see PCAudioLabs for tips. Its where I get my stuff from.

You should look at server class motherboards if you want dual cpu's. The reality is that other than quality of build, most 2nd generation i7 motherboards are sufficient to the task. The memory controller and quality of the ram and hard drives (of course the interface!) will have more to do with things than dual current generation of cpu's.

You'll also want to make certain that you acquire a secondary hard drive to utilize for recording. You really don't want to record on your system drive. Though doable, it will generally start choking up when your track count goes beyond 8 tracks. Hence the need for a recording drive.

25+ disk drives lying around my control room
Mx. Remy Ann David

Remy, was there a 5.25" bay for hard drives that was compatible with the HD24XR?

Not sure about your question Jack? The HD 24 & HD 24XR, both have 3.5" hard drives in removable caddies. So, yes, it's in a 5 1/2 inch bay.

Having heard about the problems with HD 24's stopping from too much external noise & vibration, I knew it was those removable caddies. I had similar connectivity problems on numerous desktop computers with those miserable Chinese candies. So I modified mine to have a chassis mounted, vibration damped, nonremovable internal hard drive. I left a single caddy in place for safety backup/interchange purposes & computer downloads in instead of using the optical outputs into my MOTU 2408 in real time. That is to say, I'm not down on real time but when you can save a boatload of time from extracting a hard drive and connecting directly to a computer, it works better with my ADD. So I track everything to the internal first. I stuck in a Seagate 400 GB drive as the internal which has worked out very well. A video of the modification is available on YouTube as my " VibebroFix ". And no soldering is required just a screwdriver. When you screw those little Chinese connectors together, there is no more connectivity problems. Plus the fix offers better cooling for the hard drive than the caddy or is that caddie?

Can you tell I flunked English in high school?
Mx. Remy Ann David

Well I was wondering if there had been a bay for a desktop PC that you could slide the caddy into. That seems like an even better option than the Fireport which is of course how I've done the transfers here. I did see your video a few years ago but since there isn't much chance of vibrating loose on a string quartet I've been too lazy. Now the new pianist in town and her Steinway D and a rickity stage......that might be another issue.

Yes, Jack there is a desktop computer caddy available from the same manufacturer in China that makes them for ALESIS. So you could install one of those into a desktop machine. Their Fire Port device is just an external Fire Wire outboard adapter. And right now I am having a brain FART and can't remember the manufacturer's name? You might want to drop into the HD 24 Yahoo group. You'll also need Marc's HD 24 Tools software for this IDE parallel inboard non-FireWire device as the supplied FST Connect software included with the HD 24 doesn't allow for IDE parallel connectivity inside of a computer other than the FireWire external device. Marc's software can also recover completely corrupted files and rebuild headers. I had that exact problem one of the first times I used this machine. OMG! It was almost as bad as having my 150 hour old DA 88's fail on me back in 1993, 2 times over! Which was originally a nearly $15,000 investment for those pieces of who Ha, snick, snick, barf... They actually replaced my machines 3 times over before they became semi-reliable. I still have them & they still work today. I'm only really using them to transfer my hundreds of masters, which I haven't gotten around to yet, completely. And when I do finish that gargantuan process, I might be able to still get $250 each for them? $200? I remember the SMPTE card actually cost $850 also. And it was tough getting a longer than 20 foot full function remote cable for those. They supplied me with a 40 foot cord they said might not work. It worked adequately. I sure do miss that full function remote and the older A DAT BRC is awkward to use and not fully functional on the HD 24. It does however allow you to dial in a more precise 44.1 kHz sample rate which the HD 24 is not accurate at. It's only accurate at 48 kHz/96 kHz. Which was fine for my television multitrack purposes. It's a cluster F**K when you are trying to accomplish overdubs that have been transferred into a computer because of the 44.1 kHz inaccuracy which isn't quite 44.1 kHz but close. So don't try that with real acoustic piano as you will be sorry you tried. And lucky for me the HD 24 XR & HD 24 now reside in the control room, right smack dab in front of me where it needs to be. The full function front faceplate can actually be removed and is connected with a IDE ribbon cable. Although some have attempted this I've heard without much success since the IDE cable must remain relatively short i.e. only a couple of feet at best. I've pondered the idea of trying to figure out a workaround for that but I've never bothered, yet.

Stay tuned, don't touch that dial...
Mx. Remy Ann David

Vipower, Taiwan.

Thanks Remy and Boswell.

You can even get 4 socket motherboards in server world.

[="http://www.supermic…"]Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Aplus Products | Motherboards | H8QM8-2

G[/]enerally those aren't meant for Windoze, NIX variations are generally better suited to heavy multithreading.

Check out these badass mobos:EVGA | Products | Product List
That'll do the trick, thanks!Cheers :)