dreadlocks Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 All of my network workstations are now Macs or Hacks, and I have a handfull em and almost a handfull of users.. I tried to turn an old P4 into a OSX Server and its performance has been lackluster at best and its not horribly stable due to how unsupported the machine is. After many frustrations I really considered just getting a Mac Mini w/Snow Leopard Server, however I am not impressed at all with the specs so I started looking at putting together a Hackintosh for about the same price. Ive got an HDMI going from the living room to my rack cabinets in basement, soon I intend on ditching my paid tv service and there DVR and replacing it with OTA HD, a local cache of media and internet videos.. I also do a bit of video work in FCP and would love to use its network rendering on this server so I can continue to use my workstation(s) when an encoding job has to be done. I intend on running a Vanilla install/kernel with the fewest modifications possible.. Stability is a very high priority. Here is what I have put together so far, please comment. It'll all be running in a 4U Rack Chassis w/redundant 500W PSUs DFI LP UT P35 T2R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard ZOTAC ZT-20204-20L GeForce GT 220 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9400 8GB of GSkill PC2 6400 (4 chips) 4 Seagate 1.5TB SATA HDDs (2 mirrored for users directories, 2 striped for local media) 64GB Mtron Mobi SLC SSD (OS) Bluetooth USB Dongle, Apple wireless keybd Sony Bluray Remote Ive already got 2 of the sata drives and the SSD... so I can build this along with a new/unused of SL server off ebay for about the same price as a MacMini Server + AppleCare I choose the DFI LP because its a full size board with several PCIe slots and dual Gbit nic's (bonding), in the future I will likely add a raid card and a HD component capture card.. however it tops out at only 8GB of memory and I dont know how well the audio works (really need to get HDMI audio) with OSX... it seems to be a pretty well supported board and now that there not top of the line its in my price range. My biggest concerns with the build at this point are with HDMI Audio w/this mbd and video card.. it seems to be possible from my research but I question weather its as easy as it now seems. My secondary concern is if I'll have all the drivers for this system available for 64bit since I am stuffing it with so much ram... On my Hack workstation I had alot of issues initially with JMicron >4GB, for stability's sake I'd like to avoid any simular issues. Thanks, Hopefully I'll be making a purchase before the weekend is up. -R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackilroy Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 OS X does not support audio via HDMI. You'll need another audio cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreadlocks Posted May 20, 2010 Author Share Posted May 20, 2010 OS X does not support audio via HDMI. You'll need another audio cable. Not according to this post I found: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=140941 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackilroy Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 Odd, I've never gotten audio over HDMI. Well, if it works, it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreadlocks Posted May 20, 2010 Author Share Posted May 20, 2010 It seems to be very specific to hardware and I am confused if it needs a video card that also does audio or a video card that takes a digital audio input for pass-through.. or both? guess I'll keep searching around, I really dont want to run a 50ft audio cable if I can do it out HDMI also seems to be a pretty resent development, I hear the new MBP's will do audio out mini-dvi adapter... Im still waiting for my new MBP to arrive so I dont know for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackilroy Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 I know under Windows my HD 4890 supports audio over HDMI, but I haven't tried it with my 8800 GT. I'll do that tonight and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreadlocks Posted May 25, 2010 Author Share Posted May 25, 2010 so I ended up just paying the lil bit extra and building a nice i7 system, I'll take my C2D Hackintosh and make it my server since it's proven to be so damn reliable and easy to hack.. Im pretty sure I can get HDMI audio out to work now that I looked into it more. New build: P6X58D w/i7 930 and 6GB ram, should be a kickass workstation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackilroy Posted May 25, 2010 Share Posted May 25, 2010 Awesome. The i7-930 is a great chip. And sorry for not reporting back in – I don't actually have access to my Mac Pro anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoredMatt Posted June 3, 2010 Share Posted June 3, 2010 so I ended up just paying the lil bit extra and building a nice i7 system, I'll take my C2D Hackintosh and make it my server since it's proven to be so damn reliable and easy to hack.. Im pretty sure I can get HDMI audio out to work now that I looked into it more. New build: P6X58D w/i7 930 and 6GB ram, should be a kickass workstation. Have you managed to get the HDMI audio out to work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreadlocks Posted July 1, 2010 Author Share Posted July 1, 2010 no I have not, my display locks up with the GT220 if I have QT enabled, (Has something to do w/HDCP) on 10.6.3+ and from my research I need to be running at least that for HDMI Audio output.. Since I need this stable Ive just stuck w/10.6.2 and am waiting til the issue sorts its self out. Ive since learned my TV will not pass-through digital audio out its spdif out port, it remux's it to stereo.. no point now really, I guess I'll just use a separate cable until I get a hdmi audi receiver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts