIG NUMBERS!!! we can also say that the i7 920 can easily be clocked to meet and exceed the results of the more expensive i7 965. and i'm not knockin' anyone that chooses the 965;) i'm just sayin' $300 vs $900+ is any easy call especially if you KNOW you can clock to get the same kinda result. now we do know that if one OC's the 965 then we are in a whole other stratosphere then!!:eek::eek::D but personally, give me the $300 proc and a bios and lemme work it from there!!! congrats again steve!!!

[mykhal c]

after oc'ing multi threading seems more stable for some reason. noticably punchier and faster response time. though all but the 8 core selection is greyed out.


interestin' observation. so when you say that, is that in regards to how it feels compared to when it is NOT oc'ed??? or does HT feel more stable than non HT when OC'ed?? also did you set the other ram channels to their proper timings? if so, and you tested with HT after makin' this change, then THAT 'could' be the reason it feels more stable/solid.

[guitardom]

soooooo much for takin' the weekend off bro!!!:p:D great testin' and results steve!!! thanks for takin' the time to do the grind work. i think i can say, all DUC'ers appreciate it and will benefit!!!

so we can say that you and ranallicj are postin' the BIG NUMBERS!!! we can also say that the i7 920 can easily be clocked to meet and exceed the results of the more expensive i7 965. and i'm not knockin' anyone that chooses the 965;) i'm just sayin' $300 vs $900+ is any easy call especially if you KNOW you can clock to get the same kinda result. now we do know that if one OC's the 965 then we are in a whole other stratosphere then!!:eek::eek::D but personally, give me the $300 proc and a bios and lemme work it from there!!! congrats again steve!!!

i know i had good intentions of not tweaking it this weekend, but couldnt help myself! on ranallicj, i am not sure of his sample rate though, that is such a big difference. i remember spending over 600$ a processor and we had to have 2 when i built the opteron system a few years back!!! this 300$ processor is a jem!! i can not imagine using all of this power!!!

feel free to ammend the first page specs however you see fit.

[guitardom]

interestin' observation. so when you say that, is that in regards to how it feels compared to when it is NOT oc'ed??? or does HT feel more stable than non HT when OC'ed?? also did you set the other ram channels to their proper timings? if so, and you tested with HT after makin' this change, then THAT 'could' be the reason it feels more stable/solid.

with multi (hyper) threading on and not oc'd it felt snappy but not quite right, like it could crumble at anytime, though it never did. but after oc'ing multi threading felt great, everything felt smoother and more responsive, but did not feel unstable. i have a tracking session tonight (as long as the snow stops soon....) and will track with it on and see how it goes.

for everyone else, me and mykhal spent a few hours on the phone last night after i did my oc settings and he had me trying some more ideas and giving me more info on what i actually did!! so we kinda have our own conversation going....thank you for that by the way:-)

all the ram timings in channels 1-3 in the bios were set. channel 2 is all sitting at auto, but beside auto they say N/A ????? not sure what that means?? i can take them out of auto, but not sure if it will be worth it, but will probably try sometime. i did get the voltages down even more and have the temps down a hair as well. cpu voltage is down well under the 1.3v spec!!! :D:cool::D

[albee1952]

hey albee i would be glad to help you with anything you need and willing to spend a couple hours on the phone or whatever we need to get you going. you are a great asset around here and anything you need should be taken care of.

but 1 issue now is the variable between systems. most of us are going after the same processor, but the ram and motherboard are the 2 biggest variables in the system. the bios in each board will also be laid out differently as well for tweaking in and making sure settings such as voltages and timings are correct. honestly sticking with parts that are tested and people have working and are giving help with i think is the best way to go. let the pioneers like me, sunburst, mykhal, shane, and others waste our time and money on finding parts;) (and OHHHH the time....) we can offer better support that way!
You guys are all amazing and I am humbled to part of the group in any way. I am looking at going with the 920, the Gigabyte mobo and 3x2gig of OCZ RAM but am on hold till a friend buys my spare dual core system. I will take you up on the "lifeline" when the time comes. Is there any logic in spending the extra cash on the Asus mobo when I don't care about HD in the foreseeable future? (Once I can afford HD3, I can afford a new mobo at the same time.) How about Vista vs. XP Pro? I have both but prefer XP(but would suffer with Vista if it meant a performance boost).

[japspecvr6]

Just thought I would post some real world results.:-)

9 hybrid synths
3 extra long dly's
2 structure le
8 versions of Eleven:eek:

46 audio tracks (All with eq, most with compression)
6 Aux tracks
11 Instrument

Buffer of 64
CPU usage @ %70-%75

This system has been running problem free for 20 hours now. Not one crash. Not one hang. The only problems I experience are Pro Tools related (Adding plug ins during playback)

Man I remember I was telling friends that purchased those 8 core macs to HOLD off the is a processor coming called "i7". They didn't listen......Just Impressive.......Can't Wait for the Income Tax return..........This just sold me...plus Windows 7 is shaping pretty well so the 64 bit game shold be up there by time thats ready to roll out.....Oh boy 64 bit Pro Tools.........:rolleyes:

[mykhal c]

with multi (hyper) threading on and not oc'd it felt snappy but not quite right, like it could crumble at anytime, though it never did. but after oc'ing multi threading felt great, everything felt smoother and more responsive, but did not feel unstable. i have a tracking session tonight (as long as the snow stops soon....) and will track with it on and see how it goes.

for everyone else, me and mykhal spent a few hours on the phone last night after i did my oc settings and he had me trying some more ideas and giving me more info on what i actually did!! so we kinda have our own conversation going....thank you for that by the way:-)

all the ram timings in channels 1-3 in the bios were set. channel 2 is all sitting at auto, but beside auto they say N/A ????? not sure what that means?? i can take them out of auto, but not sure if it will be worth it, but will probably try sometime. i did get the voltages down even more and have the temps down a hair as well. cpu voltage is down well under the 1.3v spec!!! :D:cool::D

more than welcome bro!! nice move on gettin' temps and voltages down even more!!!:cool: my concern on the ram timings is that, when you have 'AUTO' settings you can never be sure what the system is doin' under certain conditions. IOW, an 'AUTO' setting may induce some latency on that channel that you are not aware of thus affectin' your performance. it's kinda like your 'PERFORMANCE MODE' setting...you can set it to TURBO, STANDARD, etc and your system will respond to loads in a way that is governed by your choice of mode. so with ram, i'd just want to know that the latency timings are locked in. just sayin'...;)

[guitardom]

You guys are all amazing and I am humbled to part of the group in any way. I am looking at going with the 920, the Gigabyte mobo and 3x2gig of OCZ RAM but am on hold till a friend buys my spare dual core system. I will take you up on the "lifeline" when the time comes. Is there any logic in spending the extra cash on the Asus mobo when I don't care about HD in the foreseeable future? (Once I can afford HD3, I can afford a new mobo at the same time.) How about Vista vs. XP Pro? I have both but prefer XP(but would suffer with Vista if it meant a performance boost).

honestly i think the gigabyte is more than sufficient. there are a few extras on the asus, but i figure by the time i need 32 gb of ram at 2000+, 64 hard drives, and an HD3:rolleyes: i will have moved on to something else or like you said, splurge 300 on a new board, no big deal when the gigabyte is like 185 after rebates right now. though the future of HD is VERY bleak at this point. STAY WITH XP!!! i would also recomend buying a new cpu cooler and not using the one supplied with the processor. keep me posted when your ready

[guitardom]

more than welcome bro!! nice move on gettin' temps and voltages down even more!!!:cool: my concern on the ram timings is that, when you have 'AUTO' settings you can never be sure what the system is doin' under certain conditions. IOW, an 'AUTO' setting may induce some latency on that channel that you are not aware of thus affectin' your performance. it's kinda like your 'PERFORMANCE MODE' setting...you can set it to TURBO, STANDARD, etc and your system will respond to loads in a way that is governed by your choice of mode. so with ram, i'd just wqant to know that the latency timings are locked in. just sayin'...;)

i will check it out in a bit and let you know.

[guitardom]

Man I remember I was telling friends that purchased those 8 core macs to HOLD off the is a processor coming called "i7". They didn't listen......Just Impressive.......Can't Wait for the Income Tax return..........This just sold me...plus Windows 7 is shaping pretty well so the 64 bit game shold be up there by time thats ready to roll out.....Oh boy 64 bit Pro Tools.........:rolleyes:

crazy isnt it???:cool:

but just so you dont get to hopped up, 64 bit will not be ready that fast. there are a few more barriers for them to get through and dont see true 64bit for quite a while. it will be runing in 32 bit emulation for a long time. right now xp is still the way to roll for audio.

[mykhal c]

Man I remember I was telling friends that purchased those 8 core macs to HOLD off the is a processor coming called "i7". They didn't listen......Just Impressive.......Can't Wait for the Income Tax return..........This just sold me...plus Windows 7 is shaping pretty well so the 64 bit game shold be up there by time thats ready to roll out.....Oh boy 64 bit Pro Tools.........:rolleyes:

your friends would NOT EVEN wanna know how much guitardom came outta pocket for his build!!! or should i say DID NOT come outta his pocket!!! :eek::eek: it's f'n RIDICULOUS!!! and well done!!!:D:D

[mykhal c]

You guys are all amazing and I am humbled to part of the group in any way. I am looking at going with the 920, the Gigabyte mobo and 3x2gig of OCZ RAM but am on hold till a friend buys my spare dual core system. I will take you up on the "lifeline" when the time comes. Is there any logic in spending the extra cash on the Asus mobo when I don't care about HD in the foreseeable future? (Once I can afford HD3, I can afford a new mobo at the same time.) How about Vista vs. XP Pro? I have both but prefer XP(but would suffer with Vista if it meant a performance boost).

go with XP HOME. PRO has services runnin' that HOME doesn't. now if you 'need' the extra networkin' and encryption stuff that PRO offers then that's another thing. HOME would be my choice tho.

mobo's bring a lotta things into consideration. what's on the southbridge should be the main thing..ie # of SATA ports, USBs, etc. but my thing is dimm slots. i don't know how big your sessions get but memory will come into play long before 64bit shows itself for PTLE. but i'm gonna let DR. LAB (shane) disclose what's happenin' behind closed and sealed doors!!!!:eek::eek::D ok, i gotta end this post 'cause my finger is gettin' itchy and my brain is losin' control. ok ok...i'll just say...always be forward lookin' with your purchase even if you have no idea what could be around the corner or behind the lab's sealed door!!! gotta go!!!:D:D

[guitardom]

go with XP HOME. PRO has services runnin' that HOME doesn't. now if you 'need' the extra networkin' and encryption stuff that PRO offers then that's another thing. HOME would be my choice tho.

mobo's bring a lotta things into consideration. what's on the southbridge should be the main thing..ie # of SATA ports, USBs, etc. but my thing is dimm slots. i don't know how big your sessions get but memory will come into play long before 64bit shows itself for PTLE. but i'm gonna let DR. LAB (shane) disclose what's happenin' behind closed and sealed doors!!!!:eek::eek::D ok, i gotta end this post 'cause my finger is gettin' itchy and my brain is losin' control. ok ok...i'll just say...always be forward lookin' with your purchase even if you have no idea what could be around the corner or behind the lab's sealed door!!! gotta go!!!:D:D

remember mykhal albee is coming from an x2 system........he is gonna have so much headroom he is not gonna know what to do with a basic i7 like mine, neither one of us are big vi guys and such.......refuse the urge to go plugin crazy albee!!!!!!!!!

[Shan]

-------------------------------
New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 344..........:eek:
1024 HW Buffer / 409
-------------------------------

What a long night of benchmarking and guitardom just set a new milestone with Pro Tools Native. We now have native systems more powerful than TDM cards and we can finally do this at a buffer of 64! :eek:

To put things in perspective, an HD Core card will benchmark 28 Dverbs and an Accel card benchmarks 38 Dverbs (http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9815/accelcard38dverbspi5.jpg) giving HD 7 a total of 256 Dverbs of DSP power. Seeing an i7 Quad do 344 at a buffer of 64 is jaw dropping. :eek: Considering that you can build this for under $1000 and then ponder over the idea that the i7 8-16 cores are around the corner in a few months... :D :D

I officially stamp guitardom's quad with the HDK Quadzilla stamp. :D


we have added a second bottle neck to our list though.....hard drives...UGGHHHNah. Now that you're briefed on the new RamDisk technology that me and mykhal c have been testing in the lab and how it can be used without it being volatile...let's just say, the Hard Disk is dead also. :D

...and we even got Skunk Works plug-ins (http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9418/swtarg9.png) running. What a long day of milestone breakthroughs we had yesterday. :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

let's just say, the Hard Disk is dead also. :D


the DR has spoken!!:D:D

[mykhal c]

i will check it out in a bit and let you know.

also wanted to say good choice on the ram. the fact that you could OC it and not have to change the timings is very impressive!!:cool:

[albee1952]

.......refuse the urge to go plugin crazy albee!!!!!!!!!

Come on guys, why do ya thing Digi gave us 10 inserts? Because we're supposed to FILL 'EM! LOL..... Most of my sessions top out at 30-40 plugins but it sure will be nice to start from a template with all those plugins enabled and ready!

[CrAkD]

its all ordered I got basicly the same system as guitardom but I got the gigabyte board with the 6 dimm slots cause im curious what shane is up to plus i wanna be ready to goto 12gb of ram when 64 bit is ready. I dont plan to upgrade again for a long time.

[Shan]

...im curious what shane is up to plus i wanna be ready to goto 12gb of ram when 64 bit is ready.

Good choice cuz me and mykhal c have removed the hard disk bottle neck. Ram and CPU only...it's a beautiful thing indeed. :D :D

18-24G of ram is what I'm shooting for. :eek:

Shane

[guitardom]

its all ordered I got basicly the same system as guitardom but I got the gigabyte board with the 6 dimm slots cause im curious what shane is up to plus i wanna be ready to goto 12gb of ram when 64 bit is ready. I dont plan to upgrade again for a long time.

just some info for you. all these boards are spec'd to hold 4 GB sticks of ram!!! even the board i have will handle 16 GB of ram. i am not sure if 4 gb ddr 3 sticks are out yet, but the 4gb ddr2 sticks of ram are around a 100$ or less a piece right now, and regardless 4 GB sticks of ddr3 will be here and will be popular and cheap very soon.

what cpu cooler did you get? if get the same one i did just know you have to put the cpu and cooler on before you mount the board....dont make my mistake;)

[CrAkD]

just some info for you. all these boards are spec'd to hold 4 GB sticks of ram!!! even the board i have will handle 16 GB of ram. i am not sure if 4 gb ddr 3 sticks are out yet, but the 4gb ddr2 sticks of ram are around a 100$ or less a piece right now, and regardless 4 GB sticks of ddr3 will be here and will be popular and cheap very soon.

what cpu cooler did you get? if get the same one i did just know you have to put the cpu and cooler on before you mount the board....dont make my mistake;)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057

yeah and I did see you mention that so it is in my mind haha. Yeah I looked up all types of ram and settled on the same ocz platinum you got but @ 1600mhz.

[guitardom]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057

yeah and I did see you mention that so it is in my mind haha. Yeah I looked up all types of ram and settled on the same ocz platinum you got but @ 1600mhz.

everybody wants to be faster to me...:confused::confused::confused:....:D

[CrAkD]

haha ill be happy to match your speeds.

[Shan]

everybody wants to be faster to me...:confused::confused::confused:....:D

Why of course. DDR 3 2000 for me. :eek: :D Plus a 4Ghz OC with 18G of ram. The entire system will run in ram this time around. Gotta break some new ground here and get rid of the final bottlenecks. :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

Why of course. DDR 3 2000 for me. :eek: :D Plus a 4Ghz OC with 18G of ram. The entire system will run in ram this time around. Gotta break some new ground here and get rid of the final bottlenecks. :D

Shane

and there is the new blueprint!!! follow it closely!!! follow it VERY closely!!!:eek::eek::D

[guitardom]

Why of course. DDR 3 2000 for me. :eek: :D Plus a 4Ghz OC with 18G of ram. The entire system will run in ram this time around. Gotta break some new ground here and get rid of the final bottlenecks. :D

Shane

thats ok though, you will have more money in your ram than i had in my entire build:D:D who's laughin now!:cool::D:D:D:D

[guitardom]

Why of course. DDR 3 2000 for me. :eek: :D Plus a 4Ghz OC with 18G of ram. The entire system will run in ram this time around. Gotta break some new ground here and get rid of the final bottlenecks. :D

Shane

as a side note, the biggest problem in the oc'ing on the i7 is the memory multiplier. as you up the bclock it alters your ram speed. then when you get the clock closer to where you want you find you are no where near your ram speed, so you make changes, you alter your memory multiplier and end up above or below your ram target speed, and if you take up the ram speed much you gotta take the voltage up on it.......could lead to a short ram life. proceed with caution!! especially with 18GB!!!!! then you would lose your ram, drives everything since its all in one:D:D

[mykhal c]

as a side note, the biggest problem in the oc'ing on the i7 is the memory multiplier. as you up the bclock it alters your ram speed. then when you get the clock closer to where you want you find you are no where near your ram speed, so you make changes, you alter your memory multiplier and end up above or below your ram target speed, and if you take up the ram speed much you gotta take the voltage up on it.......could lead to a short ram life. proceed with caution!! especially with 18GB!!!!! then you would lose your ram, drives everything since its all in one:D:D

aaaahhhh, but the secret is when you OC by uppin' the BCLK and your ram goes with it...the secret...when you start off with ram clocked that high you can afford to under-clock it to achieve the BCLK. so you could end up with the BCLK wide open but with DDR3 2000 under-clocked to say 1800 (hypothetically) to achieve the desired thru-put!!! and this is somethin' that one 'probably' could not achieve tryin' to OC from DDR3 1600. ain't the lab fun!!!:D:D can't wait to see how we shake all of this out!!!

but i like the idea of loadin' up an entire session in ram and runnin' it from there!!! buffer-size issues?? where???:D:D some fun things are just beginnin' to show themselves!!!:cool:

how's that ram btw!!!???:p:D i'm still trippin' over your results!!!:D

[Keybeeetsss]

"Brilliant"

[Shan]

thats ok though, you will have more money in your ram than i had in my entire build:D:D who's laughin now!:cool::D:D:D:D

But I'll have half my days work done and taking an early lunch break while you're still waiting for Pro Tools to fire up from hard disk. :D :D :D

Shane

[Shan]

and there is the new blueprint!!! follow it closely!!! follow it VERY closely!!!:eek::eek::D

Ya...and I'm the usual guinea pig for this new blueprint of course. :D :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

the DR has unsealed the doors!!! :eek::eek: what's in the test tube tonite doc???:eek::D

[Shan]

the DR has unsealed the doors!!! :eek::eek: what's in the test tube tonite doc???:eek::D

I just installed Velvet that I purchased back in June yet it remained sealed and shrink wrapped until today. Not enough time in the day sometimes. :eek: I'll be laying low and just working on some music for the next week or so. Sometimes we gotta get out of technology mode and just create with our art for awhile. The reason we all got into Pro Tools to begin with. :cool:

Shane

* I still put the Velvet content on a RamDisk partition for the heck of it though. I couldn't resist at least going that far. :D :D

[guitardom]

aaaahhhh, but the secret is when you OC by uppin' the BCLK and your ram goes with it...the secret...when you start off with ram clocked that high you can afford to under-clock it to achieve the BCLK. so you could end up with the BCLK wide open but with DDR3 2000 under-clocked to say 1800 (hypothetically) to achieve the desired thru-put!!! and this is somethin' that one 'probably' could not achieve tryin' to OC from DDR3 1600. ain't the lab fun!!!:D:D can't wait to see how we shake all of this out!!!

but i like the idea of loadin' up an entire session in ram and runnin' it from there!!! buffer-size issues?? where???:D:D some fun things are just beginnin' to show themselves!!!:cool:

how's that ram btw!!!???:p:D i'm still trippin' over your results!!!:D

i gotcha, you are such a computer geek!!:D ....which has served us all well, thanx!

i changed the ram settings right before i went into a session. tracked at 64 with multi threading on and of course not a lick of problems. after that i had to go right into a mixing session and then went right to bed so did not test. have a few sessions this week so not sure if i will be having much test time, kind of the reason i geeked out this weekend:D but will have some other questions regarding ram settings when i get back into it.

[guitardom]

But I'll have half my days work done and taking an early lunch break while you're still waiting for Pro Tools to fire up from hard disk. :D :D :D

Shane

NICE!!! but you sound like a drama queen!!!;);) will be cool though to see how all this goes!! guess i could start checking it out on my end if time permits??

[guitardom]

well i got a phone call a bit ago from another very...active person around here who has recieved their parts with another brand of motherboard besides gigabyte so will be nice to have some more parts tested out.

[Shan]

NICE!!! but you sound like a drama queen!!!;);) will be cool though to see how all this goes!! guess i could start checking it out on my end if time permits??

So far so good. I'll need more ram to get into the next step though. I also started something new in the lab that relates to it. Some killer stuff I'm excited to share if it works. Stay tuned. :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

kris, did you use 7.4 on your DVERB tests??

[markblasco]

With this motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375)

It only has 4 memory slots, so does the memory work in pairs, or is it a set of 3 plus one additional slot? Is there any real advantage to going with 6 megs in 3 sticks instead of 4 megs in 2 sticks (assuming we are just using XP, which can't use all 6 megs, and aren't going to be doing any fancy ram hard disk magic)?

[guitardom]

With this motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375)

It only has 4 memory slots, so does the memory work in pairs, or is it a set of 3 plus one additional slot? Is there any real advantage to going with 6 megs in 3 sticks instead of 4 megs in 2 sticks (assuming we are just using XP, which can't use all 6 megs, and aren't going to be doing any fancy ram hard disk magic)?

the board will support 16 gb of ram, 4-4gb sticks. you need 3 sticks to run in triple channel where you want to be for max power. whether that is 1 gb sticks or 2gb sticks (or 3-4 gb sticks) of ddr3 is up to you. but it does not work in pairs like all the other systems of the past. but for full potential, 3-2gb sticks is optimal.

the smaller the stick of ram is typically the tighter timings and the lower voltages you will be able to run it at. pay attention to these 2 numbers though, will give you some of the most important info on the ram.

i have 3-2 gb sticks of ddr3 so have full triple channel support. the 4th ram slot (dimm_3 on the motherboard) is the extra which is not gonna benefit us really running a standard system at 32 bit. you will want your ram rated at 1333, 1666 or 2000. the ocz i am using is getting impressive results and everybody is amazed at the oc ability with it at the tighter timings and is in the voltage spec we need.

[kirkgale]

So happy to find/read this thread after finding nothing on the HD/windows thread about i7 builders (notice even the HD/tdm people are sneaking in here from the i7 loneliness over there).

I'm happily returning to my PC roots to escape the "first generation G5-/-do I really have to cross-grade to those damn expensive pci-e cards, just to stop using Logic for midi scoring/composing" dilemma.

But cause I'm stuck w/ HD3 accel pci cards, the *only* usable i7-ready mobo is the Supermicro X8SAX http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/X58/X8SAX.cfm

1. any thoughts on this...?

2. re Shane's ramdisk pioneering, I was planning to go the more expensive/lazier route by buying that Intel 160 giga SSD. Will it have the same result conceptually...? i.e., on the current setup I can't play Ivory RTAS for enjoyment due to the lag but rather only for the final reduction of the recorded midi track to audio...so hoping with the SSD/i7 combo to be able to just play my freaking piano.

thx for any thoughts...

[guitardom]

So happy to find/read this thread after finding nothing on the HD/windows thread about i7 builders (notice even the HD/tdm people are sneaking in here from the i7 loneliness over there).

I'm happily returning to my PC roots to escape the "first generation G5-/-do I really have to cross-grade to those damn expensive pci-e cards, just to stop using Logic for midi scoring/composing" dilemma.

But cause I'm stuck w/ HD3 accel pci cards, the *only* usable i7-ready mobo is the Supermicro X8SAX http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/X58/X8SAX.cfm

1. any thoughts on this...?

2. re Shane's ramdisk pioneering, I was planning to go the more expensive/lazier route by buying that Intel 160 giga SSD. Will it have the same result conceptually...? i.e., on the current setup I can't play Ivory RTAS for enjoyment due to the lag but rather only for the final reduction of the recorded midi track to audio...so hoping with the SSD/i7 combo to be able to just play my freaking piano.

thx for any thoughts...

its always us le guys doing the experimenting cause we are not tied down with outdated hardware........well kind of anyway:D

the board......not sure what to say, only a couple boards are verified working, this is quite new and i am about the only serious user and builder that is active in here though i know of another coming very soon... looking at the specs it looks good except the ram is limiited to 1.5 volts and only ddr3 800-1066-1333. these are not huge issues but have to keep this in mind when ordering other parts. (go with the 1333, and keep voltage as low as possible)

the ssd's are not quite ready for audio. from my understanding is that the read and write time is not up to par yet except for maybe the exteme high end ones, and there is still the heat issue i am not sure about.maybe once you have this going it might be time to give ivory a shot on a hopped up system like this. it can make a world of difference!!!

[Kris75]

kris, did you use 7.4 on your DVERB tests??

Mykhal, I used PT 8 with the Dverb from 7.4.

I am getting ready to go into OC land, but am a little nervous about it. I don't really need the power, but it's tempting just knowing its there:D

Sorry I have not been that active here as of late, but dam, I am workin my a** off right now. PT8 is as stable as PT8 can be on my i7. EXTREMELY STABLE:-)

[Shan]

2. re Shane's ramdisk pioneering, I was planning to go the more expensive/lazier route by buying that Intel 160 giga SSD. Will it have the same result conceptually...? i.e., on the current setup I can't play Ivory RTAS for enjoyment due to the lag but rather only for the final reduction of the recorded midi track to audio...so hoping with the SSD/i7 combo to be able to just play my freaking piano.

thx for any thoughts...

RAM Drive technology has come along way. Today's RAM disks have overcome any phobias about it being volatile. The RAM disks of today can mirror your physical HD partition. If any write requests are needed, the write request will also be performed on the HD since it's being mirrored. If the power goes out or if there's a system crash etc, all write requests performed up to that point are preserved on the mirrored HD hence the volatile issue is no more. This is also completely configurable from a one to one mirror of any write requests needed, to a timed write request period, for example, do all write requests to the mirrored hard drive every 5 minutes(or whatever time period you define), to a 100% volatile Ram disk.

Since streaming samples require no writing to disk, sample based VI's get some pretty big gains by existing 100% in a RAM disk. Other Pro Tools functions would benefit from the different types of mirroring described above.

What about latency issues? What latency issues?...the streaming sample source exists in RAM. :D Anther big plus is being able to use your RAM out side the 3.5G-4G quirky limit on 32 bit Operating Systems. :cool:

A few RamDisk solutions I've tried so far:

Gavotte RamDisk (http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/free-ramdisk-for-windows-vista-xp-2000-and-2003-server/) - A great free solution, but so far, I could only make it operate as a Transfer volume in Pro Tools Workspace therefore it functions best for VI's and video. It also has disk image backup and restore functions.

SuperSpeed RamDisk Plus (http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php) - Can be used as a Transfer, Playback or Record volume in PT Workspace. Has multiple disk support and disk image backup/restore functions. It can utilize the Ram outside the 4G limit in a 32-bit OS with some tweaks. $50 direct from their site with a 15 day trial.

SuperSpeed SuperVolume (http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supervolume.php) - My favorite and the most powerful one I've tried so far. It mirrors the HD or HD partitions and can use a write-through mode sending write requests to the RamDisk and the Hard Disk thus eliminating data loss during a crash or power outage etc. It's a no brainer to use and set up. If SuperVolume is left enabled on a mirrored HD during shut down, the RamDisk volume will be created and loaded up again during power up. This can also access Ram outside the 4G limit in a 32-bit OS with some tweaks. $90 from their site with a 15 day trial.

There are a few others out there that I'll be trying out soon.

For SSD's, the speeds are sufficient for reading and writing, but you'll be paying for it big time at this point. Read times are definitely faster (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf_QS3mZsyU&feature=related), but notice they don't benchmark write requests. :D Give the SSD technology another 6-18 months. In theory, these should make excellent mirrored drives for RAM drives. One thing to consider though, the SATA, PCI, PCIe, Firewire, USB busses etc will never be as fast as your internal RAM. Now that RAM is extremely cheap and we don't need Server boards in order to have gigs of it, RAM drives can finally be used and taken advantage of for DAW usage. Lots of new bleeding edge stuff for us to explore. :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

Mykhal, I used PT 8 with the Dverb from 7.4.

I am getting ready to go into OC land, but am a little nervous about it. I don't really need the power, but it's tempting just knowing its there:D

Sorry I have not been that active here as of late, but dam, I am workin my a** off right now. PT8 is as stable as PT8 can be on my i7. EXTREMELY STABLE:-)

excellent kris and thanks;) embrace the OC...embrace the OC!!!!:D seriously tho, you'll be glad you did. usin' some of the extra power that's there will make your sessions feel and be that much more solid, snappier!!! guitardom is a witness now!!!:eek::D

[CrAkD]

hey guys im up and running! just partitioned the drives trying to figure out how to set my ram to the right speeds. when I change the multiplier to 12 to get to 1600 cpuz still says 1033.

[Bob Olhsson]

There's stuff around five years out that will eliminate the line between memory and storage. It will be the end of mechanical drives and disk-based computing as we know it. I'm sure this is a lot of why storage and memory are so cheap today.

[Kris75]

hey guys im up and running! just partitioned the drives trying to figure out how to set my ram to the right speeds. when I change the multiplier to 12 to get to 1600 cpuz still says 1033.

Are you running the ASUS board? If so you may be the pioneer.

I'm not in front of my board but on the gigabyte board one value says 1066 but when I change the multiplier the right hand side one goes to 1333 so i think what you are experiencing is normal. I gained a huge increase in performance by changing the multiplier in the way you describe.

[guitardom]

hey guys im up and running! just partitioned the drives trying to figure out how to set my ram to the right speeds. when I change the multiplier to 12 to get to 1600 cpuz still says 1033.


hey man, i suppose you are sure your ram is 1600 ddr3?? how many sticks?? did you verify by the manual you have it in the right slots?? in the gibabyte the order is 1-2-3-4 not sure which board you have. you are changing the ram multiplier and not the bclock multiplier which will change your ram speed as well??? your multiplier should not have to be on 12 to get 1600 if your ram is correct i dont think. but cpu z will not outright tell you your ram without doing some math. i think you can take your NB Frequency from cpu z and % it by 2 and it will give you the speed your ram is at on this machine. or find another app if you dont trust it. maybe pc wizard which you get from the same place as cpuz

[CrAkD]

im using a gigabyte board but the one with the 6 dimm slots. I think I got it. cpuz is showing 800mhz now which 2x is 1600. i set the timings to what the ram is rated at too 7-7-7-24. I did change it from the multiplier tho....is there another way to change the ram speed?

[mykhal c]

im using a gigabyte board but the one with the 6 dimm slots. I think I got it. cpuz is showing 800mhz now which 2x is 1600. i set the timings to what the ram is rated at too 7-7-7-24. I did change it from the multiplier tho....is there another way to change the ram speed?

:cool:change/set your timings for all 3 channels if you haven't already;)

[guitardom]

im using a gigabyte board but the one with the 6 dimm slots. I think I got it. cpuz is showing 800mhz now which 2x is 1600. i set the timings to what the ram is rated at too 7-7-7-24. I did change it from the multiplier tho....is there another way to change the ram speed?

not technically but if you start oc'ing and messing with bclock multipliers and such it will mess with your ram multiplier and clocking as well, so just pay attention if you do.

[CrAkD]

:cool:change/set your timings for all 3 channels if you haven't already;)
yessir I did.

[CrAkD]

not technically but if you start oc'ing and messing with bclock multipliers and such it will mess with your ram multiplier and clocking as well, so just pay attention if you do.
yept I just want to have the ram running at its rated speed for my first batch of dverb tests so I have a starting point. then the overclocking begins. :) I cant wait.

[mykhal c]

shane passed this article to me... http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/ultimate_core_i7_overclocking_guide_we_push_nehale m_its_limits?page=0%2C0 excellent read!!! here is the key quote IMHO...
One thing to remember as you fumble around the BIOS is that the uncore must run at twice the speed of the system RAM. Here’s where it gets a little confusing. The speed of the uncore is determined by multiplying the uncore multiplier by the base clock. On a Core i7-920 chip, for example, the uncore defaults to 16. The uncore thus is 16 times 133 for a total uncore speed of 2,133MHz or 2.1GHz.

so for those OC'g, pay close attention to that.;) i'll post the link on page one also:cool:

just to add... NO MATTER what i post, it is ALWAYS up to YOU to ensure ALL VOLTAGES and TEMPS are within the specs and SAFE!!! just sayin'!!!!;)

[Shan]

A few Hard Disk vs RAM Disk results (http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7839/hdvsrdbenchmarksel9.gif) in regards to read/write speeds on my Quad. The HD...ummm...pretty bad... :D :D :D

Shane

[mykhal c]

A few Hard Disk vs RAM Disk results (http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7839/hdvsrdbenchmarksel9.gif) in regards to read/write speeds on my Quad. The HD...ummm...pretty bad... :D :D :D

Shane

DR LAB!!! WTF!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::ee k::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::ee k::eek::eek: you have presented a whole NEW ball game bro!!! RIDICULOUS!!!!!! fill up those ram slots people!!!! yep, even with ole 32bit XP!!! great work doc!!!!!!:D:cool:

[Shan]

DR LAB!!! WTF!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::ee k::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::ee k::eek::eek: you have presented a whole NEW ball game bro!!! RIDICULOUS!!!!!! fill up those ram slots people!!!! yep, even with ole 32bit XP!!! great work doc!!!!!!:D:cool:

Disk latency? What's that? :D Oh...it's that stuff from the "olden days" that you guys still have to deal with using those old spinning antique hard drives from the 20th Century. :rolleyes: I was reading about those the other day in Computer History Class. Man, I feel sorry for those guys. :D :D :D

Shane

[weezul]

such exciting stuff... until the power cuts and you lose it all :P

[The Weed]

IIRC Shane mentioned you can mirror the RamDisk to a regular hard drive 100%. Then again, power failures are what UPS units are for.

Cheers,

[mykhal c]

A few Hard Disk vs RAM Disk results (http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7839/hdvsrdbenchmarksel9.gif) in regards to read/write speeds on my Quad. The HD...ummm...pretty bad... :D :D :D

Shane

just to add to Shane's post...the reason why this is such a great post is that 'SuperVolume' allows one to access ram 'ABOVE' the 4gb limit incurred with usin' an XP/VISTA 32bit OS!!! so one could set up things where ALL the ram above 4gb is set aside for the SuperVolume disk and your session could be loaded up and run from there. Shane's got other things that i'm sure he'll share as he unseals the doors on the lab but it REALLY is a NEW way to approach latency free sessions!!! free yourself from the hdd's and you free yourself from the dreaded 9xxx errors related to disk/buffer performance!!! just sayin'...;)

[markblasco]

OK, with the board that has 4 ram slots, if we are using 3 of them for the triple channel memory, and we were to have 6 gigs of memory in there total, would it take that additional 2 gigs that XP can't use, divide it up among the three chips, and make a drive from that, or would we need to get a fourth ram chip, and use that as the virtual drive?

[Keybeeetsss]

GREAT STUFF guys; wish I could understand it fully but I guess once I read it a few 13 more times I'll get it:D

[mykhal c]

OK, with the board that has 4 ram slots, if we are using 3 of them for the triple channel memory, and we were to have 6 gigs of memory in there total, would it take that additional 2 gigs that XP can't use, divide it up among the three chips, and make a drive from that, or would we need to get a fourth ram chip, and use that as the virtual drive?

my approach would be to load up 3 channels with 2gb sticks to stay in triple channel mode or in the case of 6 dimm slots, load those up with 2gb sticks. an odd numbered slot config will put you in-between dual and triple channel mode...better than dual channel thru-put but less triple channel. then i would make the registry entry to point SuperVolume to use 'only' the ram 'above' the 4gb limit. now, the registry entry is not required. but if it is not created then SuperVolume will pull from all available pools...below the line and the above line. so again, my approach would be to point it above the line since we are already lookin' for ways for XP to use as much as possible within the limits it has. my 2cents;)

[Shan]

such exciting stuff... until the power cuts and you lose it all :P

Looks like you missed my earlier post. (http://duc.digidesign.com/showpost.php?p=1351558&postcount=175) :p

The power can go all it wants...you wont lose a thing cuz it's mirrored with your HD. Enjoy your Hard Disk latency and disk/buffer performance struggles. :p :D :D :D

All joking banter aside, this technology has truly come a long way from the MS-DOS/AmigaOS days.

Shane

[mykhal c]

again to add...as more i7 builds go online the more the hdd's will show themselves as the bottleneck. my advice on hdds, if you are gonna go i7 and stay with hdd technology then pair it up with hdds that have 32mb caches. the thru-put on the i7 between memory and cpu is off the charts. so help your hdd out by goin' 32mb cache;)

[CrAkD]

im on my other computer my i7 is doing the dverb test behind me as we speak lol. this is torture listening to this tone for 5 minutes over and over again haha. cant even lower it cause listening to it is part of the test!

[JustinTapp]

Hey guys . . . I have an interesting issue . . .

I'm on an i7 2.6 (no OC)
PT6 Deluxe
6GB Corsair Dom
WinXp
Pro Tools 8

When I load pro tools . . . I immediately take a 39% RTAS CPU hit (according to the system performance window), without even loading a session. This is at a buffer setting of 64 (though the issue scales forward and back with every buffer setting). This is considerably more CPU than even one of my fully loaded sessions typically pulls with this i7 rig. This happened once before an I fixed it by trashing my DAE prefs . . . but that hasn't worked this time. Can any of you help me suss out what could be happening. It is frustrating to build this very fast machine . . . and then watch an inordinate amount of my CPU power taken away . . .

Thanks in advance everyone . .

EDIT: This doesn't seem to have anything to do with graphics, because the same anomalous CPU draw occurs no matter what size my Mix/Edit windows are . . . but, for the record, my video card is a NVidia GeForce 9800 GTX (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0x16.



Justin

[Shan]

Hey guys . . . I have an interesting issue . . .

I'm on an i7 2.6 (no OC)
PT6 Deluxe
6GB Corsair Dom
WinXp
Pro Tools 8

When I load pro tools . . . I immediately take a 39% RTAS CPU hit (according to the system performance window), without even loading a session. This is at a buffer setting of 64 (though the issue scales forward and back with every buffer setting)...

This is normal (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=222671). It is a "dummy load" that keeps the cores active for PT. It doesn't get "added" to any RTAS instances. If you add some RTAS Dverbs, you will see the "dummy load" actually go down until it reaches a threshold and moves back up as more RTAS plug-ins get inserted.

Shane

[JustinTapp]

I'm not so sure I'm getting the CPU power back . . . I was working in a session last night, checking the cpu load rather frequently and it was not doing this . . . (idle was at 8% with the buffer at 64). The session only taxed the RTAS/cpu to 20% at 64. Next day, open same session, begin work. All of a sudden I'm at 67% at 64 . . . and at complete idle (no session loaded) 36%. This is the same session exatcly as before. Something seems to be amiss. Is there a way to "reset" pt8 with uninstalling/reinstalling?

I really do appreciate your help with this . . .

Thanks,

Justin

[Shan]

You might have this related problem then. (http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=236239) If you're getting this and others arent, then I would start comparing components and drivers with the other i7 builds to pinpoint the source.

Shane

[guitardom]

I'm not so sure I'm getting the CPU power back . . . I was working in a session last night, checking the cpu load rather frequently and it was not doing this . . . (idle was at 8% with the buffer at 64). The session only taxed the RTAS/cpu to 20% at 64. Next day, open same session, begin work. All of a sudden I'm at 67% at 64 . . . and at complete idle (no session loaded) 36%. This is the same session exatcly as before. Something seems to be amiss. Is there a way to "reset" pt8 with uninstalling/reinstalling?

I really do appreciate your help with this . . .

Thanks,


as shan stated, this sounds driver/software related. after the os you should have installed the intel chipset drivers, video card drivers, and MAYBE your lan and audio drivers. then pro tools.

is it connected to the net? do you have antivirus and spyware apps running?

i would start here.

[Jenk2k]

Shane,

Other than your signature, cna you post your configuration so I can just basically copy it? hehehe

[mykhal c]

Shane,

Other than your signature, cna you post your configuration so I can just basically copy it? hehehe

page 1 of this thread has specs. it's in my 1st post:rolleyes:;)

[CrAkD]

ok first test finished. New DVerb @ 1024 280 dverbs. it runs rock solid but once the cpu meter hits 90% it cuts off 2 seconds into the recording. delete enough dverbs to get to 89% records all the way thru. this is all stock settings. turbo and hyperthreading ON. I havent really tweaked windows at all other then classic view and stuff anything im missing on setting up windows? im gonna change around some of the settings and see if i can up at all. cause 280 is a tad low for 1024.

[Shan]

ok first test finished. New DVerb @ 1024 280 dverbs. it runs rock solid but once the cpu meter hits 90% it cuts off 2 seconds into the recording. delete enough dverbs to get to 89% records all the way thru. this is all stock settings. turbo and hyperthreading ON. I havent really tweaked windows at all other then classic view and stuff anything im missing on setting up windows? im gonna change around some of the settings and see if i can up at all. cause 280 is a tad low for 1024.

Somethings not right here at all. I get 273 @ 1024 on my Q6600 with stock settings and no tweaks using the old Dverb though.

Shane

[erthquake]

ok first test finished. New DVerb @ 1024 280 dverbs. it runs rock solid but once the cpu meter hits 90% it cuts off 2 seconds into the recording. delete enough dverbs to get to 89% records all the way thru. this is all stock settings. turbo and hyperthreading ON. I havent really tweaked windows at all other then classic view and stuff anything im missing on setting up windows? im gonna change around some of the settings and see if i can up at all. cause 280 is a tad low for 1024.


Are you using the new Dverb that came with 8.0, or the old Dverb (from 7.4 and earlier)?

[Shan]

Shane,

Other than your signature, cna you post your configuration so I can just basically copy it? hehehe

I'm still currently running my Q6600 Quad. The Original Opteron Quad that served me well for 2.5 years got retired awhile back. :cool:

I have no i7 spec built yet. I'm letting you guys be the guinea pigs this round. I'll watch, take notes, help out when I can...then build. :D Having said that, an i7 Xeon X5560 8 core rig with 24G of DDR3-1333 RAM looks tempting...but I'd be the guinea pig for that one. :eek: :D :D



Shane

[CrAkD]

Are you using the new Dverb that came with 8.0, or the old Dverb (from 7.4 and earlier)?

the New dverb from 8.0

[Shan]

the New dverb from 8.0

Another thing to make mention of, dont use inserts 5-10 when doing the Dverb benchmark. You'll end up taking a performance hit and it will be inconsistent with past results.

Shane

[erthquake]

the New dverb from 8.0

Ah. Then based on what I've seen on this thread, 280 seems about right for no tweaking. The new Dverb added some chorus to the algo which makes it more taxing than the pre-8.0 version. Any chance you can throw the old Dverb in and retest?

[erthquake]

Another thing to make mention of, dont use inserts 5-10 when doing the Dverb benchmark. You'll end up taking a performance hit and it will be inconsistent with past results.

Shane


yeah, what he said.

[CrAkD]

i havent upgraded the mobo bios yet I think its on f2 think this would matter? also I dont have a floppy drive in it is there another way to update the bios?

[CrAkD]

yeah Ive been following this thread so I saw that kris mentioned that and didnt use those inserts.

[CrAkD]

nevermind I updated the Bios im at f5 now and still same thing.

[CrAkD]

K everybody here is the results from my first overclocking session last night. the tweaking is all under spec, nothing outlandish and honestly i still have more headroom, but feel comfortable between voltages and temperature. simply stated.....i for the next few days am the Dverb champ!!!!:D regardless we can see the power of these machines now and the potential they give us...

24 bit 48k / cpu usage max available / DAE settings stock / RTAS Erors UNCHECKED / start with 48 tracks, all record enabled, then aux's using only first 5 insert points A-E / recording 5 min min. / all tests have been performed multiple times to check for consistency. / pro tools 8.0 / xp sp3

New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF

64 HW Buffer / 238
1024 HW Buffer / 312
-------------------------------
New Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 344..........:eek:
1024 HW Buffer / 409
-------------------------------

now for a comparison of our past machines

Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading OFF

64 HW Buffer / 429
1024 HW Buffer / 543

NOW FOR THE KICKER...................................

Old Dverb with multi (hyper) threading ON

64 HW Buffer / 543
1024 HW Buffer / 628
------------------------------------

tried a couple at 44.1k and could get WAY more than this!!

we have added a second bottle neck to our list though.....hard drives...UGGHHH

after oc'ing multi threading seems more stable for some reason. noticably punchier and faster response time. though all but the 8 core selection is greyed out.

it was a long night last night, the results are amazing though ehh??:D:D

hey man your only new dverb test is overclocked right? cause if you got 312 @ 1024 overclocked with hyperthreading off. then I think my 280 stock with hyperthreading on isnt all that bad.

[Shan]

hey man your only new dverb test is overclocked right? cause if you got 312 @ 1024 overclocked with hyperthreading off. then I think my 280 stock with hyperthreading on isnt all that bad.

Ya, the one in that chart was OC'd and should be labeled as such with the OC CPU value.

Shane

[CrAkD]

if someone can send me the old dverb ill do that one I dont want to search for my 7.4 disk and install it just to get the dverb.

[guitardom]

Ya, the one in that chart was OC'd and should be labeled as such with the OC CPU value.

Shane

it is labeled on the first page with all the results. and actually just to add to it, that was with the ram running at dual channel not triple so put that in your pipe and smoke it!!:D:eek: i get about the same results with the ram at triple channel and oc'd at 3.4 but i have to up the voltages and with that comes my temps.

there are some temp issues i am getting afraid to pass, these things run hot. the cpu spec says it will be fine, but when my cpu is running at 60 degrees celcius i tend to get a bit nervous, not so rich i want to buy another one for this machine! i re setup all my case fans again, moved some stuff around so the hard drives and such are not really an issue, but it is just crazy hot!

[guitardom]

ok first test finished. New DVerb @ 1024 280 dverbs. it runs rock solid but once the cpu meter hits 90% it cuts off 2 seconds into the recording. delete enough dverbs to get to 89% records all the way thru. this is all stock settings. turbo and hyperthreading ON. I havent really tweaked windows at all other then classic view and stuff anything im missing on setting up windows? im gonna change around some of the settings and see if i can up at all. cause 280 is a tad low for 1024.

but if you shut multi threading off, the machine should still be stable and operating and 97-98% cpu. it is crazy watching it and it will just chug along!! with it on, pro tools only gives you a max of 90% cpu usage but with it off you get the 95% option. though i have gotten 95% cpu usage when set to 90% if you are setup and tweaked nicely.

your 280 at 1024 with 8 and dverb 2 might be a bit low, but not all that sure. i was amazed how many less i get with dverb 2.

just to clear everything up and to help a fellow duc'er who has yet to post here, i am gonna set my bios back to stock and do it again. we want to check out different motherboards but same cpu, ram and such. wll be done this weekend and will have mykhal (PLEASE) re-layout my post with some kind of fool proof way for others to match their numbers to.

[guitardom]

Shane,

Other than your signature, cna you post your configuration so I can just basically copy it? hehehe

mykhal started this thread cause he knew it was comin!!! and the guy is amazing with computers and has been a great help to me.

as far as posted builds go, they are on the first page as said earlier though me and kris are the only active guys who have it done and tested and know our results and how well the machine is working. there is another serious duc'er who should have his up very soon. though our only difference will be the motherboard. so far my ram has been the ultimate, though some may want to go with 1600 instead of 1333, but 100% sold on how big of a difference till i see it.

[CrAkD]

Haha don't forget me! I'll have all the tests done Sunday then move on to overclocking!

[kbruff]

Thank you guys for this post.

[Shan]

...just to add to it, that was with the ram running at dual channel not triple so put that in your pipe and smoke it!!:D:eek: i get about the same results with the ram at triple channel and oc'd at 3.4 but i have to up the voltages and with that comes my temps.

Killer! Give us a Dverb result(new Dverb algo) using triple channel at 3.6 with a buffer of 64 then. No sense in crippling your system with dual channel. :D :D

Shane

[guitardom]

Killer! Give us a Dverb result(new Dverb algo) using triple channel at 3.6 with a buffer of 64 then. No sense in crippling your system with dual channel. :D :D

Shane

i started to the other night when my temps started going crazy at about 87% cpu usage, all cores passed 60 degrees c and i went into a panic and shut it down. mykhal checked spec on everything and said it should be fine, but that is pretty darn hot. i could drop it to 3.4 and stay right at 60 degrees c at 97-98% cpu usage. at 3.6 my ram has to be a bit overclocked as well so i had to up the voltages on both a bit and i think that is the culprit for all the heat.

[guitardom]

Haha don't forget me! I'll have all the tests done Sunday then move on to overclocking!

i was just saying what machines are done, tested, and running smoothly in day to day operations, and has been participating around here. no one has been forgotten!!

[sunburst79]

:-)Been playing around a bit here but other things are taking a priority. I threw one together and I think I was getting 260 new Dverbs @ 1024at the stock clocks. I think I was getting 175 or so new Dverbs @ 64. (Myhkals may have notes as I've lost mine)

I was really just messing around in the new BIOS:-)

Two things I would like to point out. These seem to run much better with SpeedStep enabled and dynamic overclocking enabled. Digi has always wanted EIST turned off though. I suspect that they tweaked the code a bit when they issued 7.4 because it would suddenly run on Turions. I suspect this is the function of the RTAS idle load (busy work) we sometimes see and and that now PT seems a bit more tolerent of processer speed fluctuations than earlier versions. Keep in mind a change to PTs code that required reverting back to locking in the multiplier could generate a lot of heat and lower the system overhead. It needs to be mentioned. Some one needs to load PT 7.0 - 7.3 on one of these and see if SpeedStep needs to be disabled. Having said that I was impressed with how it was running PT.

These can run HOT at full load, Prescott hot! its rated for 130 watts but with EIST on they obviously run much cooler so we want to run with EISt and overclocking on if we can.

I'm not trying to be negative about Speedstep or temps just want to make folks aware that this stuff is not fully tested yet. I have a lot of hopes for this stuff.

Oh and you still can't run Win7 64 on a Quad with a 002-Even if that Quad is a i7:-)

[CrAkD]

ok here are my official New Dverb stock results.

i7 920, Gigabyte UD4P, 6GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, Cooler Master Hyper N 520, OCZ Stealth 700w PSU, 2x 640gb WD Caviar Black 32mb cache

Hyperthreading ON

1024-283
64-235

Hyperthreading OFF

1024-210
64-177

I would stop the 64 bit test if their were any pops or clicks. I noticed the cpu gos crazy when the playback engine is set to 64. itll say like 77% but wont let you run the test without deleting a bunch of tracks. then finally itll catch up and you can add the tracks back to get to 88% or so and run the test. I want to run the old dverb but im super lazy in uninstalling pt 8 and reinstalling 7 just to get the old dverb file. ill prob do it eventually.

[mykhal c]

ok here are my official New Dverb stock results.

i7 920, Gigabyte UD4P, 6GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, Cooler Master Hyper N 520, OCZ Stealth 700w PSU, 2x 640gb WD Caviar Black 32mb cache

Hyperthreading ON

1024-283
64-235

Hyperthreading OFF

1024-210
64-177

I would stop the 64 bit test if their were any pops or clicks. I noticed the cpu gos crazy when the playback engine is set to 64. itll say like 77% but wont let you run the test without deleting a bunch of tracks. then finally itll catch up and you can add the tracks back to get to 88% or so and run the test. I want to run the old dverb but im super lazy in uninstalling pt 8 and reinstalling 7 just to get the old dverb file. ill prob do it eventually.

thanks for posting and testin'!:cool: you don't have to uninstall 8 to test the old 7.4 dverb. if you want to test, then move the 8.0 dverb to your unused plugins folder and move the 7.4 dverb into the current plugin folder. they have the same names. it's as easy as that...if you want to test it.

once guitardom posts his stock settings with the 8.0 dverb i'll chime in tweakin' the i7 builds a bit more. but your scores do 'seem' a bit low. but then again, i could be gettin' numers confused. mostly i've been trouble-shootin' with guitardom so i could be a bit hazy on the dverb numbers. anyway, CONGRATS on your i7 build!!!:D:D

[CrAkD]

thanks for posting and testin'!:cool: you don't have to uninstall 8 to test the old 7.4 dverb. if you want to test, then move the 8.0 dverb to your unused plugins folder and move the 7.4 dverb into the current plugin folder. they have the same names. it's as easy as that...if you want to test it.

once guitardom posts his stock settings with the 8.0 dverb i'll chime in tweakin' the i7 builds a bit more. but your scores do 'seem' a bit low. but then again, i could be gettin' numers confused. mostly i've been trouble-shootin' with guitardom so i could be a bit hazy on the dverb numbers. anyway, CONGRATS on your i7 build!!!:D:D

but i dont have the 7.4 dverb haha thats my problem. Id have to install 7.4 to get it unless you know where i could dl it.

[guitardom]

hey guys, i restored my bios to factory, tweaked what i had to for ram speed, and shutoff some unecessary devices, just basic stuff, no tweaking. ready for a new dverb test at stock. my os is tweaked though and here in lies my dilema.......

i tweaked i believe the services to much. acronis wont restore on reboot??? i tried turning a bunch of stuff back on, checked my startup as well as services to set all my acronis stuff to start on boot, cannot figure it out. i am missing something?? never pulled this off before.

i installed another os on another partition, tried it again, on reboot it would not work on that partition?? so formated the partition, then imaged to it again from the new partition and no problem. so formated the second os partition. went to restore back to an old one again to test and will not work, same thing?? its a trip, a little to much optimization i guess.

if you have any ideas of things i have to have on or could be missing let me know:D

also::: has anyone done a dverb with 8 cs1???? i am getting all kinds of funky readings at 64, like 8% cpu usage, but in the red and pt will not respond, its fine at 1024?? gotta do some more testing here as well???

i have a session later tonight so will try to get as much figured out as i can and post new dverb numbers.

[CrAkD]

hey guys, i restored my bios to factory, tweaked what i had to for ram speed, and shutoff some unecessary devices, just basic stuff, no tweaking. ready for a new dverb test at stock. my os is tweaked though and here in lies my dilema.......

i tweaked i believe the services to much. acronis wont restore on reboot??? i tried turning a bunch of stuff back on, checked my startup as well as services to set all my acronis stuff to start on boot, cannot figure it out. i am missing something?? never pulled this off before.

i installed another os on another partition, tried it again, on reboot it would not work on that partition?? so formated the partition, then imaged to it again from the new partition and no problem. so formated the second os partition. went to restore back to an old one again to test and will not work, same thing?? its a trip, a little to much optimization i guess.

if you have any ideas of things i have to have on or could be missing let me know:D

also::: has anyone done a dverb with 8 cs1???? i am getting all kinds of funky readings at 64, like 8% cpu usage, but in the red and pt will not respond, its fine at 1024?? gotta do some more testing here as well???

i have a session later tonight so will try to get as much figured out as i can and post new dverb numbers.

I dont have cs1 but yeah 64 was acting bananas esp with hyperthreading off. the cpu meter was bouncing all over the place for like the first 2 minutes after changing too it (i already had the dverbs loaded tho)

[Kris75]

i am getting all kinds of funky readings at 64, like 8% cpu usage, but in the red and pt will not respond, its fine at 1024?? gotta do some more testing here as well???


On these sessions are you using any Verb or eleven? I have noticed this behavior while using TL Space and eleven. If neither of those plugs are installed I can go way higher in CPU usage at a buffer of 64. Still trying to figure out why.

[guitardom]

I dont have cs1 but yeah 64 was acting bananas esp with hyperthreading off. the cpu meter was bouncing all over the place for like the first 2 minutes after changing too it (i already had the dverbs loaded tho)

yea you gotta set your pb engine and stuff then add the dverbs, and clear your prefs and databases and restart your machine between different tests and settings also. also the smaller amount of dverbs you add at a time the better when at higher cpu usage.

[guitardom]

On these sessions are you using any Verb or eleven? I have noticed this behavior while using TL Space and eleven. If neither of those plugs are installed I can go way higher in CPU usage at a buffer of 64. Still trying to figure out why.

hey kris, just while dverb testing. they were not in the plugs folder. will run my first session with cs1 tonight but will be all midi and vi's and samplers. so will be ram testing at least:D

there has been issues in the past like with autotune installed it would kill a couple dverbs when testing as well. found that back on the opteron days of testing.

[guitardom]

I dont have cs1 but yeah 64 was acting bananas esp with hyperthreading off. the cpu meter was bouncing all over the place for like the first 2 minutes after changing too it (i already had the dverbs loaded tho)

also forgot to add, i had to restart 3 times before it seemed to act normal at 64. i never saw this before cs1 so i will be watching closely.....

i will also say in my previous tests, the system seemed more stable with multi threading off?

[CrAkD]

I dunno it seemed more stable with the hyperthreading on for me. I mean right up to 90% it was flawless. It seems im getting interferance at a buffer rating of 64. this have something to do with the on board firewire? Just listening to music on myspace i was geting the interference and I remembered I was getting it only @ 64 doing the dverb tests. I closed pt still set to 64....hmm.

[guitardom]

I dunno it seemed more stable with the hyperthreading on for me. I mean right up to 90% it was flawless. It seems im getting interferance at a buffer rating of 64. this have something to do with the on board firewire? Just listening to music on myspace i was geting the interference and I remembered I was getting it only @ 64 doing the dverb tests. I closed pt still set to 64....hmm.

so your machine is online?? that could be a slight difference between our systems. i have all that kind of stuff including my lan port disabled. i am retesting my rig now at stock bios and such with pt 8 and the new dverb to compare to. my numbers are a bit above yours but not to bad, especially with multi threading off. what board do you have again???

[CrAkD]

nevermind the hum/interference is at every setting now. but when I first started the test it was only on 64. when I was doing the first test all on 1024 I got no hum at all. but from the second I started the dverb test on 64 its been constant.

[CrAkD]

so your machine is online?? that could be a slight difference between our systems. i have all that kind of stuff including my lan port disabled. i am retesting my rig now at stock bios and such with pt 8 and the new dverb to compare to. my numbers are a bit above yours but not to bad, especially with multi threading off. what board do you have again???
gigaybyte ud4p.

[CrAkD]

I just did the old dverb test with hyperthreading on.

1024 - 520
64 - 433

[CrAkD]

I think I found the hum. I was knealing down changing out the firewire cable and heard the exaxt hum thats coming thru my speakers come out of the fan in the PSU. so needless to say its the psu. I switched plugs and got the hum to stop coming from the speakers but I can still hear it coming from the back of the computer so im going to replace it.

[guitardom]

I think I found the hum. I was knealing down changing out the firewire cable and heard the exaxt hum thats coming thru my speakers come out of the fan in the PSU. so needless to say its the psu. I switched plugs and got the hum to stop coming from the speakers but I can still hear it coming from the back of the computer so im going to replace it.

are you sure it is not an alarm, like case open alarm or are fan alarm turned on you dont have plugged in or temp alarm or something??

[CrAkD]

are you sure it is not an alarm, like case open alarm or are fan alarm turned on you dont have plugged in or temp alarm or something??

yeah its def the powersupply. for awhile i wasnt sure cause the computer was acting crazy. like web pages were loading all messed up. the network adapter stopped working I had to reinstall the drivers. then it shut itself down. when i went to restart it. it shut itself off and i could hear a clunking noise from the fan. so looks like it finally crapped out im not gonna try anymore cause I dont wanna damage the mobo cpu or ram. im gonna run to microcenter and grab one tomorrow already have mine on RMA.

[guitardom]

yeah its def the powersupply. for awhile i wasnt sure cause the computer was acting crazy. like web pages were loading all messed up. the network adapter stopped working I had to reinstall the drivers. then it shut itself down. when i went to restart it. it shut itself off and i could hear a clunking noise from the fan. so looks like it finally crapped out im not gonna try anymore cause I dont wanna damage the mobo cpu or ram. im gonna run to microcenter and grab one tomorrow already have mine on RMA.

that sucks!!! hopefully all your parts survived!!!!

[guitardom]

redid my dverb test with stock bios settings but windows os tweaks. used pro tools 8 with the new dverb.

with multi (hyper) threading
64 hw buffer - 266
1024 - 282

w/o multi (hyper) threading
64 hw buffer - 196
1024 - 215

[CrAkD]

When I get my psu I'm gonna retest cause I was unaware I had to trash prefs and restart inbetween tests. Good results ;)

[CrAkD]

ok so I have all kinds of problems. As I posted above my original power supply started a faint hum during a buffer 64 dverb test. it then turned into interferance thru the speakers. then the computer started acting sporatic websites not loading which then turned into the computer randomly shutting down and turning on when the power button was first pushed then shutting down and turning on again. So last night I shut it down and today I went to microcenter and bought a 2nd power supply.

I come home and install the 2nd power supply (PC power and cooling 750 watt). from the second I turn it on it still does the double boot thing where it powers up then all lights go off for a second and powers up again. now normally I would immediately think it was something else with a brand new power supply. but the side case fan didnt turn on when plugged into a certain cable from the power supply so I tried a different cable and the fan turned on so right out of the box this 2nd power supply has a dead cable coming from it. I take it out put it back in the box and go back to microcenter to return it.

This time I decide to try a different brand and pickup a Corsair 750w psu. I install it boots right up no dual boot. But I still notice windows acting funny I figure maybe the voltage drops corrupted to the OS. So I install a fresh version of windows. everything seems to be working fine then I start hearing the same ticking coming from the back of the 3rd psu! Im going bananas here. ive checked the temps and voltages and everything else seems in order......I dont even know what else to check>

[Rodge A]

Reading through this thread, I'm getting very sad/jealous :(

I'm going to have to take on another job or something so that I can get a system like you guys have. If only they were only like 1,000-1,200 dollars haha.

But, the real purpose of my comment is just a question about the motherboards - Do they have to match the processor? Thanks

-Rodge