# My 5775c is Dead



## woodslanding (Feb 19, 2020)

Fried by a short in a power cable. I've heard if you let the smoke out, it stops working. I'm afraid I also lost my UCX :(

It was a 5775c with a Gigabyte GA-Z97n wifi motherboard. I loved it! Amazingly the M.2 drive survived. So a few questions:

Although I've been looking at upgrading this system, both the 7700 and the 8700 systems I've bought for my studio have far underperformed it. Since the drive survived, if I bought the same mobo/cpu combo, I could slot the drive in and be back up and running, I assume.

I can get a used 5775c on ebay, but that motherboard is not currently available. So I'm wondering if I bought a similar motherboard, would it likely to be able to run this system from the existing drive? I don't think this OS will survive an upgrade to the current version of windows (it hasn't had an update since pre-creator win10, and got online maybe twice a year, just long enough to authorize a piece of software) so it would need to be able to run what's on the disk, with just driver updates. But the system has worked flawlessly for four years, and I'd love to keep using it....

There are some similar vintage gigabytes that are available on ebay:
*Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5*
*Gigabyte GA-Z97N Gaming 5*
*Gigabyte Z97M-D3H (matx, but I have room for it now)*


Is there anyone here with enough hardware wrangling experience to know whether any of these might be a drop-in replacement for my system?

I may break down and gamble on a new Ryzen system, but it's going to be weeks of software reinstallation to get up and running again. And I will have to hope it works better than the 8700K machine here that is completely unable to run my setup (even at 512!!)

Thanks for any suggestions!


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## chimuelo (Feb 19, 2020)

Sorry to hear about it.
My 5775C and essential parts are in cryogenic storage.
Intel screwed up by making the 5775C type of CPU into a low watt Xeon nobody bought.

That CPU cache was great.
AMD has a large cache but it’s not as big as a factor as it is with Intel’s X86 architecture.

I’ve seen new 5775C’s from Hong Kong recently as cheap as 399.
Hope you find what’s needed.
Everytime I see audio guys really content with their rigs they are Xeons or 5775C’s with big cache, or 8 Core AMD’s.

Cache is king in my book.


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## woodslanding (Feb 19, 2020)

Yeah there's always used chips for about 300 on ebay. But the mobo is the holdup right now.


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## chimuelo (Feb 21, 2020)

Do you need a brand new Z97?

I’d have to check if it’s an mATX or ITX, but I still have a brand new unopened ASRock I never got to yet, and my last 4790k.
I have finnicky gear so once I find something with 100% stability and high polyphony I buy more.

I honestly didn’t think my developers would ever make Windows 10 Drivers, but they actually did 3 years ago. Pretty nice considering the company and it’s IP still supports their 22 year old soundcards I started with.

I bought 4 x of everything, 3 x 4790k’s and a 5775C.
My 2nd and 3rd builds are used right now, 1 with very little use as it’s a cloned spare. The 5775C is a rehearsal rig I can leave that’s really convenient.
If you’re in need of a new board, give me the word and Ill dig it out of my shelves and see which model it is. I use high quality workstation ASRock Rack stuff.

Im not worried about recouping initial investment.


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## chimuelo (Feb 21, 2020)

I got the word on the Intel Quad core I’ve been looking at.
Stock speeds of 4.1 @ 91 watts.
I like you play live and 6/8 core CPU’s need to be overclocked to get the timings I like for high polyphony.
Not a good idea in a 1U chassis.

Every year I drop more and more software and use hardware.
This year I’ll drop ZebraHZ and Omnisphere.

I’m down to Kontakt, PianoTeq, and Dual instances of Keyscape.
No Native FX, just the fastest/coolest CPU.
i3 10350k and an ASRock Z470 ITX in a new 2U chassis.
The chassis is really nice too.
Check it out.

It has 2 x Horizontal PCI Slots in the back in case I go with a Ryzen 3 next winter for my spare.


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## kitekrazy (Feb 21, 2020)

woodslanding said:


> *Fried by a short in a power cable. * I've heard if you let the smoke out, it stops working. I'm afraid I also lost my UCX :(
> 
> It was a 5775c with a Gigabyte GA-Z97n wifi motherboard. I loved it! Amazingly the M.2 drive survived. So a few questions:
> 
> ...



Curious as to how this happened. I'm in the same boat if my i7 4790 or my AMD FX6300 systems go bad. I'm a little cautious buying used on eBay. I fear the day since I would have to buy CPU, board, and RAM.


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## woodslanding (Feb 21, 2020)

chimuelo said:


> Do you need a brand new Z97?
> 
> I’d have to check if it’s an mATX or ITX, but I still have a brand new unopened ASRock I never got to yet, and my last 4790k.
> I have finnicky gear so once I find something with 100% stability and high polyphony I buy more.
> ...



Well, I've just ported my live setup to the 8700, which is in the studio, and it's showing 78% cpu, where the 5775 showed 37%! Same buffer, same sample rate, same interface. Needless to say, I'm getting clicks.... So I guess this unit is not going to cut it. I had hoped for better.

I Just rebuilt my live setup, and I have room for an MATX board now, (not atx, though) so if you have one you really don't need, I guess I might take you up on your offer.


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## woodslanding (Feb 21, 2020)

Chimuelo, check your box, I just pm'd you...


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## chimuelo (Feb 21, 2020)

I shall look and check back tomorrow.
Pretty sure it’s an ASRock H97m WS.


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## chimuelo (Feb 22, 2020)

Well I had more than I remembered.
I’ve got a Xeon based C236 version that might accept the 5775C since it’s actually a Xeon.
Then I have the deadly Z97M WS. I prefer the less featured H97M WS.
But this board will last for years.
I buy them because as you’ve experienced, they’re not gaming style/consumer PCB’s but thick durable, short trace lined workstation/server boards.

Take your pick, one or both, and there’s even 16BG’s of Vengeance DDR3-1600 RAM. All 6 years old but brand new/never used.


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## chimuelo (Feb 22, 2020)

FWIW, these server boards have PCI 3.0 16x (Blue) slots which is where I run my PCI-e 1X Connector cards. 
No other boards or chips Im aware of allow Direct to CPU path for audio.
I can’t get 32 samples on my i7 8086k rig, so it’s my HTPC / RAID 6 Video archiving PC.
Latency does not exist on these boards if you bypass the chipsets.

Cheerz


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## woodslanding (Feb 22, 2020)

It looks like that is an unusual RAM configuration... is that laptop ram? guess I would need that, although I've got 32gb (unless what was in the machine got trashed, in which case, I've still got 16) of the stock sized ram.

What do you use for an interface? Looks like RME has discontinued their hammerfall pcie line... can't even track any used ones down. I have an original multiface that's still working fine, but the jack on my laptop card gave up the ghost years ago, after some hundreds of gigs. But I've got a couple of Babyfaces and a UFX getting repaired. And I can live with 128 samples.

My big issue is finding a 5775c. Do you care to speculate whether it survived my power spike? Both the Samsungs, the M.2 and the one on the USB buss, did in fact survive.... I guess maybe it's worth sending you a few $$ to find out.... Do you do venmo? PM me with a $$ figure....


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## woodslanding (Feb 22, 2020)

Looking at the pic again, that ram just has a tall cooler?? In that case, I probably don't need it.


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## woodslanding (Feb 22, 2020)

Or should I go gamble on this? I can have it today  hmmmm....

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5003229/-amd-ryzen-9-3900x-with-wraith-prism-cooler,-asrock-x570m-pro4,-cpu---motherboard-bundle


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## chimuelo (Feb 22, 2020)

Sent PM.
Im not worried about cash.
Fellow performers stick together...

I’ll keep the Xeon board and RAM, you can have the server board.
Used ones are going for 150.00, I would never trust used parts except some rare DRAM.
Dont buy anything from Hong Kong. Lying bastards.
A used CPU used for 3 years to them means opened box.
When there’s a problem, suddenly they no speaka English.

Cheerz


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## woodslanding (Feb 22, 2020)

There's a guy sells used boards here in Denver, but all the z97s are north of $200....


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## chimuelo (Feb 22, 2020)

woodslanding said:


> There's a guy sells used boards here in Denver, but all the z97s are north of $200....



Yeah well mine is brand new and it’s free.

check your pm...


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## Nathanael Iversen (Feb 22, 2020)

That Nanoxia chassis is really nice! That's the first chassis that looks like a good build platform to me for a music computer. The skinny server stuff all has obnoxious fans. That looks like it could be a quiet studio build, and that it would have enough space to work in. I'm going to check that out. Thanks for posting @chimuelo!


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## chimuelo (Feb 23, 2020)

Nathanael Iversen said:


> That Nanoxia chassis is really nice! That's the first chassis that looks like a good build platform to me for a music computer. The skinny server stuff all has obnoxious fans. That looks like it could be a quiet studio build, and that it would have enough space to work in. I'm going to check that out. Thanks for posting @chimuelo!



1U for live work can be cooled by 12k > 22k loud ass vacuum cleaner fans but for recording even in “silent” mode are annoying. Hell they piss people off during pre production and rehearsals.

You can make the Nanoxia as quiet as you want.
They have a 4U I also use for my RAID/HTPC that uses water cooling on everything, even RAM / SSD’s.

That one is RGB’d since the young’un’s helped build it.
That holds PCI-e storage, Big 4K gaming card, Microsemi RAID and RME Audio.
Really sweet opening those up and cleaning them too.

Really well engineered kit.


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## pderbidge (Feb 28, 2020)

chimuelo said:


> Cache is king in my book


So true. I'm surprised more geeks don't do tests exploring how much difference the fast access to large cache improves performance. It's almost like a well kept secret while everyone else is bench-marking clock speeds and frame rates.


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## Damarus (Feb 28, 2020)

pderbidge said:


> So true. I'm surprised more geeks don't do tests exploring how much difference the fast access to large cache improves performance. It's almost like a well kept secret while everyone else is bench-marking clock speeds and frame rates.



Well again, it really comes down to the use-case of the system


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## chimuelo (Feb 29, 2020)

Damarus said:


> Well again, it really comes down to the use-case of the system



Agreed, but the 5775C @ 3.3GHz was allowing better timings and higher DB polyphony scores than my 4790k CPU’s at a 700MHz slower pace.

Only difference was disabling the on die graphics, then the 128MB L4 Cache was designated to audio. I couldn’t overclock the Ring Bus ( where cache resides ) more than 400MHz, 1800MHz was stock speed. 

Better IPC could negate the need for a larger cache by reducing the size of the instructions, according to geeks @ HWBot. Seems AMD has covered their butt with both.

They’ll use a newer designed unified cache in Ryzen 3. That will address latency in their 12/16 and 32 core designs. If it gets better scores in DB Polyphony that will narrow things down. Whether it’s cache, or better IPC or both, I’ll take whichever works the best.

But Intel had a killer CPU with those Broadwell 5000 series.
I mourn the lack of further development.


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