Buying a finished custom built system, first OSx86 build, are my parts compatible? Dreaming of a Solid ProTools Rig

[thebrownlion]

Hey all,

I'm new to the OSx86 community. I'm a recording engineer and I'm looking to get a solid OSX rig to run ProTools on and eventually upgrade to a HD system with some PCI Cards. I have a good amount of experience working and troubleshooting computers, even built a few windows systems myself. I found a custom built server a friend was running linux on and I was wondering if I could buy it and turn it into a solid OSx86 system. Here are the parts....

 

 

1 x XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case

1 x GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 x Rosewill RP550-2 550W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply

1 x Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601920

1 x OCZ ReaperX HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3RPX1333EB4GK

1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

1 x LITE-ON 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS322-08

1 x PowerColor AX3870 512MD3-PH Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

 

For ProTools compatibility I NEED to run the latest Version of SNOW LEOPARD 10.6.8

 

is $400 a fair price for the system as of April 2012 ?

 

From the forum lurking I've done, I think the CPU and the motherboard will work, and I know I have the ability to upgrade CPU in the future due to the motherboard. I'm questionable about the graphics card, I'm thinking about upgrading it and getting some more ram.

 

I'm not using this computer for gaming, so I don't need any real graphics power, my goal is shear CPU processing power for an AVID ProTools Native system. I know a lot of audio enthusiasts out their crave an OSX system an the $2k+ entry price of Mac Pro is money you'd rather spend on speakers or mics,

 

Thanks for the help, I'll post updates of the processes as I go to those who are interested.

[rlf]

Here's a method to get 10.6.2 on the machine. From there it is a matter of updating OSX.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=200183

[rockinron_1]

Quick note on the gfx card. I have a HD3850 (should be pretty similar to the HD3870) which i tested in a hackinstosh, it didn't work out of the box. I'd imagine theres a way to get it going though (I didn't try since I had a HD5770 which works perfect - I was just curious to see if it worked).

I *think* anything ati HD5xxx or higher should work straight away if you decide upgrade with the exception of the odd problematic model.

 

As for installation of SL I've only experience with Lion so can't help you there...

[thebrownlion]

Well the system is up and running and I had some great success. I couldn't find any way to get the ATI HD 3870 running, so I upgraded to An ATI HD 5450 1Gig, and it worked right off the bat with no boot flags. ProTools Installed and runs great, Had some issues with logic, but I'm not too concerned about that.

 

I ended up just using tonymac's most current guide and I had no problems.

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/######-######-install-mac-os-x-on.html

 

I found the graphics kext driver for the ATI HD5450 here:

 

And a killer overclocking guide here, Got mine up to 3.26 stable. Gonna upgrade the Ram and the Heatsync to get it faster:

 

The only problem I had was how to get the onboard audio to work... seeing as I'm using an AVID I/O interface, I don't really need the onboard audio, but it's nice to have for system sounds that I don't want to run through ProTools

 

 

Does anyone know a good current working kext for realtek alc888 in the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R board working in 10.6.8? I've been scouring the internet to no avail....

 

 

Thanks again for all the help!

[rlf]

Did you try this one: http://www.osx86.net/view/2634-patch_alc888_full_no_dsdt.html

 

Back up your original kexts.