Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5 PCIe Slots Configuration

[Andi Winter]

hi!

as far as i renember the second slot is only for the hdmi connections, perhaps you don’t need or you do find another solution for that…. (drilling 🙂

and, before i updated to decklink hd 3, i had the intensity pro in, and i am quite sure davinci started with it! although i haven’t tested this setup, perhaps someone else here has?

andy

[Tito Da costa]

Thank you for your reply.

I need an SDI out to connect to my reference monitor and I need to know for sure if it will work. It’s the last piece of the equation I need to solve to make a purchase.

I’m also reading that I could run DaVinci with just one card, albeit some performance sacrifice…

It makes no sense Blackmagic does not have a clear solution for this problem! Everyone one knows Mac Pros only have 5 slots and the only graphics and umcompressed cards they officially support take 2 slots… Which with the second single slot graphic card, take up the whole 5 slots… How are you going to connect your RAID??? Looks like they don’t want it to work for the majority of us…

Yeah, I know there are PCI expansions, but they are costly and cumbersome. It just makes no sense a software at this price can’t be properly configured inside the machine it was designed for…

Seems like some older Decklink cards would do the trick. Another reason their current line-up supports what I just said… Just would like to know which single slot umcompressed card works…

Thanx!!!!

T ; )~

[Bastiaan Houtkooper nsc]

I am using the older HDDeclink SDI and it works fine.
But I am still struggling because I also have a RedRocket card……

Resolve system:
MacPro 8 core 2010 – 16B memory
9TB harddisk (1 system disk, 8TB in software raid 0 for data)
Nvidea GTX285
Nvidea GT120
Blackmagic SDI Decklink
RedRocketcard.
Tangent Wave panel
Transvideo 15″ Cinemontor Evolution

Also running it on a MacBook Pro 17″ (5.2)
160gb SSD and 750gb HD
8gb mem

[Tito Da costa]

Thank you for your reply!

I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions for your RedRocket… except that it sounds that you have a quality problem… haha! Guess you’ll have to get a PCI expansion box…

I just found out that you don’t have to use the HDMI slots in the current cards! You can only use the main card!!! SO, my bitching an moaning was ignorance driven… my apologies… haha!

Guess it’s shopping time!!! Best price I found was $830: https://www.adorama.com/VDBMDHDE3D.html

Anyone knows where I could find a better deal?

Thanx,

T ; )~

[Christopher Tay]

This has nothing to do with Blackmagic Design but the way Apple designed the Mac Pro with limited PCIe slots. Unfortunately there isn’t much we can do but go external PCIe chassis or some people have found a way to extend a HDMI cable from the Decklink card internally out of the Mac through the 2nd DVD drive bay. Not elegant but works when desperate times calls for desperate measures, that’s the only option.

And to accomodate REDRocket in the Mac Pro, you’ll have to use internal RAID0 with 3 or 4 SATA drives. I believe some have done this before so it does work.

-chrispy

[Bastiaan Houtkooper nsc]

Yup got that setup now, extra (SSD) in the second DVD drive bay as system drive and four time 2TB in the bays with software raid but it is not exactly perfect.
I don’t want to drag around cubix boxes because I bring my tower sometimes to the set.
For a stationary system is is still an option.

Resolve system:
MacPro 8 core 2010 – 16B memory
9TB harddisk (1 system disk, 8TB in software raid 0 for data)
Nvidea GTX285
Nvidea GT120
Blackmagic SDI Decklink
RedRocketcard.
Tangent Wave panel
Transvideo 15″ Cinemontor Evolution

Also running it on a MacBook Pro 17″ (5.2)
160gb SSD and 750gb HD
8gb mem

[Tito Da costa]

Yeah, I hear you…

Maybe the Guys at Red should think about getting an SDI out of the RedRocket… but then BMD wouldn’t support it, cause they wanna sell their cards… so, we’ll be eternally stuck in this marketing bamboozle…

On the other hand, we’re so blessed to be living these times!

I still remember when I put a 3 disk SCSI RAID with 9.9 GB that could play 35mins of miniDV in real time… and nobody believed it could work… haha!

T ; )~

[Bastiaan Houtkooper nsc]

Well the Rocket has SDI outputs, used/needed when using RED software like REDcineX.
Lucky for us BM did a good job by only using the processing power of the card and feed the SDI out over their Decklinkcards.
The whole system works fine, it is just Apple that should change attitude…

Resolve system:
MacPro 8 core 2010 – 16B memory
9TB harddisk (1 system disk, 8TB in software raid 0 for data)
Nvidea GTX285
Nvidea GT120
Blackmagic SDI Decklink
RedRocketcard.
Tangent Wave panel
Transvideo 15″ Cinemontor Evolution

Also running it on a MacBook Pro 17″ (5.2)
160gb SSD and 750gb HD
8gb mem

[Sascha Haber]

Actually I have to agree with the part of Vlackmugic not thinking the design through properly .
If you look at that giant breakout cable the 3D+ comes with, you might think , they also Coild finx a way to include HDMI IO Into it.
The card is working just fine, quality is top notch and usabilty too.
Just that extra bracket thing is in the way for most people in the mid range price level.
I did the cut and past with my eSata card to get to the goal too.

A slice of color…

DaVinci 7.1.2 OSX 10.6.7
Dual Xeon 2,4 RAM 24 GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE

http://www.saschahaber.com

[Kevin Cannon]

Tito, are you saying you’re having trouble fitting these cards?:

1. GTX 285
2. GT 120
3. Decklink HD Extreme 3D+
4. 1-slot RAID controller

That shouldn’t be a problem, I have the that configuration without a PCI expansion. The Decklink HD Extreme 3D+ is only 1 slot high if you skip the optional HDMI backplate (or run it through the front as Christopher mentioned), but you’ll still have two SDI outputs from the back of the card.

When you need to add a Red Rocket you get into trouble, but the above shouldn’t be an issue.

KC

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