MAC Pro and SATA don’t work !

[Walter Biscardi]

[Bob Zelin] “did my first MAC Pro today, stupidly thinking that it would be just like the Quad. Well, was I wrong. The Sonnet E4P PCI Express card DOES NOT WORK in the MAC Pro, and I spoke with Sonnet, and “they are working on it, but don’t expect a solution until late September”.”

Quite honestly, the Mac Pro is a different computer than the G5 Quad so I would expect some things not to work right away. Definitely wise to check with the manufacturers of cards, etc… before attempting to install into a Mac Pro.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Gary Adcock]

[Bob Zelin] “ALSO, the ATTO Utilities (like ATTO Configuration Tool) don’t work on the MAC Pro, but the ATTO driver for the FC-42ES card do work in the MAC Pro. “

Yes
I can confirm this. my atto cards work fine, but I already had the drives config’d.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Robert Broussard]

Guys, speaking of these two computers… G5 & Mac Pro (MP), I have a chance to bring in a G5 QUAD system and a MP system; yet, it would take some resources (time, money, etc)… Is it worth taking the G5 for a test-drive at this point? Or, should I just focus on the MP (ignoring the short-term G5 benefits) and work through any issues it may have?

BTW: I use some software development tools that only run under Rosetta which has revealed a Rosetta bug that causes incorrect numeric calculations–basically a conversions and rounding error, if I recall correctly.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Robert

[Bob Zelin]

I don’t know Robert – do you have customers waiting to edit in your room? Do you need a computer now? Since you have “limited resources”, I guess that expensive storage is not an option for you – correct ? Or is this a hobby ? If you have to edit RIGHT NOW, and can afford a HUGE or Medea array or XServe RAID, get the Mac Pro – if you need SATA , and can’t wait a month – get the Quad.

But don’t worry – as I often say – the Mac Pro will be obsolete by Mid 2007, so you will be screwed no matter what you do – (and this applies to buying a PC too, since Vista will be released soon). No mattter what you do – you are screwed – (unless you get that deli slicer, and start selling us sandwiches).

bob Zelin

[Bart Harrison]

[Bob Zelin] “ALSO, the ATTO Utilities (like ATTO Configuration Tool) don’t work on the MAC Pro, but the ATTO driver for the FC-42ES card do work in the MAC Pro.”

Hi Bob,

I’m about to do an MacPro/Atto/LHe installation. I’ve been in touch with Atto about the driver issues but I assumed that because the Atto Configuration Tool was a Java applet it would work okay on MacPro. Are you sure this isn’t a Java issue ?

Bart

– – – – – – – – – – – – –
Bart Harrison
MPA – The HD Suite

America’s VAR
TurnKey Editing Systems, Storage Area Networks
HD Consulting, Production & Post, Exhibition & Distribution
http://www.hdsuite.com
954-894-1221

[Robert Broussard]

[Bob Zelin] “…do you have customers waiting to edit in your room? Do you need a computer now? Since you have “limited resources”, I guess that expensive storage is not an option for you – correct ? Or is this a hobby ? If you have to edit RIGHT NOW, and can afford a HUGE or Medea array or XServe RAID, get the Mac Pro – if you need SATA , and can’t wait a month – get the Quad. “

No customers waiting to edit, just personal projects that involve: scanning film (thousands of 120mb files–Nikon, Aperture, etc.); video editing (FC Studio); using CS2 and MX Studio; database development (4D)… I need a computer now. We all have limited resources… I was wondering if it was worth it to fool with both the QUAD G5 and the MP since it would take time to test them and I would incurr some shipping charges, etc… Expensive storage is an option; yet, I would want to understand the benefits of such. If I can afford it, why go with the spiffy array? Also, what’s the MP issue with the SATA storage? I guess this is only a problem with external SATA boxes. I can wait a month… BTW: it might take me several weeks to get either system in place anyway.

[Bob Zelin] “the Mac Pro will be obsolete by Mid 2007, so you will be screwed “

What are we expecting to happen–Mid 2007?

Thanks,

Robert

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Bart –
call ATTO yourself – I just spoke with tech support. I can only repeat what they told me, and what my personal results were (I only called ATTO because of my problems).

Bob

[Bob Zelin]

Robert writes –

Also, what’s the MP issue with the SATA storage? I guess this is only a problem with external SATA boxes. I can wait a month…

REPLY – it’s a problem with the Sonnet E4P SATA host card. I am unaware of any other PCI express SATA host cards that work with Port Multiplier SATA boxes, that support the Silicon Image chip set. So you are stuck waiting for Sonnet.

BTW: it might take me several weeks to get either system in place anyway.

REPLY – I have no idea of how long it will take these companies to write the correct code.

[Bob Zelin] “the Mac Pro will be obsolete by Mid 2007, so you will be screwed ”

What are we expecting to happen–Mid 2007?

REPLY – you tell me Robert. The dual 2.7 G5 came out, less than a year later the Quad PCI Expres came out, and less than an year later, the MAC Pro came out. Are you expecting the progress from Apple with new releases to slow down ?

Bob Zelin

[Olivier Jean]

Hi Guys,

i have one question for the MacPro users with the Atto card (42ES)
with external raid (whatever brand Ciprico or infortrend).

My question is: are you using more than 2GB of Ram??

On the system i’m building (Xeon 3GHz with 4GB/Atto 42ES/FCP 5.1.1/QT7.1.2) i’m able to kernal panic my macpro everytime
i hit render !! load the Mac with 2GB and everything is cool..
3GB and the render will fail after 4 or 5% progress… i tried everything Ram wise ( swap brand…..) no joy…

If i try the Atto card in a quad load the same fime and render… no
problem…
If i install an Apple FC card in the MacPro with 4GB it works !!

Now the weird part is that my Atto distributor here in australia was able to recreate the problem on 2 different machines with 2 different cards too!!!
This affects the AJA cards and the Blackmagic cards too!!

Spooky !! the crash logs point out to the Atto card drivers…
i pulled my hair on this one for a few hours !!

i was forwarded an email from AJA saying that the driver for the MacPro
and the Kona 3 only supported 2GB of Ram !!

Can anyone share some light on this…

we’ve sent the log to Atto …

Regards
Olivier Jean
Video Sales Consultant
Apple Certified Trainer Final Cut Pro 5
Powermedia Systems
Sydney Australia

[Walter Biscardi]

[Olivier Jean] “i was forwarded an email from AJA saying that the driver for the MacPro
and the Kona 3 only supported 2GB of Ram !!”

This would be news to me since I’ve been in contact with AJA for the past few weeks as we wait for our Mac Pro to show up with 4GB RAM. We’re installing the Kona 3 and an ATTO card in the machine and neither AJA nor Ciprico has mentioned any issues with more than 2GB RAM.

Machine still isn’t here so I have no idea.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters