i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by Skwaidu

Ok, FYI Samsung's RAPID mode is just a RAM cache, basically - so your most often accessed samples are getting cached into system RAM and it feels fast, but for any samples that don't get that treatment (rarely used?) it's just as slow as SATA normally, from what I gather. Many folks swear by PCIe 4 drives for samples (OTOH for audio IMHO even PCIe 3 is fast enough, even for truly massive track counts).

https://www.pugetsystems.com/support...d-use-it-1842/

In other words, it works just like PT's cache. My other sample drive is M.2 PCIe 4. In all, I've never had audio/sample streaming issues. I don't even remember any issues back in the day when WD blacks were the thing for audio and samples.

[LDS]

Originally Posted by Skwaidu

It's not worthwile to Hackintosh IMO, the newest CPU's are not supported by Apple so dunno how much work it would be. I wouldn't do it for a work machine.

I have a Raptor Lake based dual boot hackintosh here. It is easily the best system I have used by a long margin, and it only took about 3 hours from bare parts to full build with Win10 and MacOS Ventura. The tools seem better than ever, really.

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by LDS

I have a Raptor Lake based dual boot hackintosh here. It is easily the best system I have used by a long margin, and it only took about 3 hours from bare parts to full build with Win10 and MacOS Ventura. The tools seem better than ever, really.

That's impressive, I wouldn't dare to do it (and I'm actually super happy not having to use macOS any more). How many OS updates will you get, and what is the OS update process like, though?

[LDS]

Originally Posted by Skwaidu

That's impressive, I wouldn't dare to do it (and I'm actually super happy not having to use macOS any more). How many OS updates will you get, and what is the OS update process like, though?

If you have no need to do it there probably isn't much to gain. I spent more time trying to troubleshoot bluetooth issues in Windows than it took to setup the entire MacOS partition. It probably depends a lot on hardware choice though. Some of the tools have gotten pretty amazing, like single button clicks to generate windows bluetooth keys so that my Apple magic mouse and keyboard seamlessly work across both Windows and MacOS partitions. So far the updates have just been done using the software update tab in MacOS just the same as any other mac computer.

I don't have a crystal ball as far as future updates, etc. That is the main reason I built it! Most of the film/television/radio portions of the industry haven't gotten anywhere near grappling with the Apple Silicon transition yet. It will probably take a few years to pan out. I figure 2-4 years with this machine and the dust will hopefully have started to settle. Where it settles is anyones guess!

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by LDS

If you have no need to do it there probably isn't much to gain. I spent more time trying to troubleshoot bluetooth issues in Windows than it took to setup the entire MacOS partition. It probably depends a lot on hardware choice though. Some of the tools have gotten pretty amazing, like single button clicks to generate windows bluetooth keys so that my Apple magic mouse and keyboard seamlessly work across both Windows and MacOS partitions. So far the updates have just been done using the software update tab in MacOS just the same as any other mac computer.

I don't have a crystal ball as far as future updates, etc. That is the main reason I built it! Most of the film/television/radio portions of the industry haven't gotten anywhere near grappling with the Apple Silicon transition yet. It will probably take a few years to pan out. I figure 2-4 years with this machine and the dust will hopefully have started to settle. Where it settles is anyones guess!

Okay, interesting. Luckily I don't need BT, have USB extenders from my machine room. And agreed on the post industry being still in dissarray re: ASI - I'm also a score mixer myself but I seem to be fine on Win with just running Macdrive here.

BTW you came to mind while I was reading the DAWBench test thread on GS - on the last few pages an user has popped in claiming that they are seeing a massive CPU efficiency increase in both Cubase and Studio One, on a i7-8700K Hackintosh. Have you happened to test PT performance on both OSes? If you had, it would be amazing if you shared the results here or in that thread. Any standard plugin loading test with identical PT settings (and the same audio interface) would suffice for "proof of concept" IMHO, it would be interesting how your results compared to this user (whose first language clearly is not english...)

The thread is here, I'll link to the page with the first post by user "AsiashA" on the matter, a lot of discussions about it on the following 2 pages, also with comments from TAFKAT (one of the DAWBench crew) and Psychlist (Microsoft's audio dev Pete Brown):

https://gearspace.com/board/music-co...hmarks-35.html

[LDS]

Originally Posted by Skwaidu

Okay, interesting. Luckily I don't need BT, have USB extenders from my machine room. And agreed on the post industry being still in dissarray re: ASI - I'm also a score mixer myself but I seem to be fine on Win with just running Macdrive here.

BTW you came to mind while I was reading the DAWBench test thread on GS - on the last few pages an user has popped in claiming that they are seeing a massive CPU efficiency increase in both Cubase and Studio One, on a i7-8700K Hackintosh. Have you happened to test PT performance on both OSes? If you had, it would be amazing if you shared the results here or in that thread. Any standard plugin loading test with identical PT settings (and the same audio interface) would suffice for "proof of concept" IMHO, it would be interesting how your results compared to this user (whose first language clearly is not english...)

The thread is here, I'll link to the page with the first post by user "AsiashA" on the matter, a lot of discussions about it on the following 2 pages, also with comments from TAFKAT (one of the DAWBench crew) and Psychlist (Microsoft's audio dev Pete Brown):

https://gearspace.com/board/music-co...hmarks-35.html

Interesting! I'll run some tests early next week and see how it pans out.

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by LDS

Interesting! I'll run some tests early next week and see how it pans out.

Great, looking forward to any data!

Oh, if you can, super helpful would also be to explore all Playback buffers on both systems (or at least the lowest you can, and a high one). There have been some anecdotes where macOS had somewhat higher plugin counts, but Win exhibited better low latency performance.

[Sugarnutz]

Anyone seen this?

56 core Intel W9 Xeon

Here’s one of the motherboards for it:

ASRock W790

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Sugarnutz

Anyone seen this?

56 core Intel W9 Xeon

Here’s one of the motherboards for it:

ASRock W790

Hmmm, lots of cores but really slow. Then there's the price

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Hmmm, lots of cores but really slow. Then there's the price

This one might be more interesting to most musicmakers

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-2-50-ghz.html

I'm not sure about slow - benchmarks are not yet out but they are Alder Lake cores that boost to up to 4,80 GHz in single core loads (and can be overclocked), so they should be pretty much equal to the M2 processors (or the i5-12600K @4,90 GHz) and above any M1 in single core performance.

Multicore should be pretty spectacular, also with the 4 and 8 channels of DDR5 (benefitting VI users especially), but sure it's a pricier pro-oriented platform. Still the CPUs Apple *should* use in a Mac Pro.