AJA Kona LHI & Native XDCAM Ex

[Akbar Ukani]

I checked out the cards that you mentioned and they all seem to be x8 PCI Express…I have a Mac Pro where can I only have the following configuration for my PCI Express Slots

slot 4 (x4) – ????
slot 3 (x4) – will need it for the AJA Kona LHI
slot 2 (x1) – leaving it open for Matrox Compress HD
slot 1 (x16) – occupied by the graphics card

Do you know of any hardware raid controllers that can utilize slot 4 in my mac pro? Thank You

[Bob Zelin]

Akbar,
maybe I missed something here, but can you please tell me
EXACTLY what disk drive array you are using, and EXACTLY what drives you are using ? ARe you using a firewire 800 drive ? Are you using a single internal SATA drive? Are you using a few internal SATA drives that are stripped together ? ARe you using an external array box from G-Tech, Lacie, Cal Digit or others ?

Although this is an AJA forum, and the AJA is a wonderful product, there was probably nothing wrong with your Matrox. And you will become more frustrated when you install the Kona LHi, and you get the same errors. PLEASE tell me EXACTLY what drives you are using, and how they are configured (raid 0, no raid, firewire drives on the same buss as the Matrox), etc.

Bob Zelin

[Akbar Ukani]

Hey Bob,

I was using the internal SATA drives which were not configured in any particular raid. The application is installed on the boot drive with Mac OS X of course and the other 3 drives are configured individually. They primarily contain all my video and audio files. I don’t do any ProRes yet…it was just a basic native XDCam 720p60 35Mbits/sec footage.

The 3 drives I have are Hitachi Deskstar 7200 RPM SATA II with 16mb Buffer…

I figured it shouldn’t be a problem since i am editing native XDCam footage? Thanks for your insights

[Bob Zelin]

please download and run AJA System Test (it’s free) on your internal sata drives. You are using individual SATA drives. You should get about 70Mb/sec on each drive. It’s tough getting SUSTAINED playback with any single drive, but for XDCam EX, it should work. Just for fun (a test), please go into FCP, and change the EASY SETUP to record at ProRes422 (not HQ), and DVCProHD – JUST TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

If you are getting readings from AJA System Test that are about 65 – 70Mb/sec or better, your drives are ok. If you are getting 30 – 40Mb/sec or slower, something is wrong with your drives.

Bob Zelin

[Akbar Ukani]

Hey Bob,

You are right…I tested the AJA application on my drives and the first 2 drives where I normally store my Video/Audio files for editing gave a reading average of just above 35MB/s. The third drive where I normally store my graphics gave a reading average of 55MB/s. I tried various frame sizes. Crap now I have to invest in a hard drives also in addition to the Kona Card and a x4 RAID Controller….btw can you recommend any good hardware RAID controllers that I can utilize in my x4 PCI-Express slot. Thank you

[Alan Okey]

Check out the CalDigit RAID card. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy the Apple RAID card – it’s a dog, and it’s overpriced.

https://www.CalDigit.com/RAIDCard/

Please note that the external ports on the CalDigit RAID card can only be used with CalDigit’s HDElement RAIDs.

[Akbar Ukani]

Yeah I did check out the Caldigit RAID card. No doubt they are awesome, but I am just not a big fan of a card which limits me to their enclosures only. They cost an arm and a leg and with that money I can buy another mac….

[Alan Okey]

[Akbar Ukani] “Yeah I did check out the Caldigit RAID card. No doubt they are awesome, but I am just not a big fan of a card which limits me to their enclosures only.”

Just to be clear – you do realize that the CalDigit RAID card can use the 4 internal drives in the Mac Pro, right? Plus, the card includes a kit to mount a fifth drive in the second optical bay of the Mac Pro. If you don’t use Boot Camp, you can set up your system drive in the second optical bay and use up to four of the original hard drive drive bays for hardware RAID. You don’t even need to use an external enclosure.

I set up a system exactly like this for a client. He has a boot/system drive in the second optical bay and then four 1TB Hitachi SATA drives set up in RAID 5 with the CalDigit card. He’s quite happy with the results, and he didn’t have to spend a lot.

The CalDigit RAID card sells for about $550.00. You can’t buy another Mac for that little.

[Akbar Ukani]

I see what you are saying and it makes perfect sense; however I prefer not to use the main drive as part of the RAID and I have installed a blu-RAY burner in my second optical bay slot which leaves me only the 3 HD bays available.

Also, I am aware that the Caldigit RAID card supports internal drives; however if I wish to expand the drives I am limited to buying the Caldigit RAID Solutions which do cost an arm and a leg. I am sure there are other RAID cards which support both internal and external drives. I can buy an enclosure myself and additonal drives and save a good $1000-$1500 instead of going the Caldigit way

[Christopher S. johnson]

Honestly, guys, I’m having excellent success by just throwing two bare drives into the MacPro and striping them together with Apple’s Disk Utility. I’m easily getting between 150/s on the lowest end (when drives are getting full) to 180MB/s on a normal day. Super cheap. Super easy. Cuts through anything but uncompressed HD like butter. I’m doing 1080p ProRes HQ without a single complaint.

No fuss, no muss.