RAID 5

[Walter Biscardi]

[Danrnw] “I got the book out (yeah I should have earlier) and saw what you are talking about.”

Yeek! You got out the manual! Wow, and you admit that in a public forum. You’re a stronger man than I. 🙂

[Danrnw] “I’ll need to run computer
monitor and mouse controls into the room and was wondering what you used
to do that? Did you use Gefen for that?”

How are away are you going? I was able to get some very high quality (i.e. expensive) DVI cables from Markertek that are either 25 or 35′ long. I also have a USB “Active Extension” cable for the which connects to my Dell monitor. My tablet, keyboard, mouse are connected to the Dell. This works just fine for my room as the computer is approx. 15′ away from me.

The computer for JungleLand is connected via a Gefen system as that computer is approx. 65′ from the edit suite.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Steve Covello]

Walter took the high road as far as extending kybd control to a machine room, though there are less expensive ways that will do as well.

I setup my 2 VGA monitors with 2 high quality VGA extender cables and the results were satisfactory. I would not say that the image quality was 100% perfect, but since I was not doing print production or color correction on either monitor — used only for FCP windows and Finder windows — I was OK with not spending the THOUSANDS of dollars for a 35′ DVI extender.

But again, I say, you must get THE HIGHEST QUALITY VGA cable money can buy, or else the images will simply smear on your monitor.

Also, Walter mentions Active Extension USB cables. They are also sometimes referred to as USB Repeater Cable, and you must check that the cable type is compatible with Mac. I made the mistake of buying a set of extenders only to find out, incredibly, that they were supposedly only Sun compatible., according to the documentation. turns out they worked anyway, though I have had complete USB dropout i.e. no kybd control, serial adapter deck control, USB audio conversion, UPS monitor, etc. maybe 3-4 times a year — with no apparent explanation. I cannot say if it had anything to do specifically with the brand of USB extender, and the fix was as simple as pulling all USB connections, restarting, then putting in the keybd/mouse USB in first, confirming functionality, then plugging in everything else.

Regular USB extender cable will not work beyond a few meters.

steve covello

[Walter Biscardi]

[weevie833] “I was OK with not spending the THOUSANDS of dollars for a 35′ DVI extender.”

Thousands? Try about $350.

The Gefen was about $1,500, but the cables were under $400.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Bob Zelin] “the card does not offer an alarm (audio or popup window) to indicate a drive failure.”

Check attotech.com. While there’s no audible alarm, the latest version of the drivers (just came out two weeks ago) provide an email alert when a drive goes down and a visual. I think the version is 1.10. ATTO config v3.12

Jeremy

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Danrnw] “the fans on this D800 unit, while not bad, are louder
than I expected.”

You’re kidding right? Mine’s silent.

Jeremy

[Dan Riley]

You must be kidding.
It’s not silent at all.

This unit sits right next to the new Mac Pro which,
except for start up and heavy processor use, (and fans running
faster) is very quiet. But not the D800.
Like I said, it’s not like a DigiBeta deck or something,
but it’s noticeable and noise I don’t want in the suite.

Dan