i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[rikttt]

These are the 2 options I'm down to - any thoughts?


Cheers,

Rikttt

Option 1
CORE i7 920 / 2.66GHz / 4.8GT QPI / 8MB CACHE / LGA1366 1
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Motherboard 1
Gigabyte Radeon HD4650, 1G, DDR2, DVI, HDMI 1
Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) 1
620W "Corsair" HX-620 ATX Modular Power Supply, 120mm 1
Antec Nine Hundred -- Ultimate Gaming Cases - Black, NO PSU 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 750GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 500GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 2
LGE GH22-NS30 22 x Dual Layer Black OEM - SATA 1

Option 2
CORE i7 920 / 2.66GHz / 4.8GT QPI / 8MB CACHE / LGA1366 1
P6T Asus P6T Motherboard 1
Asus Radeon 4350, 512MB, DDR2, DVI, HDMI 1
Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) 1
750W "Corsair" TX-750 ATX Power Supply, 140mm fan, Dual 1
Lian Li PC-60F Aluminum Mid Tower Case - Black 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 750GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 500GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 2
LGE GH22-NS30 22 x Dual Layer Black OEM - SATA 1

[mano111]

Originally Posted by rikttt

These are the 2 options I'm down to - any thoughts?


Cheers,

Rikttt

Option 1
CORE i7 920 / 2.66GHz / 4.8GT QPI / 8MB CACHE / LGA1366 1
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Motherboard 1
Gigabyte Radeon HD4650, 1G, DDR2, DVI, HDMI 1
Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) 1
620W "Corsair" HX-620 ATX Modular Power Supply, 120mm 1
Antec Nine Hundred -- Ultimate Gaming Cases - Black, NO PSU 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 750GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 500GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 2
LGE GH22-NS30 22 x Dual Layer Black OEM - SATA 1

Option 2
CORE i7 920 / 2.66GHz / 4.8GT QPI / 8MB CACHE / LGA1366 1
P6T Asus P6T Motherboard 1
Asus Radeon 4350, 512MB, DDR2, DVI, HDMI 1
Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) 1
750W "Corsair" TX-750 ATX Power Supply, 140mm fan, Dual 1
Lian Li PC-60F Aluminum Mid Tower Case - Black 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 750GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 500GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 2
LGE GH22-NS30 22 x Dual Layer Black OEM - SATA 1

Take the setup in option 1. then there are 2 things you can do to make it even better

1. Swap the case for Antec P182.
2. get a 512MB version of the display card.

Also consider a Corsair 520HX would do (with tons of headroom). You don't need the extra 100W in the 620. Put the diffrence in upgrading the 750GB HD to 1TB.

Didnt see any CPU cooler on your list? I recommend you get one (especailly if you plan any OC)

[rikttt]

Thanks dude,

I'll order the Noctua NH-U12P, unless you can recommmend a better one. As far as I can see this fits onto the mobo into a P182 no worries, but my Australian retailer tells me the P182 has been replaced by the P183. Will this be okay?

Apart from $$$, what's the advantage of losing 100W on the PSU and halving the display card memory?

Any preference between these two cards:

Gigabyte GV R467D3-512I Graphics adapter - 512 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Sapphire PCIe 2.0 HD4650 512MB HDMI HM ATI PCIE2.0


Thanks again!

[gvees]

Originally Posted by guitardom

very interesting. all of the previous testing (before rc1) had the opposite effect. but i am still curious about all your xp problems though. really no reason for that. might have to try it sometime. just not enough hours in the day!!!!!!

Yeah, I also think it's strange about XP not running the way it does with some other guys here.. The real thing I had with XP was that I couldn't run heavy loaded sessions at low buffer settings (<512) without continuous H/W buffer errors.. With all setting in PT the same as in XP, and I haven't even optimised Win 7, all of my problems have dissapeared..! I still feel it's strange to run one of my heaviest sessions at a buffer of 64 without a glimpse..

I'm not sure if I want to spend more time (again) trying to get XP Pro to run.. Everything is working as smooth as it can and I don't miss any drivers or such in Win7.. I'm gonna wait untill Win7 is released and buy me an upgrade as soon as I need it (i.e. when this one expires next year). I'm hoping Pro Tools will release a 64 bit version before that time so I can upgrade to 64 bit Win 7 with 64 bit PT..

I know there's a lot going on already with Win7 64 bit, but as I've glanced through that topic it will work okay with an (USB) Mbox, which I have now, but as I'm upgrading to a 002 this week, I think I'll just stick to this version (32bit).. Next step is that I'll send it to Black Lion Audio for one of their Signature mods..

[mano111]

Originally Posted by rikttt

Thanks dude,

I'll order the Noctua NH-U12P, unless you can recommmend a better one. As far as I can see this fits onto the mobo into a P182 no worries, but my Australian retailer tells me the P182 has been replaced by the P183. Will this be okay?

Apart from $$$, what's the advantage of losing 100W on the PSU and halving the display card memory?

Any preference between these two cards:

Gigabyte GV R467D3-512I Graphics adapter - 512 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Sapphire PCIe 2.0 HD4650 512MB HDMI HM ATI PCIE2.0


Thanks again!

I don't think the P182 is discontinued so you can probably still get it, but the P183 is not a bad choice either, airfolw should be better but top fan is said to be slightly louder due to change in design.

Lower W PSU simply means cheaper, yet as effective.

With regards to lower GPU mem, some say it plays better with the way windows and Protools use RAM, but I haven't noticed any diffrence myself.

I have used this model of gigabyte and I know its kinda noizy. If you don't plan any gaming then find a passive card with 512MB of memory or less. However if you do want to game on the same machine then bump it up to 4770.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by rikttt

These are the 2 options I'm down to - any thoughts?


Cheers,

Rikttt

Option 1
CORE i7 920 / 2.66GHz / 4.8GT QPI / 8MB CACHE / LGA1366 1
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Motherboard 1
Gigabyte Radeon HD4650, 1G, DDR2, DVI, HDMI 1
Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) 1
620W "Corsair" HX-620 ATX Modular Power Supply, 120mm 1
Antec Nine Hundred -- Ultimate Gaming Cases - Black, NO PSU 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 750GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 500GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 2
LGE GH22-NS30 22 x Dual Layer Black OEM - SATA 1

Option 2
CORE i7 920 / 2.66GHz / 4.8GT QPI / 8MB CACHE / LGA1366 1
P6T Asus P6T Motherboard 1
Asus Radeon 4350, 512MB, DDR2, DVI, HDMI 1
Kingston 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM (Kit of 3) 1
750W "Corsair" TX-750 ATX Power Supply, 140mm fan, Dual 1
Lian Li PC-60F Aluminum Mid Tower Case - Black 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 750GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 1
CAVIAR BLACK / 500GB / 7200RPM / SATA 3GB / s / 32MB CACHE 2
LGE GH22-NS30 22 x Dual Layer Black OEM - SATA 1

if you can find it for a few bucks more, grab some ddr3 1600

i would keep the 620w psu. the i7 uses quite a bit of power compared to previous builds and if you drop in a couple more hard drives, have 5 flash drives plugged in and pci or 2 in the future you should be safe.

drop to a 512 or even a 256 mb vid card.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by Kirsti

<delurks for first DUC post>

We're looking to buy a PC for our home studio to run ProTools 8 with a 002LE console unit, and have been offered the following specs. Does this look reasonable to people here, given they've quoted us a price of $1950?

Intel i7 920 CPU on Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard with Zalman
CPU cooling solution
3GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (3 x 1GB, triple-channel mode)
250GB Seagate SATA hard drive (OS)
2 x 1TB Seagate SATA hard drive (audio)
22X Lite-On DVD-RW drive with Lightscribe
ATI Radeon 4650 dual-DVI output silent video card
Antec Take 4 4U rackmount case w/ 650 watt power supply
Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse
Microsoft Windows XP Home installed and on CD

Feedback from those who know more than I do would be appreciated. Most of what we'd be recording is a singer-songwriter, so there woudn't be huge mega-track arrangements, though I'm sure we'll have several plug-ins running.

Thanks
<heads back to reading and learning and lurking>

as said, go with the wd cavair black series.

if you dont have one already, track down a cheap ps/2 style keyboard. sometimes when building the machine, the wireless keyboards and even usb keyboards can be a problem. also at least a usb mouse.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by Groovbox303

Hi,
I posted earlier about getting a ready made i7 HP PC earlier here and was told it might be a better idea to build a custom one, so I went to Microcenter and put a list for a possible build, please let me know if it sounds ok for PT 8 /003.

Motherboard: Asus P6t6 Deluxe (i7 processor 920)
Ram: 6 gb (I know XP Pro would max at 4GB so this is a future precaution since maybe sometime next yr Pro tools might go 64 bit as well)

Graphics Card: ATI HD 4670 Card

Hard Drive: Samsung 1 TB HD103UJ Hard Drive,
Another Samsung 500 GB or smaller HD

PC Power and cooling ( 750 W PSU)

OS: Windows XP Pro

All in all this setup is going to cost me around $1200 without tax and they offer 3 yr warranty on their setup for $170 i think. Please let me know if this looks like a fast setup for pro tools 8/ 003 and I believe Asus P6t6 already has firewire installed (please correct me if im wrong) and if for OS i should stick with XP Pro or go for Vista 32 bit? Thanks a lot guys :)

not many here with the samsung drives. so cannot vouch for those. but MAKE SURE the drives are 32 mb of cache, accept no substitutes!

[sunburst79]

OCZ DDR3 1600 on sale at the newegg for 69.00 after rebate for eblast email subscribers. Also free shipping during the memorial day sale.

Just a heads up.

[-Shock-]

Okay ladz I finally made my decision and changed to i7 chip. I ordered my parts today so I guess I'm in the group now

Okay here's the big list:

MoBo: Asus P6T, Intel X58, S1366, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Triple DDR3 2000(OC), SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
CPU: Intel Core i7 920, D0 (SLBEJ) - S1366 (B), Nehalem, 2.66GHz, 8MB Cache
RAM: Corsair 3GB (3x1GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Dominator Memory CL8 (8-8-8--24)
HDD 1: Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* (This deive will be halfed later [500GB-500GB]. 1st part will have the OS and the 2nd part will have my files)
HDD 2: Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATAII 16MB Cache 7200 RPM - OEM (This drive is for only Pro Tools 8 LE)
CPU Cooler: Akasa Nero Intel Socket 1366, 775, 939, AM2, AM2+ Processor Cooler
PSU: 700W TruePower PSU
GPU: evGA Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (2X512MB) GDDR3 KO Edition
Case: Cooler Master Storm Sniper Case ATX Tower with Control Center for Lights & Fans
Drive(s): Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-116D Drive, LG DVD Reader
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit

+

Belkin 3-Port Firewire PCI Card with the Texas Instruments chipset which I removed from my old PC (Do I have to use this to get my Mbox 2 Pro working, because this MoBo's Firewire chipset is VIA.)

I'll be running this PC with an Mbox 2 Pro... Let me know what you guys think about it!

EDIT - Note that I already ordered these parts but I'll be able to change if its really necessairy!