My Pro Tools 8 HD1 system

[GreyboxAudio]

I recently put together an HD1 system and wanted to share my build:

• Intel Core i7 4770 CPU
• Asus H81M-A Motherboard
• 2x 4GB DDR3-1600 Memory
• 512 GB SATA SSD
• 300W PSU
• Lian Li A3-mATX Case (absolute gem! It's compact, has great airflow, is very easy to build in and there's lots of clearance for the long HD cards)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
• Pro Tools HD 8.1.1
• 1x HD Accel Core PCIe
• 2x Digi 96

There were three smaller roadblocks I had to circumvent:

1. Since only NVIDIA GPUs are supported with the older pro tools releases I originally wanted to use an Nvidia NVS 315 for the display output. The NVS 315 was supposed to go into the first PCIe x16 slot and then I would put the Accel Core into a PCIe x1 slot. This caused my system to freeze on boot and I found the solution here https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=307425. Since only the x16 slot is connected to the CPU I had to ditch the Nvidia card and put the Accel Core card in there. This fixed the freeze issue and so far the integrated Intel GPU seems to handle everything just fine
2. Getting installers for HD 8 was a bit of a challenge. You can still download them from here https://secure.digidesign.com/servic...rticleId=43413 but you'll likely get a "500 Internal Server Error" message. The trick is to try different browsers and also incognito tabs and eventually you'll be able to reach the website. To spare someone the trouble here are the direct download links: HD 8.0.3 Full Installer http://akmedia.digidesign.com/suppor...ller_64125.zip HD 8.1.1 Update http://akmedia.digidesign.com/suppor...ater_70924.zip
3. Speaking of updating to to HD 8.1: Avid didn't sign the drivers and this causes issues on Windows 7. Before updating to HD 8.1 you need to copy C:/Program Files x86/Digidesign/Drivers to another location (like your Desktop). After updating to 8.1 copy the folder back to the original location and tell Windows to overwrite the existing files. Next open the Windows device manager, right click on every Digidesign device and manually update the drivers from the folder you saved.

So far everything is running smoothly. The only third party plugins I am using are Waves 9.3. They are easy to install and I can activate them with the second license of my Mercury v15 bundle.

[unkJE]

Good on you - happy Pro Tools!

Here’s the complete list of Pro Tools HD 8 Installers for Mac and Windows:

https://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=2719174&postcount=8


Avid’s Marianna and Tope are working to restore all the plug-in pages.
Once this is done, you’ll be able download any HD8 plug-in installers you may need:

https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=430937

[GreyboxAudio]

I've decided to go all in and have added an Mbox 3 for Headphone/Monitor duties over SPDIF as well as a second HD Accel card. To circumvent the annoying PCIe-Slot issue with Windows 7 I've installed Windows 10 and so far it works pretty great. I can now run both cards through the PCIe x1 slots from the motherboard chipset. Since the 8.1/8.1.1 drivers can't be installed due to missing signatures I am using the 9.0.6 drivers and they work just fine.
An important step with Windows 10 is to exclude the DAE/PlugIns folder from Windows' realtime virus protection. Otherwise Pro Tools will spend an awful lot of time scanning each plugin every single time you start the program. The only downside so far is that Windows 10 is a bit more resource hungry when idle and while 8 GB of memory should still be sufficient with Windows 10 & PT 8 HD I will upgrade to 16 GB mostly for good measure.

[albee1952]

Its cool that you are keeping the old beast alive, but you should be aware that a modern computer running native will very likely give a much higher track(voice) count than HD2(which is why they used to load up external chassis with HD5 and more).

[GreyboxAudio]

I know, I have an M2 mac mini I'm doing this because it's cheap and fun.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by GreyboxAudio

I know, I have an M2 mac mini I'm doing this because it's cheap and fun.

2 great reasons