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Very Confused- is this possible with a PCIe G5 but impossible w/ a PCIx G5??
I was all ready to buy a new PCIe G5 thinking that the new PCIe interface meant the Mac could finally handle a Decklink or Kona Card (like a LH or LHe), a SATA II RAID card (like a RocketRAID card), a decent graphics card, and use the final slot to add a card for an extra FW800 interface. It was my understanding before that this was not possible with the PCIx interface, ie that something or things had to be slowed down to run since the PCIx shares resources. A friend just told me yesterday that all of this could run fine on a PCIx G5. Is he right? I read the DV Magazine article and thought I came to my conclusion from that and reading through these forums.
Basically I’m looking for something to do work with DVC Pro HD material and a little bit of uncompressed SD. If my friend is right then I could save myself a lot of money and buy an older PCIx G5 and be in decent shape it seeems for the next year or two.
Thanks ahead of time for any help, I really appreciate it! -
3 Replies
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For DVCPRO HD editing, all you need is a firewire interface, as it is captured via firewire.
This is all possible with the current PCIx models. I have an Aurora PipePro Studio card, a firewire 400 PCI card, and a SATA RAID CARD (No raid currently, borrowed one for work for a collegue, I have to return this card now) and things were fine. The Graphcis cards was in the AGP slot, so it was fine.
The only problem I had was when I went to install a Decklink HD card. If you install it in slot 2 or 3, then you can’t have ANYTHING ELSE in the other slot, or it will only output SD…not HD. If I put it in slot 1, slot 2 or 3 could have anything in there, but it wouldn’t fit into slot one do to one of the SDI inputs butting against a plug on the logicboard…so no go.
I don’t know how the Kona will fit, so I can’t say for sure…
Shane Ross
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
Shane, thank you. The thing is I may be doing some work with uncompressed SD and possibly some HD that’s more demanding than DVC Pro HD. I’ve been trying to check out the differences and what the PCIe can do that the PCIx can’t, but I’m not getting very far. I know that PCIe sends info both ways, but so far it doesn’t seem to affect using a Kona LHe (could have sworn it did before when I did my research) and as I recall the speed tests for an x800 vs the 7800 graphics cards were very close. So, are the only advantages of the PCIe in hard drive performance for high end users and the ability to add additional graphics cards for extras monitors?
Is this all you gain and risk possible compatibility issues with old software and hardware if you buy PCIe?
Thanks again for your help! -
PCIe has better performance…so I hear. I am not all that technical when it comes to differences in computer architecture. PCIe slots will work with PCIe HD cards to capture uncompressed HD. PCI-X slots will work with PCI-X capture cards to capture uncompressed HD. They both work. Many people are editing uncompressed HD on Dual 2ghz G5s with PCI-X. PCIe just happens to be newer, and boast faster response times and some other technical things.
Both work fine with uncompressed HD. PCIe would be better, because it is faster.
Shane Ross
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net
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