Firstly, I do understand the risks building a non-qualified Avid system. But I've had good luck running Avid MC with my current Tyan mobo. Unfortunately, it only has one PCI-Express slot so I can't add a MojoDX or Nitrus DX.

I'd like to upgrade to one of the latest Tyan mobo's but would like some input from the community on choosing which one and which quad-core Xeon CPU's to get. Even better, can anybody recommend one from personal experience? I figure on trying to cannibalize as many components from my current tower. I'm open to plenty of advice. Thanks.

http://www.tyan.com/product_board.aspx

We're building around the Tyan i5400XT which is as close to the HP XW8600 as you can get from my homework.  It has 6 x PCI buses and built in TI 1394 chipset firewire.  We're going for 2 x QC Xeon 3Ghz CPUs - going to the 3.16Ghz QCs was a lot of expense for minimal clock speed advantage.  Still not sure whether to drop only the single QC Xeon on it though.  Lots or references to MC 3 not hitting all the cores so having 4~6 cores doing nothing in MC makes it a bit of a waste.  On the other hand, balancing the system with 2 identical batch number cores seems sensible if there is any prospect of me wanting to add a CPU within 3 years (prime working life of the machine).  Putting Vista 64 Biz (ahhhhh vista - there goes my extra horsepower!) on it and 8G RAM - useful for those large textures in XSI (and of course the resource hog that is Vista)!

Wont be able to comment on the performance until it is built - at the ordering stage now so am hoping for an Xmas build while clients are all away celebrating and I have time to build, install and troubleshoot issues.

Cool! Thanks for the info. I only wish you already have it so you can report back.  Has anybody else attempted this build?

I'm assuming that this board (below) is the specific one that you're referring to?

Tempest i5400XT (S5396)

http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=562

A computer built around this seems like it would have a good working and expandable lifespan. Plus I'm sure Avid will continue to optimize their software.

What kind of price are you coming up with for the mobo? How much is each Quad-Core Xeon? Which Socket are you choosing? I figure 8GB of RAM might cost a good chunk of change too.

I'm trying to salvage as many of my current mobo's components when I finally make the leap to a new mobo.

Yup, thats the one.  They have an excellent reputation for stability and are intel certified for workstation/servers so it should be an very reliable platform.  Not exactly cheap - mobo at about $700aus and the CPUs at about $1500ea.  The falling aus dollar has added about $1k to the build from our earlier pricing.  But the expensive bit is the rack case, sata enclosures and, the biggy, a chunky UPS to hang it all off.  The raw PC isn't so bad!

Wouldn't bother salvaging - if you're dropping money on a new system, unless your components are nearly new, start again.  The ram should match the mobo, new powersupply - this board is hungry and with 8 x satas hanging off it plus a quadro...

A labour of love really - I enjoy the build and research so thats why I do it this way.  Overkill on the PC but when I add a DX next year I'll be glad I specced it up.

If your interested, I'll post a build diary when its done with any problems and solutions I will enevitably come across!

carlgmi:

If your interested, I'll post a build diary when its done with any problems and solutions I will enevitably come across!

Carl, I hope you do that because by next year I will also be looking for the next step up !

Regards,
Douglas

Douglas, DC66, I' ve had 3 multiprocessor workstations built with different flavours of Tyan motherboards thru the years and have been very happy with the outcome; I did my homework too before building my current box a bunch of weeks ago, and I can confirm that the i5400XT is the board to go for, but... building a workstation around this mobo was more expensive than a certified HP xw8600, which is more expensive than a PowerMac anyway! For the first time since I'm in computerland an homemade system is more expensive than a branded system and a Mac is more affordable than a PC! It sounds crazy but this is how the pricing goes here in Italy, don't know what is like where You are. In the end I went for a single processor system built around a Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME mobo that has a spare PCIe x4 slot and may support a Mojo DX (while the Nitris DX requires a board such as the Tyan), and I run MC with an analog Mojo on it; I redirected the money I saved on purchasing storage and 3 widescreen monitors (and had some change left in my pockets, which does not hurt at all). Moreover, Intel came out with the new i7 CPUs and a new chipset, and I expect the Xeon CPUs and chipsets to have their i7 equivalent soon: a box built today with non i7 (or the forthcoming new Xeon) is already obsolete at birth. To summarize: if money is at stake and You want Nitris DX support buy a Mac, if You're not planning to buy a Nitris DX there's no point to go the Mac route or to build a box around the Tyan, either buy a supported HP xw4600 or build a single processor system, whichever way good luck and please give feedback on Your soon to be system!

luca.mg:

 In the end I went for a single processor system built around a Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME mobo that has a spare PCIe x4 slot and may support a Mojo DX (while the Nitris DX requires a board such as the Tyan),

Thanks for the information, Luca.

I have, at the moment, an ASUS PK5 DEluxe/WiFi-AP CH1-14 Mobo.
It has a spare PCIe x4 slot to which I have adde a MojoDX.
The only sporadic problem I have is that the Mojo does not always "fire-up" during the boot process.
I have been in touch with Avid Technicians here in Japan and the outcome, after they did a lot of testing, was that it was due to the slot not being 100% compatible (Now ,my tech talk is almost non-existant - but I hope you get the picture)
I would say that the MojoDX is starting correctly in 19 out of 20 boots.
I can live with that.

Regards,
Douglas

Douglas, I did not test my board with a Mojo DX, this is why I've written an underlined "...may support...", it has the required slot however. I've been planning to do some tests in between jobs, but I've had no time to spare until now; the HP xw4600 Avid approved workstation for use with Mojo DX has an X38 chipset, while Yours has a P35 chipset (less performing than the X38) which could be the reason why Your Mojo doesn't initialize properly at boot; maybe upgrading is a good decision as You need to run Mojo with no hiccups, but what is the right mainboard it is unclear; of course the i5400XT chipset is a safe bet, but it's also kind of "oversized", expensive and ageing. As for me I'm considering the new Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME, supporting the latest i7 processor. If I'll be able to run a Mojo DX test on my current system I will certainly get in touch with You, while please do get in touch with me if You come across the right motherboard as well.