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Anyone have experience with GraniteSTOR Z5?
I have a project coming up where I want to set up two MacPros, or perhaps a MacPro and an iMac, to run Premier CC and After Effects CC and let them share media and projects. (not simultaneously) A vendor is recommending using the Small Tree GraniteSTOR Z5 which looks like it’ll accomplish this pretty seamlessly.
Small Tree said they believe the 1 Gigabit Ethernet port (as opposed to installing the 10GB ports) would provide plenty of bandwidth for this project which will be working with 1080 AVCHD footage.
Does anyone have any experience with this approach? Also it’s a really expensive box. I’m wondering if there are any other less expensive, but reliable alternatives out there to accomplish the same thing.
(I see several threads on this forum about connecting MacPros via a Thunderbolt, but that appears to be in the earliest testing phase.)
Any advice or recommendations would be most appreciated.
Thanks!
dm
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5 Replies
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The Titanium Z5 is a great product. It comes stock with 4 user interfaces, that will plug into the native 1Gig Ethernet port on your mac computers. Everyone plugged into the Z5 will be able to play and edit the video media you load into the Z5 AT THE SAME TIME. You have the option to add an expansion card, for more users. These users can even be 10Gig Ethernet users, if you so desire. You do not need to load in any software onto your Mac computer to use this – simply click on GO> Connect To Server, and it will work.
The Z5 is not expensive. It costs about $7200 for a 10 Terabyte system, that can be shared between 4 users. There is no cheaper shared storage system that I am aware of, that will give you this capability (10 TB with 4 users). For more money, you can specify larger drives (and for more users if you wish).
I am the one doing the Thunderbolt testing between Mac’s right now. Bottom line – it’s not working – at least not yet. And even when it DOES work, your investment will wind up being a new cylinder Mac Pro (minimum price $2999), and a new Thunderbolt 2 drive array, plus the long Corning optical Thunderbolt cables ($299 for a 10 meter cable) to make a system like this work. So all this new gear will cost more than the Titanium Z5.
Let me be clear about this. You cannot take a current Mac Mini with Thunderbolt 1, plug in a Promise Pegasus R6 (for example), and daisy chain 2 iMac’s using only Thunderbolt cables onto it, and have a working shared storage system (all computers using Mavericks, using the new Thunderbolt bridging) – the current performance is TERRIBLE. So will this be resolved with the new Mac Pro, and Thunderbolt 2 ? Maybe – but as you can see, even if it works, it will cost more money to buy all this stuff, than to buy the Z5. SO, when will the day come that people can do shared storage for $100 – $200. Probably never, but certainly not in 2014. The Z5 at $7200 is a great value for your application.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
I re-read your post. While what I said was accurate, if in fact that you DO NOT want to share your media at the same time (either one guy works on it, or the other guy works on it, but not at the same time – you just have a central repository for your media) – then yes, you can do it cheaper. Just contact me, and I can show you how to do this, with probably what you already own.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
Hey Bob:
Thanks for all the info.
I’m the guy you spoke to on the phone Friday afternoon about the RAID and the mac mini server setup. I’m thinking now that’s the way to go.
However, I’m interested in your comment on sharing files, but not simultaneously. What’s involved in that setup?
DM
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Bob, you want a list from us?
Let me know.Duffy
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