Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

Hi All,

I am looking at the following.

Motherboard: INTEL S5000XVN

CPU: Initially 1 INTEL QUAD XEON E5420 (will add a second CPU once VISTA is QUALIFIED)

Memory: 2 sticks of Kingston 2G(Single) 667 DDR2 ECC Fully Buffered CL5 (KVR667D2D4F5/2GI)

I use an older Digidesign chassis and I am building this box with the upcoming VISTA qualification in mind. This configuration is pretty much the internals of the new INTEL MAC systems. The board can take up to 32 gig of Ram and 2 cpus etc.

I'll run this on the current XP SP3 and dual boot it with VISTA for later.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Big D

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

Hey Big D. I can't say anything about the motherboard you're considering but I can vouch for the Intel Harpertown processors. I'm running dual Harpertown quads with all eight cores and I can't believe how well it's working (XP Pro SC2, PT 7.3.1sc6). Ironically, the approved Macs seem to be having troubles with these same processors from reports here.

From what little bit I understand, these processors are supposed to handle multicore scheduling better than the previous versions. My experience bears this out. I used Pro Tools for a while without the Windows multicore patch installed and these processors seemed to work perfectly fine, no spiking at all, but I installed the patch anyway and the load seemed to drop slightly on the CPU meter. The CPU is much steadier with these processors than my AMD X2 4400 was.

I haven't done any benchmark testing or anything yet, but if someone could recommend one that would be a meaningful reference for people here, I'll run it.

Good luck with the build.

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

Hi Yambike,

I'd be interested in any update on your PTHD3 (PCIx) Accel system running on the Dell T7400 (i.e., no regrets or other instabilities?)...

since I have the same PT hardware and am trying to escape an old G5 w/out cross-grading, just as you were last July...

Also, am I misreading the Duc build threads...they don't seem to talk much about using dual socket mobos....?

thanks in advance...

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

No regrets at all with this system, especially with the CPU's. It's amazing how I can pile up RTAS plugs and the CPU meter stays so steady. No other computer I've worked on comes close in this respect. I was surprised when I saw that the Harpertown Mac users initially had spiking issues when my unapproved machine (that I took a blind leap on) was working so well.

I wonder if this model is still spec'd with the same CPU. I can only vouch for the Harpertown.

It's been a while since I checked out the build threads. I can't recall whether there was any dual socket boards mentioned.

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

As it turns out, the T7400 is now Digi approved for PTHD 8. My lone wolf status was pulled out from under me ...

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...&categoryid=35

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

I just picked up a T5400 yesterday. I can't wait to get it going with my new HD2.

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

I'm quite close now to giving my builder the go ahead to cobble together (for use w/ an HDAccel 3 -PCI system) an i7 940 running on the Supermicro X8SAX and one of the 3 drives being that Intel Solid State 156 GB (so that Ivory hopefully won't have any more unacceptable latency as it always has running off my G5 firewire drive).


Speak now if you've any wisdom against this (e.g., I'd tried to research the components of your Dell T5400 or 7400 in order for the builder to stuff them into a rack mountable case but he keeps telling me these Dell systems are not squeezable into an ATX form factor...I'm going religious against fanning equipment being outside the enclosed server case I bought).

Kirk

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

I did a web search and found a company that makes a 4 post rack shelf to hold the T5400. My rack has rack rails front and back so I'm going to see if it will fit like that. It was about $150.

Re: Building New System... thoughts on this spec. appreciated?
 

Link to that rack shelf for your Dell please :-) ?