[JDUBS]

Guys

I built yet another music computer (I'm kind of hooked).  This one a Sandybridge i3 2125 with 8gb of ram, 60gb OWC SSD, and fanless PS.  The whole thing is absolutely silent with ZERO moving parts.  Its awesome.

I'm dual booting Windows 7 and OSX 10.7.  OSX is fine, but I'm still a Windows guy at heart and have been using it more.

I just received my speakers back from my cabinet builder (unity horns over h-frame open baffles for the bass) and will be using Thuneau Allocator to build the crossovers.

http://www.thuneau.com/allocator.htm

I have it set up so that it is a part of Foobar and is now working with my E-MU 1616M soundcard (6 channels of balanced output at up to 24/192).

I plan on doing measurements with REW for EQ'ing (will be using Fabfilter Pro-Q - also seemlessly integrated with Foobar) but set up crossovers initially based on 8th order slopes at 300hz (from low to midrange) and 1250 hz (from midrange to the compression drivers).

Anyway, just curious if anyone else is doing anything similar.  In retrospect, I think I would have just used my previous 12v no-moving-parts and Atom-powered computer to accomplish the same thing.  24 / 192 material with my i3 setup averages about 7% cpu usage...not much at all.  16 / 44.1 is about 1-2%.  I'm pretty sure the Atom would get by just fine.

-Jim

[jtwrace]

Jim,

That's impressive!  I really look forward to your progress on this with some data if you don't mind sharing.  Also, is the computer anything that you would share a build list with us?  Since OSX runs on it, it then acts 100% like a Mac.  Right?

[JDUBS]

Jim,

That's impressive!  I really look forward to your progress on this with some data if you don't mind sharing.  Also, is the computer anything that you would share a build list with us?  Since OSX runs on it, it then acts 100% like a Mac.  Right?

Jason, thanks!  And, happy to share my build list.  The only "trick" parts are the HD Plex H5.S enclosure:

http://www.hd-plex.com/h5-series/

and this 130w fanless power supply:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55153

CPU is the aforementioned i3-2125, 8gb of RAM (don't recall which brand - whatever was on special on Newegg a month ago), and an OWC 60gb SSD (great SSDs).  Motherboard is a Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3.

Getting OSX installed on non-Apple hardware is no trivial matter.  The subject of hackintoshing has driven the formation of a number of websites devoted to it.  Its kind of fun, but you need to do your research on what will work and what won't in terms of hardware...and then be prepared to spend an afternoon (at least) getting OSX actually installed.

That said, it works great...and the system flies in both OSs.

-Jim

[jtwrace]

Jason, thanks!  And, happy to share my build list.  The only "trick" parts are the HD Plex H5.S enclosure:

http://www.hd-plex.com/h5-series/

and this 130w fanless power supply:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55153

CPU is the aforementioned i3-2125, 8gb of RAM (don't recall which brand - whatever was on special on Newegg a month ago), and an OWC 60gb SSD (great SSDs).  Motherboard is a Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3.

Getting OSX installed on non-Apple hardware is no trivial matter.  The subject of hackintoshing has driven the formation of a number of websites devoted to it.  Its kind of fun, but you need to do your research on what will work and what won't in terms of hardware...and then be prepared to spend an afternoon (at least) getting OSX actually installed.

That said, it works great...and the system flies in both OSs.

-Jim

Thanks!  So for ~$600 you have a silent upgradeable computer that runs OSX. 

[JDUBS]

Thanks!  So for ~$600 you have a silent upgradeable computer that runs OSX. 

Yes, that's exactly right.  It'll run rings around anything you can buy from Apple for anywhere close to the same $$.

It's not for the weak of heart, but if you're curious, check out this webpage:

http://tonymacx86.com/

Its the best around, imo, on the topic.

-Jim

[JDUBS]

I think this is a very interesting, somewhat adjacent, topic:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/198585-avx-based-fir-vst-crossover-eq-drc-delay.html

I am thinking a fanless i3 setup (like mine, but with HDMI out) running foobar and this FIR vst with Reaper outputing via HDMI to a 7.1, quality, receiver.  A two box affair that would be pretty awesome...I think!

Jim

[JDUBS]

Man, its getting almost too easy:

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/10/unibeast-install-mac-os-x-lion-using.html

 

-Jim