external RAID for g5 quad

[Mrvideo]

That’s a good thought. Problem is that Apple still has not released the PCI-express version of the fiber channel host card . It has been listed on their Business Store as June 2006 for some time, and now it saying 7-10 weeks???

[Rafal Szermanowicz – grupa #13]

I`m currently using Xserve RAID (4.4TB) + PCIe FiberChannel card…

But using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test Utility I have only:
~300MB/s read
~200MB/s write

I thought I`d be able to capture 12bit 4:4:4HD footage… I`m using RAID50..

[Nikolas T]

Caldigit has 2 drive SATA RAID and It’s Ideal for 10 bit uncompressed editing with DeckLink Extreme.
And it comes with PCIe host adapter included.
Check out this movie.
https://www.caldigit.com/S2VRDuoOnlineDemo.asp

[Chris Borjis]

I’m extremely pleased with my Huge Systems 5210 1.2TB
(with the dual 4gb fibre atto card)

[Bob Zelin]

thats the HUGE 4210, and it’s GREAT, and fast. This is what Blackmagic used
at NAB. HUGE is a FANTASTIC company, and is recommended by Blackmagic and AJA.

BUT if you are looking to save money, you can’t beat SATA. The Sonnet E4P is a fantastic SATA card for $299, and the Sonnet Fusion 500P port multiplier SATA chassis is about $499. Add 5 500 Gig Hitachi SATA drives, and you are doing 220 mb/sec. Fast enough for uncompressed SD 8 and 10 bit, DVCProHD, and READING (not writing) 8 bit uncompressed HD-SDI. You can get all this crap from Maxx Digital at (714) 374 4944, but there are plenty of mail order companies to buy this from. If you put 2 Sonnet Fusion 500 boxes on the same card (it has 4 ports), you will get write speeds easily fast enough to do uncomressed HD (but no RAID – just RAID 0). But if you want to WRITE at uncompressed HD speed, the HUGE is the box to get. HUGE support is fantastic, unlike Apple support, which is non existant.

I look foward to seeing a review of the CalDigit on http://www.barefeats.com, before I jump in. In the mean time, the Sonnet is fantastic, and very reliable.

Bob Zelin

[Marcus Lyall]

SATA raids also very good for the money. Had mine for a month or so and very happy with it.

Went the hardware raid 5 card and bought an extra drive just incase of problems.
Working it hard. Took it overseas. Mostly unc. SD video. 180 mb per sec. No problems so far.

Can’t go past the price.

[Marcus Lyall]

Should have said.

Using the Highpoint raid 5 card. got some bad press but no problems for me so far.

And using 4 x 400 gb drives in a case. And one of those fancy sata multicore cables.

Don’t go 2 drives. Go 4. Then raid 5 them so if one goes down……

M

[Miles Blow]

Hey bob we are not mac but pc I wonder if our A8n32 motherboard could take the sonnet fusion on the second pcie 16x graphics slot? Digicor in Australia has themsnnets stuff) and they recon they are great to.

[Bob Zelin]

I am not familiar with your motherboard. However, Blackmagic and AVID both use the HP xw8200 PC’s for their PC systems, and I have used the Sonnet X4P (PCI-X SATA II card) with the same Fusion 500 enclosure, with identical results, in the HP xw8200. The Sonnet stuff is fantastic. The Sonnet X4P will ALSO work in an “old” PCI-X MAC G5 (like the dual 2 Gig or 2.7). If you do run on a PC, you will have to download the driver from the http://www.sonnettech.com site.
Make sure that you follow the install instructions from Sonnet on the PC installation – if you don’t follow EVERY WORD, the install will fail (Mr. Know-it-all over here didn’t follow the instructions correctly, and I could not get it to work the first time, and I said “what a piece of crap” – but I am an idiot, so you can excuse me).

bob Zelin

[Mihail Angelov]

Thank You all for your answers.