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Quad Core Video Editing


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I'm looking to build a quad core hackintosh system to be used with osx86 and final cut studio. Would really like some recommendations for parts to buy for compatibility and performance.

 

All suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

Mat

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Unfortunately, workstation level boards are largely untested, however if you can get something as similar to the Mac Pro as possible you should have some luck. Alternatively, you could go with a desktop board and a Core 2 Quad. So either something with the i965 chipset (will need some work to get fully operational!) and a C2Q or an i5000 chipset workstation board and a pair of Woodcrest Xeons (expensive). I'll post some specific recommendations when I'm more awake.

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I just bought the Intel d975bx2 to build my Final Cut hackintosh. Should be here today. Spent months (literally) trying to install OSX on my Intel DG965WH, and the farthest I ever got was a crash after install completed.

 

I hear the d975bx2 needs some replacement ktext files to get audio working--how exactly do you go about getting and replacing these files?

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I just bought the Intel d975bx2 to build my Final Cut hackintosh. Should be here today. Spent months (literally) trying to install OSX on my Intel DG965WH, and the farthest I ever got was a crash after install completed.

 

I hear the d975bx2 needs some replacement ktext files to get audio working--how exactly do you go about getting and replacing these files?

 

 

 

 

 

Took this from the WIKI

 

D975XBX2 Intel® 975X Works: LAN, USB, FireWire, Audio not working (with Tortuga's method and 10.4.8 all crash). SATA (in IDE mode from bios and not AHCI mode works).Firewire recognised and tested working.- Edit: Audio working with 10.4.9 jas and AppleHDA Patcher 1.15.- pako

 

 

Do a search for applehda patcher.....

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actually i got it in the mail today. 1) it was defective, and 2) the idiot sent me the wrong model. he sent me the bx, not the bx2. i believe the only difference is support for the Core 2 Quadro (which i dont have yet, but maybe someday).

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cool. I was looking at a bad axe 2 but the prices are over $400 NZD to get. At the moment I'm a student so those arent really prices I can afford. But hopefully once my course finishes I'll be able to afford a nice system. Audio is also quite important although I do have a Presonus Inspire 1394 I could use for audio ins and outs.

 

"Woah!" - Crash Bandicoot

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a bad axe 2 here - but the s-ata performance is very very poor (AHCI Mode, black connectors). Results 121.53

System Info

Xbench Version 1.3

System Version 10.4.8 (8L2127)

Physical RAM 4096 MB

Model ADP2,1

Drive Type SAMSUNG SP2504C

CPU Test 124.39

GCD Loop 282.56 14.89 Mops/sec

Floating Point Basic 136.95 3.25 Gflop/sec

vecLib FFT 99.40 3.28 Gflop/sec

Floating Point Library 88.85 15.47 Mops/sec

Thread Test 480.14

Computation 439.35 8.90 Mops/sec, 4 threads

Lock Contention 529.26 22.77 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 154.53

System 151.70

Allocate 124.05 455.54 Kalloc/sec

Fill 161.36 7845.81 MB/sec

Copy 181.26 3743.76 MB/sec

Stream 157.46

Copy 145.56 3006.40 MB/sec

Scale 144.39 2983.08 MB/sec

Add 172.67 3678.14 MB/sec

Triad 171.95 3678.41 MB/sec

Quartz Graphics Test 177.05

Line 145.00 9.65 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 182.69 54.54 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 176.89 14.42 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 160.44 4.05 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 251.00 15.70 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 167.95

Spinning Squares 167.95 213.05 frames/sec

User Interface Test 450.78

Elements 450.78 2.07 Krefresh/sec

Disk Test 36.79

Sequential 76.78

Uncached Write 93.39 57.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 84.39 47.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 55.46 16.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 86.90 43.67 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 24.19

Uncached Write 7.53 0.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 88.62 28.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 81.11 0.57 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 110.84 20.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

What to do ???

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  • 3 weeks later...

BadAxe2 w/Q6600 - JAS 10.4.8 install and very little else at the moment. Next up will be mild overclock of the cores.

 

Btw, the install of OSX was almost laughably easy. Not sure about sound though - I haven't tested it. Personally, I use an Airport Express hooked up to an amp (for iTunes, anyway).

 

 

Geekbench Score 4849

Version Geekbench 2.0.3

Platform Mac OS X x86 (32-bit)

Operating System Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Build 8L2127)

Processor Intel® Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.40GHz

Model Hackintosh

Memory 4.00 GB 800 MHz RAM

System Information

Platform Mac OS X x86 (32-bit)

Compiler GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)

Operating System Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Build 8L2127)

Model Hackintosh

Motherboard ADP2,1

Processor Intel® Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.40GHz

Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 7

Logical Processors 4

Physical Processors 2

Processor Frequency 2.40 GHz

L1 Instruction Cache 32.0 KB

L1 Data Cache 32.0 KB

L2 Cache 4.00 MB

L3 Cache 0.00 B

Bus Frequency 1.06 GHz

Memory 4.00 GB

Memory Type 800 MHz RAM

SIMD 1

Integer Performance 4440

Blowfish

single-threaded scalar 1950

85.7 MB/sec

Blowfish

multi-threaded scalar 8268

338.8 MB/sec

Text Compress

single-threaded scalar 1879

6.01 MB/sec

Text Compress

multi-threaded scalar 7127

23.4 MB/sec

Text Decompress

single-threaded scalar 1845

7.58 MB/sec

Text Decompress

multi-threaded scalar 7522

30.0 MB/sec

Image Compress

single-threaded scalar 1526

12.6 Mpixels/sec

Image Compress

multi-threaded scalar 5934

49.9 Mpixels/sec

Image Decompress

single-threaded scalar 1318

22.1 Mpixels/sec

Image Decompress

multi-threaded scalar 4906

80.0 Mpixels/sec

Crafty Chess

single-threaded scalar 1935

978.3 Knodes/sec

Crafty Chess

multi-threaded scalar 5459

2.65 Mnodes/sec

Lua

single-threaded scalar 2514

968.1 Knodes/sec

Lua

multi-threaded scalar 9978

3.84 Mnodes/sec

Floating Point Performance 7341

Mandelbrot

single-threaded scalar 1710

1.14 Gflops

Mandelbrot

multi-threaded scalar 6890

4.51 Gflops

Dot Product

single-threaded scalar 2900

1.40 Gflops

Dot Product

multi-threaded scalar 10560

4.81 Gflops

Dot Product

single-threaded vector 2014

2.41 Gflops

Dot Product

multi-threaded vector 7167

7.45 Gflops

LU Decomposition

single-threaded scalar 703

626.1 Mflops

LU Decomposition

multi-threaded scalar 2810

2.46 Gflops

Primality Test

single-threaded scalar 3399

507.7 Mflops

Primality Test

multi-threaded scalar 10375

1.93 Gflops

Sharpen Image

single-threaded scalar 4949

11.5 Mpixels/sec

Sharpen Image

multi-threaded scalar 18942

43.7 Mpixels/sec

Blur Image

single-threaded scalar 6200

4.91 Mpixels/sec

Blur Image

multi-threaded scalar 24162

19.0 Mpixels/sec

Memory Performance 2570

Read Sequential

single-threaded scalar 3562

4.36 GB/sec

Write Sequential

single-threaded scalar 2560

1.75 GB/sec

Stdlib Allocate

single-threaded scalar 2208

8.24 Mallocs/sec

Stdlib Write

single-threaded scalar 2098

4.34 GB/sec

Stdlib Copy

single-threaded scalar 2422

2.50 GB/sec

Stream Performance 2123

Stream Copy

single-threaded scalar 2101

2.87 GB/sec

Stream Copy

single-threaded vector 2448

3.17 GB/sec

Stream Scale

single-threaded scalar 2409

3.13 GB/sec

Stream Scale

single-threaded vector 2301

3.11 GB/sec

Stream Add

single-threaded scalar 1659

2.50 GB/sec

Stream Add

single-threaded vector 2467

3.43 GB/sec

Stream Triad

single-threaded scalar 1845

2.55 GB/sec

Stream Triad

single-threaded vector 1754

3.28 GB/sec

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i´m also planing to build up a Hackintosh for Audio-Editing with Logic7Pro.

 

My basic System should be:

 

Mainboard: Intel Bad Axe2

CPU: Intel Q6600 or the Xeon3210 (also a Quad and if it works with BadAxe2)

RAM: 4x 1GB Geil DDR2-800

GPU: NVidia 7300GT (one from Asus or maybe the original card from Apple (because of EFI :) ) )

HD: 2x 500GB Samsung (if i works with the SATA-Raid, i will do this)

 

and also Case, SlimeLine DVD-R, Keyboard, Mouse, 24"-TFT (maybe Apple ne coming Cinema), ...

 

Sytem will be lightly overclocked to 3GHz, because stable system is more important than

the extra speed. 4x 3GHz would be enough for Audio-Editing :star_smile:

 

Audio will be used by an external Firewire Audio-Interface (Motu 828mkII).

So internal sound not works doesn´t matter :thumbsup_anim:

 

My questions are:

 

- does the Bad Axe really works right out of the box with JaS 10.4.8 (or maybe uphuck 10.4.9 v1.3)?

- does installation works with an IDE DVD-Drive or would a SATA-Drive better?

- maybe Installation would work from a Firewire-FlashStick (i have one, the 8GB from OCZ, bootable)?

- does the 7300GT right works out of the box, or any hacks neccessary?

- does the SATA-Raid works with OSX? Or should i use the OSX SoftRaid (and works?) ??

 

Would be very happy, if could get many feedback and answers, before ordering my components.

 

Nice regards to all users here, it´s a real nice community!

 

Cpt. Future

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There is news from the Computex that Intel will offer new dual xeon boards that will offer also good graphics expandability. Also they are planning a price cut on the xeon processors.

 

Of course it is uncertain whether or not with this new hardware one could successfully built a Hac Pro.

 

And is for Final Cut pro not the Graphic card important? A 7300 GT seems a little weak to me must be at least a ATI x1950 XT/XTX card 512.

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yes, some new Mainboards will be released by Intel.

But Server-Xeon-Boards from Intel are really expensive, so it makes no sense to build up a Hackintosh with them,

because the total price of the system should be nearly same as from MacPro.

 

MacPro shipped original with a GF7300GT. So many users have them to edit video with Final Cut.

A better GPU is always more "professional" but not neccessary all the time.

In the past, many people have edited video with an Radeon9800XT :D

 

Same with CPU. More GHz is always better, but depends of the budget, also how professional

the user likes to work with the machine.

 

My thoughts are:

Not always the newest, highest, fastets will be the best :D

It´s better to have a weighed out system with a Raid-System. This would be have more sense ;)

 

Now, back to topic .....

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An overclock to 3000mhz should be quite do-able with a Q6600 (which I believe is exactly the same as a Xeon 3210). That's what I'm running at currently and I've had zero problems.

 

Your biggest problem will probably be heat. Remember the q6600 is really 2 dual-core chips on the same die, that means almost much twice as much heat as a standard dual-core chip. An investment in a larger cooler would be advised.

 

BadAxe2 does work perfectly 'out of the box' from JAS 10.4.8 with an IDE cd-rom drive... with the known exception of sound. It boots, it works - it's easier to install than XP.

 

I would add to low-grade concerns regarding the 7300GT. I'm sure it's up to the job, but when I was looking recently the 7600T was only about $40AUD more expensive and has considerably more grunt, and I'm just getting it as a temporary card until the 8xxx series is fixed up and working properly.

 

I'm more concerned with the decision to go RAID. If I had 2 500GB drives, I'd put the system on one and store media on the other. RAID will increase your hassles considerably, and increase your actual performance only very marginally - especially so if you were thinking of going RAID0.

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omfg, many thanks for your reply :P

 

So you talked you have Raid-0 in your Hackintosh. Did you use the Hardware-Raid from

the BadAxe2, or you are using OSX´s SoftRaid-Function?

 

In my old Powermac-G5 i am using OSX´s Software-Raid (as Raid-0) an the speed is nice.

But an real Hardware-Raid could have better performance.

 

Ok, your thoughts about the 7300GT is right, but i don´t need more graphic power, because

this machine is for Audio-Editing.

I think, to buy a original Apple-7300GT should work right out of the box, no hacks necessary.

So my thought could be right ?

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My generic 256MB 7600GT worked first time with the NVIDIA tickbox on the JAS cd's installer. No hacks, no roms - nothing. I can change resolution etc fine.

 

At some point I'm going to swap to Diabolik's / driver release as I believe there are some performance improvements.

 

 

 

 

I haven't tried RAID at all on this computer. RAID0, for many reasons is more of a nice-sounding idea than a nice reality.

 

First, the performance boost is not that great. Seek times will not improve at all (which is typically where HD perform badly). The only time you'll really get performance improvements is when you're copying a very large flat-file and MB/sec throughput is your sole bottleneck.

 

Whilst this does happen on occasion when you're copying ISO / DVD files etc. but I'd be surprised if much of your time was being wasted waiting for these transfers to complete.

 

Also, to give you some idea, the WD 500GB drive which I put in this computer reads/writes at roughly 80MB/sec - this would almost saturate gig Ethernet.

 

Theoretically RAID0 could make 2 of these drives run at 160MB/sec, but I'd be very surprised if it broke 110.

 

Added to the marginal performance improvement, you get driver issues and reduced reliability of the cluster.

 

If you lose a physical drive from a RAID0 array, you're going to have a hell of a hard time to recover any data whatsoever. Especially if you're formatted in EXT3 :thumbsup_anim:

 

If you lose a drive installed as a vanilla SATA, chances are you're going to be able to get most of the data back (if it was a normal 'death' - head crash etc).

 

 

By all means have a play with RAID0, but I wouldn't risk it for 1TB of my data.

 

 

 

Woah, when did this turn into a rant :rolleyes:

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omfg, some of your thougts are really true.

 

In my old PowerMac G5 i had about 125MB/sec. transfer rate. By loading a huge SamplingLibrary, this is

a really nice performance ;) But the RAID-0 was with two 160GB-Disks (320GB).

 

If i would stripe two 500GB-Disks your advice makes really sense. 1TB is hard to recover, if one disk gone broken.

That´s what i didn´t consider :wacko:

Maybe it would be better to build in a really fast HardDisk for work (a.e. WD Raptor), and a normal for data.

 

You are my hero of today ;)

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May you find interesting that when amd launch (i expect that this is near) his k10/barcelona...native quad core. intel will drop prices of the quad core 6600..in my opinion

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yes, in middle of July Intel will price down their CPU´s, also QuadCores.

 

I´m not hasty to build up my QuadCore, first i will get some more informations, suggestions and feedbacks.

So in ordering the components next month, i could save a little bit money and spend it into some better

components maybe. Or save it ;)

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WD Raptors are tempting. In fact for almost every computer I've spec'd in the last few years, I've looked at including one... but I just can't justify their price.

 

Where I live, a Raptor 150 costs ~$310, and I can get a WD 500 for $175.

 

 

I mean, sure that Raptor is faster - undoubtedly. But it's also twice the price for ONE THIRD of the space.

 

 

Madness :dev:

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  • 2 weeks later...

i'm on the same boat, but my requirements bring up to Motion 3 also (and final cut 6, and logic 7), and i'm planning to get the Modo 301 package (the animation feature seems like a good catch).

 

so, to do lighting fast renders in modo, i would like to have 8 cores, and to navigate smoothly on the 3D environment of Motion 3, i would like to have a pretty fast GPU, and lots of memory.

 

what should i go for? a workstation board, two quad intels, and a powerful 512 mb graphics card? witch models of these pieces are free of hassle in osx86 ?

 

thanks for any help

kudos

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