small hackintosh + RED Rocket = Apollo 11... or Apollo 13 ??!

[Jack Colquitt]

Today I had a brilliant idea !! ; )

At first, I waited many years that a new MacPro will born…. you know the rest !
After, I thought buy a "RED Z820 special edition"…. but….. I really want to work with Smoke… which is only on OSX…
but, if Apple continue to be iApple, maybe all of us (and Autodesk !!) will have to go back to Windows !

For resume, the real question for me is what can I buy NOW, not too much expensive
- like a "RED MacMini special edition" ! - until the darkness will lift, and someone in 2013
answer this f**king question for the ten next years, and take the rest of my savings....
4x150 core, 786Gb of RAM, 400Tb SSD, and a Quadro 12000 at 50Gb…
with a brand new Microsoft OSX Cold Mountain Lion.... or Linux……. or Android !!

So, for now, maybe a MacMini 2012 (unborn), or an iMac 2012 (unborn and… berk !!)… or… yes.... HAAAACKINTOSH !!
Just 1500$ maximum, to be able to edit, few effects, and light color grading.....

I was interested in a 6-core i7-3930K (socket 2011), not really expensive, and look nice.
But I just discover that MSI made a new motherboard (socket 1155) with thunderbolt !!
(ok, the hackintosh can't use the thunderbolt ability for now, but I'm sure it's just a matter of days... please !!)
and of course only able to use new Ivy Bridge processor, like the i7-3770K (socket 1155).
And of coooourse, not a 6-core !

So, dilemma once again, chose thunderbolt or 6-core….
And…. SHWIIING…. I had my so brilliant idea !!

If I buy a Red Rocket, I can keep that on my next computer, whatever the OS will be,
and for now, the choice of a 4-core vs. 6-core become less important,
with CS6, Smoke or Resolve…. because the Rocket will fire everything !!

Ok, now everybody knows all my life… is Sir Kilgroe awake and agree to confirm I'm a genius ?! ; )

[Thomas Koch]

I have a 2008 Mac Pro with a RED Rocket. It works outstanding with r3d footage in Premiere, or transcoding to prores. But performance in other apps such as After Effects have slowed down quite a bit. My render times are as fast as my i7 Macbook Pro. My geek bench score on both of those machines is around 8400.

A Hackintosh with an 3770k (socket 1155) is a bit slower than than the 3930 (2011) however, I want to use the integrated graphics chip for when I run Reslove on my GTX570.

Gigabyte motherboards are better for making a Hackintosh, and sometime soon, they will release their new Thunderbolt motherboard which are great for overclocking. I opted to build mine around the 3770K and a Gigabyte motherboard. The Gigabyte Ultra Durable 5 series was announced at Computex so I'm waiting for that to build my system.

The other argument, is that the 3930 is based on the Xeon e5, but is limited in the number of cores, and doesn't allow multiple CPUs. But it is a great chip. It doesn't have integrated graphics though.

[BRANDON JAMESON]

So good meeting you at Reducation, your presentation was extraordinary!
(so glad it was the plane and NOT the camera!!)
:)

[Jack Colquitt]

So Thomas, if I understand well, you tell me that the Rocket is very good only for the editing,
but not very usefull for grading or VFX apps... things I use the most...
that's why I'm so interested in Smoke... "compositing for the everyday editing" !
And I thought the Rocket could speed up the process of masking, keying, grading... on CS6, Resolve Nuke, or Smoke.

And, about the 3770 vs. 3930, to resume your thought, the 3930 is "just" a powerfull chip,
and the 3770 is "lower", but with more option and new technologies, like integrated "video card" ?
Wich is usefull for Resolve and his need of multiple video card.
And it's better to wait until the release of the new Gigabyte UD5 with TB.
But, I read that this MB series is for socket 2011, and it's not thunderbolt, but display port ?
And I don't want to overclock because I want the more stable computer possible.

You know, seriously, I'm not a noob in computer (not a genius however !!),
and I sold all my stuff to be able to buy a new macpro ( LOOOL ! )...
but, what I don't understand is actually I just kept (for web, TV, Tetris game)
a MacMini C2D 2,26Ghz / 2Gb RAM / Geforce 9400 256Mb / 500Gb of temp disk in FW800,
and I can read / edit / transcode / grade R3D... even compress to Prores !!!!!

Ok... 1/4 resolution in CS5...

But, no Rocket, no CUDA, no quad core, no RAM.... just a... small white cube !!
So, why if an old Mini, with an old Premiere, can "do" the job,
an i7 quad core with 32Gb RAM with no Rocket can't read R3D more flawlessly ??!
And I don't speak about a Xeon 16 core like the Z820...

That's why, IMHO, lots of people want that much MacPro, or big giant tower...
not only to use PCI, but because I think lots of us don't know which soft use
which part of the computer... video card, RAM, CPU, Rocket.....

Apple is maybe right about the futur after all, small computer, with lots of external dedicated box !

So good meeting you at Reducation, your presentation was extraordinary!
(so glad it was the plane and NOT the camera!!)
:)

Hmmmmmm....... what ??! Reducation.... you speak to Thomas, right ?

[Thomas Koch]

The Rocket is good for accellerating r3d footage. It works great in After Effects and in Premiere. Works great is Resolve. Works great in Redcine-X.

What it doesn't do is speed up rendering of After Effects renders that don't have RED footage. I found that with my 8-core mac pro with a Red rocket, rendered barely faster than my Sandy Bridge i7 Macbook pro. The same sequence. So, I figure it's time to upgrade. I was ready to throw down the money on a new Mac at WWDC, but was highly disappointed.

So, I'm ready for a faster computer. Fastest CPU is a Xeon e5. Next fastest Sandy Bridge-E such as the 3930. Then the i7 3770K.

I am interested in the capabilities of the 3770K such as thunderbolt, and HD 4000 graphics. I also don't want to spend a ton of money on it, because I will still probably get a new Mac Pro if they come out with something worth while, and the 3770 is cheaper.

I also get a discount on Intel chips, so I could really have gone with the 3930 for not much more than the 3770, but with the new Ultra Durable 5 Motherboards (when they come out), I will be overclocking the 3770 and should get a pretty powerful machine.

Either way, at the point, I'm looking for a faster computer, that doesn't break the bank. I currently have a eVGA GTX 570 with 2.5GB of ram on board and it works flawlessly on my mac. I'm hoping it works just as good on my hack, when I get around to building it.

[Jack Colquitt]

Ok.... I understand your words better.... Rocket is R3D only !
And that's "enough" for me. Got only R3D camera !! ; )

In fact, what you're doing now is exactly what I want.
Waste my money, but keep enough for a good beast in next month !

And how much can you OC your 3770K with the Gigabyte UD5 ?
The turbo boost is 3,9Ghz, so with OC, you can achieve, what... 4,5 ?
And will you keep the eVGA GTX 570, or do you plan to buy a better card later ?
With the HD4000 inside the i7, Resolve doesn't need more card ?